NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE WEEK Brown Baby
By Nikesh Shukla
The challenges of parenthood, social prejudices and grief are thoughtfully examined in Nikesh Shukla’s new memoir. Lovingly addressed to his young daughter, each chapter provides a frank questioning of difficult themes, including racism, sexism and climate change. The book is loosely structured as a life manual for his child, but Shukla readily admits to not having all the answers. Veering from humour and self-deprecation to frustration and anger,
Shukla honestly imparts his wisdom and perspective on society. His easy, approachable writing style, peppered with colloquialisms and cultural references, is at its most powerful when exploring family relationships, his South Asian heritage and the loss of his mother.
The toll this grief takes provides the most emotional passages – particularly the vivid recollection of her cooking.
Shukla’s commitment to his daughter is movingly clear, and despite future uncertainty, he leaves an uplifting message of hope: to use joy as an act of resistance.
66 Hyndland Street, Glasgow G11 5PT www.ziques.com Takeaways and deliveries via Uber Eats and Deliveroo, 9am-10pm Bill for two: £53 Flavour: 9/10 – Home style in a good way Value for money: 7/10 – Skip dessert to save
paratha was excellent, flaky but not impossible to eat. I would have preferred the beetroot roasted but otherwise the dark nail polish flavours sat very happily together.
Thai chicken broth confused me at first. There was a tub of soup and a separate dish of squiggly noodles, chilli rings and herbs. It took a while for the penny to drop that I was to pour the first bit over the second myself.
Combined, they made a soothing but spicy bowl of nutrients. The big flavours – galangal, aniseedy Thai basil – brought the dark fowl-packed base to life. Perfect for someone who is weary and hungry but cannot be bothered crushing their own lemongrass.
Mhairi’s butter chicken curry is a triumph. Even though it comes in a plastic box, it tastes like the homemade version of a restaurant dish. The rich red sauce is not based on a famous brand of tinned tomato soup but is full of identifiable spices. It’s the right texture to combine with, but not swamp, the basmati rice.
Bibimbap is another power move, especially when the city’s best Korean takeaway, Kimchi Cult, is two blocks away. Zique’s is a strong version of the classic rice bowl, with a fried egg, hefty pile of gently spiced pulled pork and a supporting cast of vegetable bits.
This is another strong contender when a healthy but indulgent dinner is required. The very act of eating it from a paper carton in front of the telly negates the fact that, with pickled cabbage, grated carrot cucumber and shallots, on top of brown rice, it’s basically a pork salad with a bit of ballast underneath.
Not everything on the menu is based on your five a day. One of the drawbacks of ordering in is that it’s hard to judge portion sizes and we were way too full for dessert. But one of the joys of takeaway is a lush leftover to brighten the next day.
The vegan sticky toffee fell into that category. It was spendy at £6.50 – that is a sit down price – but it was a proper filthy bit of caramel-drenched cake. Neither of us missed the butter and cream that normally form the basis of this Carb Boy favourite.
A hazelnut chocolate brownie was made with the benefit of dairy products yet tasted more austere. Not in a bad way, but it lacked the buttery squidge of a truly decadent brownie. It was also an ouchy £6.50.
That’s my only real quibble with this new incarnation of Zique’s. The rest of our dinner was the kind of zippy, fresh food that I can cook myself. I just can’t always be bothered. For those evenings, I know where to come.
If you’re a regular Instagram user, you might have noticed LED face masks all over the place. Chrissy Teigen, Victoria Beckham, Jessica Alba and Kourtney Kardashian are just some of the A-list beauty fans who swear by them.
They look futuristic and terrifying in equal measure – so what’s the fuss all about?
Aside from making a great selfie prop, fans of the trend believe LED light penetrates the skin, stimulating collagen production, while helping reduce wrinkles and the visible signs of ageing.
Makers of the masks say regularly including the treatment in your beauty routine can improve tone, texture, firmness and tightness, as well as evening out any redness. The masks are also painless to use.
How do they work?
Each different type of mask on the market has a combination of light wavelengths that are thought to penetrate skin to trigger changes. Blue light, for instance, is supposedly great at killing acne-causing bacteria, while green light fights hyperpigmentation.
The CurrentBody Skin LED Light Therapy Mask, which I tried out, combines red and near infra-red light, which the brand says stimulates collagen and triggers the rejuvenating “wound healing” cells that form fresh skin. It does this by penetrating the skin deeper than other types of visible light and stimulating the cells, causing a rejuvenating effect.
As we age, we naturally lose collagen in our skin, and spending time in the sun without a decent SPF can also contribute to the process which causes fine lines and wrinkles.
While you can’t go back and change that nasty sunburn you acquired on a beach holiday in Tenerife, CurrentBody says wearing the mask for only 10 minutes a day is enough to see results in just four weeks.
Are there any dangers?
Naturally, putting bright light on skin can seem a bit daunting. After learning about the dangers of sunbeds (which can increase your risk of skin cancer), some people might be concerned about the health risks of using such home devices. The LED light used in these kinds of masks is different though, as it doesn’t contain UV, which is the type of rays that can cause cancer and ageing. In fact, LED treatments are nothing new and dermatologists have been using them for decades.
The verdict
Despite how daunting the mask looked when I unboxed it, I was surprised at how easy it was to use. Before you can get started, you need to stick it on charge for six hours and do a quick patch test on your arm to check your skin isn’t sensitive to the lights.
The mask is made from a flexible silicon that bends to your face shape and there’s a hand-held remote for flicking the lights on and off. One handy feature is that it has an inbuilt timer, so it’ll switch itself off after the 10-minute treatment is done. This means you don’t have to anxiously watch the clock.
I was unsure about how it would feel to wear the mask, but the lights aren’t hot or painful, and there’s no risk of burning yourself. In fact, you can’t feel the treatment at all while it’s working on your skin.
Although CurrentBody say it’s safe to keep your eyes open during a treatment, the bright lights were a little irritating and I found it more enjoyable to keep my eyes closed during use. I’d definitely recommend doing this, as it’s a great excuse to take 10 minutes to listen to a podcast.
After a couple of weeks of use (four times per week, following the recommendations), my skin appears more healthy and slightly firmer – but the most noticeable difference is a natural glow that’s really evident immediately after completing each treatment. I also haven’t had any breakouts either.
At £265, it definitely isn’t as cheap as your standard Sunday-night sheet mask, but if – like me – you’ve saved on waxing, hair appointments, facials and massages all year, this is a ‘treat yourself’ way to give yourself a spa treatment at home.
‘After a couple of weeks, my skin appears more healthy and firmer and has a noticeable natural glow after each treatment’ Liz Connor after trying the mask