Spice Odyssey: From Asafoetida To Wasabi, Recipes To Excite &

Description: Earning Michelin stars twice in the London restaurants l'Interlude and The Greenhouse, before opening the award-winning Victoria (Best London Gastro Pub, 2011 Great Pub Awards), Paul Merrett here offers a deliciously photographed cookbook in which spices are key. Beginning with a short primer on shopping for spices and tools of the trade, he then provides 100 recipes from Spiced Chicken Skewers with Plantain Chips to Labneh (Greek yogurt) with Sumac, Pomegranate, and Basil, as well as Asian-spiced Short Ribs, Mango & Red Pepper Jam, and even Yogurt and Black Pepper Ice Cream. Merrett's wit and zest are found throughout, from a front-page dedication in which he pleads with his friends to stop bringing him bags of deluxe spices from their travels ("frankly, they're terrible, and you've been conned") to a cartoon that looks suspiciously like Freddie Mercury in a dramatic performance holding a fish aloft.