Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Cookbook Watch - junk food and more!

I'll try to review some more cookbooks soon - something to put on your christmas lists, maybe? Most books I get to review are just in Swedish though, as these three are.

BENGT OCH BÖRJE

Bengt and Börje - two Swedish male names - is a down-to-earth cookbook written by two guys who like good food. That pretty much sums it up. It's not fancy, but not basic either - it has good food, plain and simple. The photography is great, and I like that there are also a few fun food-related anecdotes by the two writers. It's from a small publisher called Kakor & Monster.

Omslag Smakresan

From the same publisher, and partly from the same author (Peter Göransson and his wife Lena) comes Smakresan ("The Flavour Journey") which is about food inspired from their travels. Lena used to work as a fashion model and as such, has travelled to many countries. The book has dishes from France, Japan, USA, and several other places. Some of the dishes might not be super-authentic, but rather personal takes on popular dishes. And everything uses easy-to-find ingredients, and seems adjusted to Swedish cooking. I like it a lot - it's very well written, and a lot of the food looks delicious. It's perfect for those who love to travel, but might not get to do it as often as they'd want. I know I love "travelling in my very own kitchen".

Junk food överdrag.indd

Junk Food. No translation needed there! This is written by Liselotte Forslin who's a very productive food writer - she's published many cookbooks and a lot of recipes for food magazines as well. The idea for this book came from her husband, who apparently loves "junk food", but the twist here is that everything is made from scratch with great ingredients. I love that there are even recipes for hamburger buns and homemade barbecue sauce, which isn't necessarily something you see in cookbooks focused on "junk". The one fault I think this book has is that it's a little too unfocused - it adds in so MUCH junk food, everything from falafel to hamburgers, with lots of tex-mex and pizzas in between. Not exactly a huge fault for that matter! If you like junk food, but is prepared to spend some time in the kitchen, then this is definitely the book for you.

3 comments:

Farmor said...

Fantastiskt! Börje heter ju min pappa och hans bror heter Bengt - en given julklapp!! Tack för tipset!

AussieFoodie said...

Looks like I am going to have to finally learn Swedish (will please my relatives no end!) Junk Food looks like a book I would like to work through with my nieces here in London - seems to be they will only ever order burgers and fried chicken when we take them out!

Fröken Dill said...

The Junk Food book sounds very interesting! I think J would like to have it for Christmas. Or I would...