torin@bookwyrm.social reviewed Book of Difficult Fruit by Kate Lebo
Surprising and delightful
4 stars
This book is a joy to read. It has an interesting structure that lends itself to slow savouring, a chapter at a time, as each chapter begins with an essay that meanders around and is inspired by a particular fruit and ends with a recipe or two for that fruit.
The nature of the essays is as varied as the fruits - surprising, funny, bittersweet, angry, nostalgic, musing, hopeful, tart.
I will probably never make a single one of the recipes in this book but i read them all anyway. I didn’t expect to - i thought I’d just read the essays and skip the recipes. But they’re somehow a continuation of the story of the chapter and it feels soothing and right to end with them and follow in the mind at least the physical and sensual processing of difficult fruit.
This is technically a recipe book, but it’s …
This book is a joy to read. It has an interesting structure that lends itself to slow savouring, a chapter at a time, as each chapter begins with an essay that meanders around and is inspired by a particular fruit and ends with a recipe or two for that fruit.
The nature of the essays is as varied as the fruits - surprising, funny, bittersweet, angry, nostalgic, musing, hopeful, tart.
I will probably never make a single one of the recipes in this book but i read them all anyway. I didn’t expect to - i thought I’d just read the essays and skip the recipes. But they’re somehow a continuation of the story of the chapter and it feels soothing and right to end with them and follow in the mind at least the physical and sensual processing of difficult fruit.
This is technically a recipe book, but it’s actually a marvellous collection of loosely connected and moving essays about food and the ways gathering, preparing, cooking, sharing, and eating it intersect with our lives.
