Sausage in a Basket: The Great British Book of How Not to Eat by Martin Lampen
Martin Lampen was born in 1973. And in none of the four decades in which he's lived and dined in Britain has he eaten a single truly great meal. Why should this be so? Is it because we Brits regard any artificial drink with pineapple or mango flavouring as 'tropical'? Could it be something to do with our penchant for crinkle-cut crisps? And just why are British breadcrumbs yellow in a way that no natural substance is? Branded posh as a child for having a Club biscuit and a Mint Viscount in his packed lunch, Martin Lampen cannot promise to answer all of these complex cultural questions, but what he does give us is an indispensable and laugh-out-loud-funny A-Z guide to the not-so-wondrous world of British cuisine. All the joys and tragedies of British food are in here, from railway buffet cars and lamb shanks to coronation chicken and fruits of the forest. The book also contains tips on how to digest a scotch egg, how to converse at a dinner party, how to survive the annual family barbecue and what to order in a 'hummus bar'. This is a hilarious, nostalgic and irreverant look at British cuisine past and present in all its flavourless, stodgy splendour.