Book Review: The Robber of Memories

I don't know how many times I've been having a terrible day and a little break with a great book has saved me. Throwing yourself into a fantasy world can make you forget your troubles, but sometimes it's the non-fiction books that really help, showing you that another place, another real place, has it much harder. It makes you appreciate the fact that you get to sit in Starbucks and read for an hour, even if you have to leave eventually.

The Robber of Memories: A River Journey Through Colombia by Michael Jacobs

I'm a big fan of Tom Feiling so I wasn't really looking for a new perspective on one of my favourite countries. I found the novel in the stock room of Granta, the publishers of the book, whilst I was doing an internship. But The Robber of Memories is an immensely fascinating and emotional read, so it's no wonder that it was a runner-up for Dolman's Travel Book of the year, and i'm so glad I didn't get blindsided by amazing Tom.

Jacob's intertwines a physically exerting exploratory journey down the Magdalena with the mystifying history of Gabriel Garcia Marquez- which is absolutely fascinating if you've previously fallen in love with One Hundred Years of Solitude. Probably the only romantic story I have to tell is the fact that my boyfriend bought me a copy from a old bookstore, with absolutely no hints dropped from me. Most interesting during the book though is not the name-dropping of the prolific writer but Jacob's incorporation of his own struggles with parents with alzheimers with the group of townships he meets on the river. I'm sure that it's not just me that can relate to these struggles.

His writing is gorgeous but I do have a bone to pick. My need to go to Colombia has reached it's absolute peak and i'm in desperate need of £700 for a ticket. Damn you Jacobs!

Oh and also.. This week I made...

Raspberry cream and white chocolate ganache macaroons and cinnamon Christmas cookies (because it's never too early!)

Recipe Book Review: Goo Goo for Gü

So, since Christmas is coming, and i'm thinking about what books i can resist buying to ask for for
Christmas, i thought i'd review my present from last year and some of the recipes that have really turned out well.

Gü: Chocolate Cookbook
About 5 years ago i started buying these chocolate pots from the supermarket. Rich, gooey and decadent, they were only teeny things but they made the most amazing desert when i had too busy a week to bake.
Nowadays, Gü have a range of puddings, tarts and soufflés to buy, and have brought out a recipe book so that we can have a go ourselves!
Before i get to the recipes, something has to be said for the chapter on Chocolatey Basics. It's no fun when recipes are really long, but things like choux pastry, chantilly cream and chocolate custard can be really technical. The cookbook separates these techniques from the recipes so if you know them you can push straight through and if you don't you can really get stuck in to a proper explanation.

My favourites are the white chocolate eton mess, pain au chocolate bread and butter pudding, chocolate madeleines, Viennese biscuits and chocolate eclairs.

Eclairs are ridiculously intimidating- the pastry is supposed to be one of the most difficult and the threat of curdled custard makes me nervous! But i was suitably impressed. The recipe went down without a hitch, which i really didn't expect. Although i would recommend that you resist eating them until the chocolate ganache is actually set because i did make a massive mess.

The stand out dish for me was probably the most simple: hot chocolate. I'm not a fan of the jars of ready mixed hot chocolate that you throw in a mug with water like tea: not sweet or decadent enough. My favourite comes from Carluccios. Every Christmas me, my sister and my mum would go off to Bluewater shopping centre together to get presents, and end up there for a rich, thick cup there before heading home. It is literally like melted chocolate. Gü's recipe for 'thick hot chocolate' simply describes heating half cream with half milk, and whisking it through with 2/3 dark chocolate and 1/3 milk. The product is beyond heavenly- i haven't even tried the other flavours, it is so easy and so delicious!

By all means, there are thinks i don't like about the book- the savoury dishes just don't appeal to me at all. I'm a chocolate addict so i want to see chocolate in it's rightful place, which is not in a stew or with fish. Nevertheless, there's no denying that the portion of the book that is for sweet dishes is more than enough to satisfy me. So, i can forgive them. And what to get for Christmas this year? I'm thinking Gino's Italian Escape (although i'm not sure if it's because of his hotness or his cooking) or Tom Kerridge's Proper Pub Food (definitely his cooking).