Ebury £8.99 (334pp) (free p&p) from the Independent Bookshop: 0870 079 8897
Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons, By Matthew Fort
Friday 10 July 2009
Latest in Reviews
In 1973, Fort ate a plate of sausages in Sicily. There were only two, but "they tasted more of sausage than any sausage I have ever eaten, firm, juicy, salty and sweet."
Then, 33 years later, he continued his southern snack by touring this well-baked island on a scooter.
The result is the finest book on this fascinating cuisine since Peter Robb's Midnight in Sicily. From pasta ("redder than a cardinal's hat, redder than poppies") to pudding (the creamy confection known as cannolo is "a tsunami of sweetness, sweetness piled on sweetness... hallucinatory, luxurious and heady)", Fort fills your mind with delicious images and your mouth with saliva.
Obligatory holiday reading for anyone heading for Sicily, this book's only flaw is the lack of an index. The omission is particularly annoying since Fort punctuates his book with recipes.
- 1 BANNED: The most controversial films
- 2 Spotify: 1 million plays, £108 return
- 3 Trending: Multiple award winners
- 4 Picture preview: Lucian Freud drawings
- 5 Mona Lisa's 'twin sister' is discovered – 500 years late
- 6 Last night's viewing - America's Serial Killer: True Stories, Channel 4; Protecting Our Children, BBC2
- 7 OK Go: How video saved the radio stars
- 1 Spotify: 1 million plays, £108 return
- 2 Apple admits it has a human rights problem
- 3 Kate Allen: It's time for America to put an end to this shameful scandal
- 4 Lightning kills an entire football team
- 5 I was born to be a killer. Every night I see the Devil in my dreams
- 6 Now The Sun tries to call in its favours from Downing Street
- 7 BBC to issue global apology for documentaries that broke rules
- 8 Mona Lisa's 'twin sister' is discovered – 500 years late
- 9 Rhodri Marsden: What we like and what we don't like are often closer than you'd think
- 10 Modern lovers: The 'sexual body warriors' and pioneers transforming 21st-century relationships
Free trial of new Independent iPad app
Get your daily dose of the best of British journalism, sponsored by American Airlines
Win a three-week coastal jaunt
Spend three weeks exploring every nook and cranny of gorgeous Atlantic Canada.
Amazing restaurant offers
Three glasses of free champagne and a special menu at 46 top London restaurants.
Latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page
No secularism please, we're British
Working as a jail torturer ruined my life
New Arsenal face an old question of credibility in San Siro



Comments