Changes

|title=Real Fast Puddings

|author=Nigel Slater

|buy=Yes

|borrow=Yes

|pages=208

|publisher=Penguin Books Ltd

|date=November 2006

|isbn=014102951X

|website=http://www.nigelslater.com/

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''Better one fat fig at its brief moment of perfect ripeness than a hundred slices of Black Forest Gateaux.''

I will always owe Nigel Slater a debt of gratitude: along with Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson he taught me to cook rather than just to prepare food. Over the years I think I must have read just about every word he's published and I don't think he's ever bored me. He's interesting and he's witty, even to a non-foodie. He might even tempt a non-foodie into the kitchen.

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|name=Magda

|verb=said

I don't know what the reason for it is, really. I think they often involve ingredients that I cannot afford or are not readily availbale in the house (I rarely shop for ingredients for a specific dish unless it's for a party or an occasion like Christmas).

This one, however, might be for me, though I notoriously use Jane Grigson for fruit inspiration.

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{{comment

|name=Sue

|verb=said

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{{comment

|name=Magda

|verb=said

If Nigella Lawson is food as overdone orgasm, this is food as sad masturbation, somehow: an image of an old batchelor (though there are references to we, so not sure, but that's the feel) eating bowls of sweet corn meal gruel when feeling lonely. Ouch.

Oh, and Smarties are horrible.

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{{comment

|name=Sue

|verb=said

Seriously, though, I think a lot of people do eat on their own these days. I eat at least half my meals alone and there are rarely more than two people at most of my other meals. I'll always make food from scratch, but a lot of people won't bother just for themselves and I think a book like this is a godsend for them. I guess we're just going to have to disagree about Nigel!

We agree about Smarties though - they're the spawn of the Nestlé devil.

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{{comment

|name=Magda

|verb=said

It's the whingey feel more than anything else: numerous references to food you would need when you feel the world is against you, and coming home extremely tired after work etc. He's an extremely successful cookery writer, for goodness sake, not some office slave on minimum wage, he shouldn't whinge like that. Elizabeth David or Jane Grigson never whinge!

By old bachelorism I meant more the fact that it seems like a child never marred his table or kitchen, and those cats referred to lovingly all the time; not the recipes for two, I think this is actually a very good idea, it's often easier to multiply than divide.

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{{comment

|name=Sue

|verb=said

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