By Nadiya Hussain
I started my day in a state of some alarm. I’d just read a story about a man from St Anne’s, an unglamorous and decaying seaside resort here in England’s north west, who had ingested a dangerous dose of cyanide.
His wasn’t a suicide attempt, but a cocktail of curiosity and stupidity. It was, in short, an unwitting and failed entry to the Darwin Awards and I’m not taking the pith.
I’ve covered this story elsewhere so I won’t go over old ground. Suffice to say I was left despondent not only about food but people.
Which is why I praised my good fortune on receiving a sampler for the new book from Great British Bake Off champion Nadiya Hussain.
Nadiya is to cooking programmes what Will Young and Leona Lewis (more the former, since the latter appears to have vanished; and I would have also mentioned Susan Boyle, here, but since that #susanalbumparty incident and being bullied by teenagers in Teeside, this singing superstar seems to have disappeared without trace) are to pop programmes. From zero to hero in a matter of weeks. Nothing short of extraordinary.
And in Nadiya’s case (and those other three), for good reason. Exceptionally talented, utterly charming, she’s become an icon of our times and someone with whom we can all identify.
As is the way with cooks and cookery books, Nadiya’s British Food Adventure was launched to coincide with her new TV series. You can follow along with what’s on the screen as your finger dances across the page! Imagine that!
I haven’t done that because I’ve only got the sampler which tells me a bit about how Nadiya got here (fascinating I’m sure, to a certain type; but, yawn) and a couple of recipes. Her cheese scones with chives are here in all their resplendent glory and we’ve also got one of my faves from the telly show, Eton mess cheesecake.
Needless to say I made hamfisted attempts at both but I found myself distracted by the news that the Tasty One Touch is going to be available to Americans later this year for just $150.
Those cheese scones were ace. I know you might not empathise here, since your tastebuds are different to mine, as indubitably is your state of mind, but my maiden bite into one of these bad boys yielded memories of Torville and Dean skating a medal-winning Bolero. Unusually for scones the buttery mounds actually moistened my mouth, I suspect because they were so tasty and because of the chemical compounds in chives!
The Eton mess cheesecake catapulted me back to happier times in the back of the local Harvester. My local Harvester being at The Lowry Shopping Outlet in Salford where, if you parked a few minutes before your theatrical production began at the adjacent music hall, you could remove your car free because they had a partnership deal where you got four hours free when you spent a fiver in one of the food or drink outlets in the outlet.
Anyway, Sam and I, we’d go over at the interval to the Harvester and have an Eton mess which was about £4.95 — not an inexpensive incursion into edible heaven but certainly a bargain compared to the £7 or thereabouts for parking.
Because we were big theatre fans in those days we got friendly with Frannie, who always seemed to be on duty while we patronised the theatre.
I think the last time we went to the theatre was to see Avenue Q, or Tom Paxton. Those were indeed halcyon days.
Nadiya’s British Food Adventure is available now on Amazon.
