Les Liaisons Culinaires (Panther S) - Softcover

Andreas Staikos; Anne-Marie Stanton-Ife; Jeff Fisher

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1860468764 ISBN 13: 9781860468766

Publisher: Vintage, 2001

Synopsis

Dimitris and Damocles live in the same block of flats. They share a love of cooking, and, it soon transpires, a lover - Nana. What follows is the story of their competition to win Nana's heart through her appetite. As the plates pile up, and the recipes grow ever more mouth watering, a bizarre and comic duel develops, fought with sea-urchin salads, stuffed vine leaves and delicacies from all corners of the Aegean to win the consummate femme fatale or to end up with the sting in the tail...

About this title

Review:

Dimitris and Damocles are in love. The trouble is, they're in love with the same woman--the deliciously fruity Nana. She's a pretty special lady, what with her iridescent crimson toenail (yes, just the one) and high-heeled, peep-toe mules decorated with black tassels and tiny ostrich feathers. Irresistible.

The only answer is a duel; as Nana is a slave to her taste buds, it's to cookery that the cuckolded lovers turn. The dishes they tempt her with are fabulously far-fetched--sea urchin corals drowning in a spoonful of Aegean water, stuffed vine leaves à la Gialantzi, Constantinople artichokes. Plus there's plenty of sauce--lemon-squeezing sessions in the kitchen, with only a chef's hat and an apron for garnish.

Mouthwateringly measured, Les Liaisons Culinaires bubbles between morsels towards a grand finale of just desserts. It's delectably hedonistic, punctuated by traditional Greek recipes and illustrations by Jeff Fisher, and told with a light, tantalising touch. If all this talk of lavish gastronomy isn't getting the juices going, there's an erotic charge that won't fail to whet the appetite. Now where's that lemon. --Jane Honey

Review:

"Delightfully written" (Canberra Times)

"This is the most delicious book that you will ever read" (The Times)

"A curvaceous little tale of a pair of suitors, Dimitris and Damocles, who vie for the favours of their mutual mistress through the medium of the mezze... Call it culinary onanism for Greek gastronomes. And, incidentally, the recipes are terrific" (Elizabeth Luard Good Book Guide)

"If you are even just a tiny bit of a gourmand, and have a mischievous streak, surrender yourself to Andreas Staikos' amusing novel... the language is beautiful and lively, the love affair passionate and the recipes appetising" (L'Humanité)

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1860468764
• ISBN 13: 9781860468766
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 106