Red Sauce Brown Sauce: A British Breakfast Odyssey by Felicity Cloake: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

Today's Featured Book: 

Red Sauce Brown Sauce: A British Breakfast Odyssey

by Felicity Cloake

Genre: Nonfiction

Published: June 2, 2022

Page Count: 383 pages

Summary: 

If there’s one thing that truly unites Britain, from Aberdeen to Aberystwyth, St Ives to St Pancras, it’s an obsession with breakfast.

We all have an opinion on the merits of brown sauce versus ketchup on our morning bacon sarnie. In this eagerly awaited follow-up to One More Croissant for the Road, the nation’s favourite taster-in-chief Felicity Cloake sets off on a cycle trip of condimental proportions to investigate and celebrate the legendary Great British Breakfast. Travelling the length and breadth of the UK to establish once and for all what makes a perfect fry-up, she rates them on criteria from the crispness of the bacon to how long they keep her pedalling. But a woman cannot live by All Day Breakfast alone, so as well as recipes for the Savoy's Omelette Arnold Bennett and proper Scottish porridge, she lavishes her attention on the regional specialities she encounters along the way, from a desi breakfast in Birmingham to a Greggs Geordie stottie cake. This is a freewheeling gastronomical tour like no other.

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

Many people spent 2020 homeschooling their children, or trying to work at the same kitchen table as their four flatmates. I spent it holed up with a taciturn cairn terrier and a huge map of the UK.

Cloake, Felicity. Red Sauce Brown Sauce: A British Breakfast Odyssey, p. 1. Kindle Edition.  

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Anne of Head Full of Books. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Head Full of Books and visit others in the linky. 

Gulping down muddy instant coffee and gummy malt loaf, I try not to think about the county’s vertiginous villages and stunning cliffs; such things, so pleasingly dramatic on foot, hold less charm on a fully laden bike with an angry hamstring. Beggars can’t be choosers, however, and having decided to take on one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations during a half term when it’s all but impossible to go abroad, and a fortnight before the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, I must pay the price in pain. We have beds at Gemma’s parents’ house in Falmouth, and by hook or by crook, that’s where we’ll be this evening. What time this evening, however, is less clear.

Cloake, Felicity. Red Sauce Brown Sauce: A British Breakfast Odyssey, p. 56.  Kindle Edition. 

I loved reading Felicity Cloake's journey around France on a bicycle, sampling French food on the way, One More Croissant for the Road. I've always wanted to read Cloake's book, Red Sauce Brown Sauce, but it took some time for it to become available on our library's Hoopla audio. But I finally borrow it, and when I started listening, I realized quickly that I needed to actually read Red Sauce Brown Sauce; I was not familiar (What the heck is black pudding?) with British breakfast jargon. Happily Red Sauce Brown Sauce was discounted on Kindle to 1.99 this week, and now I'm able to look up the words as I read along, and Google pictures of the food Cloake is talking about. I'm astounded at what the British consider a traditional breakfast. Apparently 71% like baked beans with their eggs (!) and Cloake has ongoing discussions with those she meets about whether folks prefer red sauce (ketchup) or brown sauce (some kind of Worcestershire concoction) with their breakfast. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, so I may come away from reading this book with some new inspiration for my breakfast menu.

And who knew? Apparently Felicity Cloake has gone on yet another foodie bicycle excursion, Peach Street to Lobster Lane: Coast-to-Coast in Search of Real American Cuisine. And this book, too, was heavily discounted on Kindle this morning. I may have to read this book next.

The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.    

Which genre are you eager to jump into more next year, and what draws you to it? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer)

I want to get back to reading more fantasy and science fiction. I haven't read much of either of these genres since I was in my twenties, so I eagerly welcome suggestions!