Fellow Explorers

I made a mistake when I last reported otherwise, because this should be the last book from the bunch I got during my UK trip two years ago. (The stack on the shelf is shrinking but... there's still so many. T_T) I think I wanted to pick up at least one celeb autobiography so I didn't look at it too closely, so it turns out that Nick Frost's A Slice of Fried Gold: Taste My Memories is 70% cookbook, 30% stream-of-consciousness partial autobiography. I did not start reading this book just because of the news of the Frost's casting in a certain franchise (welp), that's just another coincidence.

Frost loves to cook! (I did not know this.) He can do some pretty complicated dishes, and associates so many feelings (his own, and others) with cooking, that this book, though only technically a cookbook, is more about using time of the initial covid-19 lockdown to capture those feelings for those he would like to remember him by, is my impression.

I'm only a passable cook, with just enough skills to feed myself, though I've sometimes made slightly more complicated dishes based on recipes (I made lasagna once!) when I had a phase of being Determined to learn how to cook some years ago. That phase has passed. So while there are quite a few interesting dishes in Frost's book, there's only maybe 2 simple ones that I would try to do myself, though I'd look up a recipe with proper instructions because Frost's writing style runs on ADHD-fueled vibes and frantic expression. He's pretty up front about his mental state and struggles with depression, anxiety and food issues which paint every single page with feels and distracted humour.

There are some interesting industry anecdotes sprinkled in there, like I did not know how catering works for movies and TV, but of course Frost has strong feelings about food being SO important in order to make the work good. But the most of it is Frost working through his own feelings of food as the channel through which he express love, anger and sadness.