I was approached recently to review a new book entitled ‘On a Stick’ by Matt Armendariz who some of you may know from his blog Matt Bites. I have admired Matt Armendariz´s talent at work with food and photography for quite sometime and, as such, was absolutely delighted to be sent a copy to review of his book – celebrating novel ways of presenting a variety of foods on sticks!
I was not surprised to see Matt´s legendary food photography all through this fabulous book of mouthwatering and fun recipes. It contains eighty quick-and-easy recipes for foods on sticks and skewers – from elegant hors d’oeuvres like caprese sticks and chocolate-covered cheesecake to delightfully lowbrow treats like corn dogs, fried pickles (you have no idea how obsessed I have been over the notion of fried pickles ever since I heard of them), and fudge puppies.
My personal favourite recipes, duly tried and tested, were:-
- Breakfast Pancake Dogs with Maple Syrup (oooh so devine!)
- Chicken and Waffles
- Chinese Meatballs with Sweet-and-Sour Chilli Sauce (I adore Sweet Chilli Sauce so this was a winner for me!)
- Corn Dogs
- Elote (Sweetcorn ears with Chilli and Parmesan)
- Fish and Chips (well, I am a Brit after all!)
Each of the recipes are laid out in an easy to follow style and are exceptionally well written. The photography, as one has come to expect from Matt, is superb. But its the imagination which has gone into each of these ideas is what makes this book really wonderful – providing superb ideas for parties or just fun movie nights in!
This is a book which will definitely be of some use to me over the summer period – with plenty of picnics and parties planned. Highly recommended if you would like a strong recipe book for providing individual, delicious and yet surprisingly simple to prepare party style foods to your friends and family! This book will not be gathering dust on my shelves anytime soon.