My best Christmas present

Was The Oxford Companion to Food. What a magnificent book. I have an article in another book (Snail Eggs and Samphire by Derek Cooper) which describes the work and its main editor, Alan Davidson. Apparently it was 16 years late when it was published - you'd hate to be the commissioning editor on that one! How many budgets did it get into before they gave up. But the book certainly doesn't disappoint. Brilliant to browse. There's a particularly good entry on washing up - supposedly this is the culmination of every meal and those of us doing it should see ourselves as the high priests at some elaborate ritual.