A quite different book for me this week, but a good one. ‘Taboon: Sweet and Savoury Delights from the Lebanese Bakery’ by Hisham Assaad is a colourful and beautifully put-together book which I like a lot. It will guide you through the treats available from a part of the world I went to a long time ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed the delicious food of the Middle East. The food from this region has so much flavour and uses different ingredients than we use in the UK.

It comes down to flour, water and salt, and the addition of what is around you — say sesame, olive oil, good cheese, figs, pistachio, honey and of course spice. The use of spice in this book is subtle and flavoursome, with za’tar spice and pepper from Aleppo, and bread rolls with olive and chilli sound delicious. The sound of aniseed bread for Ramadan sounds interesting as it is such a strong flavour; I shall give that a go. However, the sound of layered cheese pie sounds absolutely delicious, and I found a recipe in the book for clotted cream!

There are so many stories to tell from this book and many I want to eat. In difficult times — and an area like the Middle East has been difficult for so long — it amazes me that food is still cherished, enjoyed and talked about and maybe, just maybe, able to bring people together more. Taboon, incidentally, is a portable, traditional Palestinian oven made from clay and straw.