Compiled by MARIE-CLAIRE DIGBY

Book of the week

Nordic Bakery Cookbook by Miisa Mink, published by Ryland Peters Small (£16.99)

This book’s great strength is its unusual, and often simple to make, bread recipes. Potato and barley flatbreads are easy to throw together without yeast action. Rye pockets puff up into crisp little rounds, just waiting to be split and stuffed. Carrot and oat rolls are moist and delicious, and you’ll never buy Ryvita again when you see how quick and easy rye crispbreads are to make. There are cakes too, of course, and no fewer than three versions of cinnamon buns, including one from an old Finnish home-economics school text book. The author is a partner in the Nordic Bakery Scandinavian cafes in Soho and Marylebone in London.

Ching ching

Ching-He Huang is the face of Chinese home cooking in the UK, where she lives, and she also has a global presence due to the success of her TV shows and books. This summer she filmed a new series in the US, travelling around with her wok and attempting to convert families to healthy Chinese home cooking, rather than takeaways. Today she is in Brown Thomas, Dublin (noon-2pm) to launch her new range of tableware. It is as fresh and zingy as the presenter and writer, and makes a change from the traditional blue and white Chinese tableware. It’s also surprisingly affordable, with prices from €9 for noodle bowls and soya sauce pots, to €27 for a serving dish with bamboo tongs, and a very attractive tea pot with strainer for €13. She will also be signing copies of her latest book, Ching’s Fast Food (€24).

Curry at the museum

The secrets of the exotic dishes served at the Silk Road Cafe at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin will be revealed, at least in part, when chef Abraham Phelan shares his family recipe for “the best curry in the world” at a cookery demonstration in the cafe next Saturday, October 8th. It will start at 11am and places must be reserved in advance at cbl.ie, under online booking.

Memory bank

The rich lives lived by clients of Our Lady’s Hospice & Care Services in Dublin flavour The Mixing Bowl, a lovingly prepared collection of recipes, stories and reminiscences. The book is on sale now at branches of Hughes & Hughes, Dubray Books, Avoca and Donnybrook Fare shops, and online at themixingbowl.ie. It costs ¤12, and funds raised will support the hospices in Harold’s Cross and Blackrock