Review: 'The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook' by Emily Ansara Baines

The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook: From Lamb Stew to 'Groosling' -- More Than 150 Recipes Inspired by The Hunger Games Trilogy, Emily Ansara Baines, 2006, Adams Media, $19.95, hardbound, 240 pages. Category/Genre: cooking. Cover: fitting. Where we got it: publisher. Where you can get it: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million. 


As Baines says in her introduction, food in The Hunger Games 'represents a variety of conflicts that the characters, regardless of background, must struggle against.' It's a weapon the Capitol wields against the poor. It's also a form of communication, as we learn when Haymitch uses bread to communicate with Katniss during her first Hunger Games. 

Each recipe comes with 'Tips from Your Sponsor' and a brief explanation of which book and chapter inspired that particular recipe. 

The first chapter is all about breakfast and includes such recipes as 'Mrs Everdeen's Breakfast of Mush' and 'Porridge for the Poor.' Chapter 2 is called 'Breaking Bread' and includes dishes like 'Katniss-Approved Puffy Buttermilk Biscuits' and 'District 4's Seaweed Bread.' There are nine chapters in all, and you'll get recipes for soups, stews, and salads, seafood, poultry dishes, wild game, desserts, and more. Wild dog optional. 

The appendix is titled 'Katniss's Family Book of Herbs' and describes various herbs you can scrounge yourself (if you know what you're doing). Unfortunately, no pictures are included, so you're left to figure out for yourself what the plants look like. 

A very intriguing book.

If you like this one, try: The Unofficial Catching Fire Cookbook, by Rockridge Press, and The Unofficial Recipes of The Hunger Games, by Rockridge University Press.