Haynes Practical Lifestyle Manuals Review
Reviewed by Janine Rumble
Haynes are synonymous with car and bike maintenance manuals. But they also have manuals for many other parts of life with their Practical Lifestyle Manuals. I have read the Fakeaway Manual and the Christmas Manual. Both are set out in the form of a manual and are brilliant fun, informative and make great presents for friends and family at Christmas. Take a look at their website for their full range.
I like both manuals as they are very colourful and very well written.
The Haynes Fakeaway Manual (RRP: £22.99 in Hardback) is a guide to ‘creating your favourite takeaway dishes at home’. It includes 150+ pages of yummy looking colour photographs of the food and over 60 recipes for breakfasts, snacks and appetizers, handheld food, classic main dishes, sides and accompaniments and sweet things. It has an introduction to takeaways and their history. It also includes a very helpful kit list of cooking utensils you will need to make the recipes and a list that shows where ingredients can be sourced from and a list of tips and tricks to help you make the perfect fakeaway. All of these are very informative, especially for a novice cook such as myself.
Recipes in the book range from quite simple recipes to more elaborate recipes, all involve a comprehensive list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions, which are very easy to follow and include ingredients that are readily available in most supermarkets and shops. Fakeaway dishes covered are Indian, Asian, American, British and South American cuisines. This manual is a perfect gift for someone who likes cooking and who likes takeaways, but would prefer to save money of ordering a takeaway by making their own.
The Haynes Explains Christmas manual (RRP: £6.99 in Hardback) is a small, thin book, perfect for putting in a Christmas stocking. It is a tongue in cheek manual that explains Christmas. It covers, the last-minute panic buyer, the organised spreadsheet present buyer, the harassed Christmas Day chef, the interfering mother-in-law to name but a few. It is set out just like a Haynes car manual and helps deconstruct Christmas. It is definitely worth a read, if only for the giggles on Christmas Day. This book is perfect for either someone who loves or dislikes Christmas and is a bit of fun.
I would highly recommend these books and any other Haynes manual as they are colourful, informative and make a great gift.
Rating: 5/5
For more information or to buy visit haynes.com.
