6 December: National Gazpacho Day

Today is National Gazpacho Day. Gazpacho is basically cold soup. Which reminds me of a friend who when told what gazpacho was, said, 'Cold soup? That doesn't sound too hot to me.' Anyway, here are ten facts about gazpcho.

1. What is gazpacho? It's a type of vegetable soup from Andalusia, Spain, made from tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, olive oil and croutons. It's unusual in that it is served cold.
2. Chilled, that is, not with ice, according to Andalusian cookbooks.
3. The word gazpacho derives from Arabic and means soaked bread.
4. It's traditionally made in a mortar. The vegetables are raw. The bread and vegetables, except the tomatoes, are pounded to a paste. The tomatoes are then added, through a seive, so there are no seeds in the mixture. The olive oil and some vinegar to taste are added at the end.
5. The best drink to enjoy it with is a dry sherry.
6. In Ancient Greece and Rome, they made a type of gazpacho with just the bread, olive oil, garlic and vinegar. They couldn't use the two main ingredients of the modern version, tomatoes and peppers, because at the time, they only grew in the Americas, which hadn't been discovered yet. It was the 19th century before those ingredients were added to make red gazpacho.
7. Legend has it that before leaving on his first voyage, Christopher Columbus loaded his ship with barrels of the stuff. The Ancient Greek and Roman version, presumably.
8. Spanish cookbooks classify gazpacho as a salad.
9. Gazpacho from Malaga contains almonds and grapes. Ingredients do vary from area to area and between families. Avocados, parsley, watermelon, strawberries and spices are added to some varieties.
10. If you order gazpacho manchego, you won't get cold veggie soup. This dish is a hot meat stew from La Mancha.

Golden Thread

Terry Kennedy is inexplicably and inexorably drawn to the small town of Fiveswood as a place to live and work after university. He is sure he has never visited the town before, but when he arrives there, it seems oddly familiar.

Fiveswood has a rich and intriguing history. Local legends speak of giants, angels, wolves, a local Robin Hood, but most of all, a knight in golden armour. Fiveswood's history also has a dark side - mysterious deaths blamed on the plague, a ghostly black panther, and a landslide which buried the smugglers' caves.

Terry buys an apartment in The Heights, a house which has been empty for decades, since the previous owner disappeared. Now he has finally been declared dead, developers have moved in and turned it into six flats. Terry has the odd feeling he has lived in this enigmatic house before. But that is not all. Since childhood, Terry has had recurring, disturbing dreams which have been increasing in frequency so that now, he has them almost every night. To his dismay, the people from his nightmares are his new neighbours.

Except, that is, for Eleanor Millbrook. She is refreshingly unfamiliar. After Terry saves her from a mysterious attacker, they become close. However, Terry's nightmares encroach more and more on his waking life, until they lead him to a devastating discovery about who he really is.

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