Short Eats

I hope my Sri Lankan friends will forgive me for borrowing their term for this chapter, and that my Nigerian friends will forgive me for not borrowing theirs, ‘small chop’, which was a close second choice. ‘Short eats’ is far more expressive of the food I have written about than canapés, hors d’oeuvre or starters. Within this chapter you will find dishes suitable for the first course of a meal, and for serving with drinks before dinner alongside food suitable for snacks, or for a break when you do not have the time or the energy to prepare a meal. ‘Grazing food’ is another similar notion, except that I do not like the term much; it sounds faddish, and fads pass.