Hops are prized for their ability to impart varied, complex aromas and flavours to beer...but did you know they can also be used culinarily? While hops may seem like an exotic item to cook with, it's the same as using the other herbs in your kitchen: you just have to know what to do with them!

"In lively and witty fashion, celebrated British beer writer Pete Brown presents a complete natural history of beer and shares the incredible story behind each of its four ingredients- malted barley, hops, yeast, and water. Miracle Brew explores the origins of fermentation, the lost age of hallucinogenic gruit beers, and the evolution of modern hop varieties that now challenge wine grapes in the extent to which they are discussed and revered."--Book cover.

Hg2 Lisbonunlocks the secrets of Europe's Rio, enabling readers to saunter through ancient streets and party through until dawn in achingly hip restaurants and clubs or wonderful, local bars.

How would you like to prepare and savor a delicious meal that's also nourishing and healthful? In The Healthy Hedonist, chef, teacher, and cookbook author Myra Kornfeld offers home cooks more than two hundred mouthwatering flexitarian recipes designed to satisfy all kinds of appetites -- without leaving you feeling stuffed and guilty afterward! So, what is a flexitarian? A flexitarian is anyone interested in eating healthy, primarily vegetarian cuisine without cutting meat and fish entirely from his or her diet. The Healthy Hedonist is the ideal cookbook for people with a variety of eating habits: the recipes are readily adapted to suit vegetarians, omnivores, and everyone in between. The emphasis here is on real food: fresh, natural, and, of course, delicious ingredients are used to create unique and healthful meals. Aside from soups, appetizers, salads, chicken and fish dishes, vegetarian entrees, grains, and vegetables, there are tempting recipes for pizza, alternative burgers, and naturally sweetened desserts. You can indulge yourself and feel virtuous at the same time with delectable fare such as: Portobello Mushroom Tapenade Wilted Spinach Salad with Orange-Curry Dressing Crispy Thai Wontons Potato Salad with Caramelized Onions Roast Chicken with Maple Glaze Coconut Green Beans with Mustard Seeds Lacquered Carrots with Coriander Gazpacho Salad with Tomato Vinaigrette Red Snapper Provencale Marrakesh Minestrone with Cilantro Puree Tamarind Chickpeas Asparagus, Leek, and Barley Risotto Barbeque Spice -- Rubbed Tofu Seared Sesame-Crusted Tuna Zucchini Latkes Salmon Medallions with Lime-Mustard Teriyaki Citrus Compote Supreme Roasted Peaches with Caramel Sauce Chocolate Lovers' Brownies Pomegranate-Pear Cornmeal Tart Throughout the book are plenty of helpful suggestions for substituting ingredients to suit your taste or dietary preference and for cooking for large groups or smaller gatherings, along with preparation tips and menu ideas. In addition, easy-to-follow illustrations guide you toward creating superb meals sure to appeal to every palate. For any and all food lovers, The Healthy Hedonist is the healthy, scrumptious way to enjoy sensational feasts every day.

Delve into the history behind the glamorous baths and spas of Europe to reveal the hidden past of alternative treatments. Popular with people from Romans to royalty and hypochondriacs to holiday-makers, natural water spas have been a common feature in society since the first century. Even today, we periodically abandon the cities to 'take the waters'. In their heyday, Europe's spas were the main meeting places for aristocracy, politicians and cultural elites. They were the centres of political and diplomatic intrigue, and were fertile sources of artistic, literary and musical inspiration. The spas epitomised style and were renowned for their cosmopolitan atmosphere in a glittering whirl of balls, gambling and affairs, as much as for their healing waters. Health, Hedonism and Hypochondria reveals the hidden histories of traditional spas of Europe, including such well-known resorts as the original Spa in Belgium; Bath, Buxton and Harrogate in Britain; Baden-Baden and Bad Ems in Germany; Vichy and Aix-les-Bains in France; Bad Ragaz in Switzerland; Bad Ischl and Baden bei Wien in Austria and Karlovy Vary and Mariánské Lázne in the Czech Republic. At once luxurious sanctuaries of relaxation and resorts of the upper classes, these spas were also the haunts of melancholics, scoundrels and those seeking escape and excitement.

In the age of Oprah, Dr. Phil, and countless other self-help disciplinarians, indulging in any kind of pleasurable pastime is on the brink of extinction. But it's not too late to revive those lost pleasures that make life worth living. The Hedonism Handbook can help put the three-martini lunch, the baguette with real butter, the deep tan, the unfiltered cigarette, or the simple act of lying in a hammock under the stars back within our grasp. A tongue-in-cheek, satirical guide to the "good" life, The Hedonism Handbook will help us reclaim it all.With his characteristic wit, author Michael Flocker combines humorous reviews of historical excesses, suggestions for everyday indulgences, lists of hedonistic icons with famous quotes and earnest warnings about the perils of structured living. Made up of ten worldly wise chapters arranged to form a journey for the reader-a path from the straight-and-narrow into wide-open fields of frivolity -- The Hedonism Handbook will help readers master the lost arts of leisure and pleasure. It provides an entertaining, yet (if you're not careful), life-changing read.