"Well, this is lovely,"  I thought as the new cookbook slid out of its padded envelope.  "Rose Water and Orange Blossoms," it read, in a curling thick cursive.  I scanned downward to see what kind of Middle Eastern food we were talking about - Lebanese, it turned out.

Inside, the format didn't seduce me as readily - double-columned, unnumbered steps, wide leading but tight kerning.  But each time I closed the book, that title just pulled me right back in again.  "Now that's some powerful marketing,"  I thought.

There is something just instantly evocative, for me, in titles that use the formula XY & X'Y', where X is an adjective and Y is a concrete noun.  You instantly start visualizing, and once you've done that your senses are trapped.  Brown Eggs and Jam Jars - another juicy-looking book from this season using the same ploy.

In fact, when I think about it, there have been many cookbooks that have trapped my senses and caught my attention - Sweet Cream & Sugar Cones, the terrific ice cream book from Bi-Rite Creamery.  Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume, Silvena Rowe's well-received title from a couple years before that (by "Purple Citrus" she just means "sumac," but doesn't "Purple Citrus" sound better?)

The farthest-back one I can recall off the top of my head is Blue Eggs & Yellow Tomatoes, from 2008 (though I'm sure there are earlier instances).  It's a gorgeous book, and it was popular too, yet I can't recall a single recipe from it that's gone into regular rotation for me.  Do I really only love it for its title?

Have you, too, ever been a sucker for this kind of title?  And how did it work out, in the long run?