The Spice Necklace: My Adventures in Caribbean Cooking, Eating, and Island Life
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While sailing around the Caribbean, Ann Vanderhoof and her husband Steve track wild oregano-eating goats in the cactus-covered hills of the Dominican Republic, gather nutmegs on an old estate in Grenada, make searing-hot pepper sauce in a Trinidadian kitchen, cram for a chocolate-tasting test at the University of the West Indies, and sip moonshine straight out of hidden back-country stills. Along the way, they are befriended by a collection of unforgettable island characters: Dwight, the skin-diving fisherman who always brings them something from his catch and critiques her efforts to cook it; Greta, who harvests seamoss on St. Lucia and turns it into potent Island-Viagra; sweet-hand Pat, who dispenses hugs and impromptu dance lessons along with cooking tips in her Port of Spain kitchen.Back in her galley, Ann practices making curry like a Trini, dog sauce like a Martiniquais, and coo-coo like a Carriacouan. And for those who want to take these adventures into their own kitchens, she pulls 71 delicious recipes from the stories she tells, which she places at the end of the relevant chapters.The Spice Necklace is a wonderful escape into a life filled with sunshine (and hurricanes), delicious food, irreplaceable company, and island traditions. Publishers Weekly In this sunny cookbook-cum-travelogue. Vanderhoof (An Embarrassment of Mangoes) and her perpetually hungry husband ditched their Toronto publishing careers to sail around the eastern Caribbean ingesting as much of the island cultures as possible. Each chapter finds them coming ashore to sample restaurants and cuisine, visit farms and processing sites, and learn to make exotic local dishes. (Vanderhoof's kitchen mentors try to keep her away from sharp utensils, but she manages to acquire 71 recipes for everything from stewed goat to “mango chow.”) The result is a pleasant picaresque, as the couple take in Trinidadian herb plantations or a Grenadian chocolate factory or embark on a ribald quest for an aphrodisiac seaweed on St. Lucia. They endure lousy rental cars and encounter rudeness on Guadeloupe, but for the most part they marinade happily in the gorgeous scenery and the ebullient wisdom of friendly island characters. (One Dominican Rastafarian cooks a great stew and also moonlights as a midwife.) The book is a dizzying whirl of tourism and food porn, but Vanderhoof's breezy, evocative prose makes it pretty tasty. (June 23)
