food

Wild Chocolate

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Wild Chocolate: Across the Americas In Search of Cacao’s Soul by Rowan Jacobsen

This is a fascinating combination of history, travel, agriculture, and chocolate. Traveling as part of a team with the Heirloom Cacao Preservation Fund, Rowan travels to southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Brazil, and Bolivia in search of the best cacao varieties and beans and to meet the farmers and the people working to get their beans from farm to factory to table. There are varieties of cacao beans most of us have never heard of or tasted, such as Criollo.

Rowan makes many journeys by bus and down creeks and rivers, sleeping in hammocks, getting bitten by ants, mosquitoes, and gnats.  He learns about challenges of collecting freshly harvested cacao pods and along with farmers, how to dry, sort and ferment cacao beans, and then getting them shipped to a city or another country to be made into an amazing variety of chocolate bars.

Bean to bar chocolate is more expensive than the mass-produced chocolate, and Rowan explains why, and where to purchase it online, or in a few cities. I haven’t ordered any yet, but did find a single origin bar to try at a local store (not the same as true bean to bar or wild chocolate) and found it to be very complex and tasting of raisins. I didn’t love it, but look forward to trying new varieties of gourmet chocolate.

The author has also written about apples, oysters, truffles, and honey bees in crisis, among other topics.

Brenda

Forget Me Never

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Forget Me Never by Susan Wittig Albert

Incredibly, this is book 29 in the China Bayles Herbal Mysteries. Thyme of Death is the first book. China owns an herb shop in Pecan Springs, Texas, a fictional town in the hill country between Austin and San Antonio. A former lawyer in Houston, she’s now an amateur sleuth. Her spouse McQuaid is a PI, a former cop, and a professor of criminal justice. Ruby, her business partner, is a psychic. Their friend Sheila is the local police chief.

China investigates a recent hit-and-run death that might be connected to a 20-year-old arson case. Gardens, scenic landscapes, pets, delicious food, and time with her spouse make a charming frame for China’s cases. In this one, the suspected arsonist of twenty years ago may have faked his death in Mexico and may be living in or near Pecan Springs. Chapter headnotes describe herbs that may (or may not) help with memory issues. This is an interesting read and a clever mystery. China is still in top form, and I look forward to book 30.

Brenda

The Editor

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The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America by Sara B. Franklin

Editor Judith Jones lived to be 93 and didn’t retire from Knop until she was 85. She edited many, many books and enjoyed many lunches with her authors. A couple of years in Paris as a young adult just after World War II inspired a love of food, cooking, and travel. Judith joined Knopf when it was rare for a woman to work in publishing as anything other than a secretary. When she became an editor, she worked very long hours, and became known as a passionate editor with a firm but delicate touch. She specialized in editing literary fiction, poetry, and food writing.

She married Dick Jones and they lived in New York City and Vermont. Dogs, swimming, music, poetry, and books filled their days. Infertility was a lifelong grief, though two stepchildren and later two older foster children expanded their family. Julia Child, Claudia Roden, Edna Lewis, and James Beard were some of the authors she worked with on bestselling cookbooks. The changing tastes in America for food and cookbooks is a major theme in this book. Also, quite a lot about being an underpaid woman in publishing, as well as growing old gracefully. Quite an interesting read, especially for foodies or avid cooks.

Brenda

The Kamogawa Food Detectives

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The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood

I enjoyed this short, engaging novel of six connected stories, a bestseller in Japan. The stories are set in Kyoto, which is fondly described, with mentions of notable tourist sites such as the Higashi Hongangi Buddhist Temple. Weather and seasons are highlighted, including cold winter breezes from the surrounding mountains, many rainy days, and the stunning beauty of the spring Cherry Blossom Festival. But the focus of the novel is the Kamogawa Diner, and the small detective agency, both run by retired police officer Nagare Kamogawa and his daughter Koishi, in her 30s. The diner, with four tables and 5 seats at the counter, is hard to find, but always smells enticing.

Other than some regular customers, most diners are clients seeking a nostalgic dish from long ago. Koishi interviews them, then Nagare travels throughout Japan to source ingredients, search for chefs or customers of closed restaurants, and finds long-lost relatives and friends in search of the desired recipe and ambience. Two weeks later, the clients return for their requested meal, and a story, along with greetings from friendly cat Drowsy. The food is lovingly detailed, and isn’t all traditionally Japanese. Among the requests are Napolitan Spaghetti with frankfurters, eaten by a 5-year-old girl on a trip with her grandfather, a widower looking for his wife’s secret recipe, and a favorite meal for a loved one who is ill. This charming novel is a very good rainy-day comfort read. In Japan, the book has seven sequels. The first sequel, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes, will be published here in October. Enjoy!

Brenda