My African Restaurant Adventure


Book Description

My book is prescriptive to process change, and it outlines strategic thinking about market competition. It is a vital tool for restaurant owners who wish to embark on a practical approach to achieve growth and branding of food. The book highlights areas for improvement that might work and what may not work and explains how to avoid setbacks and pitfalls in the restaurant business. It is about what to expect each step of the way, with suggestions for putting theory into practice so as to gain acceptance from the mainstream in the food industry. It is a narrative aimed at revolutionizing African food, weaving traditional cooking with contemporary remixes and infusions. An illustration of more effective approaches to helping achieve optimal dining experience, this book can really help ethnic minority food entrepreneurs, from pop-ups to restaurant owners, see things from a diners perspective to understand what can be done to improve service provision. Other food outlets can use my book to address ongoing issues of central importance to food and nutrition. There is an underlying message encouraging food entrepreneurs and management to build successful food businesses, especially in this new era of constantly evolving tastes that require quick branding of African food. It addresses many challenges faced by these eateries at home and in diaspora. The discourse is about ongoing struggles to succeed and rank among the mainstream. Hopefully, my book will appeal to food businesses as a useful tool to target the market and audience, as well as eliminate setbacks and pitfalls. This book isnt about providing a solution to any of the problems facing restaurant owners; instead, it is what I will describe as a very useful tool to facilitate change.




My First African Adventure


Book Description

THIS BOOK IS A CHILD'S FIRST TASTE OF THE MAGICAL CONTINENT! In My First African Adventure, Riaan Manser allows the reader to relive the toil, excitement and occasional terror of his journey - negotiating the Sahara and Libyan deserts, learning French, Portuguese and Arabic, eating monkey, rat and bat, standing in front of the pyramids, being awarded the freedom of the Red Sea in Egypt, feeding hyenas mouth to mouth, and standing on the highest, as well as at the lowest, points in Africa. Riaan arrived safely in Cape Town on 25 November 2005. Now, for the first time, children can relive this amazing journey of discovery in a fun, illustrated version of the original journey. Crammed with fun facts and information, My First African Adventure will entertain young and old for years to come. Parents and children are invited to join one of the world's great modern-day adventurers, Riaan Manser, as he explores Africa by bicycle!




Flavors of Africa


Book Description

Explore Africa's Spices, Tastes and Time-Honored Traditions In Flavors of Africa, Evi Aki shares the traditional Nigerian dishes she grew up enjoying, as well as typical eats from all across the continent. She introduces customary recipes from each of Africa’s different regions, including meals from Ethiopia, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Morocco, Egypt, Angola and more, all of which she collected with the help of relatives and family friends. Sample tried-and-true staples that have survived generations, like Nigerian Red Stew, Jollof Rice, Moroccan Spiced Lamb and Eritrean Red Lentils with Berbere Spice Mix. Enjoy Evi’s unique spin on classics like West African Egusi Soup and Ewa Oloyin (a vegetarian bean dish), in addition to her lighter and healthier take on traditional African street foods like Zanzibar Pizza. Whether you’re a foodie, a spicy food aficionado or simply looking for a colorful new cuisine to try, Flavors of Africa is an excellent map for your culinary journey.




The Cooking Gene


Book Description

2018 James Beard Foundation Book of the Year | 2018 James Beard Foundation Book Award Winner inWriting | Nominee for the 2018 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Nonfiction | #75 on The Root100 2018 A renowned culinary historian offers a fresh perspective on our most divisive cultural issue, race, in this illuminating memoir of Southern cuisine and food culture that traces his ancestry—both black and white—through food, from Africa to America and slavery to freedom. Southern food is integral to the American culinary tradition, yet the question of who "owns" it is one of the most provocative touch points in our ongoing struggles over race. In this unique memoir, culinary historian Michael W. Twitty takes readers to the white-hot center of this fight, tracing the roots of his own family and the charged politics surrounding the origins of soul food, barbecue, and all Southern cuisine. From the tobacco and rice farms of colonial times to plantation kitchens and backbreaking cotton fields, Twitty tells his family story through the foods that enabled his ancestors’ survival across three centuries. He sifts through stories, recipes, genetic tests, and historical documents, and travels from Civil War battlefields in Virginia to synagogues in Alabama to Black-owned organic farms in Georgia. As he takes us through his ancestral culinary history, Twitty suggests that healing may come from embracing the discomfort of the Southern past. Along the way, he reveals a truth that is more than skin deep—the power that food has to bring the kin of the enslaved and their former slaveholders to the table, where they can discover the real America together. Illustrations by Stephen Crotts




When Eagles Roar


Book Description

Currie's memoir of his life and what it means to be an African today. Explores his life journey which started with his love of birds and grew into a fascination with wildlife and adventure.




Koshersoul


Book Description

“Twitty makes the case that Blackness and Judaism coexist in beautiful harmony, and this is manifested in the foods and traditions from both cultures that Black Jews incorporate into their daily lives…Twitty wishes to start a conversation where people celebrate their differences and embrace commonalities. By drawing on personal narratives, his own and others’, and exploring different cultures, Twitty’s book offers important insight into the journeys of Black Jews.”—Library Journal “A fascinating, cross-cultural smorgasbord grounded in the deep emotional role food plays in two influential American communities.”—Booklist The James Beard award-winning author of the acclaimed The Cooking Gene explores the cultural crossroads of Jewish and African diaspora cuisine and issues of memory, identity, and food. In Koshersoul, Michael W. Twitty considers the marriage of two of the most distinctive culinary cultures in the world today: the foods and traditions of the African Atlantic and the global Jewish diaspora. To Twitty, the creation of African-Jewish cooking is a conversation of migrations and a dialogue of diasporas offering a rich background for inventive recipes and the people who create them. The question that most intrigues him is not just who makes the food, but how the food makes the people. Jews of Color are not outliers, Twitty contends, but significant and meaningful cultural creators in both Black and Jewish civilizations. Koshersoul also explores how food has shaped the journeys of numerous cooks, including Twitty’s own passage to and within Judaism. As intimate, thought-provoking, and profound as The Cooking Gene, this remarkable book teases the senses as it offers sustenance for the soul. Koshersoul includes 48-50 recipes.




The Adventures of Fat Rice


Book Description

With 100 recipes, this is the first book to explore the vibrant food culture of Macau—an east-meets-west melting pot of Chinese, Portuguese, Malaysian, and Indian foodways—as seen through the lens of the cult favorite Chicago restaurant, Fat Rice. An hour’s ferry ride from Hong Kong, on the banks of the Pearl River in China, lies Macau—a modern, cosmopolitan city with an unexpected history. For centuries, Macau was one of the world’s greatest trading ports: a Portuguese outpost and crossroads along the spice route, where travelers from Europe, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and mainland China traded resources, culture, and food. The Adventures of Fat Rice is the story of how two Chicago chefs discovered and fell in love with this fascinating and, at least until now, unheralded cuisine. With dishes like Minchi (a classic Macanese meat hash), Po Kok Gai (a Portuguese-influenced chicken curry with chouriço and olives), and Arroz Gordo (if paella and fried rice had a baby), now you, too, can bring the eclectic and wonderfully unique—yet enticingly familiar—flavors of Macau into your own kitchen.




Soframiz


Book Description

This charming collection of 100 recipes for everyday cooking and entertaining from Cambridge's Sofra Bakery and Cafe, showcases modern Middle Eastern spices and flavors through exotic yet accessible dishes both sweet and savory. Ana Sortun and Maura Kilpatrick have traveled extensively throughout Turkey and the Middle East, researching recipes and gaining inspiration for their popular cafe and bakery, Sofra. In their first cookbook together, the two demystify and explore the flavors of this popular region, creating accessible, fun recipes for everyday eating and entertaining. With a primer on essential ingredients and techniques, and recipes such as Morning Buns with Orange Blossom Glaze, Whipped Feta with Sweet and Hot Peppers, Eggplant Manoushe with Labne and Za'atar, and Sesame Caramel Cashews, Soframiz will transport readers to the markets and kitchens of the Middle East.




My Everyday Lagos


Book Description

JAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE • An acclaimed food writer and cook celebrates the many cuisines found in Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city, with 75 recipes that mirror her own powerful journey of self-discovery. A BEST COOKBOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Food Network, The Boston Globe, Good Housekeeping, Epicurious, Delish The city of Lagos, Nigeria, is a key part of a larger conversation about West African cuisine and its influences throughout the world. My Everyday Lagos consists of 75 dishes that are all served in recipe developer and food stylist Yewande Komolafe's fast-paced, ever-changing home city of Lagos. These recipes reflect the regional cooking of the country and reveal two complementary qualities of Nigerian cuisine—its singularity and accessibility. Along the way, through informative essays that place ingredients in historical context, Yewande explains how in a country where dozens of ethnic groups interact, a cuisine has developed that transcends tribal boundaries. Yewande's personal narrative is woven throughout the book and cautions against being burdened by notions of authenticity. To those in the African diaspora, this book highlights food that may have been adapted and integrated into the cuisines of the places they live. The bukas of London, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, Toronto, and Newark all have their unique vision of Nigeria and are reflected in their food. The recipes, including classics like Jollof Rice, Puff Puff, and Groundnut Stew, are a starting point for the home cook, allowing them to trust the ingredients and achieve the variety of textures and flavors Nigerian food is known for. Beautiful photographs of the city and its people invite readers into the energy and pulse of Lagos, while the food photography entices them to make each and every dish in the book. This stunning cookbook is Yewande Komolafe's in-depth exploration of a cuisine as well as the definitive book on Lagos cuisine that reveals the nuances of regions and peoples, diaspora and return—but also tells her own story of gathering the scattered pieces of herself through understanding her home country and food.




Recovering Our Ancestors' Gardens


Book Description

2020 Gourmand World Cookbook Award Winner of the Gourmand International World Cookbook Award, Recovering Our Ancestors' Gardens is back! Featuring an expanded array of tempting recipes of indigenous ingredients and practical advice about health, fitness, and becoming involved in the burgeoning indigenous food sovereignty movement, the acclaimed Choctaw author and scholar Devon A. Mihesuah draws on the rich indigenous heritages of this continent to offer a helpful guide to a healthier life. Recovering Our Ancestors' Gardens features pointed discussions about the causes of the generally poor state of indigenous health today. Diminished health, Mihesuah contends, is a pervasive consequence of colonialism, but by advocating for political, social, economic, and environmental changes, traditional food systems and activities can be reclaimed and made relevant for a healthier lifestyle today. New recipes feature pawpaw sorbet, dandelion salad, lima bean hummus, cranberry pie with cornmeal crust, grape dumplings, green chile and turkey posole, and blue corn pancakes, among other dishes. Savory, natural, and steeped in the Native traditions of this land, these recipes are sure to delight and satisfy. This new edition is revised, updated, and contains new information, new chapters, and an extensive curriculum guide that includes objectives, resources, study questions, assignments, and activities for teachers, librarians, food sovereignty activists, and anyone wanting to know more about indigenous foodways.