Archives for March 2021

“What I’ve enjoyed most, though, is meeting people who have a real interest in food and sharing ideas with them. Good food is a global thing and I find that there is always something new and amazing to learn – I love it!” Jamie Oliver

Nom Wah Tea Parlor, located in New York City’s Chinatown, has been serving up delicious plates of dim sum with steaming cups of tea for over a century. Traditional favorites like Roast Pork Buns (Char Siu Bao), Scallion Pancakes and Spring Rolls now share the table with new flavor innovations like Sweet Potato Kale Wontons, Chorizo Potato Dumplings and Chinese Chopped Cheese Dumplings. More taste bud teasers to make are Sticky Rice with Chinese Sausage, Garlic Eggplant Noodles, Walnut Shrimp, Sweet and Sour Pork Chops and Moon Cookies. History, stories and 75 recipes are seamlessly brought together in Wilson Tang’s “The Nom Wah Cookbook.”

“Chaat” by Maneet Chauhan and Jody Eddy introduces us to the wide variety of prepared foods available on-the-go in India. Chaat is described as “The sweet, salty, spicy, crunchy, creamy, hot and cold snacks – street food, really – found in Indian markets, train stations, and home kitchens.” Some drinks and dishes may be familiar such as curry, chutney, samosas, chai and the sweet yogurt drink called Lassi. Maneet provides the base recipe for this refreshing beverage and a variety of flavor ideas including mango, strawberry and brewed espresso. New and tempting chaat to try might be Vada Pav (Potato Fritter Sandwich), Lemon Rice, Brinjal Achaar (Eggplant Pickles) and Jhal Muri (Puffed Rice with Peanuts, Chickpeas and Vegetables.) Maneet has gathered recipes from all over her home country so you can experience a taste of India in your home kitchen.

Sabrina Ghayour, author of “Persiana” invites us back to her table for more Middle Eastern-inspired recipes with “Simply: Easy Everyday Dishes.” Sabrina serves up tasty food you’ll want to add to your weekly meal rotation. For instance, Pomegranate Molasses and Honey-Glazed Meatballs, Harissa Chicken Noodle Lettuce Cups, Lamb, Cumin, Cilantro and Chile Kebabs, Ultimate Falafels plus Crispy Cod Wraps with Salsa and Harissa Lime Mayo. When it’s too hot to cook, Tomato & Peanut Salad with Tamarind Ginger and Honey Dressing, Pear, Chickpea and Green Leaf Salad with Maple Harissa Dressing and Strawberry, Soft Goat Cheese and Pistachio Salad are cool and refreshing ideas to keep in mind.

“The Chilean Kitchen” by Pilar Hernandez and Eileen Smith gives us 75 traditional recipes from this South American country. Chileans are very fond of bread whether it is the flaky container for savory fillings like Caramelized Onion or Beef Empanadas, sweetened for dessert as in Sweet Christmas Bread or a filled basket of Quick Skillet Bread on the table at mealtime. Hearty soups and stews are also favored and go well with bread like Potato-Squash Stew with Beef, Brothy Seafood Soup loaded with fresh mussels, shrimp, calamari and whitefish, Creamy Chickpea Soup and Grilled Steak Soup. Chile is known for its wines so this cookbook would not be complete without a few spirited drinks such as Chilean White Sangria with ripe sliced strawberries, Mulled Red Wine and finally, Earthquake Cocktail.

This week we mark the one-year anniversary of the first lockdown due to COVID-19. While this lockdown has had different impacts for different people, nevertheless it has affected us all. To foster understanding of how we all are coping through this time, here are some works that give their authors’ perspectives on the pandemic.

Written in the year preceding the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, in The Unreality of Memory: And other Essays, Elisa Gabbert touches on what came to be some of the most difficult aspects of quarantine, how a pandemic comes to be, and our own questions of existence. Gabbert touches on what causes pandemics and even Dr. Anthony Fauci gives us insight into our perceptions of vaccines. Gabbbert had inclinations on a worldwide event occurring soon as she writes about how we deal with natural disasters and how we react to them. While some may feel survivor’s guilt, others may feel survivor’s thrill, elation at being alive. The author even deals with our perceptions and memories by writing about how we curate and alter our memories as we are forming them. Compelling and sometime frightening, Gabbert’s work gives us insight into just how we got to where we are.

Zadie Smith deals with growing feelings of disconnect that arise from quarantine in her latest book of essays entitled Intimations: Six Essays. Written as lockdown was at its beginning, Smith looks at her own luck in being able to leave New York just as the worst was about to hit. She acknowledges her own privilege and how it has played such a part in who has made it through the pandemic and who has not. Smith, however, does not downplay how suffering touches us all. Suffering is not mitigated by privilege, in her words; it is absolute. She discusses how her relations with her neighbors change so drastically and how it went from a community united to one merely trying to survive. Smith also writes how so many of us have the need to accomplish tasks in order to fill time, and that this inclination to be productive arises from our desire to make life meaningful. Smith’s work gives a chance to view through another’s insightful lens during this trying time.

Together in a Sudden Strangeness: America’s Poets Respond to the Pandemic takes a different approach. Edited by Alice Quinn, the work is an anthology of poems written by different poets during the pandemic. Each poet experiences life differently, from those who can work from home without issues, to those who work in the medical field and are facing the illness head on. The works are all vulnerable and whether from famous authors such as Sharon Olds or Jericho Brown, or form those we have not had the pleasure of meeting in the literary sense, all are poignant. Many writers focus on details that would seem so minute, like saving an ant or being able to hand a loved one a cascarón, but in this present time seem to epitomize our feeling of helplessness. There is also hope, hope to see a loved one again, or visit a hometown.  It is through this hope that this volume of poems finds its strongest message.

As we all hope for this pandemic’s eventual end, let’s continue to stay safe and enjoy some new perspectives on this trying time.

“Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.” – Joyce Carol Oates

While 2020 may not have been a banner year for many of us, it did introduce some standout, prizewinning literary fiction. Read on to discover what might just be your new favorite novel.

“Luster” by Raven Leilani won not just one, but two prestigious 2020 prizes: the Kirkus Prize and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. The protagonist of this unique coming-of-age novel is Edie, a Black woman in her early twenties searching for connection, art, and meaning. A series of bad decisions leads Edie, unemployed and isolated, into a romantic relationship with an older man – as well as a tenuous, complicated friendship with his wife and their 12 year old daughter. As Edie sinks deeper into a life of dependence, she slowly comes to terms with the meaning behind her obsessions.

“Hamnet: a Novel of the Plague” by Maggie O’Farrell won the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction. This historical fiction novel delves into the life and death of William Shakespeare’s young son, who succumbed to the bubonic plague in 1596 at age 11. While the bard is largely absent in this story, Shakespeare’s grieving wife, their surviving children, and their daily life in Stratford are described in lyrical, visually haunting detail. “Hamnet” is sure to stay on your mind long after putting it down.

“The Discomfort of Evening” by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, translated from the original Dutch by Michele Hutchison, was the winner of the 2020 Man Booker International Prize. Rijneveld, who is a poet as well as a writer of fiction, describes the life of a farming family in the Netherlands in jarring, disturbing detail. The story is told from the point of view of ten-year-old Jas, an anxious child whose thoughts tend to drift toward the grotesque. The brutal realities of farm life combine with a stark examination of an unhappy family on a seemingly unstoppable downward spiral. While this is not what one would call a feel-good read (in fact, a trigger warning seems necessary – read at your own risk and be prepared to cringe), it is eloquently written and strangely lovely.

These and many other works of literary fiction are available at A. K. Smiley Library. We are open to the public again, so drop by to browse during our open hours, or make use of our popular Books to Go program.