Product Description
by Dorinda Hafner
Synopsis:
Over the past few centuries, the influences of Portuguese, Spanish, and French cuisines have created an entirely new cuisine across the African continent, while African influences have simultaneously traveled across the Atlantic to countries such as Brazil, Cuba, Jamaica, and the United States. Written by bon vivant and storyteller Dorinda Hafner, A TASTE OF AFRICA is a tantalizing introduction to some of the most exciting, dynamic food in the world. In over 100 traditional and modern recipes from ten countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and South America, Dorinda lovingly shows readers how to prepare a wide range of African delights, such as the Moroccan classic Tagine of Lamb with Pumpkins, Vegetables, and Fruit and Fried Plantains. This guide to wholesome and tasty cooking the African way, illustrated with maps and enlivened folk tales and history, will find a valued place in kitchens everywhere.
About the Author: Dorinda Hafner was born in Ghana, West Africa. She later moved to Australia and has worked as a storyteller, actress, dancer, choreographer, public speaker, writer and television chef. Dorinda has written five books and is the host of a popular cooking show broadcast in 39 countries. Dorinda currently divides her time between Australia, Great Britain, and the United States.
Publishers Weekly
Hafner, who was born and raised in Ghana, knows what she's doing in this survey of African and African-derived foods circling the globe from the continent itself to its sundry beneficiaries--New Orleans, Cuba, Tobago, and others--where African culinary traditions have long mingled with native and once-colonial tastes. Before each of 16 chapters are a helpful map and informational tidbits (lists of the nation's food crops, etc.), and then, without further ado or introduction (which might have been both interesting and useful), we find palmnut soup with fufu (fufu is a dumpling-like food), from the Ivory Coast, or arroz con pescado al ron (rice and fish in rum), from Cuba, or fish in socks (i.e., batter), from New Orleans. Along with Hafner's recipes, her book's design jauntily stirs the appetite: full-color photos set the plenty of a meal or a course beside robustly well-wrought examples of African crafts. Prim styling seems the rule in cookbooks; Hafner's thrust is much more vivid and energetic. (Mar.)
Hardcover: 240 pages