Beyond Gumbo: Creole Fusion Food from the Atlantic Rim

What makes this cookbook, (as well as others by Harris) a delightful read and a solid source of information on Pacific Rim cuisine is the amount of history and the wonderful anecdotes that accompany the recipes. For those of us who are not lucky enough to have lived in or traveled to the many places that comprise the Atlantic Rim, her book is much-needed.I only ever heard of the soursop fruit, or the wonderful beverage mauby when I finally traveled to the U.S. Virgin Islands a few years ago, so was eager to learn more. And although there are many familiar foods, such as black-eyed peas, and okra, to an amateur cook like me, the Atlantic Rim variations gave me more reasons to like these favorites from childhood. I especially loved to see cane syrup; it reminded me so of my father, who grew up in Alabama and processed cane at the mill as a child. He couldn't get enough of the syrup or the juice. It also reminded me of the purpose of the book: To show, through cuisine, the marvelous connection between the cultures of Africa, the Caribbean, Central & South Americas, and the United States