SALE
By Michael Twitty (2002)
[FROM BOOKLADY COOKS]
As Jews around the world are celebrating Rosh Hashana, I want to take this moment to think about why I study food and food history from around the globe.
On its simplest level, taking time to read the stories and recipes is fascinating as we are all, in Michael Twitty’s words, “condemned as long as we breathe to the urge to eat and, when we eat, to find pleasure in the act and define our personal foundation.
In a world that seems so full of divisions and conflicts, taking some time to learn about how food and food traditions exist in different times and different places can, if we go a little deeper and pay attention to the time and the place and the stories, connect us - at least on a surface level. And right now, that’s a good place to start.
But it's just as important to not stop there., to let go of the fears and the judgements about each other and how we live these lives. on this planet So as I cook the Peach Noodle Kugel, I can think about the mothers and grandmothers who cooked this dish to celebrate the New Year, to bring together family and to find joy wherever it might exist.
[FROM THE PUBLISHERS] “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. [FROM THE PUBLISHERS]