The Spice Necklace

A follow-up to the national bestseller An Embarrassment of Mangoes, Ann Vanderhoof and her husband navigate the Caribbean on a sailboat, discovering local culture in each tiny port, and collecting sumptuous original recipes along the way.

Spices and herbs are the heart and soul of Caribbean cooking, adding more to the pleasures of the table here than perhaps anywhere else. In The Spice Necklace, award-winning food and travel writer Ann Vanderhoof embarks on a voyage of culinary discovery, as she follows her nose (and her tastebuds) into tiny kitchens and fragrant markets, through rainforest gardens and to family cookups on the beach, linking each food to its traditions, folklore and history.

Meandering from island to island by sailboat, Vanderhoof takes readers along as she gathers nutmeg in Grenada, hunts crabs and freshwater crayfish in the mountains of Dominica, and obsesses about oregano-eating goats in the Dominican Republic. Along the way, she is befriended by a collection of unforgettable island characters who share with her their own delicious recipes, making this truly a book to savour.

Preface
The Spell of the Spice Necklace
 
1 The Nutmeg Gatherers
Grenada
 
2 Self-Spicing Goats
The Dominican Republic
 
3 The Egg Ladies
The Dominican Republic & Haiti
 
4 The 151-Proof Spice
St. Martin & Saba
 
5 Bay in the Mountains, Crabs in the Pot
Dominica & St. Kitts
 
6 The Food Critics Visit the Easy-Bake Boat
Grenada
 
7 Rolling Rice and Drinking Jack Iron Rum
Carriacou & Petite Martinique
 
8 Curry Tabanca
Trinidad
 
9 Feelin’ Hot, Hot, Hot
Trinidad
 
10 Cramming for a Chocolate-Tasting Test
Trinidad, Tobago & Grenada
 
11 Snow on the Mountains, Christmas on the Way
Grenada, Trinidad, Carriacou & The Grenadines
 
12 All Ah We Is One
Trinidad
 
13 In Search of Passion
Grenada & St. Lucia
 
14 Barks That Bite
St. Lucia & Trinidad
 
15 Dog Sauce and Rhum
St. Martin, Martinique & Marie-Galante
 
16 The Torments of Love
Guadeloupe & The Islands of the Saints
 
17 Lunch with Moses
Grenada & Dominica
 
18 Back to the Isle of Spice
Grenada
 
Afterword
Acknowledgments