The Spice Necklace: My Adventures in Caribbean Cooking, Eating, and Island Life Reviews
June 21, 2010 by Caribbean Vacation and Island Tips
Filed under Books
While sailing around the Caribbean, Ann Vanderhoof  and her husband Steve track wild oregano-eating goats in the cactus-covered hills of the Dominican Republic, gather nutmegs on an old estate in Grenada, make searing-hot pepper sauce in a Trinidadi
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(out of 9 reviews)
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Review by Boston Lesbian for The Spice Necklace: My Adventures in Caribbean Cooking, Eating, and Island Life
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I love this book so much… The author talks about living on a boat and visiting various Caribbean islands. I would so love to live her life; the idea of living on a boat and traveling from island to island is alluring.
It is fascinating to learn about the islands and learning about the foods is a bonus. The foods sound very fresh and different, in a good way. I’ve made a batch of geera pork and it was fabulous. It starts by caramelizing sugar in oil and browning the meat in it. That gives the stew a deep and intense flavor I’ve never tasted before. I’ve also tried a corn soup that was great.
The books also discusses a black cake, made in Trinidad. It is a traditional Christmas treat. Although there isn’t a recipe for it in this book I was so taken by its description I found a recipe online and my fruit is soaking (for at least a month) and I will make it soon.
Other recipes I’ve enjoyed are Seafood stuffed cocktail bites (shrimp or lobster), plantain crusted chicken fingers with green seasoning and lime squares.
I’m very pleased that I had a chance to review this book and I look forward to trying more recipes as well as reading her first book, “An Embarrassment of Mangoes: A Caribbean Interlude”.
Review by prisrob for The Spice Necklace: My Adventures in Caribbean Cooking, Eating, and Island Life
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The Spice necklace is a collection of spices known to distinct countries in the Caribbean. Each spice is interwoven between natural beads, such as nutmeg with its cover of mace. They are colorful and fragrant. You can hang them in your kitchen or whatever room or place that you define.
Ann and her husband lived in Toronto as magazine editors. They had a 42 foot sailboat, The Cecheta, which means recipes in Spanish. They used the sailboats for weekend getaways and trips. One of their trips took them to the Caribbean for two years. Along the way they met many people and made friend boats. They were curious about the cultures and the food and asked questions. Their curiosity was rewarded with significant answers that made many new friends and many wonderful new recipes . But, alas they had to return home to make money to fund their next trip. At home they found they felt claustrophobic in their enclosed home and the Caribbean called them.
After six long years the call to the Caribbean was answered. They shipped their sailboat to Florida, and then flew to Florida. They sailed to Grenada, the land of nutmeg. And, then on to the Dominican Republic, Trinidad, Haiti, St Martin, St Kitts, Martinique, Tobago, St. Lucia, Guadalupe, and the Island of All Saints. Interspersed throughout each chapter are a collection of 71 recipes . Each recipe is pertinent to the country. The book is filled with wonderful spices and I could almost smell the aromas. At one point, they are invited to a oildown, which is a combination of vegetables, meats and spices mixed together into a very rich mix. The mixture of wonderful story -telling and recipes is not new, but this is one of the better combinations of this type of book. The lure of the Caribbean and the stories of the cultures and the people are so well written that I can feel and smell the food and best of all, the spices. The blue of the Caribbean and the soft brown of the nutmeg, what could be better?
Recommended. prisrob 04-14-10
An Embarrassment of Mangoes: A Caribbean Interlude
Review by Grandma for The Spice Necklace: My Adventures in Caribbean Cooking, Eating, and Island Life
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Most of us at some point in our lives want to shuck it all and take off for the Great Unknown on the adventure of a lifetime. Some of us are lucky enough to get to do just exactly that – to ride the rapids of the Grand Canyon or climb Mt. Everest or stand on a glacier in Alaska. Ann Vanderhoof and her husband dreamed of exploring the Caribbean. One day they packed up their sailboat and took off on the adventure of a lifetime. Along the way they learned how to taste chocolate, made friends on the island where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed, danced in the Carneval parade, went diving for fish and learned to cook the foods of the islands from the best cooks they could find.
Ann’s account of their travels is riveting and her recipes are mouthwatering. Better yet, the ingredients for nearly all of them are easily had at almost any supermarket. Kudos for a job well done. I can’t wait to see a sequel. Matter of fact, I might just hunt up a copy of the prequel – An Embarrassment of Mangoes: A Caribbean Interlude.
I do have one minor complaint: my Advance Reader Copy has no index to the recipes!
Review by Doctor.Generosity for The Spice Necklace: My Adventures in Caribbean Cooking, Eating, and Island Life
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“Spice Necklace” will be a fascinating read for anyone who has spent a few vacation days in the Caribbean in a self-contained resort but wondered about the real daily world of the island people all around them. Ann Vanderhoof and her husband did not just go on vacation; they put their jobs in Toronto on hold, bought a 40 foot sailboat, and sailed from island to island for several years – an idyllic way of life. This is their second major book reporting their travels. The organizing principle of the trips was to seek out local foods, their ingredients and preparation. This they learned first hand by forming a series of relationships with locals as they sailed around the ‘necklace.’
But the book is more than a foodie tour. Vanderhoof is a lively, curious writer and a talented reporter who does not shy away from gritty realities. Her observations of local life include some unforgettable vignettes. At the frontier between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, she describes hundreds of desperately poor Haitian women pouring across the border for market day where they trade excess donated goods for badly needed foodstuffs. One Haitian woman crosses back with a huge crate of live chickens balanced on her head and liquid running down her back – which the author realizes is not sweat but chicken urine. A memorable image. There is also a hilarious passage where the author and her girlfriend fixate on the anatomy of a local man as he swims out to recover some seaweed, making her husband a bit jealous.
The book does include recipes, and they are tempting; who would not be intrigued to try “Dog Sauce” or “Oildown?” Unfortunately it will be difficult to replicate these without access to the local ingredients, which are available only in a few Caribbean expatriate communities in North America. The recipes do add to the understanding of island life and the diverse ways of life which emerged from the mixture of African slaves and European colonies. I started out intending to just skim the book but ended up reading it to the end to learn about a world which is nearby the US in miles but lightyears away in culture.
Highly recommended.
Review by Zachary Hackett for The Spice Necklace: My Adventures in Caribbean Cooking, Eating, and Island Life
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If you’ve ever dreamed of living on a sailboat, then this is a good book for you. I have dreamed the dream and have been lucky enough to visit all of the islands Ann talks about in her wonderful book. She nails the live a board life, but more than that, she nails the flavor of the islands. Anyone who’s been leaves a part of themselves when they leave and brings something new back home. And the longer you stay, the more you leave and the more you bring back.
For me, with it’s vibrant lifestyle, laid back attitude and just plain zest for life, Trinidad is the jewel of the Caribbean, so I particularly enjoyed Ann’s “Feelin’ Hot, Hot, Hot” chapter and “Miss Pat’s Pepper Sauce”, which is much better than anything you can buy in an American supermarket. Hotter too.
In addition to bringing living on a sailboat to life, Ann peppers the book with delightfully delicious Caribbean recipes, any one of which would justify the purchase of this book. Ann Vanderhoof has delivered a real treat, in more ways than one.