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Delicious Reads: Extra Sauce and Passport to Flavor

14 Apr

Extra Sauce: The Good, the Bad, and the Onions
by Zahra Tangorra
Extra Sauce is the new memoir by chef Zahra Tangorra. Tangorra’s opened the popular New York restaurant Brucie as well as the popup ZaZa Lazagna. The book is filled with adventures in the kitchen that will appeal to fan’s of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. The chapters are defined by a variety of dishes many of whose recipes are shared. Two dishes that I plan to try to recreate are The Brucie Tag[gliatelle] and the almost Tuscan bean recipes from her time in Italy, both of which sound delicious. Although foodies will enjoy her culinary escapades, the emotional depth of the story primarily comes from her complicated relationship with her parents who also at one point had a culinary endeavor of their own. Her father’s recipe for potato salad and her mom’s apple strudel are amongst the family recipes included. Tangorra has a quick fire, quirky delivery which is infused with both humor and heart. The story is also a love letter to New York where Tangorra spent most of her life and therefore will especially resonate those familiar or enamored with the city.

Passport to Flavor: 100 Global Dishes You Can Make Anywhere (An International Cookbook. Delicious Recipes from Around the World)
by Abby Cheshire
Passport to Flavor is a fun cookbook of international recipes from Abby Cheshire who works as a cook on a private yacht and became famous for posting her dishes and adventures on TikTok and Youtube. This cookbook is divided by destination as diverse as cities in Bahamas, Ireland, India, and Vietnam (plus several more). At each destination there are dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as a mixed drink and snack for cocktail hour to give the feeling that you are journeying with her crew by yacht on a world wide voyage and eating locally inspired dishes along the way. Little Chefs, as Cheshire refers to fans of her vlogging will enjoy the colloquial tone of the book. Advice on recipe adjustment is referred to as “throttle control” and substitution is an “alternate course.” I appreciated that she views the recipes as basis that she encourages home cooks to adjust to suit their needs. She includes “rogue waves” to watch out for aka advice on things that could go wrong such as under or over cooking. Dishes I’m planning to try include Charleston’s Bourbon Bread Pudding, Ireland’s Boxty with Smoked Salmon, Italy’s Pollo Al Tarragon, and Germany’s Apple Marzipan Cake.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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Stranger in the Woods (2017) by Michael Finkel

19 Mar

The Stranger in the Woods is the true account of Christopher Knight’s 27 year hermit journey in the Maine woods. No human contact, no conversation, no care for the outside world, just survival, and his own heartbeat against nature. He stole to survive, but took only what he needed. What’s remarkable about this book, besides its subject, is it achieves something consistent in its truth and a consistent question: Why?

Book cover showing a dense and shadowy forest in tinted greens. Handwritten white chalk text reads “The Stranger in the Woods” and “The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit.” In the background, a truck is hidden in the trees. The author's name, “Michael Finkel" is at the bottom.

Why do we need people and contact? Why do we succumb to society’s expectations? Why don’t we push harder to connect with universal truths? Why do we not pull away more from assumptions of who we should be. 

Knight’s story is not a sensationalized spew of intrigue, mystery, and crime, but an honest and connective account of someone who escaped authority and accountability for almost three decades. In a way, I came to respect Knight and his commitment to something he truly believed in, even if he knew it was wrong (if you think of it in terms of fiction, he’s a flawed antagonist, doing what he believes is right). 

What worked so well for me, is that Finkel lets the silence between Knight’s actions breath, giving us time to process both the magnificence of Finkel’s journey along with its mistakes. 

Finkel interviewed Knight extensively (though Knight was always reluctant and evasive), and he contextualizes Knight’s words with a blend of philosophy, psychology, and history. The book asks: Is solitude an illness, a spiritual awakening, a radical rejection, or just a preference?

A makeshift campsite in a wooded forest. Tarps are strung between trees to form a shelter, with clothing hanging from lines. Buckets, plastic bins, a propane tank, pots, and other survival gear are scattered on the ground and tied to trees, showing Christopher Knight's living setup deep in the woods.

Above is a photo of Knight’s camp. I felt the weight of being alone with Knight throughout the book, and I sympathized with him. At a certain point, I perhaps even wanted to follow in his footsteps (just an interesting thing to think about). 

And why did my mind go there? Because Knight’s mind simply switched, as all of ours has at some point (even if to this extreme.) There was no traumatic event or dramatic falling out. He just walked into the forest.

There is a powerful detail Finkel shares in Knight’s memory that haunts and fascinates me: Knight never felt lonely in the woods and simply forgot what it felt like to need people.

Have you read The Stranger in the Woods? What did you think? Comment below.

If you haven’t read it, you can reserve it in the BCCLS system here. 

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Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant

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