Ann Vanderhoof – författare

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.From the Hardcover edition.

Who hasn't fantasized about leaving their job, saying goodbye to the rat race and escaping to some exotic destination in search of sun, sand, and a different way of life? Ann Vanderhoof and her husband did just that.In the mid 1990s, the author and her husband were driven, forty-something professionals who were desperate for a break from their harried, deadline-dominated lives. So they left their jobs, rented out their house, moved onto a 42-foot yacht called Receta ('recipe' in Spanish) and set sail from their home in Canada for the Caribbean. AN EMBARRASSMENT OF MANGOES is Ann Vanderhoof's intimate account of this two-year midlife interlude during which she and her husband travelled more than 7,000 nautical miles, dropped anchor in 16 countries (and 47 individual islands), and adapted to a new life on 'island time'.Exchanging suits for bare feet, they leave the stresses of their old life behind and become caught up in a world that is simultaneously simpler and more exuberant. They sip rum with their neighbours and dance through the streets during Carnival, explore secluded beaches, learn to pull their dinner from the sea and create delectable dishes in their tiny galley kitchen. Interspersed with irresistible recipes, from cracked conch in the Bahamas, curried lobster in Grenada, spicy island gingerbread to West Indian rum punch, AN EMBARRASSMENT OF MANGOES is the enticing story of discovering not just vibrant new cultures and cuisines, but what really matters.