By: Izzy Cheung, Arts & Culture Editor
In Bibi’s Kitchen
Hawa Hassan and Julia Turshen
Available to borrow from the Vancouver Public Library
Published in 2020, this book collects recipes from Eritrean, Somalian, Kenyan, Tanzanian, Mozambican, South African, Madagascan, and Comoran bibis (grandmothers). Ma Kauthar’s mango chile sauce is a hit in this cookbook, combining the sweetness of this tender fruit with the kick of jalapeños. She uses this sauce “with every main dish, from her chicken biryani to stews, curries, and more.” In this book, you’ll also read about cinnamon-spiced zanzibar pilau and Ma Gehennet’s hearty vegan shiro.
A Spicy Touch
Noorbanu Nimji
Available for purchase at Black Bond Books
A Spicy Touch is Noorbanu Nimji’s love letter to her Ismaili Muslim and Kenyan heritage, fusing recipes from both cultures to create her own unique tastes. After initially moving to Calgary in 1974, Nimji began teaching the Ismaili community how to cook. This soon blossomed into creating and publishing her recipes. A Spicy Touch features Nimji’s takes on creamy bharazi (pigeon pea curry), pillowy-soft mandazi (coconut donuts), and tomatoey chana wagharia (chickpeas and eggplant). Consult her book for hearty dishes sprinkled with warm cardamom or tangy chutneys to spice up your meal.
Yawd
Adrian Forte
Available to borrow from the Vancouver Public Library
Canadian-based chef Adrian Forte puts a modern spin on Afro-Carribean dishes in his first cookbook, Yawd. Forte’s penchant for cooking runs in the family — as a child, he would help out in the kitchen of his grandmothers’ restaurant in Jamaica. The book showcases recipes with “African ancestral ingredients” such as ackee and saltfish fritters with a crispy, tater tot-like exterior. Be sure to check it out for Forte’s fiery rendition of coq au vin made with a juicy jerk-chicken marinade.
Saka Saka
Anto Cocagne
Available to borrow from the Vancouver Public Library
Anto Cocagne’s Saka Saka is not just a cookbook stuffed full of delicious recipes from Gabon, Cameroon, and more, but it’s also a lush collection of landscape and food photography of the cuisines’ regions of origin. With the recipes come “the main characteristics of these cuisines, the specialties of each region, the produce, [and] the ideal pantry.” Plantain fufu, a simple snack needing only plantains, cassava tuber, and red palm oil in this book, is featured with a fun twist — each piece is cut into cookie-like shapes. Typically, this dish is served as a ball or rolled.
Black Rican Vegan
Lyana Blount
Available to borrow from the Vancouver Public Library
Published in 2023, Black Rican Vegan combines Black and Puerto Rican tastes to create dishes like bronx fried oyster mushrooms. Every recipe in this book is vegan, meaning that you can enjoy these dishes without consuming any meat — yes, that means getting to eat pollo guisado (braised chicken) sans the chicken! Chopped cheese is a New York classic, and chef Lyana Blount puts a delicious vegan spin on it that includes ground beyond meat and sazón for an extra kick. If you’re looking to avoid meat while savouring rich flavours, give this book a read!
Black Power Kitchen
Ghetto Gastro
Available to borrow from the Vancouver Public Library
Presented by Ghetto Gastro, a culinary group with origins in the Bronx, Black Power Kitchen is “part cookbook” and “part manifesto.” Founded by Jon Gray, Pierre Serrao, and Lester Walker, the collective “layer[s] flavour the same way hip hop layers samples and interpolations: as a way to expand, comment, shake up, share, and revel in our collective memory.” Nose-tingling seasonings are plentiful in recipes like their king jaffe jollof, which combines curry powder, tamari, soy sauce, cinnamon, and more.
