Book Review: Mini-Review

Mangoes & Curry Leaves

by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

Artisan Press, 380 pp., $45

Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid are masters of the cookbook. All of their previous books have been bestselling award-winners, and each is the go-to reference in its respective genre. The pair has been traveling extensively throughout the subcontinent for the past 30 years; they met there as fellow travelers and ended up as life partners. As they put it, "We can't pretend to know all about the incredible food from the inside-out, but we do know it intimately from the outside-in."

They love the subcontinent and the widely varied foods there. "In the States, when you say Indian food, northern Punjabi standards are what people think of," Alford says. "It's really sad that it has that image. It's so, so much more than that."

The recipes found in Mangoes and Curry Leaves, the couple's latest labor of love, have been culled from friends, guest houses, street vendors, cafes, and local venues from all over the region. Many of the recipes tend to come from the more under-represented areas: Sri Lanka, Kerala, Bangladesh, Bengal, Goa, Rajasthan, etc. They favor dishes with bright flavors and easy technique. "We're not chefs, we don't cook chef-y things," Allford says. "It's home cooking; that's where the best and most honest food's found."

He and Duguid work well together. Although they both write and both photograph, she can evoke the soul of the subcontinent by laying down just a few carefully chosen sentences. Alford's shots can accomplish the same with one well-composed and perfectly lit image. Together, they are encyclopedic but restrained and subtle at the same time. The book itself is part memoir, part travelogue, part traveler tips, part cookbook, loaded with 200-plus recipes, compelling copy, and hundreds of stunning color photographs. "A cookbook ought to be able to seduce you into traveling to the country at the same time," says Alford.

I cooked several dishes, and none of them took more than 20 minutes to prepare, with all ingredients available here in town: a complex and cooling South Indian banana-yogurt pachadi with mustard seeds and curry leaves; an incredibly simple and delicious dish of pea tendrils with coconut from Sri Lanka; some onion skillet breads with cumin from Andhra Pradesh (perfect for scooping); a Goan chile shrimp dish with curry leaves, cardamom, and cinnamon; and a Bengali "sundae" of yogurt, palm sugar, saffron, and pistachios. I'd put these up against the best in town, and they're a result of the recipes, not my abilities.

Alford and I got together after his well-received appearance at BookPeople to satisfy his craving for Mexican food. He lives near Chinatown in Toronto, so Mexican is a food he seldom gets to eat. Over spicy fare and many cold beers we discussed their latest venture: a book dealing with the culture and foods of the stateless peoples of China, the immigrants living within the borders.