Bounty by the sea: the distinctive cuisine and culture of the Dafauskie's Gullah people - Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way: Smokin' Joe Butter Beans, Ol' 'Fuskie Fried Crab Rice, Sticky-Bush Blackberry Dumpling, and Other Sea Island Favorites - Book Review

Black Issues Book Review, Jan-Feb, 2004 by Angela P. Dodson

Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way: Smokin' Joe Butter Beans, Ol' 'Fuskie Fried Crab Rice, Sticky-Bush Blackberry Dumpling, and Other Sea Island Favorites

by Sallie Ann Robinson, with Gregory Wrenn Smith, Foreword by Pat Conroy University of North Carolina Press, April 2003, $22.50, ASBN 0-807-82783-5

In 1969, a 23-year-old white teacher was assigned to desegregate the staff of two at a two-room grade school on one of the Sea Islands off South Carolina. This was Gullah country, the preserve of a people who have retained one of the least-diluted West African cultures and dialects still found in the New World. The teacher, Pat Conroy, became the much-acclaimed and much-rewarded author. He recalls that he was enthralled by his experience, appalled at the unequal facilities and dedicated to opening the children's eyes to the rest of the world. His superiors on the mainland repaid him by promptly firing him at the end of the year. He wrote about his experiences on a fictionalized "Yamacraw Island" in an autobiographical novel The Water Is Wide (Bantam Books, September 1994), later made into the movie Conrack (the students' nickname for him), which is frequently rerun on cable channels and available on videocassette.

One of his real-life students was Sallie Ann Robinson. She grew up on Daufuskie Island among what may be the last generation likely to experience the islands, as they must have been for centuries, before the nearby Hilton Head Island and other resorts brought tourists and change. When Conroy arrived 34 years ago, it was "one of the most beautiful and undiscovered places on earth," he writes in an introduction for the cookbook. Photographs by Gregory Wrenn Smith attest to the islands' charms.

Conroy endorses the culinary treasures. "My year on Daufuskie was one of the bestfed years of my overfed life ... I ate like a king in my one year on the island."

In the cookbook, Robinson, who now lives in Savannah, seeks to pass on not only the distinctive cuisine of the island people but their story as well, and the story of her hardworking parents and cherished childhood. The recipes take full advantage of the treasures of the sea and the abundant fresh vegetables and game of the rich, moist land. Many also incorporate the rice that the enslaved Gullah were especially "recruited" to cultivate, as they had in the motherland.

A word of warning: Many of the choices are not low fat, drawing heavily on ham hocks and pig tails for seasoning, for instance. But Robinson begins with a chapter of techniques for adapting the recipes for modern diets. Next is a chapter on the many distinctive salads of vegetables, fruits, nuts and often seafood that are part of the Gullah heritage and that provide balance. They include Islander Crab Salad and Momma's Shrimp and Tada Salad.

"Even as that blend of African and English is washing away like the shore, you can still have a taste of 'Fuskie in a forkful of Pop's Smuttered Muller or Sea Island Okra Gumbo,'" Robinson writes. "Food is life. And the way we lived, life was gathering, growing, and preparing food."

Celebrating Our Equality: A Cookbook With Recipes and Remembrances From Howard University

by Carolyn Quick Tillery. Citadel Press, November 2003, $24.95, ISBN 0-806-52508-8

In her third book on African American cooking, Tillery interweaves vignettes from Howard University's past with recipes spanning its history. Her previous books include: the African-American Heritage Cookbook: Traditional Recipes and Fond Remembrances From Alabama's Renowned Tuskegee Institute (Carol Publishing Group, April 1996) and Taste of Freedom: A Cookbook with Recipes and Remembrances From the Hampton Institute (Kensington Publishing, January 2002).

Sweets: A Collection of Soul Food Desserts and Memories

by Patty Pinner Ten Speed Press; November 2003 $24.95, ISBN 1-580-08521-0

Pinner, a trainer and development specialist who sometimes works in her family's restaurant, Ern's Seafood, in Saginaw, Michigan, reminisces and shares desserts from her childhood. It is a fine collection of recipes for cakes, fudges, pies and other confections with a midwestern/southern influence.

I Am What I Ate.... and I'm Frightened!!! And Other Digressions From the Doctor of Comedy

by Bill Cosby HarperEntertainment, October 2003 $19.95, ISBN 0-060-54573-9

Even taking a physical that does not turn out so well proves to be comedic inspiration for Bill Cosby.