December/January Seletion: Land of Milk and Honey

Can you believe it, Mid Winter already, with Christmas fast approaching!  I picked this novel, Land of Milk and Honey, by C Pam Zhang, as our next selection for Cook the Books Club, without having read it, which, amounts to a disclaimer, just so you know.  From the reviews it sounded so very intriguing. They were all overwhelmingly raves!  

Just to illustrate: 

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
Finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR, HARPER'S BAZAAR, TOWN & COUNTRY, KIRKUS REVIEWS, ESQUIRE, ELECTRIC LITERATURE, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN AND MORE! 

I will leave you all to make up your own minds and am looking forward to hearing your discussions about the novel, and what recipes you come up with, as there were a ton of food references here.  Basically a Sci-Fi, dystopian look at life on planet earth after an overwhelming global catastrophe!

From the Publisher's Weekly: Zhang's exquisite and seductive second novel (after How Much of These Hills Is Gold) centers on an unnamed chef, 29, who is trying to survive in the wake of an environmental catastrophe that wreaked havoc on the earth's biodiversity. Raised in Los Angeles by a single immigrant mother, the chef chased complex flavors and busy kitchens since she was 19. But when the disaster decimated kitchen ingredients and shuttered borders, she was left cooking with years-old fish and bioengineered flour: "Chef had lost its meaning... like fresh." In a desperate attempt to change her surroundings, she takes a head chef position at a secretive food research community on the mountainous Italian-French border, which holds a surprising storeroom with the world's last strawberries, Parmigiano, and boar meat. Her transition to cooking for investors she cannot meet is difficult--she has no access to the outside world and she can't stomach the rich food. But she becomes preoccupied with Aida, the boss's mischievous 20-year-old daughter, who shows up to test her cooking. Aida and her father see their facility as the planet's last hope, and the chef soon learns that her role extends beyond food to enabling a world that caters to their ambition. Wrestling with her desire for both excitement and stability, the chef must squash the inner voice that asks, "Hadn't I meant to feed anyone else?" ...

The deadline for posting your thoughts and inspired recipes will be Friday, January 31st, 2025.  If you are new to the game, and have questions, check out our Guidelines  page here.  I hope you'll read the book and join in.  Basically what we do is read the current book, then make a food preparation inspired by it, and post to your blog.  Leave a comment below with your post link.  Open to all! 

Aloha,

Claudia

Honey from Rock