Yemisi Aribisala

An original collection of personal essays blending food writing and memoir, and exploring subjects ranging from the significance of Chers hors doeuvres in the film Mermaids, to the way in which food can become a language we use to communicate things that are too difficult to say, via a history of cookbooks that have their foundations in grieving and loss, and one writers experience of the six kitchens shes made her own over the years.Funny, astute and thought provoking, In the Kitchen explores the importance of food in and out of the kitchen.

"One of the most enduring myths on the Nigerian Femme Fatale - mammy-water, 'winch' or husband-snatcher - has to do with the cooking of fish stew ...A woman can do what she likes with a man when she knows how to satisfy his appetite for food."Longthroat Memoirs presents a sumptuous menu of essays about Nigerian food, lovingly presented by the nation's top epicurean writer. As well as a mouth-watering appraisal of the cultural politics and erotics of Nigerian cuisine, it is also a series of love letters to the Nigerian palate. From innovations in soup, fish as aphrodisiac and the powerful seductions of the yam, Longthroat Memoirs examines the complexities, the peculiarities, the meticulousness, and the tactility of Nigerian food. Nigeria has a strong culture of oral storytelling, of myth creation, of imaginative traversing of worlds. Longthroat Memoirs collates some of those stories into an irresistible soup-pot, expressed in the flawless love language of appetite and nourishment.A sensuous testament on why, when and how Nigerians eat the food they love to eat; this book is a welcome addition to the global dining table of ideas