If I Can Cook/You Know God Can

the long version

Ntozake Shange offers this eclectic tribute to black cuisine as a true food of life, one that reflects the tenacious spirit and powerful history of a people. With recipes that include everything from Cousin Eddie's Shark with Breadfruit to Collard Greens to Bring You Money, Shange instructs us in the nuances of a cuisine born on the slave ships of the Middle Passage, spiced by the jazz of Duke Ellington, and shared by all members of the African Diaspora. From the flyin' fish controversy (yes, that's right, flyin' fish) between Trinidad and Tobago, to a union of spirits in the once-divided nation of Nicaragua, we enter a world where adaptation and experimentation are a matter of course, where history and pain have forged nations, but food has founded culture.