The Perfect Read this Week - Brown Girls
Brown Girls by Daphne Palasi Andreades illustrates a collective portrait of childhood, adulthood, and beyond, and is a striking exploration of female friendship.
It’s not altogether clear where the family of the narrator of Daphne Palasi Andreades’s debut novel, Brown Girls originally comes from — and that’s very much part of the point. In this particular place and time — modern-day Queens — there is a unity, a plurality, and a cohesion that results from being, definitively without detail, a young woman of color.
Whether this borough is a stone’s throw or light years from where we the readers are, Daphne evokes a feeling of inclusion in her writing, and suddenly we are traipsing through high school and beyond with this amorphous collective of females. As quickly as we are swept along, and as quickly as the writer’s whisper turns to something more urgent, we are done, having read the novel’s last words. What we’re left with is the certainty that we understand a little more fully the expanding breadth of the female experience.
Brown Girls
by Daphne Palasi Andreades
Welcome to Queens, New York, where streets echo with languages from all over the globe, subways rumble above dollar stores, trees bloom and topple over sidewalks, and the funky scent of the Atlantic Ocean wafts in from Rockaway Beach. Within one of New York City's most vibrant and eclectic boroughs, young women of color like Nadira, Gabby, Naz, Trish, Angelique, and countless others, attempt to reconcile their immigrant backgrounds with the American culture in which they come of age. Here, they become friends for life--or so they vow.
Exuberant and wild, together they roam The City That Never Sleeps, sing Mariah Carey at the tops of their lungs, yearn for crushes who pay them no mind--and break the hearts of those who do--all while trying to heed their mothers' commands to be obedient daughters. But as they age, their paths diverge and rifts form between them, as some choose to remain on familiar streets, while others find themselves ascending in the world, beckoned by existences foreign and seemingly at odds with their humble roots.
A blazingly original debut novel told by a chorus of unforgettable voices, Brown Girls illustrates a collective portrait of childhood, adulthood, and beyond, and is a striking exploration of female friendship, a powerful depiction of women of color attempting to forge their place in the world today. For even as the conflicting desires of ambition and loyalty, freedom and commitment, adventure and stability risk dividing them, it is to one another--and to Queens--that the girls ultimately return.
Enjoy these perfect pairings while you read Brown Girls.
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White Wine Pairing | Red Wine Pairing |
As girlhood makes way for womanhood, the collective at the heart of this novel bring wine into the mix more frequently. Often, it’s Sancerre. This particular bottle from the Loire Valley, Henri Bourgeois Sancerre Les Baronnes Blanc, is absolutely lovely. | For something that's quite friendly with this weeks recipe, give this En Coteaux Pinot Noir a try. Its cherry-forward fruitiness is balanced by a medium body and just a touch of spice. |
Arroz Chino Boricua From Diasporican by Illyanna MaisonetThe perfect recipe for this week’s pick is one that would cross cultural parameters, blurring the lines a little while offering a rich, flavorful, surprising experience. We found it with Illyanna Maisonet’s Arroz Chino Boricua from her cookbook Diasporican: A Puerto Rican Cookbook. It’s also something we can easily imagine ordering hot from a streetside food cart. Dig in! |
INGREDIENTS
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DirectionsStep 1 Add the canola oil to a sauté pan and place over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until translucent. Add the jamonilla and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes, or until browned, then stir to mix well.
Step 2 Add the shrimp to the pan and sauté for 1 to 2 minutes, or until just pink, then add the scallions and sofrito and mix to combine. Add the eggs, let settle for 1 minute, and then scramble the min the pan for a bout 3 minutes. Add the rice, stir in the soy sauce, and keep the mixture moving for 5 to 7minutes, or until the shrimp are thoroughly cooked.
Step 3 Flip the scallops and press down again with the spatula to ensure as much surface contact as possible. Cook for 45 seconds to 1-1/2 minutes, depending on the thickness of the scallops. When the second sides are golden brown, remove the pan from the heat. The whole process should take 2 to 3 minutes. When you cut into a scallop, it should not be cooked all the way through; the middle third should still be translucent.
Step 4 Serve the rice hot! |
Reprinted with permission from Diasporican: A Puerto Rican Cookbook by Illyanna Maisonet copyright © 2022. Puerto Rico location photographs by Erika P. Rodriguez. California location and food photographs copyright © 2022 by Dan Liberti. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. |
Diasporican: A Puerto Rican Cookbook
by Illyanna Maisonet - Michael W Twitty - Dan Liberti - Erika P Rodriguez
Illyanna Maisonet spent years documenting her family's Puerto Rican recipes and preserving the island's disappearing foodways through rigorous, often bilingual research. In Diasporican, she shares over 90 recipes, some of which were passed down from her grandmother and mother--classics such as Tostones, Pernil, and Arroz con Gandules, as well as Pinchos with BBQ Guava Sauce, Rabbit Fricassee with Chayote, and Flan de Queso.
In this visual record of Puerto Rican food, ingredients, and techniques, Illyanna traces the island's flavor traditions to the Taino, Spanish, African, and even United States' cultures that created it. These dishes, shaped by geography, immigration, and colonization, reflect the ingenuity and diversity of their people. Filled with travel and food photography, Diasporican reveals how food connects us to family, history, conflict, and migration.
Daphne Palasi Andreades, author of Brown Girls, transports us to the Queens setting of her novel with a curated playlist!
There’s nothing like music to truly transport a person. Tune into Daphne’s inspired and inspiring playlist to drop on into this particular moment in her novel. The songs herein are nearly as lyrical as her writing.