The last sweet bite Stories and recipes of culinary heritage lost and found

War and power struggles continue to ravage religious and ethnic minorities worldwide, threatening to extinguish not only people but their food. Human rights investigator Shaikh builds a narrative based on years of work and meaningful conversations with those from a postcommunist Czech Republic, people of the Eelam Tamil diaspora, Rohingyas displaced in Bangladesh, Uyghurs, Bolivians looking to preserve coca, and the Indigenous Pueblo Nations people residing in New Mexico. The tales share overarching similarities in lives and food rituals threatened by colonization and greed, but it's the more personal stories that will draw readers in. The author assures Maryam, for instance, that her traditional Rohingya goru ghuso (beef curry) tastes incredible over her laments that "the ingredients aren't fresh. They're grown with pesticides here" in Bangladesh, unlike in Maryam's homeland of Myanmar. Shaikh's sources speak to the human spirit, encouraging persistence when hope is not in abundance. This is a heavy book, reminding readers of ongoing wars and displacement, peppered with distinctive recipes that lighten the load.

An examination of the role political violence plays in shaping culinary traditions around the world. The Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains thrived on a diet that included bison--until, that is, the U.S. Army opened the door to the extermination of the species and the loss of that long interaction. Today, as international human rights activist Shaikh writes, Native American chefs and food historians are working to restore some of those traditions, as with one Pueblo entrepreneur who follows the traditional view that "people arewithinandpartof their ecosystem, not separate from it." Food is often wielded as a weapon: Shaikh writes, for example, of the German right-wing Alternative für Deutschland party's campaign to promote alcohol and pork with an ad campaign showing baby pigs and the slogan, "Islam? It doesn't fit in with our cuisine." In Xinjiang, Han Chinese impose pig raising on the Muslim Uyghur population, knowing full well, as Shaikh writes, that "it's hard to exaggerate how much Uyghurs are repulsed by pigs." Not just a cultural shibboleth, food speaks to who holds power and who doesn't: As Shaikh writes of once-iconic Czech cuisine, when the Nazis arrived they feasted on meat, confining Czechs to "flour dumplings and thin, watery sauces." There, too, Czech traditionalists are doing much to restore a cuisine battered by the Nazi invaders' rule on the one hand and "decades of communist conformity" on the other. Shaikh travels the world to portray loss and recovery, documenting how Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are laboring to keep their food traditions from disappearing, how Czech farmers are rediscovering the virtues of "fresh Moravian asparagus, both the white and green varieties," and more--with the bonus of recipes from his interlocutors. A revealing inquiry at the intersection of food, culture, war, and power politics. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.