Coconuts & Collards (Von Diaz)

When her family moved from Puerto Rico to Atlanta, Von Diaz traded plantains, roast pork, and malta for grits, fried chicken, and sweet tea. Brimming with humor and nostalgia, Coconuts and Collards is a reci­pe-packed memoir of growing up Latina in the Deep South. The stories center on the women in Diaz’s family who have used food to nour­ish and care for one another. When her mother—newly single and with two young daughters—took a second job to make ends meet, Diaz taught herself to cook, preparing meals for her sister after school, feeding her mother when she came home late from work. During summer visits to Puerto Rico, her grandmother guided her rediscovery of the island’s flavors and showed her traditional cooking techniques. Years later the island called her back to its warm and tropical em­brace to be comforted by its familiar flavors. Inspired by her grandmother’s 1962 copy of Cocina Criolla—the Puerto Rican equiv­alent of the Joy of Cooking—Coconuts and Collards celebr