How to Cook a Crocodile: A Memoir with Recipes

by Bonnie Lee Black, Martha Cooper (Photographer), Barbara Scott (Designer)

Casting caution to the wind at the age of fifty, New York caterer and food writer Bonnie Lee Black decided to close her catering business and join the Peace Corps. Posted to the tiny town of Lastoursville in the thickly rainforested interior of Gabon, Central Africa, Bonnie taught health, nutrition, and cooking, in French, primarily to local African women and children. In the two years she served in Gabon, Bonnie developed her own healthy recipe for a purposeful life, made in equal measures of good food, safe shelter, meaningful work, and unexpected love. Like M.F.K. Fisher's classic, World War II-era book, How to Cook a Wolf, Bonnie's true stories comprise a lively, literary, present-day survival guide.

Genres: Travel, Africa, Nonfiction

448 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 2010

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book resonated with me [having had an african experience too.] bonnie tells us her two year experience as a woman in her fifties who joined the peace corps and lived in a rural town in gabon, west africa in the late 1990's. straight from the heart and honest bonnie black was not trying to make a smart book and that is why it works. i would recommend this to anyone who seeks to re-invent their lives.

[Monica Tomazic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bonnie is so inspirational and relatable. Wanting to do good and finding ways to get involved should not be beyond any of us. I felt like I was sitting across from her having coffee as I read this book. It was such a delight.

[WhizKid · Rating 1 out of 5]

I skimmed through 435 pages.

This memoir with recipes is published by the PC Writers; http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/

The Contents
Part I: Food and Shelter
Part II: Work and Love

Ms.Bonnie Black served as a PC volunteer in Gabon, Central Africa as a health and nutritionist.
She stopped her New York caterer and food writer job, and join the 'toughest job you'll ever love' program at the age of 50. She taught health, nutrition, cooking in French.
*Like M.F.K. Fisher's classic WWII-era book, How to Cook a Wolf

Women were dressed colorfully like exotic birds...counted 30 different head-wrap styles, and I marveled: How do they do that? They spoke to me of the women's pride, their timeless beauty, their individualism, and defiance."Look at me! Aren't I beautiful? There is no one else on earth like me! After God made me, He threw away the mold! Dieu merci!"

How to Cook Crocodiles stories is when she introduced her concept of starting a cooking school to Madame Nimba who cooked the Crocodile soup for her. Madame Nimba's own grief tore the bandages off of the author losing her own child in less dramatic way. "Cooking is healing. Cooking is life. No more grief. You've cried enough!"

Her unexpected love was Youssef who is 20 years younger than she was.
Every day, his first words as he reached out to her, I love you very much, darling
Every morning she would rise before dawn, before he woke, to have tea alone in her study and face the front louvered windows and watch the sun rise hazily over the distant, forested mountains on the other side of the river. She would PRAY,think, write, study French and count her blessings. In this solitude, for an hour or two, she would listen to the myriad birds in the enormous palm tree off to the left sing their morning songs, and her heart would soar. How could I be so lucky?

Our lovemaking was like good food and it was deliciously free of encumbrances, such as guilt or accoutrements. It was natural as breathing.

"I admire your character and stability"
I'd finally met a man who saw beneath my thin white skin.
Beauty

It seems I am for him
a calm and solid island
set in a tumultuous sea
This for him
for now at least
is Beauty

Listening to Youssef so intently, I improved my French comprehension, I learned more about Africa than I had ever dreamed, and I discovered as though for the first time in my life that listening like this-without questioning, debating, or interrupting is indeed an act of love.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a RPCV from Mali around the same time that Ms. Black was in Gabon, I enjoyed reading this memoir. La nostalgie d’Afrique - the insects, the heat, the language and cultural barriers, the illness, the unreliable public transport, the absence of time, the meals, the friendships. After reading ‘Somewhere Child’ and ‘How to Cook a Crocodile’, I’m eager to read Ms. Black’s subsequent book about her experiences in Mali (my PC country).

[Crispin Reedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was part of my Peace Corps book club reading. Overall, I enjoyed the book but I felt like it had some flaws.

Pluses:
- Good writing style
- Recipes make a great addition!
- I enjoyed the contrast between the author's background in culinary arts and her life in Africa. I could have heard more about that.
- Her "family" in Gabon are all well-depicted and the scenes are well drawn. On many occasions I was reminded of my own Peace Corps service. I enjoyed the descriptions of the day to day work, the climate, her house, and the food. She is really a bit of a "Martha Stewart" of the Peace Corps world and it was lovely to read about her experiences.

Minuses:
- There was a lot of allusion to some previous backstory in Africa which honestly I found confusing. I understand that this is a memoir and the author may not have wished to get into it too deeply, but I felt the author should have either left that out entirely or gone into more detail.
- The afterword was completely missing! I have no idea what happened to the author next! This is very unfair. Obviously she doesn't owe us her entire life but a few lines would have been nice!