January 21–28, 1999

food|sidedish

Coco Loco

by Janet Ruth Falon

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A health food-y friend once told me that when I crave chocolate, it's because my body needs magnesium, which I can find in great quantities in raw rice bran, pumpkin seeds, tofu and halibut. To which I say, bah and humbug, and while I'm snarfing gooey Toll House cookies and truffles, leave me in peace to devour All About Chocolate: The Ultimate Resource for the World's Favorite Food, by Carole Bloom (Macmillan, $17.95). This book is an ultra-comprehensive compendium of all things chocolate, interspersed with 25 of the author's favorite "to live for" chocolate recipes. There's a chocolate lexicon ("cacao mothers," for instance, are tall trees grown next to cacao trees to shade them from the sun); a chronology of chocolate history (1502: Chris Columbus tries, but is not impressed by, a primitive Mexican hot chocolate); a section on chocolate and health (yep, chocolate contains phenylethylamine, a chemical our brain releases when we're in love); and an amazing list of chocolate festivals, events and trade shows to plan your vacations around. There's even a list of chocolate sites on the Web, and fun facts. My only reservation: This should have been a scratch-and-sniff book.

If you've overindulged on chocolate and want to get back on track, Hot Vegetables, by Hugh Carpenter and Teri Sandison (Ten Speed Press, $17.95), provides terrific alternatives to my usual guilt-provoked side dish, steamed broccoli—and with only 50 recipes it's not overwhelming like so many other cookbooks. The bulk of the book is dedicated to an inclusive A-to-Z of vegetables and suggestions for taking advantage of each one's idiosyncratic pleasures. Also of note: the thorough list of some exotic Asian vegetables; a list of chiles and their relative heat ratings (Red Fresno rates a 6.5, Poblano, a 3); and a section about root vegetables, those underground treasures that always feel right as we hibernate away the winter. Even if you can't stand vegetables, you'll appreciate the gorgeous and amazingly sensual veggie photos; at the very least, buy the book, rip off its cover and frame it. And how can you not love a book that's dedicated, "All blessings to our mother earth"?