The PERFECT gift for the kid in your life: The Search for Streya. Local writer and winner of two travel writer awards from the Caribbean Tourism Organization, Tina Causey-Bislick, and local visual artist and illustrator Vanessa Paulina, whose work has been featured in exhibitions throughout the Caribbean, the United States, South America, Europe, and Africa, have teamed up to produce a locally-inspired children’s book titled “The Search for Streya.”
The colorfully illustrated book follows Jasmira and her younger brother, Joey, who are on a quest to finally get their first glimpse of Streya, the mystical sea turtle that their grandfather rescued from a fishing net many years ago. This sea turtle, with a peculiar star pattern on her shell, returns to the beach on the Caribbean island of Aruba that she was born on to lay her eggs during nesting season. Will this be the year they finally see her or will their search for Streya steer them into dangerous waters?
This will be your kid’s favorite bedtime story.
The Search for Streya, for sale at T.H. Palm & Company, at Playa Linda Beach Resort, street-side.
Aruba’s Papiamento Cuisine: New Caribbean Cooking Celebrating its Creole Roots and Multicultural Flavors (Panamericana, Bogota, Colombia, October 2023 $40.00 US), written by award-winning cookbook author Aliza Green, is both a love letter and an introduction to Aruba. Green will take you on a dynamic journey through the island to discover a cuisine infused with vibrant Caribbean creole ingredients and techniques with international flair.
Local food artisans, creative farmers, fishermen, bakers, distillers, and restaurateurs share their stories and heritage in this book written in close collaboration with Chef Urvin Croes, of Infini and Po-ké Ono, and Franz Sydow, partner in the new Bodegas Papiamento Rum distillery. It’s not surprising that food in Aruba is incredibly diverse when talented and creative chefs can draw on multiple culinary traditions to create a true fusion cuisine. Look for local Aruban, Indonesian, Peruvian, Nikkei (Japanese-Peruvian), Dutch, Trinidadian, Spanish, Venezuelan, Jamaican and African influences.
The island’s top chefs and legendary home cooks and mixologists have shared over 120 recipes that vary from home style to elaborate and traditional to modernist. This book with over 100 beautiful photos will immerse you in Aruban culture and cuisine while dual metric and US measurements makes the book accessible to visitors and locals alike.
You can find the cookbooks at the following locations:
Oak Restaurant, Lima Bistro, Azar Restaurant, Infini, Poke Ono, Papiamento restaurant, Giannis, Yemanja, Quinta del Carmen, Kamini’s Kitchen, Oniel’s Caribbean Cuisine, Plaza Bookshop, the Juggling Fish, De Wit stores.
Island Life, Rona Coster, celebrates three decades as a columnist with a unique book. Island Life, Aruba’s Best-Kept Diary, is a selection of columns written by Rona Coster between 1992 and 2004. The book, a very attractive 200-page hard cover with the look and feel of a diary, marks Rona Coster’s three-decade anniversary as a columnist on the island. The book is edited and published by Karin Swiers.
The book offers a peek into the island’s development years, preserving valuable information about a changing island life over the decades, and recognizing movers and shakers who helped build and strengthen Aruba’s economy. Aruba’s visitors will find the book interesting, learning about the island’s traditions, history and how we got to where we are, as one of the Caribbean’s most successful vacation destination.
Island Life, Aruba’s Best-Kept Diary, for sale at T.H. Palm & Company at Playa Linda Beach Resort, street-side.
