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riverheadbooks · 4 years
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Riverhead Table: VERGE Edition
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Earlier this month award-winning author Lidia Yuknavitch could be found in a restaurant basement kitchen, seasoning steak and mashing potatoes. Riverhead Table served dishes inspired by Lidia’s “extraordinary” (Kira Wizner, Merritt Bookstore) and “gutsy” (Kirkus Reviews) forthcoming story collection, VERGE, to journalists, writers and fans at Emma’s Torch, an incredible restaurant and cooking school for refugees in Brooklyn.
We designed our menu to reflect three specific themes from the collection: water, earth and flesh. We feasted on grilled shrimp and cheesy Cepelinai – a nod to Lidia’s Lithuanian background – made from scratch by Lidia; we drank wine flown in from the Oregon Wine Country, curated by our friends at the Willamette Valley Wineries; and we all listened hungrily as Lidia divulged the secrets behind the characters in her stories in a conversation with author and friend Melissa Febos.
We hope you’ll put together your own VERGE dinner party at home! Check out the recipes we used below, along with some photos from the evening. Special thanks once again to Emma’s Torch and Willamette Valley Wineries for partnering with us for this event.
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Grilled Shrimp with Oregano and Lemon
This is a super easy dish to make for a crowd. We couldn’t manage to find metal skewers, and we were a bit too nervous to use bamboo skewers over the restaurant’s high-power stove, so we decided to use a good ol’ nonstick skillet and sauté them, just about a minute on each side. Shrimp cook quickly so they really don’t need to stay on the pan for too long!
Lithuanian Cepelinai: Potato and Cheese Dumplings with Vegetarian Gravy
This dish was a challenge. After many demos we simply could not boil the dumplings without them completely disintegrating in the pot! Our last resort method of pan-frying each tennis ball-sized dumpling turned out to be our saving grace. So when you’re trying this at home you can follow the recipe exactly as written until you reach the part where you’re supposed to throw the dumplings into the water—instead whip out a nonstick skillet, add a teaspoon or two of olive oil and pan-fry each side until golden brown. They should look like oversized gnocchi in the end! Top with gravy and enjoy.
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Skirt Steak with Chimichurri
This dish was a big hit! It’s tender, flavorful, and kind of pretty to look at. And it’s a great way to serve steak to a whole bunch of people at once.
Roasted Eggplant with Za'atar
Because we had several other hardy dishes on the menu we knew that not everyone would want an entire half of an eggplant for themselves. We decided instead to cut the eggplant into cube, which allowed people to scoop as much or as little as they wanted on their plate. There are a ton of different ways to dress the dish so we went with farro and seasonal tomatoes, with a yogurt sauce on the side for drizzling.
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Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Some people say brussels sprouts are so over, but thank goodness we don’t know any of those folks! This is always a popular option to serve as a vegetable side, and it served us well at Lidia’s dinner.
Fresh Herb Fruit Salad with Honey and Lime
This was a simple, fresh dessert to end a big meal. It’s also easy to make in batches for a lot of people!
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riverheadbooks · 5 years
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Francisco Cantu wins LA Times Book Prize for Current Interest with his debut, THE LINE BECOMES A RIVER! 🎉🎉🎉
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Read the full list of winners here!
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riverheadbooks · 5 years
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🚨 New Jacqueline Woodson cover!! 🚨
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riverheadbooks · 5 years
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Marlon James is officially one of this year’s TIME100!!  “Marlon is a writer who must be read,” says Salman Rushdie 
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riverheadbooks · 5 years
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Riverhead Table: BLACK LEOPARD RED WOLF by Marlon James
Marlon James proved himself to be quite a master chef last time he hosted the Riverhead Table for his Man-Booker Prize-winning novel: A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS. So when we read his latest novel—the instant New York Times bestseller BLACK LEOPARD RED WOLF—we knew that we would have to invite him back to #RiverheadTable.
And as you’ve probably noticed, Marlon’s been on the road a lot for this book. Some highlights include chatting with Seth Meyers, sharing a meal with Michael B. Jordan (who is by the way taking on the challenge of adapting this genre-blurring novel into a movie!), giving the J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture at Oxford, and talking to George R.R. Martin about fantasy. Despite his crazy schedule, Marlon capped his food-filled weekend on Grub Street Diet by pairing up with the award-winning chef, Evan Hanczor, and treating us with a ten-course dinner as epic as the book.
Epic meals require epic collaborations, and this time, we teamed up with Chef Evan’s Tables of Contents and Food Book Fair, and the sold-out dinner was hosted at Chef Evan’s Egg Restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The evening was a feast for all five senses from the moment diners walked in: a playlist co-curated by Marlon and Raia Was played in the background, burning custom candles filled the space with fragrances inspired by the book (courtesy of Tanwi Nandini Islam, author and founder of fragrance company HiWildflower), the beautiful cover art served as the visual motif, tying together everything from cocktail napkins to name cards,
and of course—the food! Each course was appropriately accompanied by a bookmark detailing the passage from the book that inspired the dish, which included:
Dates, spiced nuts, and cured pig from La Quercia in medieval pouches
Spicy bone-broth soup, beer from Brooklyn Brewery, and palm wine
Crispy chicken skin, sorghum bread with butter and fat with soft-boiled egg
Blood sausage topped with cream and berries
Textures and shades of green
Lemongrass, fish, and blood
Goat tartare—yes, you read that right!
Crocodile and ugali porridge
Charred antelope
Goat curry—Drew Broussard can attest that it was a big hit of the night!
Millet porridge with extra honey
All of these served with specialty cocktails provided by Forthave Spirits
As the courses wound down, Chef Evan and Marlon shared some food for thought with diners, touching on topics ranging from their creative process in the kitchen and on the page, literary allergies, food imageries in the novel, cultural appropriation, and much more. The perfect evening rounded out with Marlon sipping on coffee and signing books, (sold at the event by McNally Jackson Books), and guests were sent home with an enviable gift bag containing: BLACK LEOPARD RED WOLF enamel pins, BLACK LEOPARD RED WOLF-inspired custom-made candles, and a bag of Egg Restaurant’s famous granola.
BLACK LEOPARD RED WOLF is, fortunately, a trilogy—meaning that we can look forward to at least two more epic Riverhead Tables in the near future. A huge special thank you to everyone who made this night possible!
Chefs from Brownsville Community Culinary Center, who helped Evan and his team in the kitchen
Author Wayetu Moore’s nonprofit, One Moore Book, that publishes culturally sensitive and education stories for children of countries with low literacy rates and underrepresented cultures; proceeds from tickets went toward this amazing nonprofit
Volunteers from Riverhead:
Glory, the mastermind, the architect behind all the Riverhead Tables
Claire and May-Zhee, who were on their feet all night serving food and pouring drinks
Kevin and Helen, who greeted guests warmly at the door
Brooke, who captured the event beautifully in photos
Here are some pictures from the night, and the rest can be found here!
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riverheadbooks · 5 years
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3 Riverhead Authors Nominated for the Man Booker International Prize Longlist!!!
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The finalists and winners will be announced April 9th and May 21st, respectfully. Read the full list here!
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riverheadbooks · 5 years
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Today's the day! BANGKOK WAKES TO RAIN, the debut novel by Pitchaya Sudbanthad has arrived! Hear about "the simultaneous coexistence of both the ancient and magical and the new and technological" as he speaks with NPR’s Scott Simonson, here.
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riverheadbooks · 5 years
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"Under a tree, like at my grandmother’s, is a preferred spot to set up a spirit house. Even spirits need shelter from Bangkok’s harsh rain and sun.”Check out Pitchaya Sudbanthad’s piece, "Spirit Houses” on Newsweek.com. And don’t forget that BANGKOK WAKES TO RAIN comes out on TOMORROW, 2/19!
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riverheadbooks · 5 years
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“I am devouring Priya Parkers The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters,” says The New York Times’ Sam Sifton "You will do the same, I think.”
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riverheadbooks · 5 years
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Long weekend, short book!  😎
You’ve got three days, why not spend one of them with THE FRIEND by Sigrid Nunez? Its the National Book Award Winner for Fiction and is also a New York Times Bestseller in paperback! 
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riverheadbooks · 5 years
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All the Valentine’s Day plans we need. Big love and hugs to each and every one of our readers 💗💕💞💓💘💖
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riverheadbooks · 5 years
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"A delirious smoothie of cultural influences and tributes, from Kurosawa films to superhero comics to the seminal work of the 1930s Nigerian writer D.O. Fagunwa." Slate.com on Marlon James' BLACK LEOPARD, RED WOLF! 
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riverheadbooks · 5 years
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⏰ ☔️ Less than a week until Pitchaya Sudbanthad’s debut novel, BANGKOK WAKES TO RAIN, is here! To tide you over until next Tuesday, February 19, here is an excerpt of this “ rich, complex and highly rewarding” book, up now on Hyphen.  📗
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riverheadbooks · 5 years
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On yesterday's Morning Joe our New York Times bestselling author David Treuer talked about what motivated him to write THE HEARTBEAT OF WOUNDED KNEE.
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riverheadbooks · 5 years
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IS IT SEPTEMBER YET?! Randall Munroe’s book is coming this fall and we can’t wait to figure out HOW TO get our hands on it!
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riverheadbooks · 5 years
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🎬  📢 HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT! 🎬  📢
Michael B Jordan and Warner Bros. Entertainment have acquired the rights to BLACK LEOPARD, RED WOLF by Marlon James! Read more: http://thr.cm/ldWs1Z 
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riverheadbooks · 5 years
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🥂 The Riverhead Holiday Party is almost here! 🥂
Join us Tuesday, December 11 at Littlefield to raise a glass to this year's great literature, enjoy cookies baked by some of your fave authors, and win raffle prizes from MM. LaFleur, Aftelier Perfume, Yes Way Rose, & more!
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