Salt & Silver

I enjoyed this book. Not only did it feature beautiful pictures and great recipes but I enjoyed following the journey to each country.

A recipe book with a difference, or perhaps a travel book with an unconventional twist, it's hard to force Salt and Silver into a conventional genre box. However this works to the books adavantage because which ever genre you approach the book from be it cooking, travel or surfing: Salt and Silver delivers a unique fulfilling reading experience.

Personally I opened this book hoping for a good recipe book with clear instructions to help me perfect a new range of cuisines. I got what I wanted and much more. The beautifully detailed travel accounts were enough to fully transport me to exotic locations, with the compendium of exquisite photos as icing on the cake. However, I was not too surprised to be enticed by the travel guide aspect of this book. What did surprise me was that once I had finished I found myself wanting nothing more than to buy a surf board and emigrate to the other side of the world.

Rarely have I found a book that could balance three different topics as diverse as surfing, cooking and travel well. Salt and Silver provides an excellent structure and a natural flow between sections so the combination feels entirely natural. Despite starting off knowing absolutely nothing about surfing, the book was sufficiently exciting to ensure that I was gripped as much by the surfing as much as everything else.

If I have criticisms it would have to be regarding the recipes, some instructions are hard to follow especially for someone who does not frequently learn new recipes from books. I feel that this is problem I have had with several cooking books and probably the recipes will be easy to follow for more seasoned cooks.

In summary a book that will defy your expectations whether you love cooking, travelling or surfing. It works both as reference book and as a good leisurely read.

Salt & Silver is a book about the journey of two young men from Germany into findings Latin America's best waves and best recipes. It is a compilation of all the best stories and adventures they had through their trip.

The photography is gorgeous, there's lots of recipes of street food and surf guides. They got to enjoy places with wild animals where none of them were afraid of people. They go deeper than the usual tourist go to see. They visit often with locals and get to live authentic experience a rather than go on a mass-produced package.

"There are some damn good surf spots on San Cristobal. The most difficult and best wave is La Loberia. Loberia basically means "sea lion colony" and, like the name says, you share the waves with a herd of sea lions." Who awesome is that!!? They got to live ton of cool and some dangerous - less cool - adventures. They got some tattoos too during the trip from locals. I love the whole philosophy of the trip. The only thing that I did not like is that, as a vegetarian, I found some recipe too extreme. Recipes are locals and they eat different parts of animals as what we are use too in North America. But I just wished there would be more veggie recipe. Although they have interesting street food for non-veggie.

I got this book from Net Gallery for review, all opinions are my own.

Oh my, what a gorgeous cookbook. I loved following the adventures of Jo and Cozy as they travel across South America. I felt I was there with the amazing photos and descriptions. They were creative and clever they way the melded their travel, surfing, and food experiences for each place. I look forward to going through this cookbook again and trying some of the recipes. I also hope to see some of the beautiful sites and perhaps go surfing there! Thank you for the free copy.

Very well written cookbook/travelogue.

Two friends.
Surfer dudes.
One a photographer, the other a writer.
Both from Germany.

They embark on a year long, backpack surfing trip through Central and South America, catching the best waves, trying out local food for recipes and documenting their adventures for the book I am now holding in my hands.

So this is not the usual cookbook. Nor the usual traveler's guide. And neither the usual coffee table photobook. It is all of those into one!

Starting in Cuba, they travel to Mexico, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, to cross Panama into South-America following its spine through to Ecuador, Peru, and ending in Chile. At each stop they stay in hostels or apartments and try to live like the locals. Finding their way around, exploring the neighbourhoods, making friends, eating local cuisine, they are soon taken into the communities wherever they go.

The objective is to learn local cuisine by cooking the traditional recipes on their own, meaning these dishes could be recreated anywhere in the world. The food photography is (mostly) done during those cooking experiments, making use of whatever tools were at hand. The key is simplicity.

They also try out the hottest surf spots of several towns, and each country chapter ends with a surf guide. Neat summaries, including of other surfers, with drawn maps and accompanied by action photos of those waves.

As a whole this book is unique on its own. The photography is done well, the images are interesting and fit the gritty, adventurous and documentary style of the travelogue's. The concept is fresh and daring, whether you are a surfer, a kitchen prince/princess, or neither, this book will be enjoyed by anyone interested in travelogues. I can see this turned into a series where they visit other parts of the world. Highly recommended!

Review copy supplied by publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a rating and/or review.

When I saw 'Salt & Silver: Travel, Surf, Cook' by Johannes Riffelmacher and Thomas Kowalski, it seemed like something familiar and yet completely new: a travel book, a cook book, and a book about surfing. I requested it and I'm glad I did.

The cover says "Travel. Surf. Cook" and that's exactly what you get in this book. The two authors are from Germany and know a thing or two about surfing and cooking. They spent a good chunk of time traveling in Cuba and Central and South America and this book is about the journey. They got to know the locals and seemed to avoid the tourist places if possible. They did the trip fairly cheaply and ate and lived adventurously. They were chased by cops in Mexico as they got caught doing graffiti with a local team of artists, jumped off a dangerous cliff into a pool of water, and learned the wrong way to buy a car. They got tattoos along the way to remember the journey, but the people are experiences are what I'm sure they will always remember.

Included in the book are recipes as well as gps coordinates and short write ups for surf spots in the places they visit. The photography is gorgeous and I thoroughly enjoyed this mashup of food, travel and surfing. I'm so glad I took the time to read it.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.