Exotic Soul Kitchen Cookbook      Being from North Carolina, I love traditional southern cooking and the family rituals surrounding those food preparations. I used to spend fascinating summers at my Aunt Ora’s farm watching, helping, but mostly eating in her spacious country kitchen. She made everything from scratch: fresh milk—straight from Ole Bessie; butter churned by hand; milled flour for breads; smokehouse cured hams; garden grown, fresh and canned fruits and vegetables; plucked chickens. The only thing she did not raise was sugar cane, so molasses was a special treat, which she let me eat on hot buttered biscuits to my heart’s content. That kitchen elicits some of my fondest memories of childhood.      During my travels and living throughout the South Pacific and Pacific Rim, I noted some of the same attention to food preparation rituals by the Polynesian and Melanesian Island cooks. I became very interested in the foods and dishes prepared using mostly native plants, seasonings and of course the fresh fish. Also, I became concerned that these dishes might be lost or forgotten, when I could not find them in recipe books.      This cookbook contains some of the fantastic recipes and foods that I experienced as a child in the Rural South but most of them are from my time in the South Pacific. However, as you will see, the Pacific Rim recipes are somewhat reminiscent of the Rural South.      The recipes are different and adventurous. If you’re looking for the exotic, yet down-to-earth soulful, enjoy! Ingrid Landis-Davis Check out a couple of sample recipes!