A Cruising, Cooking and Recipe Memoir
by Jackie Holt
Jackie shares food reminiscences, recipes and travel memoirs about her nine year sojourn through 25 countries, over 25,000 miles.
The book describes her travels, from a food perspective, through Mexico, Central and South America, the South Pacific, Australia and South East Asia.
All of the recipes were prepared and perfected in the galley of her 34' sailboat Aeolus XC, a Bénéteau Oceanis 350. Although this book is a valuable addition to any galley chef's library, the recipes are equally suitable in a domestic kitchen.
109 pages.
Listen to Jackie's interview on CBC Radio, with images from the voyage 
Jackie Holt’s Recipes From The Squiggly Line results from nine year's sailing between Vancouver Island and Thailand. Food was an important part of her adventure: new cuisines, strange ingredients and new ways of preparing meals. The book captures those extremes with recipe selections. As well, Jackie’s personal anecdotes allow the reader to savour the moment through her recollections and 85 captioned photographs ranging from Aztec Pyramids of Mexico to Khmer temples of Cambodia.
Sharing ocean and inland travels with Malcolm, her husband, between the summers of 1998 and 2007, Jackie encountered natural beauty, natural disasters, personal disasters, rescues and reunions. These are recalled in the first part of the book. In turn, they are expanded in the introduction to each of the recipes.
As well, the book contains a whimsical, yet accurate, string of place names based on the ship’s log and Jackie’s travel diary – allowing the reader to retrace every point of the 25,000 mile adventure.
Each of the recipes included in her memoir can be prepared in a galley under all but the worst sailing conditions, so the book is a “must” for any sailor. Equally important, the recipes and anecdotes deserve a place in any domestic kitchen where the chef (or would-be sailor) yearns for the diversity, freedom and improvisation that typifies the cruising life.
Recipes From The Squiggly Line makes a practical present for any sailor, or chef who dreams of exotic locations and distant lands.
"My hope is that you might share them with me - without needing the sailboat and rigours that made the squiggly line possible. Enjoy!"
Jackie Holt
