Stringer Promotes "Green" Cookbook

“Go Green” apparently doesn’t have the same ring as “Go Giants.” Only 15 people showed up for Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s Monday night book signing of a new East Harlem health cookbook, and most in attendance were involved in the book’s creation.

“Thank you for carrying this best-selling cookbook that’s the rage around the country,” said Stringer, who is listed as editor of the Go Green East Harlem Cookbook, to the woman who introduced him at host venue Hue-Man Bookstore & Cafe. “Well, we’re trying to make it the rage around the country. It’s certainly the rage around Harlem.”

The book, which is available in both English and Spanish, is a compilation of healthy recipes from East Harlem restaurants and residents.

“We went to the restaurants and said, give us a recipe,” Stringer said. “Could be from whatever culture your restaurant is—African, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Italian—give us a recipe.”

As part of Stringer’s “Go Green” initiative, which also includes plans for an asthma center and increased numbers of trees, the book aims to improve health and nutrition in an area known more for its soul food than its salads.

“My mom would ask me to go to the store and get things for a salad, and I knew I was getting tomatoes in a cellophane wrapper, cucumbers covered in wax, and iceberg lettuce,” said lifelong Harlemite Kysha Harris, food curator for the cooking consultant firm Schop! and a contributor to the cookbook. “I knew that wasn’t enough for me.”

Stringer, who has been the target of criticism from some Harlem residents over his support of Columbia’s expansion plan, described the “Go Green” initiative as an attempt to contribute to an area that he said has been “subjected to decades of environmental racism.”

While the book is selling for $17.95 in stores and online, it is not being printed for profit.

“We have committed to giving out thousands of [copies of] this book for free,” said Stringer, who described plans to give copies away at a building complex in the area after the signing. About half of the 8,000-book run, he said, will be donated to
low-income residents.

But it’s unclear if Monday night’s turnout represents of the overall response to the cookbook.

“I wish there was more participation,” said contributor Leah Abraham, owner of the Settepani Bakery, of the signing. But Abraham added that she sees the project beginning to take hold. “It’s at the right time and it’s in the right community,” she said.

A sideline benefit of the book, Stringer said, might lie in new clients for the restaurants featured—perhaps to the detriment of the health initiative.

“Skylines change and so do waistlines,” Stringer said, describing a pastry he ate recently at the contributing Harlem Tea Room. “These East Harlem restaurants—you’ll be wanting more.”

mary.kohlmann@columbiaspectator.com