Dalia Colón (R) and Annabelle Tometich (L) pose with each other’s books. Credit: Florida Humanites

Florida food was the center of attention last Wednesday in downtown St. Pete, when two Florida-based food writers talked about their respective books during “A Feast for the Imagination.”

Host of WUSF podcast “The Zest” and “The Florida Vegetarian Cookbook” author Dalia Colón sat down with award-winning writer Annabelle Tometich about her debut book “The Mango Tree.”

Both works were among Creative Loafing Tampa Bay’s favorite new Florida books of 2024.

Our favorite new Florida books of 2024

The two food media veterans mostly talked about the ins-and-outs of Tometich’s memoir—which the New York Times called “sweet and sharp”—her childhood in Fort Myers and the nearly-two decade run as a restaurant critic, giving the audience a closer look into the creative and emotional process behind writing one’s memoir.

Guests sipped on wine and enjoyed mango-based recipes from Colón’s debut cookbook, courtesy of local vegan restaurant Good Intentions.

The timely book talk happened in the middle of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, as Tometich’s memoir delves into themes of being a mixed Filipino and first generation American in a predominantly white part of South Florida. “The Mango Tree” kicks off with Tometich’s mother getting arrested for shooting a mango-stealing neighbor with a BB gun, and the story continues to unravel and perhaps slowly heal the tumultuous relationship between mother and daughter.

Earlier this year, Tometich became the first Asian-American author to win the Southern Book Prize for nonfiction.

Tometich told Colón and the audience that the book was originally conceptualized as a cookbook during an era that she describes as a “mid-life crisis,” but after realizing she didn’t have many Filipino recipes passed down from her mother, she started thinking more about their rocky relationship and how she got to that point in her life.

“During this time, I kept thinking to myself that I couldn’t keep writing about the same 50 restaurants over and over again. And I was like, “how hard can writing a book be?” Tometich said with a laugh.

She says that her debut memoir was “extremely cathartic” to write, and was the first time in her adult life that she thought deeply about her upbringing. At the center of the touching, coming-of-age memoir is her mothers’s mango tree, a popular symbol of immigration and cultural significance.

“Coming from a journalistic perspective, there’s usually very little room for reflection…I really enjoyed the fact that I could sit with my younger self and tell her that things were going to get much better,” Tometich says. “It’s so easy to flatten the people in our lives, but when you start to understand them in their entirety, there’s a much bigger picture there.”

After talking about heavy topics like childhood traumas and such, Colón kept the conversation lighthearted by pivoting to questions related to favorite mango recipes, family background and what Tometich’s literary future will look like.

At the end of the book talk, Tometich teased two of her newest works: a children’s book about mangoes, of course, and a separate memoir about her 18 year-run as The News-Press’ restaurant critic in Fort Myers.

The two authors then opened questions to the floor and signed books.

Folks can purchase both Colón’s and Tometich’s books, “The Florida Vegetarian Cookbook” and “The Mango Tree,” from St. Pete’s Tombolo Books or from their respective websites, daliacolon.com and annabelletometich.com.

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