Issue 12: Olive and feta sourdough + In Waves by AJ Dungo

A salty, tangy loaf of sourdough, and a graphic memoir about surfing, loss and the power of the ocean

Jun 10

Welcome to Good Book/Good Bread! Every two weeks, I recommend a book I love, and bake a delicious bread that fits with an aspect of the story.

This week: In Waves by AJ Dungo, and sourdough with olives, feta, lemon zest and thyme.

Part 1: Good Book

Setting the tone

Meet me in the Woods by Madison Hughes (Lord Huron cover), here.

In a nutshell

In Waves by AJ Dungo (2019) is a graphic memoir that weaves together the origins of surfing and surf culture with the love and eventual loss of the author’s girlfriend, Kristen. The gorgeously-illustrated book begins in Hawaii in 1800, where AJ shows us that surfers finding solace in the waves is centuries-old. He tells the story of how surfing became a way for Hawaiians to protest their colonialization, looking “for asylum in the place the foreigners feared most.” AJ then shares how he met his girlfriend Kristen as a teenager, and how they eventually fell in love, staying together for many years as she battled cancer. They shared a love of surfing and looking for refuge in the ocean.

Throughout the book, AJ alternates between tracing the history of surfing over several hundred years, and charting the joys and immense challenges him and Kristen faced as her cancer progressed. The narrative is non-linear, jumping from different points in Kristen and AJ’s relationship, giving the reader an acute sense of their highs and lows. The result is a moving and intimate visual exploration of grief and the cathartic power of the ocean.

Why I was drawn to this book

A few months ago I came across a beautiful piece in the New York Times by AJ Dungo where he illustrated the challenges his older brother has experienced, including multiple mental and physical health issues. Using spare text and detailed illustrations, he portrayed his brother as so much more than the labels imposed on him by various institutions. He’s courageous, kind, and inspires his younger brother every day with the efforts he puts into his life. I was so affected by this short piece—just eleven images—and immediately wanted to know what else I could read by this artist. I got my hands on In Waves, and found within the first few chapters that the same adeptness in crafting simple, heart-wrenching scenes was evident.

Three things I loved about In Waves

1. Learning about two key figures in the evolution of surfing as a sport

This book is a love story, but it’s also a surfing history lesson. I appreciated learning about the longstanding cultural significance of surfing in Hawaii, as well as about two fascinating people who helped develop it into the sport it is today. AJ tells the life story of Duke Kahanamoku, often called the father of modern surfing. Born in 1890, Duke was an expert swimmer and all-around renowned waterman. His lifetime spent in the ocean led to him easily qualifying for the 1912 Olympics, where he won gold in swimming. Duke is a legend in surfing, and was a significant contributor to its popularity.

Tom Blake, born in Wisconsin, had a difficult childhood and spent much of his early adulthood drifting between different jobs and U.S. states. A chance meeting with Duke Kahanamoku at a movie theatre screening of the recent Olympics made a big impression on him. Some years later, Tom moved to Hawaii, and was welcomed by Duke and his surfer siblings into their community. Tom’s interest in ancient surfboard designs made for Hawaiian royalty led him to begin making his own surfboards. He eventually designed one of the world’s first mass-produced boards, and “his curiosity influenced all future advancements on surfboards,” explains AJ.

2. The sweet scenes early on in Kristen and AJ’s relationship

This is an emotional book with some serious subject matter, but it also has super endearing and lighthearted parts, like those showing the early days of Kristen and AJ getting together. Immediately after a brief interaction at a school dance that leaves a big impression on AJ, he sits nervously in front of the desktop computer in his parents’ house, and carefully composes an email to Kristen telling her it was nice meeting her. She’s nonchalant in her response, deflating AJ. Another night, he arrives at a house party in full swing. “I saw her inside and couldn’t even enter the house,” he writes, his nerves keeping him outside, skateboarding. After becoming friends with Kristen’s older brother, her and AJ begin texting back and forth. One night he’s sitting on a curb with his skateboard when a text arrives. “I kind of, sort of, miss you, a lot.” A grid of illustrations follows showing AJ utterly overcome by the warm and fuzzies. It’s the sweetest.

3. The colour palette

AJ uses an alternating colour palette to differentiate between the chapters about him and Kristen, and the chapters about surfing culture and history. The former is told in a blue-green, and the latter with peach. Despite choosing just one colour for each storyline, AJ illustrates with a large range of shades, providing great detail to the different angles of a cresting wave, the weathered surfaces of ancient surfboards in a museum, and the ragged cliffs of the Pacific coast.

Notable passage

“After Kristen died, I spent a lot of my time alone, in the water. Isolating myself alarmed those around me. They would ask how I was and I had trouble answering. Eventually, I found the words I was searching for. ‘It comes in waves’. It’s a brief but honest answer. The emptiness is constant. But grief has no recognizable pattern. It just comes and goes. It is unpredictable, brewed by a storm in the distance, deep the ocean, far from view, churning water above and below. It surges through channels, forming and rushing while carrying its magnitude full force as it reaches a breaking point. It grows until it cannot sustain its shape. It becomes unstable and crashes. Eventually, it settles into a calm uniform surface.”

If you like In Waves, read:

Barbarian Days by William Finnegan
The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel
Swimming to Antarctica by Lynne Cox

Part 2: Good Bread

Sourdough with olives, feta, thyme and lemon zest

Why this bread for this book?

The ocean is a character in this book. You can almost feel the salty air as Kristen waits on her surfboard in the lineup, or when AJ and Kristen’s brother bob up and down in the ocean, sharing vivid memories of her after she’s gone. This is an environment that Kristen is so drawn to that even when she can no longer surf, she sits happily for hours on the beach watching AJ, her brother and her cousin catch wave after wave. I wanted to bake a bread that captured this integral, salty backdrop of the story.

Also, surfing is hard work! I envisioned a slice of bread full of olives and feta as an ideal salt-replenishing snack after a long surf.

Recipe

I used The Kitchn’s sourdough recipe, here, which makes two loaves. Their recipe is a modified version of Tartine’s country loaf recipe, and results in loaves that are slightly smaller. This dough is 75% hydration, which I find reasonable to manage with my dough handling skills.

During the third turn of the dough, I added:

1/2 cup chopped green olives
1/2 cup chopped black olives
2 tbsp lemon zest
2 tbsp chopped thyme

Before adding the above items, I combined them all in a bowl, and then held handfuls of the mixture over the sink and squeezed out as much water as I could. Feta and olives both have high moisture content, so I wanted to avoid them releasing too much water into the dough during the bake and affecting the crumb and oven spring.

I baked one loaf as a boule in my dutch oven as usual. Then, for the second, I baked it in a loaf pan that I placed inside my dutch oven, with the lid on to create the same steam-rich environment.

I love playing around with additions to sourdough, and this was one of the best tasting loaves of bread I’ve made this year. The olives imparted a beautiful flavour, and they looked so nice where they poked through the crust. The lemon zest was a real standout, adding a subtle brightness that paired well with the brininess of the olives. The chopped thyme kind of baked away, so next time I make this I will increase the amount by a tablespoon and a half or so.

Works well with:

This ridiculously good cashew cream cheese spread I can’t stop eating
Avocado and sea salt
Tuna salad, red onions and hot sauce

Looking forward…

Book I’m looking forward to reading: The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Bread I’m looking forward to baking: Fougasse (but I’m also scared!)

New album I’m looking forward to listening to while doing both of the above: Big Time by Angel Olsen

Have other books, bread, or music you’d recommend I check out? Reply to this email or leave a comment. And, if you liked this issue, feel free to hit the heart button (it helps other people find my newsletter!)

Good Book/Good Bread