O n a video call from Brooklyn, between stops on her book tour, Ifrah F Ahmed is drinking ginger-root tea. The smell transports her to her childhood kitchen, where her mother often baked aromatic cardamom cake. “That’s a core childhood memory for me,” she said. For Ahmed, food isn’t just about sustenance. It is memory, inheritance and, perhaps most importantly, a record: “ Somali history on a plate,” as she puts it. That idea sits at the heart of Soomaaliya: Food , Memory and Migration , her debut cookbook, which was released in March. Part recipe collection, history and profiles, the book arrives as one of only a few Somali cookbooks ever published. It expands on Ahmed’s often-sold-out Milk and Myrrh pop-ups and her recipes for the New York Times Cooking, among other works. Across 75 recipes, Ahmed traces Somali cuisine through trade, colonialism, war and migration. Ancient Somalia was an important stop on the Silk Road trade route, and spice production earned it the name “the land of cinnamon”.…