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Cornbread Nation Series #4
Cornbread Nation 4: The Best of Southern Food Writing
This new collection in the Southern Foodways Alliance's popular series serves up a fifty-three-course celebration of southern foods, southern cooking, and the people and traditions behind them. Editors Dale Volberg Reed and John Shelton Reed have combed magazines, newspapers, books, and journals to bring us a "best of" gathering that is certain to satisfy everyone from omnivorous chowhounds to the most discerning student of regional foodways.
After an opening celebration of the joys of spring in her natal Virginia by the redoubtable Edna Lewis, the Reeds organize their collection under eight sections exploring Louisiana and the Gulf Coast before and after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the food and farming of the Carolina Lowcountry, "Sweet Things," southern snacks and fast foods, "Downhome Food," "Downhome Places," and a comparison of southern foods with those of other cultures.
In his "This Isn't the Last Dance," Rick Bragg recounts his experience, many years ago, of a New Orleans jazz funeral and finds hope therein that the unique spirit of New Orleanians will allow them to "I have seen these people dance, laughing, to the edge of a grave. I believe that, now, they will dance back from it." "My passport may be stamped Yankee," writes Jessica B. Harris in her "Living North/Eating South," "but there's no denying that my stomach and culinary soul and those of many others like me are pure Dixie." In her "Tough The Muscadine Grape," Simone Wilson explains that the lowly southern fruit has double the heart-healthy resveratrol of French grapes, thus offering the hope of a "southern paradox." The title of Candice Dyer's brief history says it "Scattered, Smothered, Covered, and Fifty Years of the Waffle House." In a photo essay, documentarian Amy Evans shows us the world of oystering along northwest Florida's Apalachicola Bay, and for the first time in the series, recipes are given-for a roux, braised collard greens, doberge cake, and other dishes.
Published in association with the Southern Foodways Alliance at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. A Friends Fund Publication.
After an opening celebration of the joys of spring in her natal Virginia by the redoubtable Edna Lewis, the Reeds organize their collection under eight sections exploring Louisiana and the Gulf Coast before and after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the food and farming of the Carolina Lowcountry, "Sweet Things," southern snacks and fast foods, "Downhome Food," "Downhome Places," and a comparison of southern foods with those of other cultures.
In his "This Isn't the Last Dance," Rick Bragg recounts his experience, many years ago, of a New Orleans jazz funeral and finds hope therein that the unique spirit of New Orleanians will allow them to "I have seen these people dance, laughing, to the edge of a grave. I believe that, now, they will dance back from it." "My passport may be stamped Yankee," writes Jessica B. Harris in her "Living North/Eating South," "but there's no denying that my stomach and culinary soul and those of many others like me are pure Dixie." In her "Tough The Muscadine Grape," Simone Wilson explains that the lowly southern fruit has double the heart-healthy resveratrol of French grapes, thus offering the hope of a "southern paradox." The title of Candice Dyer's brief history says it "Scattered, Smothered, Covered, and Fifty Years of the Waffle House." In a photo essay, documentarian Amy Evans shows us the world of oystering along northwest Florida's Apalachicola Bay, and for the first time in the series, recipes are given-for a roux, braised collard greens, doberge cake, and other dishes.
Published in association with the Southern Foodways Alliance at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. A Friends Fund Publication.
320 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 2, 2011
Cornbread Nation 4: the Best of Southern Food Writing should be propped open and read while eating; preferably hunched over a basket of fried fish. Just make sure you wipe your fingers on your pant leg before flipping a page and enjoying this satisfying collection of stories and recipes, condolences and confirmations.
Readers of the earlier editions of Cornbread Nation will not be surprised by the unhurried stories of southern foods or cooking or the people behind them. The renditions of cooking collards or the history of Moon-Pies or—God help us all—the nutritional value of ‘co-cola’ ring true to the anthology form but the best of what is ‘best’ in Cornbread Nation 4 are really about two common themes; loss and confirmation.
Born of distance or doctor’s orders; loss means separation from the foods that soulfully sustain the South. It is these same foods; and their rituals, that give each of us confirmation of where we are, where we’ve been and where we would like to be. Dale and John Reed do an admirable job editing pieces from a who’s who of Dixie scribes under the watchful eye—and appetite, of the series’ general editor, John T. Edge. It is a stellar list of authors who are obviously writing about subjects they love; you can always tell.
Cornbread Nation 4 finally includes what many have always hoped for in the series—recipes. Not the sort that appear in food magazines; but that serve to re-connect us—and the series, with food itself. The book and the entire series should be on every southern reader’s table; and please pass the hot sauce.
Readers of the earlier editions of Cornbread Nation will not be surprised by the unhurried stories of southern foods or cooking or the people behind them. The renditions of cooking collards or the history of Moon-Pies or—God help us all—the nutritional value of ‘co-cola’ ring true to the anthology form but the best of what is ‘best’ in Cornbread Nation 4 are really about two common themes; loss and confirmation.
Born of distance or doctor’s orders; loss means separation from the foods that soulfully sustain the South. It is these same foods; and their rituals, that give each of us confirmation of where we are, where we’ve been and where we would like to be. Dale and John Reed do an admirable job editing pieces from a who’s who of Dixie scribes under the watchful eye—and appetite, of the series’ general editor, John T. Edge. It is a stellar list of authors who are obviously writing about subjects they love; you can always tell.
Cornbread Nation 4 finally includes what many have always hoped for in the series—recipes. Not the sort that appear in food magazines; but that serve to re-connect us—and the series, with food itself. The book and the entire series should be on every southern reader’s table; and please pass the hot sauce.
June 19, 2011
This entire series is so much fun to read, a southern food collector's dream. Each book focuses upon a certain food group particular to the south (even bourbon, whiskey, moonshine, which despite all of the stereotypes, is still an important part of our culture today - consider how NASCAR got it's start!). The goal of the series is to preserve the southern culture, John T. Edge has devoted his life to this effort and heads the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi.
February 5, 2009
Decent book which i read for class. Mainly magazine pieces/scholarly articles about southern food. Would have given it a higher rating but its chock full of the self-consciously southern language and white guilt we've all come to expect from from today's southern writers.
July 19, 2012
I love the Cornbread Nation series - perfect for picking up any moment and reading snippets about food you know and love... and miss.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews