Cornbread Nation 2: The United States of Barbecue (Cornbread Nation: Best of Southern Food Writing) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807855561 ISBN 13: 9780807855560

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2004

Synopsis

Southern barbecue and barbecue traditions are the primary focus of Cornbread Nation 2, our second collection of the best of Southern food writing. “Barbecue is the closest thing we have in the United States to Europe’s wines or cheeses; drive a hundred miles and the barbecue changes,” writes John Shelton Reed. Indeed, no other dish is served a dozen different ways just between Memphis and Birmingham.

In tribute to what Vince Staten calls “the slowest of the slow foods,” contributors discuss the politics, sociology, and virtual religion of barbecue in the South, where communities are defined by what wood they burn, what sauce they make, and what they serve with barbecue. Jim Auchmutey links barbecue to the success of certain Southern politicians; Marcie Cohen Ferris looks at kosher brisket; and Robb Walsh investigates why black cooks have been omitted from the accepted histories of Texas barbecue, despite their seminal role in its development.

Beyond the barbecue pit, John Martin Taylor sings the virtues of boiled peanuts, Calvin Trillin savors Cajun boudin, and Eddie Dean revisits his days driving an ice cream truck deep in the Appalachian Mountains. From barbecue to scuppernongs to popsicles, the forty-three newspaper columns, magazine pieces, poems, and essays collected here confirm that a bounty of good writing exists when it comes to good eating, Southern style.

About this title

About the Author

Lolis Eric Elie is a longtime columnist and food writer for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and author of Smokestack Lightning: Adventures in the Heart of Barbecue Country. He is a founding member of the Southern Foodways Alliance.

From the Inside Flap

Southern barbecue and barbecue traditions are the primary focus of Cornbread Nation 2, our second collection of the best of southern foodwriting. Among the 40 contributors are John T. Edge, Jessica Harris, Calvin Trillin, and John Martin Taylor. Published in association with the Southern Foodways Alliance.

Reviews

The second in a series of annual anthologies, this collection of 40-odd newspaper columns, articles, poems and essays is a satisfying celebration of Southern cuisine and culture. The focus this time is barbecue, whose deep-rooted traditions and regional variations reflect the ardent localism of the South. "I don't think you can really understand the South if you don't understand barbecue—as food, process, and event," says John Shelton Reed in "Barbecue Sociology." Reed rails against image-conscious Southern cities like Atlanta, which seem to hide their greatest barbecue joints in the worst neighborhoods ("Harold's is one of the best—it's near the prison"), and he advocates replacing the Confederate flag with one featuring a dancing pig holding a fork and knife. In "Whole Hog," Jeff Daniel Marion's search for the perfect barbecue leads him to Wood's, a ramshackle establishment outside Memphis, where he finds his shrine to the pig: "great chunks of pork, tender, with no hint of greasiness, succulent." Despite the bland introduction by New Orleans Times-Picayune columnist Elie, this is a nice compilation, and the tones and topics (politics, race, religion, etc.) are as varied as the barbecue styles you'd find from Texas to the Carolinas. The book's biggest tip? Never trust a restaurant without flies; they may know something you don't. 16 illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807855561
• ISBN 13: 9780807855560
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 312
• Editor: Elie Lolis Eric