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America Eats!: On the Road with the WPA - the Fish Fries, Box Supper Socials, and Chitlin Feasts That Define Real American Food
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Product Description
In America Eats! Pat Willard takes readers on a journey into the regional nooks and crannies of American cuisine where WPA writers—including Eudora Welty, Saul Bellow, Ralph Ellison, and Nelson Algren, among countless others—were dispatched in 1935 to document the roots of our diverse culinary cuisine. With the unpublished WPA manuscript as her guide, Willard visits the sites of American food’s past glory to rediscover the vibrant foundation of America’s traditional cuisine. She visits a booyah cook-off in Minnesota, a political feast in Mississippi, a watermelon festival in Oklahoma, and a sheepherders ball in Idaho, to name a few. Featuring recipes and never-before-seen photos, including those from the WPA by Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, and Marion Post Wolcott, America Eats! is a glowing celebration of American food, past and present.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #54435 in Books
- Published on: 2008-07-15
- Released on: 2008-07-08
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 320 pages
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, July 2008: America Eats! originated as a 1935 WPA project that sent out-of-work writers (mostly unknowns, but also some soon-to-be famous names like Eudora Welty and Ralph Ellison) to chronicle America's regional cuisine, focusing on the group-dining dynamic of church suppers, harvest festivals, state fairs, political rallies, lodge suppers, and any gathering where food took center stage--"In a nation inhabited by strangers, sharing a meal lessened the loneliness of wandering across unfamiliar landscapes." While bits and pieces of their work saw the light of day over the years, the project was never completed or published and was filed away in the Library of Congress like a culinary Ark of the Covenant until Brooklyn-based food writer Pat Willard used this national artifact as a roadmap for her own coast-to-coast tour to see if these traditions still exist (many, sadly, are long gone) and offer a contemporary update on the WPA's original observations. Sprinkled throughout with heirloom recipes (Root Beer, Pickled Watermelon Rinds, Chess Pie, Son-of-Gun Stew) and never-before-published vintage photos, America Eats! is a celebration of our nation's table and a welcome addition to the popular food lit genre. "It's nice to report that, when a community need arises, we're still inspired as a nation to pull out a big pot and start throwing into it a lot of ingredients, with the understanding that sharing a large batch of something delicious with neighbors and strangers alike is a fine and proper way to accomplish some good." --Brad Thomas Parsons
From Publishers Weekly
The original America Eats! was written for the WPA by out-of-work writers during the Depression of the 1930s as an account of group eating as an important American social institution, the development of local, traditional cookery by churches and communities, fairs, festivals, rodeos, fund-raisers, rent parties and the like. It was never completed or published, but when food writer Willard (Secrets of Saffron) found the manuscript in the Library of Congress, she decided to follow the footsteps of the original writers to find what remained of these feasts, or a modern equivalent. The result is an interesting anthology of original WPA writing (most by unknowns, but often lively) and contemporary experience. Willard found Brunswick Stew (historically made with squirrel meat) in North Carolina and Virginia as well as versions of it in Minnesota (booya) and Kentucky (burgoo). Recipes (not always with squirrel) are given. There are still Melon Days in Colorado and Oklahoma, and an Apple Week in Washington State. Fewer homes have kitchen gardens now, and some fair food is distinctly modern (fried Twinkies), but Willard did find a wild-game dinner in Oregon and, of course, barbecue everywhere. Where there were once tobacco farms in traditionally dry Southern counties, Willard, in this engaging book, finds vineyards. (July)
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Review
“Who but Pat Willard (A Pie Everyday, Secrets of Saffron) could find a tasty morsel in the Library of Congress? The morsel in question is a WPA project in which a number of authors, famous and unknown alike, were sent on the road to cover the communal culinary orgies to be found at the fairs, feasts and festivals so frequently held across the country, whether in the name of God, politics or pie. What Willard cooks up is an even tastier literary stew that includes (aside from squirrel as an ingredient) not only a lively anthology of the WPA work, but and even livelier narrative of revisits, re-samples, re-assessments, and recipes, all intriguingly spiced with cultural history, quirky local dialogue, and wonderful photographs by WPA greats like Dorthea Lange. One of a kind.”—Betsy Burton, The King’s English Bookshop, Salt Lake City, Utah
“[Willard’s] lovingly researched book, a tribute to regional cooking, is startling, funny and lip-smackingly good.” —More magazine
“It's about time somebody wrote this…Willard blows the dust off, reprinting the original pieces along with her own revisits to the places and events from long ago. The result is new attention to an old project that gives a lively glimpse into how we eat together.” —Charlotte Observer
“Engaging… Willard's enthusiasm is contagious, her project enviable.” —Arizona Republic
“Wonderful descriptions and vignettes of American group eating - the food and its preparation, and the social life and customs surrounding it - written by members of the Federal Writers' Project in the late 1930s and early '40s. To this, the author has added her own thoughtful accounts as she travels across the land to discover present incarnations of those earlier feasts.” —Boston Globe
“The spirit of camaraderie, and the determination to not let penury rob everyday existence of the companionable joys of food, are moving and instructive 70 years on.” —Atlantic Monthly
“America Eats offers an unfettered view of the lives of ordinary folk, not unlike going out with good friends or long-lost relatives for a taste of country life.” —Christian Science Monitor
Customer Reviews
Author Did Her Homework
I can attest that the author did yeoman's duty in the research for this book! The author became a member of our Brunswick Stew Crew during a competition in Richmond ... and with her culinary background she easily manuvered her way around the Stew pot with the rest of the Crew.
The book is an enjoyable read balancing some of the original manuscripts of the WPA writers in the 30's with updated information from the author ... including some good recipes.
If you enjoyed hearing stories from your parents and grandparents about regional cuisine from yesteryear at church socials, political gatherings, and the like this would be a good addition to your library.
Makes Me Hungry!
This book makes me homesick for some great food and fun times at the county fair! Well written, with interesting old photos. Interesting to learn about traditions in food and fun around the country.
Fresh, appetizing!
An entertaining and educational read, likely to spawn much culinary experimentation and perhaps regional exploration.
