Cornbread Nation 7: The Best of Southern Food Writing
How does Southern food look from the outside? The form is caught in constantly dueling stereotypes: It’s so often imagined as either the touchingly down-home feast or the heartstopping health scourge of a nation. But as any Southern transplant will tell you once they’ve spent time in the region, Southerners share their lives in food, with a complex mix of stories of belonging and not belonging and of traditions that form identities of many kinds.


Cornbread Nation 7, edited by Francis Lam, brings together the best Southern food writing from recent years, including well-known food writers such as Sara Roahen and Brett Anderson, a couple of classic writers such as Langston Hughes, and some newcomers. The collection, divided into five sections (“Come In and Stay Awhile,” “Provisions and Providers,” “Five Ways of Looking at Southern Food,” “The South, Stepping Out,” and “Southerners Going Home”), tells the stories both of Southerners as they move through the world and of those who ended up in the South. It explores from where and from whom food comes, and it looks at what food means to culture and how it relates to home.

"1117186009"
Cornbread Nation 7: The Best of Southern Food Writing
How does Southern food look from the outside? The form is caught in constantly dueling stereotypes: It’s so often imagined as either the touchingly down-home feast or the heartstopping health scourge of a nation. But as any Southern transplant will tell you once they’ve spent time in the region, Southerners share their lives in food, with a complex mix of stories of belonging and not belonging and of traditions that form identities of many kinds.


Cornbread Nation 7, edited by Francis Lam, brings together the best Southern food writing from recent years, including well-known food writers such as Sara Roahen and Brett Anderson, a couple of classic writers such as Langston Hughes, and some newcomers. The collection, divided into five sections (“Come In and Stay Awhile,” “Provisions and Providers,” “Five Ways of Looking at Southern Food,” “The South, Stepping Out,” and “Southerners Going Home”), tells the stories both of Southerners as they move through the world and of those who ended up in the South. It explores from where and from whom food comes, and it looks at what food means to culture and how it relates to home.

26.95 In Stock

Paperback

$26.95 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

How does Southern food look from the outside? The form is caught in constantly dueling stereotypes: It’s so often imagined as either the touchingly down-home feast or the heartstopping health scourge of a nation. But as any Southern transplant will tell you once they’ve spent time in the region, Southerners share their lives in food, with a complex mix of stories of belonging and not belonging and of traditions that form identities of many kinds.


Cornbread Nation 7, edited by Francis Lam, brings together the best Southern food writing from recent years, including well-known food writers such as Sara Roahen and Brett Anderson, a couple of classic writers such as Langston Hughes, and some newcomers. The collection, divided into five sections (“Come In and Stay Awhile,” “Provisions and Providers,” “Five Ways of Looking at Southern Food,” “The South, Stepping Out,” and “Southerners Going Home”), tells the stories both of Southerners as they move through the world and of those who ended up in the South. It explores from where and from whom food comes, and it looks at what food means to culture and how it relates to home.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780820346663
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Publication date: 05/15/2014
Series: Cornbread Nation Series
Pages: 288
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

SARA CAMP MILAM is the Southern Foodways Alliance’s managing editor. She lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

ROBERT F. MOSS is a writer and independent scholar based in Charleston, South Carolina. He is the author of Southern Spirits: Four Hundred Years of Drinking in the American South and Barbecue: The History of an American Institution. He is currently the contributing barbecue editor for Southern Living and the southern food correspondent for Serious Eats.

BRETT ANDERSON is the restaurant critic and a features writer at the New Orleans Times-Picayune. The winner of two James Beard awards for journalism, Anderson has written for such publications as Gourmet, Food & Wine, and the Washington Post.

FRANCIS LAM is editor-at-large at Clarkson Potter. He appears at the Critics’ Table in the fifth season of Top Chef Masters (Bravo). He was features editor at Gilt Taste, which was awarded six IACP awards and four James Beard award nominations in its first two years. His own writing has been nominated for a James Beard award and three IACP awards, winning one. He has served as senior writer at Salon.com and a contributing editor at Gourmet, and his work has appeared in the 2006–13 editions of Best Food Writing.

Table of Contents

Introduction Francis Lam 1

Come in and Stay Awhile

We Waited as Long as We Could Daniel Patterson 7

The Homesick Restaurant Susan Orlean 13

Stuffed, Smothered, Z'herbes Sara Roahen 24

What I Cook Is Who I Am Edward Lee 30

God Has Assholes for Children Eddie Huang 35

You Have to Fall in Love with Your Pot: As told to Sara Wood Ida MaMusu 40

Around the World in Eight Shops Kathleen Purvis 42

That's Your Country: As told to Sara Wood Argentina Ortega 46

Friends and Families Nikki Metzgar 49

The Perfect Chef Todd Kliman 55

Provisions and Providers

Nature's Spoils Burkhard Bilger 71

I Had a Farm in Atlanta John T. Edge 90

The Price of Tomatoes Barry Estabrook 96

Working in the Shadows Gabriel Thompson 101

The Celebrity Shepherd Besha Rodell 108

The Triumph of Jamie Oliver's "Nemesis" Jane Black 114

Grabbing Dinner Bill Heavey 117

Hogzilla Dan Bourm 123

A Taste for the Hunt Jonathan Miles 131

Eat Dessert First Robb Walsh 134

Anyone and Everyone Is Welcome: As told to Francis Lam Sue Nguyen 139

Five Ways of Looking at Southern Food

The Great Leveler Julia Reed 145

The Post-Husk Era Robert Moss 149

Ode to Gumbo Kevin Young 154

Mother Corn and the Dixie Pig: Native Food in the Native South Rayna Green 158

Every Ounce a Man's Whiskey? Bourbon in the White Masculine South Seán McKeithan 165

The South, Stepping Out

When the Queso Dripped Like Honey Sarah Hepola 179

Willie Mae Seaton Takes New York Lolis Eric Elie 183

Mississippi Chinese Lady Goes Home to Korea Ann Taylor Pittman 190

An Oyster Named Dan Jack Pendarvis 201

Coconut: The Queen of Cakes Jeffrey Steingarten 208

The Vicksburg Lebanese Supper: As told to Amy Evans Mary Louise Nosser 214

Soul Food? What Is That? Langston Hughes 217

We Shall Not Be Moved Jessica B. Harris 221

Fixing on the Next Star Patricia Smith 225

The Brixton: It's New, Happening, and Another Example of African American Historical "Swagger-Jacking" Stephen A. Crockett Jr. 226

Southerners Going Home

I Placed a Jar in Tennessee John Jeremiah Sullivan 231

A Love Letter to North Carolina's Red Bridges Barbecue Monique Truong 237

The Missing Link: Donald Link Opens Second Cochon in Lafayette Brett Anderson 243

Of Pepperoni Rolls and Soup Beans: On What It Might Mean to Eat like a West Virginian Courtney Balestier 250

Pasquale's Hot Tamales: As told to Amy Evans Joe St. Columbia 254

Cutting greens Lucille Clifton 257

Remembering Pitmaster Ricky Parker Joe York 258

Grace Jake Adam York 260

Contributors 263

Acknowledgments 267

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews