Customer Reviews

Southern Belly: The Ultimate Food Lover's Guide to the South

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you eat, you're gonna want a few copies of this book. One for the house, one for the glove box, and you probably know a couple people who would just love to find a copy under the tree come Christmas.

As director of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi, John T. Edge knows his subject. But while his knowledge of Southern foodlore is impressively deep and wide, don't think for a minute that this is a scholarly tome filled with academic jargon and lofty observations--nothing like it. In pursuit of his quest, John T. is not a man afraid of getting his hands dirty. Or his elbows. Or his shirt front, when you get down to it.

A native Southerner, John T. Edge stands firm and proud in the face of the Macdonalds and Burger Kings goosestepping through the heart of Dixie. The moral fire of his paean to butter pats offers up testimony to his eye for detail and the purity of his vision. "I fell in love with the Waysider soon after I reached for a pat of butter to slather on one of those thin tiles of coarse cornbread they serve hereabouts. Miracle of miracles, it was just that: a pat of butter, a lemony yellow square of salted, churned cream, sandwiched between a white cardboard base and a thin slip of wax paper. These days most restaurants stock little plastic tubs of margarine emblazoned with names that read like false promises: Country Crock, Farm Churn, and I Can't Believe It's not Butter."

John T. gets beyond the barbeque and biscuits reportage of the food magazine writers who figure if they've eaten a slaw dog at the Varsity they've done their slumming in the South. I bet you don't know what a scuppernong or Tabasco mash is. He does. He ain't too proud to eat a pig ear sandwich. He knows the difference between eastern style and western style North Carolina barbeque. And he has a passion for potlikker that would make an alcoholic blush.

John T. also has a native's understanding of what the South actually is, instead of what sentimental hogwash like Steel Magnolia's would have us think it is. Sure, people named Ballery Bully and Addie Williams contribute to the story of Southern food. But so do people named Rocky Tommaseo: "The first bite (of Wop salad) explodes in your mouth. Like steam rising off Louisiana blacktop after a summer shower..." And people named Kim Wong: "I'm really proud of my chicken cracklins. Woks make the difference. They cook the cracklins more evenly in less oil.'"

John T. doesn't shy away from looking at the less savory aspects of Southern history. An interview with Lawrence Craig gets right to the point. "Folks always talk about how black folks are good cooks. There's a reason for that. Back when I was growing up there were two kinds of jobs black folks could get without being challenged by white folks: cooking and heavy lifting. Folks though black folks could cook--same as they thought black folks could sing and dance..."

He'll tell you about the fine eating at Ollie's Barbeque outside Birmingham, Alabama. He'll also let you know that Ollie McClung filed suit in federal court in 1964 to prevent integration of his restaurant. He goes further, quoting Ollie's son: "It was about race and then again it wasn't. On a deeper level it was about whether the federal government could intrude on the day to day operations of a small business. Before `64 if I had been conscience stricken enough to serve blacks in my restaurant, I would have. I wasn't, mind you." However we may regard the attitudes of people like the McClung's, their story indicates that Southern history, like Southern food, isn't as simple as it may seem.

I'd love to go on and tell you about Lindsey's bereavement platters, Jackson cumback sauce, and Something Better than Barbeque, but you're just gonna have to buy the daggum book.

One of those books you'll want two copies of, one for the kitchen and one for the car. John T. Edge's Southern Belly is indeed the Ultimate Food Lover's Companion to the South. The book combines insightful dining guides to the individual Southern States plus sidebars on tamales in the Delta, New Orleans po' boys, fish camps, and the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken, to name just a few. Edge knows what he's talking about. He's the director of the Southern Foodways Symposium (sort of the heavy-weight championship bout of Southern food) and is author of the equally recommended A Gracious Plenty. Plan on getting this book good and greasy.

Southern Belly is to food books what "burnt ends" are to barbecue: chewy, smoky, tender and tasty. John T. Edge understands that food = culture, and he captures the sum of that equation with efficient writing, colorful storytelling, and an obvious affection for his subject matter. It's a nifty travel book that would serve quite nicely as a guide to The South. And it's a well-researched antropological study that traces the history and status of the region's culinary traditions. But mostly it's a love story.

If you love food, if you love America, and especially if you love American food, you'll love Southern Belly.

Anyone searching for cook books should be fascinated with John T.'s food documentary The Southern Belly. If you love the Southern food traditions you'll devour every page and be inclined to jump in your car to search out the source of the marvelous food he describes. Want Southern recipes? Buy Emeril or Justin Wilson. Want to learn more about how food shapes a culture? Read The Southern Belly. You'll savor every delicious word.

Hunger is never a simple matter in the South and unlike other road food books, this one is not only concerned with what's on the plate, but also with the how and why and by-whose-grace it got there. Yes, you'll find out what you need to know about (and where to get a great taste of) Kentucky beer cheese, Big Bob Gibson coconut pie and great barbecue in Birmingham. But you'll also meet the people who make and eat this food, and learn the history -- some bitter, some sweet -- that lies enticingly behind it. The ability to notice and relate social/political/spirtual undercurrents behing the food of the South is what makes John T. Edge and Southern Belly such great companions both for the road or simply dreaming about it.

The author points out in the book's "forward" that it is Not a travel guide. Pity. If you go to AAA their travel guides offer descriptions of restaurants in much more depth. Seems he should have concentrated on either Southern "history" or Southern "food". He flip-flops to much and does not include even a single recipe in this book. Very disappointing.

This is NOT a cookbook. I bought it based on what I saw on tv. I wish I hadn't.