If curling up with fine food writing sounds like your idea of a literary feast, chances are you’re familiar with the delectable works of Mark Kurlansky. Winner of a Bon Appetit Food Writer of the Year award, his books include Salt: A World History, and Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World. While editing Choice Cuts, an anthology of worldwide food writing from BC to modern times, he stumbled upon the files for America Eats, a never-completed Works Progress Administration book. The files contained a goldmine of essays, lists, and recipes documenting the food culture of every US region in the years before WWII. Kurlansky rescued them from the dustbin of history, and the result is Food of a Younger Land.
Although the book contains only a sampling of the original America Eats files, Kurlansky serves them raw and unedited, preserving their authentic historical and regional voices — including literary luminaries such as Zora Neale Hurston and Eudora Welty. Foodies will savor descriptions of everything from Florida “rattlesnake snacks” to Oregon salmon barbecue to Hopi Indian Piki Bread. After hearing a hardboiled list of “New York Soda-Luncheonette Slang,” they will find it hard to resist ordering “axle grease” (butter) or “bellywash” (soup). Most poignantly, they will discover the deep connection between race and food in the South.
Narrator Stephen Hoye sounds like a radio broadcast from another era — simultaneously timeless and rooted in history. He reads as confidently about Nebraska rabbit cookery as he does about a North Carolina Chitterling Strut, always conveying the sensuality of the food and the humanity of the culture. Prepare to be hungry.
