SOUTHERN BELLY
The Ultimate Food Lover's Companion to the South
John T. Edge | Author
$24.95NOW $12.50 hardcover
- $16.95 paperback | May 2003
- 352 pages | 40 drawings | 50 photographs
- 1-892514-65-6 hardcover | 1-58818-063-8 paperback
- Food | Regional
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“The real soul in Southern food is in the stories behind the food.”—John T. Edge
the book
In the pages of Southern Belly, Southern food culture chronicler John T. Edge does more than simply steer you to good eats. Much more than your ordinary guidebook grocery list of every smoke shack from Hattiesburg to Hahira, Southern Belly tells the story behind the food, people, and places that have become Southern institutions.
More than 200 entries run the gamut from chicken shacks, fish camps, and meat'n'three joints to profiles of civil rights leaders and veteran barbecue pitmasters.
Edge has been praised by the media wide and far: "Edge has quickly become the hot new voice in Southern food" says Kathleen Purvis, (Charlotte Observer) and "Edge trumps them all" says Raymond Sokolov, (Wall Street Journal). Now, this director of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture has taken on his most ambitious project to date. Southern Belly is an authoritative and comprehensive view of the food of the American South: a place-specific book that fuses good eatin' advice with entries that provide historical and cultural perspective on our appreciation of Southern standard--and not so standard--food fare.
the author
Fans of John T. Edge for years have followed his definitive yet light-hearted takes on Southern culture in such publications as Cooking Light, Food & Wine, Gourmet, The Oxford American, Saveur, and Southern Living. He hails from the oft-fabled Faulkner turf of Oxford, Mississippi, and is the author of several travel and food books including the James Beard Award-nominated, A Gracious Plenty: Recipes and Recollections from the American South. Whether high-profiling on NPR's Weekend Edition or solo traveling the back roads of the Deep South, beyond any shadow of a doubt, Edge not only knows what makes the Southern stomach growl, he lives it and breathes it and, now, shares it with us.
the praise
"John T. laughs like a hyena, is tenacious as a possum, is as clever as a squirrel, and as fun as a Jack Russell. He gets my vote for Leader of the Southern Food Pack!"—Hoppin' John Taylor
"With all the intensity and precision of a hunting dog on point, John T. Edge has adroitly exposed the great belly of the South—and to no one's surprise, found it right next to the heart and soul."—John Egerton
"I want to keep Southern Belly around for reference and rereading. That's why I keep fighting off the urge to eat it."—Roy Blount, Jr.
An enlightening, idiosyncratic spin on the culinary guidebook genre."—Creative Loafing
"John T. Edge has scoured the South in search of the soul of the region's food. In Southern Belly he serves up a mess of Dixie delight, well-seasoned with history, anecdote, opinion and wit."—Jessica B. Harris, The Welcome Table: African-American Heritage Cooking
"John T. Edge illuminates Southern history and culture in a unique way, through the lanscapes, personalities, and tastes of Southern food. Edge is one of our most original and insightful observers."—Charles Reagan Wilson, coeditor, The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture
also of interest: Southern Foodways Alliance
also of interest: Galatoire's: Biography of a Bistro