Book Review: Food of a Younger Land

I love this book. I didn't understand until it came to me that Mark Kurlansky is not the 'author' of this book. He's a wonderful writer, but this book is different than Salt or Cod.He's the editor of a wonderful selection of food writing, from recipes to essays to cultural reports from the lost WPA files. The sales blurb doesn't really do it justice, because it describes "A portrait of American food–before the national highway system, before chain restaurants, and before frozen food, when the nation’s food was seasonal, regional, and traditional–from the lost WPA files." I'm a nerd even that sounds like a big SNORE to me. It makes the book sound as though you're going to be knee deep in the process of food and highways, but instead it is a free-for-all. Imagine going into the archives of the WPA and coming out with gobs of food writing-- recipes, oral histories, lists and off the wall accounts that detail both culture and context for everything from chowders to cakes. If you have any interest in history or food or both... dive in. It's such a crazy, diverse collection, but wonderful and revealing and ... even familiar. You'll find yourself or your family at some point. I found my family, unexpectedly... My grandmother used to make my mom run down and find a neighbor to come to dinner when she counted and figured out they had an unlucky 13.

And by the way... where's the WPA now? Can you imagine what would happen if we put all the out of work writers to work on something now? How about teaching poetry, or short-story writing, or the art of the spoken word to third graders? I'm in...