American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classic Recipes Book

The foodie and the avid reader in me did a little happy dance over this book.

This book is an anthology with classic recipes sprinkled throughout. It's not a cookbook. Rather, it's an anthology featuring accounts of "iconic American foods" by some well-known writers:

**Henry David Thoreau writes about the delights of bread and watermelon.

**Herman Melville writes about the glories clam chowder.

**H. L. Mencken immortalizes the hot dog.

**M.F.K. Fisher writes in praise of the oyster.

**Ralph Ellison waxes poetic over baked yams.

**William Styron praises Southern fried chicken.

**John Steinbeck presents an ode to breakfast.

And the list goes on, with writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Walt Whitman, Thomas Wolfe, Willa Cather, and Langston Hughes. Plus, travelers to America, like the legendary French gourmet J.A. Brillat-Savarin write about their discovering American dishes such as Virginia barbeque, pumpkin pie, and turkey. Further, great chefs like Julia Child as well as food critics discuss their food philosophies and some of the finer points of different cooking techniques while also discussing both home cooking disasters and triumphs.

The book explores the history of American food from coast to coast as well as explores the roots of many ethnic traditions, including Cuban, Italian, Jewish, Chinese, Japanese, and Scandinavian, to name just a few, that have been absorbed into American food culture.

This is a book you can really sink your teeth into! Well, maybe it would be better to sink our teeth into some of the recipes included.