Fried Chicken: An American StoryWhat could be a more fun and delicious way to celebrate American culture than through the lore of our favorite foods? That's what John T. Edge does in his smart, witty, and compulsively readable new series on the dishes everyone thinks their mom made best. If these are the best-loved American foods-ones so popular they've come to represent us-what does that tell us about ourselves? And what do the history of the dish and the regional variations reveal? There are few aspects of life that carry more emotional weight and symbolism than food, and in writing about our food icons, Edge gives us a warm and wonderful portrait of America -by way of our taste buds. After all, "What is patriotism, but nostalgia for the foods of our youth?" as a Chinese philosopher once asked. In Fried Chicken, Edge tells an immensely entertaining tale of a beloved dish with a rich history. Freed slaves cooked it to sell through the windows of train cars from railroad platforms in whistle-stop towns. Children carried it in shoe boxes on long journeys. A picnic basket isn't complete without it. It is a dish that is deeply Southern, and yet it is cooked passionately across the country. And what about the variations? John T. Edge weaves a beguiling tapestry of food and culture as he takes us from a Jersey Shore hotel to a Kansas City roadhouse, from the original Buffalo wings to KFC, from Nashville Hot Chicken to haute fried chicken at a genteel Southern inn. And, best of all, he gives us fifteen of the ultimate recipes along the way. |
Contents
Wherein I Argue for a New Theory of Fried Chicken | 1 |
Skillet Sisters of the Chalfonte Hotel | 9 |
Pahovana Piletina Thats Fried Chicken to You | 19 |
Talking Trash and Chicken with the King of the Mutts | 29 |
Viva Pollo Campero | 39 |
Of Wattles and Waffles | 51 |
CockADoodle Dont | 63 |
Austin Leslie Creole Comet | 75 |
The Chicken Bone Express | 97 |
Chasing Chicken on a Slow Time Sunday Morning | 107 |
On the Wings of Mother Teressa | 117 |
The Bouglean Conceit | 129 |
The Coronation of a Kansas City Roadhouse Queen | 139 |
Seoul Food | 149 |
A Sonnet in Two Birds | 157 |
A Chicken Coda | 167 |
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Common terms and phrases
½ cup African American American fried chicken Anchor Bar Atlanta atop Austin Leslie Barberton chicken batter Belgrade Gardens bird black pepper Bouglea bowl breast Buffalo chicken wings Buffalo wings Burton's Grill buttermilk Chalfonte chef chicken and waffles chicken pieces Chicken Shack cookery Creole crust cup all-purpose flour dark meat Deacon Burton deep-fried dish Drain drumstick fast-food Fleer fry cooks fryer garlic Georgia Gordonsville gravy Gus's Harlan Sanders heat Helen honey Hot Chicken hot sauce Italian Ivano Kansas City Kentucky Fried Chicken kitchen lard lemon Louisiana Luciano lunch marinade Minnie Pearl Minnie Pearl's minutes Nashville onions Orleans Parish Peanut oil Pollo Campero poultry pounds recipe restaurant roadhouse Roscoe's salt and pepper seasoning served shake off excess skillet slices South Southern story tablespoon salt talk taste tell Tennessee Teressa thermometer registers 170 thigh tradition waiter-carriers white meat wire rack women