![]() ![]() The country’s massive network of highways hadn’t been built. ![]() This was the 1930s, when regional differences were stark and pride for one’s culinary traditions ran deep. Greg Morago is the Chronicle’s food editor. Kurlansky sifted through these lost WPA files to create a book that looks at a seemingly lost time in American eating. If there ever was a time we need a recipe for Depression Cake, it’s now. The Food of a Younger Land comes at a time when America is interested in seasonal, locally grown produce and, once again, faces a sagging economy. While you don’t need an essay on the Automat to tell you times have changed, the book’s piece on the famous coin-operated food-dispensing restaurant is like stepping into a culinary time warp. But the pieces also speak volumes on the way we ate before the Food Network: squirrel stew, oyster roasts, pulled candy, lutefisk suppers, vinegar pie, beaver tails and poke sallit. ![]() A remarkable portrait of American food before World War. Kurlansky, author of fascinating histories of foodstuffs such as cod, salt and oysters, supplies context and background to these essays and recipes from writers forgotten and writers celebrated (Eudora Welty and Zora Neale Hurston were on the America Eats project). Read 419 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. The book is a delectable slice of culinary anthropology. Food writer Mark Kurlansky unearthed that treasure trove of culinary Americana - everything from Arkansas ash cakes and Arizona menudo patties to Vermont sugaring and Wisconsin sourdough pancakes - represented in The Food of a Younger Land. ![]()
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