American Food: A Not-So-Serious History
A deep dive into the backstories of American foods so ordinary we usually take them for granted, as well as the undersung Americans who made them.
Illustrated by Kimberly Ellen Hall.
Organized from A to Z, each chapter delves into the history of a classic dish, drink, icon or ingredient. From Blueberries and Fortune Cookies, to Pepperoni, Hot Wings, Shrimp and Grits, Queso, Fried Clams, Lunch Boxes, the White Russian and yes, even Xanthan Gum, read about their rich and complex back stories that are often hidden in plain sight, lost to urban myth and misinformation. Order it now from Abrams, Amazon, B&N, IndieBound, Indigo (Canada), Book Depository (International) or Booktopia (Australia).
American Food: A Not-So-Serious History, will tell you…
How the idea for the original Buffalo wing likely came from an African American, at a time when black restaurants were never covered by the mainstream press
Why the poets and passionate collectors who hang on to old metal lunchboxes are just as cool as the artifacts themselves
Why New Mexican green and red chile enchiladas aren’t Mexican but native American, and one of the United States’ first iconic dishes
How the hero, hoagie and submarine sandwich spread along the eastern seaboard with Italian longshoremen and black jazz players
How fortune cookie history lives on in a 70-year-old set of steam ovens you can walk up and touch in San Francisco, but can't be separated from the internment of Japanese Americans in WWII
How queso is not an American creation but a Mexican one, in part because South Texas used to be Mexico
How climate change is slowly claiming Massachusetts' famous Ipswich clam
How Orange Julius was the original Ray Kroc
Why Monterey Jack might save one of the last small dairy farms in the big ag belt of California's Central Coast
How xanthan gum was created in the 1950s by Allene Jeanes, one of the country’s first women to earn a medal of science from the government
How ambrosia likely wouldn't exist without an enslaved North Carolina cook named Ellen who had to cook for the head of the Confederacy
How shrimp and grits is not a Charleston dish but one from the Gullah-Geechee people of the barrier islands of the Lowcountry
Why pepperoni gets a bad rap from Italian-American food snobs
How James Beard gets credit for zucchini bread, but the 1970s ladies of Portland, Oregon might deserve it more ..