Wednesday, February 15, 2023

I Forgot

I forgot to write a post last night before I went to bed. Sorry. I don't have a lot to say, but I will give a book recommendation. This morning on my way to work, I finished listening to The Best Cook in the World by Rick Bragg. Years ago, I had read his book All Over But the Shoutin' and loved it. A friend of mine suggested that I would like The Best Cook in the World because I love southern cooking and had written and had published an essay about the recipes my grandmother handed down to me. If you have an interest in southern cooking, I think you'll like this book. Because it reminded me of my grandmother's cooking, there were parts of the book that brought tears to my eyes as I remembered her, and then, there were the stories of Bragg's relatives that often had me laughing out loud until I cried. The book really is a masterpiece of southern folklore, stories, and recipes, and yes, the recipes are included in the book. You can buy the hardcover, Kindle, or paperback and have access to the recipes written down, or you can do like I did and listen to it on audiobook with Bragg reading it. In my opinion, it is well worth it. While some of the recipes are done a bit differently from the way I learned them, this book took place in the hill country of north Alabama and not in the Black Belt of south central Alabama where I grew up. I still got a lot of enjoyment out of it, and it brought back many memories of my childhood in Alabama watching my mother and grandmother cook.

3 comments:

uvdp said...

For cuisine from the south of France, I recommend La cuisinière provençale de Reboul of 1897: https://www.amazon.fr/cuisini%C3%A8re-proven%C3%A7ale-J-B-Reboul/dp/2903963053 . This is the cookbook of my grandmother, my mother and myself.

joseph said...

Alabama, un rêve de voyage , alors pourquoi pas via la cuisine ! je suis fan des émissions culinaires , en Anglais et en Français (of course) mais les deux références sont pour la connaissance des produits même oubliés "le guide culinaire de Gaston Clément " et "La cuisine etc de Bisson" en plus de vieux grimoires juste pour mémoire, et les recettes primaires de la cuisine belge ,évidemment

Alan said...

Thanks for the book comment/recommend. I really like his works and somehow I missed knowing about this one!