Eat Drink Delta: A Hungry Traveler's Journey Through the Soul of the South (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780820344256)

The Mississippi Delta is a complicated and fascinating place. Part travel guide, part cookbook, and part photo essay, Eat Drink Delta by veteran food journalist Susan Puckett (with photographs by Delta resident Langdon Clay) reveals a region shaped by slavery, civil rights, amazing wealth, abject deprivation, the Civil War, a flood of biblical proportions, and--above all--an overarching urge to get down and party with a full table and an open bar.

There's more to Delta dining than southern standards. Puckett uncovers the stories behind convenience stores where dill pickles marinate in Kool-Aid and diners where tabouli appears on plates with fried chicken. She celebrates the region's hot tamale makers who follow the time-honored techniques that inspired many a blues lyric. And she introduces us to a new crop of Delta chefs who brine chicken in sweet tea and top stone-ground Mississippi grits with local pond-raised prawns and tomato confit. The guide also provides a taste of events such as Belzoni's World Catfish Festival and Tunica's Wild Game Cook-Off and offers dozens of tested recipes, including the Memphis barbecue pizza beloved by Elvis and a lemon ice-box pie inspired by Tennessee Williams.

To William Faulkner's suggestion, "To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi," Susan Puckett adds this advice: Go to the Delta with an open mind and an empty stomach. Make your way southward in a journey measured in meals, not miles.

Author: Susan Puckett
ISBN-10: 0820344257
ISBN-13: 9780820344256
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Language: English
Published: 01/25/2013
Pages: 296
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.50lbs
Size: 9.00h x 7.20w x 0.70d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 01/01/2013 pg. 104