Synopses & Reviews
Antarctica, the last place on Earth, is not famous for its cuisine. Yet it is famous for stories of heroic expeditions in which hunger was the one spice everyone carried. At the dawn of Antarctic cuisine, cooks improvised under inconceivable hardships, castaways ate seal blubber and penguin breasts while fantasizing about illustrious feasts, and men seeking the South Pole stretched their rations to the breaking point. Today, Antarcticaandrsquo;s kitchens still wait for provisions at the far end of the planetandrsquo;s longest supply chain. Scientific research stations serve up cafeteria fare that often offers more sustenance than style. Jason C. Anthony, a veteran of eight seasons in the U.S. Antarctic Program, offers a rare workaday look at the importance of food in Antarctic history and culture.and#160;Anthonyandrsquo;s tour of Antarctic cuisine takes us from hoosh (a porridge of meat, fat, and melted snow, often thickened with crushed biscuit) and the scurvy-ridden expeditions of Shackleton and Scott through the twentieth century to his own preplanned three hundred meals (plus snacks) for a two-person camp in the Transantarctic Mountains. The stories in
Hoosh are linked by the ingenuity, good humor, and indifference to gruel that make Anthonyandrsquo;s tale as entertaining as it is enlightening.
Review
“Fried biscuits, Creole-style spaghetti, carrot shavings in Jell-O, and perfect peach cobbler—this is the food that haunts midwesterners throughout their lives, and its inspired a collection of evocative essays by some of the region's most appealing writers.”—Laura Shapiro, author of Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America Shelf Awareness
Review
“Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie—what an eyeful! I so enjoyed reading these personal accounts of midwestern foods and the stories they tell, which is food plus people, place, and history. As Peggy Wolff says at the start, food is not just food; its the experience that counts—where you are and who you are with. And that is just what these stories are about: the bigger picture of food that makes its memory poignant and worth telling.”—Deborah Madison, author of Vegetable Literacy Laura Shapiro
Review
"A brilliant collection of Heartland food stories."and#8212;Publishers Weekly
Review
"This anthology of essays on the Midwest's best and most unpretentious foods should go a long way toward regaining the respect the heartland's cuisine ought to enjoy."and#8212;Mark Knoblauch, Booklist
Review
andquot;A delectable read, sprinkled with recipes and generous helpings of fun and plenty of food for thought.andquot;andmdash;Graciela Monday, Library Journal
Review
"Thoughtful, addicting."—Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune Graciela Monday - Library Journal
Review
"A nostalgic trip through Middle America."—Shelf Awareness Christopher Borrelli - Chicago Tribune
Review
andquot;Heartland natives will embrace the recipes, if not the remembrances of State Fair corn dogs and Lake Michigan fish boils, German kuchen and tamales eaten on Chicagoandrsquo;s Maxwell Street, a.k.a. andquot;the Ellis Island of the Midwest.andquot;andquot;andmdash;Jenny Rosenstrach, New York Times
Review
"Thoughtful, addicting."and#8212;Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune
Review
andquot;A nostalgic trip through Middle America.andquot;andmdash;Shelf Awareness
Review
andquot;Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie reads like a feast and roundtrip combined taking in Iowa . . . and skirting the andquot;tan landscapeandquot; of the andquot;Corn Beltandquot;. The books ends in a selection of desserts, allowing Peggy Woolf to reminisce about pie, stuffed with fruits of Wisconsin . . . plucked from the tops of sunbathed trees.andquot;andmdash;Times Literary Supplement
Review
"What ultimately ensures this unlikely book's appeal to a larger audience than armchair Antarctophiles and demented foodies is that Anthony is a fine, visceral writer and a witty observer. He paints his cast of questers with a Monty-Pythonesque brush, but balances the telling with a refusal to sneer or giggle. He demonstrates genuine respect, compassion and a kind of hopeless love for his quixotic subjects and their grandiose, miserable hungers."and#8212;Rebecca P. Sinkler,and#160;New York Times Book Review
Review
"What distinguishes Anthony's perceptive retelling of Antartic talesand#8212;besides the obvious focus on foodand#8212;is his ability to seamlessly weave details drawn from his own experience into heroic-age tales."and#8212;Peter Andrey Smith, Orion
Review
"[Hoosh is]and#160;a singular, engrossing take on a region that until now has been mostly documented from a scientific angle or romanticized by adventurers."and#8212;Kirkus
Review
"Beyond his own experience, Anthony's knowledge and research is deep, detailing the role of food in historic expeditions both well known . . . and not, including Japanese and Scottish efforts that have rarely been noticed. He also reviews the mid-20th-century adventures of Byrd, Ellsworth, Ronne, and others. Viewing each expedition through the lens of food offers great insight into the people who were really the most important members of those groups: not the leaders whose names we know well, but the cooks, about whom the public knows next to nothing."and#8212;Jeff Inglis, Portland Pheonix
Review
andquot;[Hoosh is] a jaunty history of Antarctic exploration and personal experience from a food perspective.andquot;andmdash;Stephen Downes, Australian
Review
andquot;One of the most enthralling studies of gastronomy ever published.andquot;andmdash;Christopher Hirst, London Independent
Synopsis
With its corn by the acre, beef on the hoof, Quaker Oats, and Kraft Mac nand#8217; Cheese, the Midwest eats pretty well and feeds the nation on the side. But thereand#8217;s more to the midwestern kitchen and palate than the farm food and sizable portions the region is best known for beyond its borders. It is to these heartland specialties, from the heartwarming to the downright weird, that
Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie invites the reader.and#160;
The volume brings to the table an illustrious gathering of thirty midwestern writers with something to say about the gustatory pleasures and peculiarities of the region. In a meditation on comfort food, Elizabeth Berg recalls her auntand#8217;s meatloaf. Stuart Dybek takes us on a school field trip to a slaughtering house, while Peter Sagal grapples with the ethics of patand#233;. Parsing Cincinnati five-way chili, Robert Olmstead digresses into questions of Aztec culture. Harry Mark Petrakis reflects on owning a South Side Chicago lunchroom, while Bonnie Jo Campbell nurses a sweet tooth through a fudge recipe in the Joy of Cooking and Lorna Landvik nibbles her way through the Minnesota State Fair. These are just a sampling of what makes Fried Walleye and Cherry Pieand#8212;with its generous helpings of laughter, culinary confession, and informationand#8212;an irresistible literary feast.
About the Author
and#160;Peggy Wolff has written on food and food culture for publications including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, and Orlando Sentinel. She is the food editor for REALIZE Magazine.and#160;