About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 4, 2000)
Food for the Heart, Soul and Body Southern Belly: The Ultimate Food Lover's Companion to the South Hill Street Press, 2000 270 pp., $24.95 We Athenians know what it is like to appre ciate good food. Whether it is the fried chicken at Weaver D's, the mashed potatoes at Five Star Day Cafe or the macaroni and cheese at the Grit, we have grown accustomed to filling our bellies with contentment every corner we turn. Well, John T. Edge, author of Southern Belly: The Ultimate Food Lover's Companion to the South, a newly published book from Athens' own Hill Street Press, set out to find restaurants that would do just that—provide a way to define our culture through history and food. He embarked on a journey to discover great Southern food while digging through the gravy and barbecue sauce to find the history behind each memorable place. Yeah, I know, where do we sign up for this kind of job? Well, quite frankly, John T. Edge proves to be the only one who has such an impressive ability to deliver poignant social com mentary on each place he visits. He cares about the hands that prepared each meal, the lunch counters that were integrated and the people who have made an impact on the community they serve. He uses this background as a focus rather than giving us food descriptions alone. "For me, food is a great way of thinking about the region in which I live," Edge says. Southern Belly is not a travelogue across the South. In fact, it is not even a guidebook. Instead, it is a glimpse at the souls of folks— hometown heroes—who deliver not only hot lunches, but history and a sense of place to go along with each delightful spoonful. Edge has a purpose: "If I did my job well, this book should read like a social history of Southern food. Not a history of the conven tional kind mind you, fraught with dense academic jargon and foot notes. But a mosaic-like portrait of the South as told through its foods, a pastiche of people and places that sates both mind and belly." He succeeds by utilizing Southern Belly’s unique concept to present memories and folklore about food to describe the South. Whether it is the "plywood booths" and "orange swivel chairs" at the Snappy Lunch Cafe in Mt. Airy, NC, or Shirley "tending the fryers" at Brantley's in Ashland City, TN, Edge makes you feel these places—allows you to "belong" as a local would. Where exactly did John T. Edge gain such admiration for food? If you browse through the pages, he gives you many hints. In fact, he documents decades of his life by *he food he ate—from the sweet tea and barbecue at Old Clinton Barbecue, through his teen years eating chili and "slaw-capped" dogs from Nu-Way Wieners in Macon, to fried chicken at Deacon Burton's in Atlanta in his early 20s. Although he claims to have been a "corporate swine" for 10 years, he admits driving to restaurants as far as an hour away during this time to fulfill his cravings for barbecue or whate/er else his heart desired that particular day. The food definitely started the wheels turning, but his honest interest in people helped to create what we now know as Southern Belly. Those who know the South well know that it is a region of eclectic tastes and dramatic sto ries. Edge recalls Georgia Gilmore, an African- American woman whose "culinary skills con tributed to the cause of justice as she actively worked to encourage civil rights for the remainder of her life " and who "raised money for bus boycotts by baking cakes and pies." Beyond civil rights history. Edge examines immigration and the migrant workers who brought their own history to the South. Examples can be found at Kim's Pork Rinds where Kim Wong, a native of China, prepares "cracklins" for the people of Clarkesdale, MS. He dissects the origins of hot tamales in the Mississippi Delta and explores Greek and Italian influences throughout the South. Overall, Edge creates a book mixed with inter esting tastes and cultures molded together to give meaning to food in the South—something he says gets at the "bigger issues in life like race, gender and class." Edge continues his dedication to food by serving as director of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi. The mis sion of the SFA "is to celebrate, preserve, promote, and nurture the traditional and developing diverse food culture of the American South." Overall, Edge has helped readers understand that food is not just what we put in our mouths, it is a way to tell a story, to entertain and please and most importantly, to educate and learn. His book does all this with great tasting food and mean ingful stories that explore culture, community and experience. Southern Belly is a delicious read that leaves you hungry for more. 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