Buttermilk Graffiti

Description

Named one of Publishers Weekly's Top 10 Food Books for Spring 2018. American food is the story of mash-ups. Immigrants arrive, cultures collide, and out of the push-pull come exciting new dishes and flavors. But for Edward Lee, who, like Anthony Bourdain or Gabrielle Hamilton, is as much a writer as he is a chef, that first surprising bite is just the beginning. What about the people behind the food? What about the traditions, the innovations, the memories? A natural-born storyteller, Lee decided to hit the road and spent two years uncovering fascinating narratives from every corner of the country. There's a Cambodian couple in Lowell, Massachusetts, and their efforts to re-create the flavors of their lost country. A Uyghur caf ̌in New York's Brighton Beach serves a noodle soup that seems so very familiar and yet so very exotic-one unexpected ingredient opens a window onto an entirely unique culture. A beignet from Caf ̌du Monde in New Orleans, as potent as Proust's madeleine, inspires a narrative that tunnels through time, back to the first Creole cooks, then forward to a Korean rice-flour hoedduck and a beignet dusted with matcha. Sixteen adventures, sixteen vibrant new chapters in the great evolving story of American cuisine. And forty recipes, created by Lee, that bring these new dishes into our own kitchens.;Pilgrimage for a beignet -- The pugilist and the cook -- The unfamiliar noodle -- The accidental fast -- Exile and cigars -- Slaw dogs and pepperoni rolls -- A kibbeh in Clarksdale -- Matriarchs of Montgomery -- A lesson in smen -- Death and aquavit -- Trawling for shrimp -- The immortality of Paterson -- Nigerian hustle -- German mustard -- The palace of pastrami -- A tale of two cornbreads.