The Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky

Author:Mark Kurlansky [Kurlansky, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: food
ISBN: 9781594488658
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 2009-05-19T07:00:00+00:00

THE MIDDLE WEST EATS

ILLINOIS—responsible for the region

OHIO

INDIANA

MICHIGAN

MINNESOTA

WISCONSIN

IOWA

NEBRASKA

KANSAS

MISSOURI

SOUTH DAKOTA

NORTH DAKOTA

The Middle West

The Midwest is often thought of as the part of the country that isn’t a part of anywhere else. But midwesterners do have a sense of themselves and their own regional identity. And though today the cuisine has been ravaged by fast food, it was a region with a very strong sense of its own food. It was a simple food, based on local products and local traditions, often connected with a specific town. Sometimes it was connected with a certain immigrant group, such as Scandinavian lutefisk. But that was unusual. It was the kind of food best found in people’s homes and not restaurants. Today it is not easy to find local specialties in the Midwest, but it is surprising how strong that sense of regional cuisine was in 1940.

There are many noticeable gaps in the manuscripts left behind by the midwestern part of the project. Not only are certain states, such as Missouri, not represented, but there is nothing on Chicago, not even from Nelson Algren’s original ninety-eight-page manuscript. Had the FWP stayed together and the book been completed, such omissions doubtless would have been corrected.

But despite these deficiencies, the midwestern section seems to hold its own with as interesting and varied a cuisine as other regions, something that seems unimaginable today.

Of course, the Midwest is that part of the country that people long to leave, and midwesterners have a self-mocking charm to their humor. No other region would have produced a piece like “Nebraskans Eat the Weiners.”

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