What's Eating America

Rating:
Summary: What real people are saying and what they like to eat
Review: Gina Gigli artfully combines her famous illustrations with a survey she conducted travelling across America, the comfort foods people find appealing (and how to prepare some of them), and the current/historical significance of the foods we eat. This is a charming book about heartland opinions-people openly talk about their views of America's involvement in Iraq and, to assauge thoughts of war, comment on the foods that comfort them in times of insecurity. As an added bonus, the author weaves into her story facts and background information about our most basic, and underrated, foods. The book will make you pause and think about the social aspects of food in our lives and the declining importance Americans place on its social value. The interviewees and the author's husband share their simple recipes. The facts and commentary in this book, as well as the interesting ways to prepare different foods, are thought provoking. It's not really an artistic cookbook like Gina Gigli's Poco Pane, Poco Vino, but similarly, she has given us the tools to prepare some unique and delicious foods, as well as the elements for an interesting dinner table discussion. This is a book I will definitely keep in my libary and will recommend to friends.