Rating: 
Summary: Not A Cook Book; It's A Fabulous Food Book
Review: Anyone searching for cook books should be fascinated with John T.'s food documentary The Southern Belly. If you love the Southern food traditions you'll devour every page and be inclined to jump in your car to search out the source of the marvelous food he describes. Want Southern recipes? Buy Emeril or Justin Wilson. Want to learn more about how food shapes a culture? Read The Southern Belly. You'll savor every delicious word.
Rating:
Summary: Not just a southern Road Food
Review: Hunger is never a simple matter in the South and unlike other road food books, this one is not only concerned with what's on the plate, but also with the how and why and by-whose-grace it got there. Yes, you'll find out what you need to know about (and where to get a great taste of) Kentucky beer cheese, Big Bob Gibson coconut pie and great barbecue in Birmingham. But you'll also meet the people who make and eat this food, and learn the history -- some bitter, some sweet -- that lies enticingly behind it. The ability to notice and relate social/political/spirtual undercurrents behing the food of the South is what makes John T. Edge and Southern Belly such great companions both for the road or simply dreaming about it.
Rating: 
Summary: Cutesy reviews of Interesting Restaurants
Review: I purcahsed this hoping it to be similar to "Backroad Buffets and Country Cafes." Instead, Edge is more intersted in telling annoying stories rather discuss the food of the restaurants he has chosen. The author's style stinks with an obsessive use of alliteration--and how many times can one use "porcine" to describe barbecued hogs? Finally, and especially irritating, is Edge's constant injection of racial commentary on dining in the South in the era of segregation. I did not buy this book to read about defunct cafes that have historical significance in the Civil Rights movement or any other movement. Rather, I bought it as a travel guide for fun dining. If a guidebook is what you want, get O'Briant's book--more restaurants, no prententious babble.
Rating:
Summary: Top of the Southern food chain!
Review: If you eat, you're gonna want a few copies of this book. One for the house, one for the glove box, and you probably know a couple people who would just love to find a copy under the tree come Christmas. As director of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi, John T. Edge knows his subject. But while his knowledge of Southern foodlore is impressively deep and wide, don't think for a minute that this is a scholarly tome filled with academic jargon and lofty observations--nothing like it. In pursuit of his quest, John T. is not a man afraid of getting his hands dirty. Or his elbows. Or his shirt front, when you get down to it. A native Southerner, John T. Edge stands firm and proud in the face of the Macdonalds and Burger Kings goosestepping through the heart of Dixie. The moral fire of his paean to butter pats offers up testimony to his eye for detail and the purity of his vision. "I fell in love with the Waysider soon after I reached for a pat of butter to slather on one of those thin tiles of coarse cornbread they serve hereabouts. Miracle of miracles, it was just that: a pat of butter, a lemony yellow square of salted, churned cream, sandwiched between a white cardboard base and a thin slip of wax paper. These days most restaurants stock little plastic tubs of margarine emblazoned with names that read like false promises: Country Crock, Farm Churn, and I Can't Believe It's not Butter." John T. gets beyond the barbeque and biscuits reportage of the food magazine writers who figure if they've eaten a slaw dog at the Varsity they've done their slumming in the South. I bet you don't know what a scuppernong or Tabasco mash is. He does. He ain't too proud to eat a pig ear sandwich. He knows the difference between eastern style and western style North Carolina barbeque. And he has a passion for potlikker that would make an alcoholic blush. John T. also has a native's understanding of what the South actually is, instead of what sentimental hogwash like Steel Magnolia's would have us think it is. Sure, people named Ballery Bully and Addie Williams contribute to the story of Southern food. But so do people named Rocky Tommaseo: "The first bite (of Wop salad) explodes in your mouth. Like steam rising off Louisiana blacktop after a summer shower..." And people named Kim Wong: "I'm really proud of my chicken cracklins. Woks make the difference. They cook the cracklins more evenly in less oil.'" John T. doesn't shy away from looking at the less savory aspects of Southern history. An interview with Lawrence Craig gets right to the point. "Folks always talk about how black folks are good cooks. There's a reason for that. Back when I was growing up there were two kinds of jobs black folks could get without being challenged by white folks: cooking and heavy lifting. Folks though black folks could cook--same as they thought black folks could sing and dance..." He'll tell you about the fine eating at Ollie's Barbeque outside Birmingham, Alabama. He'll also let you know that Ollie McClung filed suit in federal court in 1964 to prevent integration of his restaurant. He goes further, quoting Ollie's son: "It was about race and then again it wasn't. On a deeper level it was about whether the federal government could intrude on the day to day operations of a small business. Before `64 if I had been conscience stricken enough to serve blacks in my restaurant, I would have. I wasn't, mind you." However we may regard the attitudes of people like the McClung's, their story indicates that Southern history, like Southern food, isn't as simple as it may seem. I'd love to go on and tell you about Lindsey's bereavement platters, Jackson cumback sauce, and Something Better than Barbeque, but you're just gonna have to buy the daggum book.
Rating:
Summary: Top of the Southern food chain!
Review: If you eat, you're gonna want a few copies of this book. One for the house, one for the glove box, and you probably know a couple people who would just love to find a copy under the tree come Christmas. As director of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi, John T. Edge knows his subject. But while his knowledge of Southern foodlore is impressively deep and wide, don't think for a minute that this is a scholarly tome filled with academic jargon and lofty observations--nothing like it. In pursuit of his quest, John T. is not a man afraid of getting his hands dirty. Or his elbows. Or his shirt front, when you get down to it. A native Southerner, John T. Edge stands firm and proud in the face of the Macdonalds and Burger Kings goosestepping through the heart of Dixie. The moral fire of his paean to butter pats offers up testimony to his eye for detail and the purity of his vision. "I fell in love with the Waysider soon after I reached for a pat of butter to slather on one of those thin tiles of coarse cornbread they serve hereabouts. Miracle of miracles, it was just that: a pat of butter, a lemony yellow square of salted, churned cream, sandwiched between a white cardboard base and a thin slip of wax paper. These days most restaurants stock little plastic tubs of margarine emblazoned with names that read like false promises: Country Crock, Farm Churn, and I Can't Believe It's not Butter." John T. gets beyond the barbeque and biscuits reportage of the food magazine writers who figure if they've eaten a slaw dog at the Varsity they've done their slumming in the South. I bet you don't know what a scuppernong or Tabasco mash is. He does. He ain't too proud to eat a pig ear sandwich. He knows the difference between eastern style and western style North Carolina barbeque. And he has a passion for potlikker that would make an alcoholic blush. John T. also has a native's understanding of what the South actually is, instead of what sentimental hogwash like Steel Magnolia's would have us think it is. Sure, people named Ballery Bully and Addie Williams contribute to the story of Southern food. But so do people named Rocky Tommaseo: "The first bite (of Wop salad) explodes in your mouth. Like steam rising off Louisiana blacktop after a summer shower..." And people named Kim Wong: "I'm really proud of my chicken cracklins. Woks make the difference. They cook the cracklins more evenly in less oil.'" John T. doesn't shy away from looking at the less savory aspects of Southern history. An interview with Lawrence Craig gets right to the point. "Folks always talk about how black folks are good cooks. There's a reason for that. Back when I was growing up there were two kinds of jobs black folks could get without being challenged by white folks: cooking and heavy lifting. Folks though black folks could cook--same as they thought black folks could sing and dance..." He'll tell you about the fine eating at Ollie's Barbeque outside Birmingham, Alabama. He'll also let you know that Ollie McClung filed suit in federal court in 1964 to prevent integration of his restaurant. He goes further, quoting Ollie's son: "It was about race and then again it wasn't. On a deeper level it was about whether the federal government could intrude on the day to day operations of a small business. Before '64 if I had been conscience stricken enough to serve blacks in my restaurant, I would have. I wasn't, mind you." However we may regard the attitudes of people like the McClung's, their story indicates that Southern history, like Southern food, isn't as simple as it may seem. I'd love to go on and tell you about Lindsey's bereavement platters, Jackson cumback sauce, and Something Better than Barbeque, but you're just gonna have to buy the daggum book.
Rating: 
Summary: The Ultimate Food Lover's Companion to the South
Review: In the spirit of Ed Levine's New York Eats, Calvin Trillin's American Fried, and Patricia Wells' Food Lover's Guide to Paris--a Southern first! In the pages of Southern Belly, Southern food culture chronicler John T. Edge does more than simply steer you to good eats. Much more than your ordinary guidebook grocery list of every smoke shack from Hattiesburg to Hahira, Southern Belly tells the story behind the food, people, and places that heve become Southern institutions. More than 200 entries run the gamut from chicken shacks, fish camps, and meat'n'three joints to profiles of civil rights leaders and veteran barbecue pitmasters. Edge has been praised by the media wide and far: "Edge has quickly become the hot new voice in Southern food" says Kathleen Purvis, (Charlotte Observer) and "Edge trumps them all" says Raymond Sokolov, (Wall Street Journal). Now, this director of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture has taken on his most ambitious project to date. Southern Belly is an authoritative and comprehensive view of the food of the American South: a place-specific book that fuses good eatin' advice with entries that provide historical and cultural perspective on our appreciation of Southern standard--and not so standard--food fare. Fans of John T. Edge for years have followed his definitive yet light-hearted takes on Southern culture in such publications as Cooking Light, Food & Wine, Gourmet, the Oxford American, Saveur, and Southern Living. He hails from the oft-fabled Faulkner turf of Oxford, Mississippi, and is the author of several travel and food books including the James Beard Award-nominated, A Gracious Plenty: Recipes and Recollections from the American South. Whether high-profiling on NPR's Weekend Edition or solo traveling the back roads of the Deep South, beyond any shadow of a doubt, Edge not only knows what makes the Southern stomach growl, he lives it and breathes it and, now, shares it with us. Advance Praise for Southern Belly: "John T. laughs like a hyena, is tenacious as a possum, is as clever as a squirrel, and as fun as a Jack Russell. He gets my vote for the leader of the southern food pack!" -Hoppin' John Taylor "With all the intensity and precision of a hunting dog on point, John T. Edge has adroitly exposed the great belly of the South--and to no one's surprise, found it right next to the heart and soul." -John Egerton "I want to keep Southern Belly around for reference and rereading. That's why I keep fighting off the urge to eat it." -Roy Blount, Jr. "John T. Edge has scoured the South in search of the soul of the region's food. In Southern Belly he serves up a mess of Dixie delight, well-seasoned with history, anecdote, opinion, and wit." -Jessica B. Harris, The Welcome Table: African- American Heritage Cooking "John T. Edge illuminates Southern history and culture in a unique way, through the landscapes, personalities, and tastes of Southern food. Edge is one of our most original and insightful observers." -Charles Reagan Wilson, coeditor, The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Food Lover's Companion to the South
Review: One of those books you'll want two copies of, one for the kitchen and one for the car. John T. Edge's Southern Belly is indeed the Ultimate Food Lover's Companion to the South. The book combines insightful dining guides to the individual Southern States plus sidebars on tamales in the Delta, New Orleans po' boys, fish camps, and the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken, to name just a few. Edge knows what he's talking about. He's the director of the Southern Foodways Symposium (sort of the heavy-weight championship bout of Southern food) and is author of the equally recommended A Gracious Plenty. Plan on getting this book good and greasy.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Food Lover's Companion to the South
Review: One of those books you'll want two copies of, one for the kitchen and one for the car. John T. Edge's Southern Belly is indeed the Ultimate Food Lover's Companion to the South. The book combines insightful dining guides to the individual Southern States plus sidebars on tamales in the Delta, New Orleans po' boys, fish camps, and the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken, to name just a few. Edge knows what he's talking about. He's the director of the Southern Foodways Symposium (sort of the heavy-weight championship bout of Southern food) and is author of the equally recommended A Gracious Plenty. Plan on getting this book good and greasy.
Rating:
Summary: The burnt ends of food books
Review: Southern Belly is to food books what "burnt ends" are to barbecue: chewy, smoky, tender and tasty. John T. Edge understands that food = culture, and he captures the sum of that equation with efficient writing, colorful storytelling, and an obvious affection for his subject matter. It's a nifty travel book that would serve quite nicely as a guide to The South. And it's a well-researched antropological study that traces the history and status of the region's culinary traditions. But mostly it's a love story. If you love food, if you love America, and especially if you love American food, you'll love Southern Belly.
Rating:
Summary: The burnt ends of food books
Review: Southern Belly is to food books what "burnt ends" are to barbecue: chewy, smoky, tender and tasty. John T. Edge understands that food = culture, and he captures the sum of that equation with efficient writing, colorful storytelling, and an obvious affection for his subject matter. It's a nifty travel book that would serve quite nicely as a guide to The South. And it's a well-researched antropological study that traces the history and status of the region's culinary traditions. But mostly it's a love story. If you love food, if you love America, and especially if you love American food, you'll love Southern Belly.
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