Cornbread Nation

How does Southern food look from the outside? The form is caught in constantly dueling stereotypes: It's so often imagined as either the touchingly down-home feast or the heartstopping health scourge of a nation. But as any Southern transplant will tell you once they've spent time in the region, Southerners share their lives in food, with a complex mix of stories of belonging and not belonging and of traditions that form identities of many kinds. Cornbread Nation 7, edited by Francis Lam, brings together the best Southern food writing from recent years, including well-known food writers such as Sara Roahen and Brett Anderson, a couple of classic writers such as Langston Hughes, and some newcomers. The collection, divided into five sections ("Come In and Stay Awhile," "Provisions and Providers," "Five Ways of Looking at Southern Food," "The South, Stepping Out," and "Southerners Going Home"), tells the stories both of Southerners as they move through the world and of those who ended up in the South. It explores from where and from whom food comes, and it looks at what food means to culture and how it relates to home.

Introduction / Francis Lam -- Come in and stay awhile -- We Waited as Long as We Could / Daniel Patterson -- Restaurant / Susan Orlean -- Stuffed, Smothered, Z'herbes / Sara Roahen -- What I Cook Is Who I Am / Edward Lee -- God Has Assholes for Children / Eddie Huang -- You Have to Fall in Love with Your Pot / As told to Sara Wood by Ida MaMusu -- Around the World in Eight Shops / Kathleen Purvis -- That's Your Country / As told to Sara Wood by Argentina Ortega -- Friends and Families / Nikki Metzgar -- The Perfect Chef / Todd Kliman -- Provisions and providers -- Nature's Spoils / Burkhard Bilger -- I Had a Farm in Atlanta / John T. Edge -- The Price of Tomatoes / Barry Estabrook -- Working in the Shadows / Gabriel Thompson -- The Celebrity Shepherd / Besha Rodell -- The Triumph of Jamie Oliver's "Nemesis" / Jane Black -- Grabbing Dinner / Bill Heavey -- Hogzilla / Dan Baum -- A Taste for the Hunt / Jonathan Miles -- Eat Dessert First / Robb Walsh -- Anyone and Everyone Is Welcome / As told to Francis Lam by Sue Nguyen -- Five ways of looking at Southern food -- The Great Leveler / Julia Reed -- The Post-Husk Era / Robert Moss -- Ode to Gumbo / Kevin Young -- Mother Corn and the …