cover image Roadside Food: Good Home-Style Cooking Across America

Roadside Food: Good Home-Style Cooking Across America

LeRoy Woodson. Stewart, Tabori, & Chang, $14.95 (160pp) ISBN 978-0-941434-68-3

This book takes us across America's back roads in search of distinctive, authentic traditions in cooking, defined variously as ""homestyle cooking the old fashioned way'' and ``the basic American meal, the real thing.'' The entertaining essays, by 10 journalists and authors, focus anecdotally, often personally, on distinct American classicsthe Donut, the Hamburger, the Special. Other foods covered range from Maine Lobster to Cajun gumbo to the New York City frankfurter. The emphasis is on cultural, rather than culinary, traditions, and Woodson's color photographs offer a vivid, intimate accompaniment. (July)