The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma's Table by Rick BraggMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is longer than my teacher's 40 mile walk to school everyday that was uphill in four feet of snow. In which he had to beat off the wolves with his lunchbox.
This is a love cookbook to the hill people, and so much of it reminded me of my Great-grandmother and grandmother, who have been known to fight off garden groundhogs with hoes at age 98 and cook the best damn noodles in the whole world.
Love hearing all the recipes with butter and lard and cracklings, and how to make the best food with fresh garden ingredients and wild things found in the hills. But what excels here is really the storytelling. Rick Bragg is a wonderful storyteller and the audiobook just flows. Even the recipes aren't boring because he throws in side-bits and tries to define things like "mess of greens" according to his ancestors. He comes from a generation of cooks, male and female, and hearing the stories that come along with the food just suited me just fine. Most of the people had nothing material in his family, but the love of good food is something that made their family tick. And hard work. And government cheese. ;)
This stuff is history that we are losing as our grandparents pass on. I'm glad he wrote it down.
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