Paul and Angela Knipple’s culinary tour of the contemporary American South celebrates the flourishing of global food traditions “down home.” Drawing on their firsthand interviews and reportage from Richmond to Mobile and enriched by a cornucopia of photographs and original recipes, the Knipples present engaging, poignant profiles of a host of first-generation immigrants from all over the world who are cooking their way through life as professional chefs, food entrepreneurs and restaurateurs, and home cooks.
Beginning the tour with an appreciation of the South’s foundational food traditions–including Native American, Creole, African American, and Cajun–the Knipples tell the fascinating stories of more than forty immigrants who now call the South home. Not only do their stories trace the continuing evolution of southern foodways, they also show how food is central to the immigrant experience. For these skillful, hardworking immigrants, food provides the means for both connecting with the American dream and maintaining cherished ethnic traditions. Try Father Vien’s Vietnamese-style pickled mustard greens, Don Felix’s pork ribs, Elizabeth Kizito’s Ugandan-style plantains in peanut sauce, or Uli Bennevitz’s creamy beer soup and taste the world without stepping north of the Mason-Dixon line.
The first guidebook of its kind for the Volunteer State, Farm Fresh Tennessee leads food lovers, families, locals, and tourists on a lively tour of more than 360 farms and farm-related attractions, all open to the public and all visited by Memphis natives Paul and Angela Knipple. Here are the perfect opportunities to browse a farmers’ market, pick blueberries, tour a small-batch distillery, stay at an elegant inn, send the kids to a camp where they’ll eat snacks of homemade biscuits with farm-fresh honey–and so much more. Arranged by the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee (East, Middle, and West) and nine categories of interest, the listings invite readers to connect with Tennessee’s farms, emphasizing establishments that are independent, sustainable, and active in public education and conservation.
Sidebars tell how to find pop-up markets, showcase local food initiatives, and celebrate the work and lives of local farmers. Thirteen recipes gathered by the authors on their Tennessee travels offer farm-fresh tastes.
For Memphis natives Paul and Angela Knipple, enjoying “that steamy sweet white meat encased in golden crisp cornmeal was just a part of our childhoods.” Other fish, from bream and crappie to bass, trout, and shad, are popular in the South, but none of them, the Knipples observe, have settled as thoroughly in southern culture as the humble, bewhiskered, bottom-dwelling catfish. In Catfish, the Knipples share their family memories of catching and eating this most beloved of southern fish while also painting a portrait of its culinary and natural history and its place in southern culture and foodways. Including easy-to-use instructions for how to purchase, prepare, and cook catfish, the volume features 56 recipes highlighting the fish’s astonishing versatility–from such southern classics as Catfish Po’ Boy and Catfish Gumbo, to the global flavors of Catfish Bánh Mi and Nigerian Catfish Stew. Worth the price of admission alone are the recipes for fried catfish five ways, along with recipes for all the traditional sides, including slaw, hushpuppies, and tartar sauce–all you will need to cook a plate worthy of a real southern fish shack.