Donuts: An American Passion by John Edge

Take some dough, fry it, and then douse it in sugar. You now have the donut (doughnut). A favorite breakfast (or anytime) treat of many, the donut can actually be found in many cultures all over the world and by different names. But the concept is the same. Sweet fried dough. And this book is part of a series on American food by Edge. But you don't have to read them in any particular order.

"Donuts" is what you'd expect. It's a book about donuts. There's some history, mentions of different types of donuts by culture or country, and some explorations of famous donut shops. Edge also includes a few recipes for certain types of donuts.

Edge visits a lot of different donut shops, but they seem to mostly be centered on the West Coast. There is a vast majority of shops in Seattle and California, and quite a few in Hawaii too, which for the purpose of this book I'm going to consider "west coast" instead of the island that it is. Sure we do get down to New Orleans for some beignets, but the east coast only has a few mentions, and the south is dominated by Krispy Kreme. Now, granted, Krispy Kreme is popular and what started the doughnut revolution, so it does have its place in this book. All of the donut shop owners though don't really offer a whole lot about themselves or their products. Or at least Edge doesn't write about them very much. He does make note that they were mostly secretive, but I would have though there would be more than there actually is in this book.

In fact, most of this particular book is about the different donuts Edge tries at all these places. When compared to the other books I've read in this series, it just isn't as impressive on giving the whole picture of the food. It does the travelogue thing, but the history and lore of the food just isn't very prominent in this book. This was actually the first book of his that I had trouble keeping my attention on. I kept wandering off to more interesting things. And considering its not that long of a book, that was surprising to me. But I made my way through it and learned a little more about the donut. Although he tantalized with mentioning things like Ny-Quil donuts but never actually saying what they were.

I'd give this book two and a half stars. There was some interesting information contained within it, but largely it didn't have enough interesting things to make it an excellent food book.

Donuts
Copyright 2006
174 pages

Apple Pie: An American Story by John Edge

This is the second book in Edge's series about food. The first was about Fried Chicken. And I do think this second book was written better. And I'm not even a pie fan, but I found the information contained within to be interesting.

Apple Pie is definitely considered all American. There are so many variations from crumb toppings, to mock apple pie, to a flaky crust that everybody believes they do it the right way. In this book, Edge goes around the country trying out different versions of the pie and meeting the people that make them. Sadly, most of the pies he tries are not up to par, but there are a rare few that stand out and make his trips worthwhile. He also explores some of the history behind the pies and even presidents that had a fondness for the apple variety.

He meets some interesting people in his journeys. Especially the ladies that make the fried pies, they have some unique, albeit sad, stories about how they first started making pies. And then there's the guy who adds chilies to his pies. I thought he was interesting and had a fantastic idea. One I'd like to try out myself if I could only make a decent crust. And Edge himself is a charming narrator. He has a lot of belief and love of food and keeps trying even if he does run in to some not so tasty renditions of pie.

This book flowed a little better than the first book did. The chapters were slightly longer and allowed for a more in-depth look at the places he was exploring and the type of pie that was being produced. It also allowed more time for interviewing the people and relating a bit of history as well. I still would have liked to see more about the food itself. He covered the history very well, and even included a few recipes, but this was a very fast read and I think a lot more could have been added.

This book hasn't quite made me a pie convert, but I do want to try the green chili apple pie now and will have to hold on to the recipe from this book. I think anyone who appreciates the history of food would probably enjoy reading this book, or really any from the series.

Apple Pie: An American Story
Copyright 2004
162 pages

Fried Chicken: An American Story by John Edge

Fried Chicken is the first in a series by John Edge that explores different American foods.  Or at least those foods that Americans claim as their own.  And this book combines a little bit of history with cookbook and food travel writing. 

Fried Chicken explores all the fried chicken of the regions.  Southern to Ohio to New York's chicken wings to out on the west coast in Seattle.  In each area, he details the history of the area and fried chicken and then goes on to explore a restaurant or two in the area.  He lists out the merits (or downfalls) of each one.  And at the end of the section he includes a recipe that's supposed to represent the fried chicken of the area. 

This is about food, not people.  But there are some people that he focuses on.  Mainly the cooks, who all seem to be characters of their own sort.  But one thing ties them together, their love of food.  And Edge seems to take great love in eating the food he travels all over to try.  I especially liked the two ladies who worked at an inn and had for over fifty years, just like their mother before them.  They were the most endearing story in the whole book.

As for the readability of the book, I didn't really like it.  It was too jumbled for my tastes.  I liked the history, the recipes and the reviews of different places, but each chapter was way too short to really get the point across.  We were reading about wings in New York when way too soon we were down in Tennessee learning about hot chicken.  It was just little snippets of everything mashed together.  And while some of it was interesting, it just didn't feel thorough.  But it was a quick read.

I'll still read more of the series because I like anything involving food.  And there were some neat stories in this one.  But I think he could have really made this into something special.  Although he did make me want to infuse honey with rosemary.

Fried Chicken: An American Story
Copyright 2004
180 pages