Purchase
A History of American Dining in 128 Reviews
Ecco
September 2013
On Sale: August 27, 2013
250 pages
ISBN: 0062228897
EAN: 9780062228895
Kindle: B00BATKRD0
Paperback / e-Book
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Cooking / Food
Once upon a time, salad was iceberg lettuce with a few
shredded carrots and a cucumber slice, if you were lucky. A
vegetable side was potatoes—would you like those baked,
mashed, or au gratin? A nice anniversary dinner? Would you
rather visit the Holiday Inn or the Regency Inn? In Grand
Forks, North Dakota, a small town where professors moonlight
as farmers, farmers moonlight as football coaches, and
everyone loves hockey, one woman has had the answers for
more than twenty-five years: Marilyn Hagerty. In her weekly
Eatbeat column in the local paper, Marilyn gives the
denizens of Grand Forks the straight scoop on everything
from the best blue plate specials—beef stroganoff at the
Pantry—to the choicest truck stops—the Big Sioux (and its
lutefisk lunch special)—to the ambience of the town's first
Taco Bell. Her verdict? "A cool pastel oasis on a hot
day." No-nonsense but wry, earnest but self-aware,
Eatbeat also encourages the best in its readers—reminding
them to tip well and why—and serves as its own kind of
down-home social register, peopled with stories of ex–postal
workers turned café owners and prom queen waitresses. Filled
with reviews of the mom-and-pop diners that eventually gave
way to fast-food joints and the Norwegian specialties that
finally faded away in the face of the Olive Garden's endless
breadsticks, Grand Forks is more than just a loving
look at the shifts in American dining in the last years of
the twentieth century—it is also a surprisingly moving and
hilarious portrait of the quintessential American town, one
we all recognize in our hearts regardless of where we're from.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy