Southern Food

Craig Claiborne, upon whose cookbook this project, and by extension this blog is based was a boy raised in the south. Sunflower County, Mississippi to be exact. And in reading up on him and his childhood, it made me reflect on how growing up in the south affected the way that I saw food. I was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. I figure it's mostly referred to as the "mid-South", whatever that means. I mean, don't get me wrong. It's squarely what I would categorize in the South, but it's not the deep south of Spanish moss draped live oak trees leading up to the plantation house that you would find in Louisiana or Mississippi. But nonetheless, I was brought up a southern boy.

Food is a central force in the south, and manages to run pretty much every social interaction. Things revolve around food. When you go to someone's house the first thing they wanna do is feed you. Food brings people together. Food is there when we celebrate. Food is also rolled out in copious amounts when we mourn. And specifically what you eat and how you eat it reflects very much on your place in society.

I can't say I was raised in some high-brow social circles, but then again I wouldn't say I was forced to live in back woods squalor either. My life growing up had a bit of everything in it and allowed me to see how folks of all walks of life viewed and shared their food and their lives. I think your beliefs about food reflect a lot about how you were raised and the experiences you had in life. The South very much influenced me in that way.

There's a lot more about Craig Claiborne's experiences growing up that I have in common with. Although from a very different time period (that of my grandparents), there are still lots of issues that he dealt with and (consequently helped shape him into who he was to become) that I would say were part of my life as well.

This project is about food, and friends and my life. But I'm going to use it as a way to learn about him and his life as well, in a parallel fashion. You'll learn more about him as I do. :)