Hungry for Home: Stories of Food from Across the Carolinas with More Than 200 Favorite Recipes

Reading "Hungry for Home" is a delightful experience - like visiting the Carolinas without paying for airfare and hotels, meeting many new people (the contributors of the recipes), and pleasing the taste buds without putting on the extra weight. I don't live in the Carolinas and I don't even eat shellfish, but this book has me looking for an opportunity to get there asap and experience some of the touching dimensions of this land. Not to mention get a bite of some of these dishes. The book offers a surprising global sampling from Vietnamese to Creole, West Afrian and Jewish. Author Amy Rogers has made a noble effort to address the urgency of hunger as a tragic reality of American life without robbing the reader of the joy she obviously takes in preparing and exploring foods of the region. Her dedication to representing the poignant and often funny voices and traditions of the truly diverse people of the Carolinas is also commendable -- from descendants of slaves to recent Asian immigrants, you'd be surprised! Of course, there are the expected down-home offerings like ham and fried chicken. But with this book, the food is just one-third the story. The other two-thirds come with the imaginative evocation of region and the individuals you meet in essays provided (by contributors) along with their recipes. The reader really feels the social connections offered by sharing selected dishes with others. After reading this book, I feel I have met a whole crowd of Carolinians. Next time I visit my sister in Charlotte, I will feel right at home.