March 13, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) – A column by food writer Carroll Leggett originally published in Raleigh Metro Magazine is included in Corn Bread Nation 5, The Best of Southern Writing, available at bookstores and on the Internet April 15. The column, titled “Soft Shell Science,” is the second time one of Leggett’s monthly “Between You and Me” columns in Metro has been selected for inclusion in this popular series from the Southern Foodways Alliance.
Three other Triangle food experts are included in Corn Bread Nation 5 along with Leggett: John Shelton Reed of Chapel Hill; Ben Barker, chef and co-owner of Magnolia Grill in Durham; and cookbook author and publisher Fred Thompson of Raleigh.
Leggett’s October 2008 column took Metro readers to Hyde County and Debbie’s Crab Ranch located near Belhaven. Leggett introduced readers to the “Crab Whisperer” and discovered little known information about North Carolina’s home-grown soft shell crab industry and the lives and ways of soft shell crabs.
“Of all the things one might order in a restaurant, diners probably know the least about soft shell crabs and how they make their way to the table,” said Leggett. “Researching the Metro article gave me a chance to meet interesting, native North Carolinians who have always lived on or near the water. Their heads are full of the science of soft shell crabs, and my great joy was trying to pry just a small amount of it out to be shared with Metro readers and, soon, I hope, viewers of a film being produced in cooperation with my long-time friend and professional associate Gregg Jamback with Swiftwater Media of Winston-Salem.”
Chapel Hill author and southern food aficionado Marcie Ferris writes in the Forward to the new book: “Food reflects our national and regional culture as surely as do the fields of art, folklore, geography, history, literature, music, politics and religion. The problem with the study of food is food itself. If only food were more arcane, less accessible, less popular, not so sensual or comforting, even divisive, its study would surely find a place in the hallowed halls of the academy.”
Fred Sauceman, author and food writer and Associate Professor of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University, edited the book along with John T. Edge of the University of Mississippi. It is published by The University of Georgia Press. For more information: www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/cornbread_nation5.
About Carroll Leggett:
Carroll is active in the Southern Foodways Alliance and often writes about food and foodways. He writes a monthly column for Metro Magazine, is a contributing editor to Edible Piedmont, and has written restaurant reviews and other articles for Winston-Salem Living magazine. He is cited in Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue published by UNC Press. He also contributed to the book, North Carolina Tobacco.
About Cornbread Nation 5:
The fifth volume in this popular series from the Southern Foodways Alliance spans the food cultures of the South. Cornbread Nation 5, edited by accomplished food writer Fred W. Sauceman, celebrates food and the ways in which it forges unexpected relationships between people and places. This collection includes more than 70 essays and poems about the food that provides nourishment as well as a sense of community and shared history. For more information go to www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/cornbread_nation5.
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