Sifting through the past, savoring the flavor
By
Jeri Rowe
Staff Writer - News Record -
Tuesday, July 22 updated 12:34 pm
CHAPEL HILL - Beside the Reeds' refrigerator, where the tiny letter magnets spell out "Slick Southern Dude,'' are three long shelves of cookbooks, a few of which are more than a century old.
Dale Volberg Reed has read every one.
She reads them at night. Not really for the recipes. But for the way people live. She'll pick up the Picayune Creole Cookbook, circa 1902 , and realize what people keep and what people lose in their kitchens.
And that ain't ingredients. It's that Southern way of life, that gastronomical hook to our past that makes us who we are by what we put on the table.
And that just fascinates Dale and her husband, John Shelton Reed.
They embrace the South. You see that in their kitchen - from the cookbooks and refrigerator magnets to the funky folk art in which the devil drives a tricked-out limo.
Yet, read their latest book, "Cornbread Nation 4: The Best of Southern Food Writing." You'll see the South in the Chicken Man, Hot Sauce Williams, moonshine runner Clifton "Greasy" Ladd and Buckshot Colleton , who cooks in a shack off Highway 17 near Charleston, S.C.
You'll see the South in Dunbar's, Tibwin, Willie Mae's Scotch House and Fred's Best Seafood , where the "S's" in oysters are backward and specials are printed in paint.
You'll see the South in chitlins, braised collard greens, chicken purloo and pork skins, described by poet Michael McFee as "little fried clouds ... with the crunchiest hint of pig."
Yup. Some good eatin'.
But pore through those installments about food - poetry and pictures, stories and speeches - and you'll sense the editing eyes of a husband and wife, both 66, a couple hooked since high school in East Tennessee.
They considered hundreds of entries. They chose 53 .
In photos and words, the Reeds wanted to discover knowledge, expertise and turns of a phrase that said so much with so little.
Their discoveries are everywhere in "Cornbread Nation 4," the fourth in a popular series from Southern Foodways Alliance , a group that documents the diverse food cultures of the American South.
It's anthropological, really.
The Reeds don't see the South in a microwave. They see the South in the ovens, the avenues, the docks, the restaurants and the people who'll make you believe that alligator nuggets are good food.
On Saturday, the Reeds will talk about "Cornbread Nation 4" at a Pittsboro bookstore, and they'll roll out the quirky flavors of the South captured so eloquently by Cornbread contributor Jim Ferguson's Quick Mart phrase: "Tell me what y'all eat?"
The Reeds know the terrain.
They're Mr. and Mrs. South - lilting accents and all. They've collaborated on three books about the South with a fourth one coming out this fall. The name: "Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue."
And you know, barbecue is close to God in our back forty.
Listen to Dale and John talk, on their back porch beside the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill, and you can tell they've been married for 44 years.
They finish each other sentences. They honor each other's opinions. And they applaud each other's accomplishments, even if it's learning to shoot Daddy's .38-caliber pistol and posting on the refrigerator a frayed bull's eye .
That's Dale shooting. Not John.
Eat lunch with them, say, at a tiny barbecue spot like Allen & Son near Chapel Hill, where the tablecloths are a checkerboard of green and white, and follow them to the pit where the smell of vinegar is strong and the ceiling is black and gooey from grease.
Then, just breathe in and listen.
"This is just gorgeous," said Dale, looking at the ceiling. "Keith Allen , he works back here, and he says just the most quotable things like, 'I'm chasing that flavor.'"
The Reeds, Mr. and Mrs. South, are chasing that flavor, too.
Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or
jeri.rowe@news-record.com
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