Photo | Monica Simpson

Apparently, throwing whatever relatively edible creatures are available (including squirrels) into a pot to create “stew” is as American as apple pie. This I learned at Wednesday night’s First Person Festival event at the Painted Bride.

During this taste-and-tell evening, foodie author Pat Willard discussed the research behind her book America Eats! and Fairmount restaurant Jack’s Firehouse provided a down-home meal of biscuits, cornbread, pulled pork, brisket — and stew. Strangers shared tables as they scarfed down the good food, and this combo of meet-and-eat reflected well the topic of Willard’s book. America Eats! draws its source from papers from the Great Depression’s Federal Writer’s Project, which enlisted out-of-work wordsmiths to chronicle aspects of American culture. Part of this chronicling involved researching how America eats — the result being not just recipes, but more importantly, tales of a time when eating was a community event, not just a necessity.

Photo | Monica Simpson

Willard showed photos of a church meal with tables lined far into the distance and an old-time barbecue where neighbors dug a big pit in which to roast the meat, shooting the shit until the cooking was done. Hygienic concerns may have been lacking then, but it’s almost as if we’ve replaced companionship with efficiency these days. Yet while many of our meals have moved away from the table, an audience member was quick to point out that we still have comparable traditions such as the tailgate. And like the group stews of yesteryear, tailgates still involve meat of a questionable origin. Hot dog, anyone?

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Food Events, Food and Art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.