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The Leonard Lopate Show / December 22, 2008 / American Food in the 1930s

American Food in the 1930s

Monday, December 22, 2008

Find out what Americans were eating in the 1930s...from fish fries to chitlin feasts and Brunswick stew! Pat Willard tells us about a 1935 WPA project, which assigned out-of-work writers to report on American regional cuisine. Her new book is America Eats!.

Weigh in: Do you know what were you, your parents, or your grandparents were eating in the U.S. in the 1930s?


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  • [1] paul usai from brooklyn ny December 20, 2008 - 01:39PM

    I remember my grandparents making meatless meatballs in a vegatable and potato soup. They were the parents of thirthteen chjidren.
  • [2] A. Nonnie Muss from East Village, NYC December 21, 2008 - 08:12PM

    It would be great if we could have a WPA-esque project like this now -- not to report on what people are eating, but to educate them about what they could be eating: fresh, local produce (i.e., instead of processed junk). There are too many neighborhoods in which people don't have access to decent, healthful, FRESH local food.
  • [3] Rocky from Manhattan December 22, 2008 - 01:39PM

    Sorry - this is off topic (though on the topic, I'd say this is a fun segment but how can you talk about traditional Minnesota cooking w/o mentioning hotdish??).

    My father wrote for the WPA, not about food, but rather a History of Minnesota. I understand histories of all (or most) of the states were written by WPA folks.

    I remember a beautiful leather, gold embossed edition in my home - it got thrown out when my mother died and the hose was sold. I've tried to find a copy w/o success - I wonder if there's a source that I don't know....
  • [4] anonyme from ny ny December 22, 2008 - 01:45PM

    Rocky

    try alibris.com or abebooks.com - it's amazing what you will find! It's global. I found an out-of-pritn French cookbook (France) in a bookstore in Turkey without leaving my desk. We found a book on French parquets in a Durch bookstore... I am trying to fidn teh catat=logue from a Guggenheim exhibit from 1997 (I think) on Drawings from the Albertina and the Guggenheim - it was a fabulous show and they were out of catalogues by the time I got there. something like Durer to Rauschenberg - it will turn up one day, I know it.
  • [5] Joe Burns from nj December 22, 2008 - 01:55PM

    Re: politics and bbq. A recently defeated NC politician put his defeat down to a widely reported comment that he would rather die than eat another plate of barbecue.

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