Books : American Pie: Slices of Life (and Pie) from America's Back Roads
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.86520973
EAN: 9780060197360
Edition: 1
ISBN: 0060197366
Label: HarperCollins
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: May 01, 2002
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: April 30, 2002
Studio: HarperCollins
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com Review:
Is there any dish more American than pie? Seeking to determine its unique place in our cultural and culinary life, journalist Pascale Le Draoulec's American Pie: Slices of Life (and Pie) from America's Back Roads chronicles the author's cross-country pie hunt. Her search by car--from San Francisco to New York--uncovers every native pie variety, from Montana huckleberry to Pennsylvania shoofly; it also reveals, perhaps predictably, an America of towns with 60 churches for 2,500 inhabitants and "white-haired women with calloused rolling pin palms," a breed sadly in decline, as is pie making, which takes time we don't seem to have. Still, pie makers like Oklahoma's Leoda Mueller (coconut cream) and Minnesota's Lola Nebel (raspberry pear) are out there, and for many of them fixing pies remains a link to the past, present, and self. Le Draoulec's journey is also a personal one. Besides learning that we're a land that often likes its pie crusts purchased pre-made, or prepared with butter-flavored Crisco (how quickly we embrace industrial foods!), Le Draoulec completes a pie-bracketed journey of her own, from an unsettled West Coast life to domesticity and an impending marriage in the East. There she plans to bake a marriage pie, "huckleberry and peach, like the one [she] loved at the Spruce Café in Montana." If Le Draoulec doesn't usually manage to get under her characters' skin, and if her narrative lacks conclusiveness, she nonetheless provides an arresting look at an iconic food whose place is both entrenched and precarious. The book includes photos and 25 recipes from the pie makers, such as Mildred Snook's Sour Cream Raisin Pie, Bufford's Dad's Buttermilk Pie, and Mamma Millsap's Open-Faced Apple Pie. --Arthur Boehm
Product Description:
You know you're going on a quest for pie, but you may find something else entirely. Be prepared.
These were the prophetic words uttered to Pascale Le Draoulec as she began her cross-country journey. When offered a job in New York, she chose to drive rather than fly into her new life. As a food writer, she decided to turn an ordinary move into a culinary quest. She chose pie as her grail and guide, because, after all, what's more American than pie?
Crossing class and color lines, and spanning the nation (from Montana Huckleberry to Pennsylvania Shoo-Fly), pie -- real, homemade pie -- has meaning for all of us. But in today's treadmill take-out world, our fast-food nation, does pie still have a place? As a first-generation American raised by two quintessentially French parents, Le Draoulec knew much more about tartes than pies, but as she made her way across the United States, she discovered that mentioning homemade pie to anyone made faces soften, shoulders sigh, and memories come wafting back; that everyone she met had a fond memory of pie.
Le Draoulec and Betty the Volvo (her trusty automotive sidekick) meandered from town to town, meeting the famous and sometimes infamous pie makers in each place, like the little old ladies of Wasta, South Dakota (pop. 70), who had been baking pies from scratch to serve, and sell, on Election Day. They found themselves going head to head with state officials when South Dakota outlawed the sale of food at elections.
Le Draoulec's story, based on her adventure serialized in the Gannett newspapers, will entertain and move readers as she seeks to answer the question of the place of pie in today's world.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
This is my kind of book! It made me want to share food ideas and travel memories with the author, and it definitely made me get out my rolling pin. The night after I finished the book, we invited friends over for garden-ripe tomato sandwiches on homemade whole grain bread with homemade mayo and freshly-picked basil. That is all we needed to go with my georgia peach-blackberry lattice pie! We did add my neighbor's pickled yard beans on the side. My guests came to the kitchen and made their own ... Read More
Rating: -
Pascale Le Draoulec a West Coast food editor who has never tasted American pie has taken a job on the East Coast. She decides drive from California to the new job in Connecticut and use the trip to experience American pies. Le Draoulec tells of adventures and scenery and people she meets along the way. And she also describes regional pie favorites. Several recipes are included.
This is a must read for someone craving light reading and a good slice of pie!
Rating: -
I could not put this down. I too can relate to moving from the west to the east therefore much of the allure of this book was reading about all the places I have been. The stories are charming. Wonderful, easy read.
Rating: -
I got this book at a library sale and had no idea what a treat I was in for. Great stories mixed with fun pie recipies. It's the type of book you can "dip into" when you want, or read it all in one sitting. I did make a great pie after reading this; guess I was inspired. Great gift as well; young and old...bakers and non-bakers will appreciate the easy to read narrative and tales from around the States.
Rating:  -
...or at least don't read THIS book about it. What a mess. This is one of the most nastily-written books that I can think of, and how can you be nasty when writing about something as delicious as PIE? I agree with the other reviewer who didn't dare donate this book to the charity book sale! Directly into the trash bin!
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