All About the Food
Two for the Road is Jane and Michael Stern’s memoir all about their Roadfood history and experiences. With chapters like “What Would Jesus Eat?” and “The Cow on the Roof and the Living Pig,” they sum up a few decades of touring towns across the USA, eating good and bad food alike.
In the beginning of the book, I found myself comparing their travels to Steinbeck’s, as they decked out their station wagon, hoping to live in their car to save cash. Their car was no Rocinante (Steinbeck’s name for his campered pick-up truck), and they were at the beginning of their career instead of the end.
Steinbeck also traveled alone, leaving his wife at home, in hopes of seeing the real America, thinking that traveling with someone might add too many variables to the social dynamic. He wanted to observe more than he wanted to be observed. But I think the Sterns managed to see a lot of the “real” USA by being grandly conspicuous, because they not only went to eat, they wanted to dig in and taste the people, how they lived, how they talked, what they believed.
Steinbeck feared that all the different accents across the country were being melted together so everyone was starting to sound the same, but the Sterns embraced the differences. “From the ear-bending patois of Long Island to the sugarcane sweetness of north Georgia, from the honk of Chicago to the musical refinement of New Mexico’s mountain villages, the voices people use to talk about what they eat are as enchanting as the food itself.”
As I start down this new food journey, I find myself looking for friendly recommendations. If you were thinking about books or movies where food plays an important role, what would be on your list?