Fading Feast

In the early 1980s, on assignment from the American Museum of Natural History, Raymond Sokolov crisscrossed America in search of traditional regional cuisines. He traveled from Maine to California, returning with a cornucopia of recipes that few at the time seemed anxious to maintain- recipes such as boudin blanc, persimmon fudge, and, for the truly adventurous, roast bear paws. The resulting essays, here collected, were intended to describe and preserve these vanishing, quintessential American foods. Since its first publication, however, Fading Feast has proven to be not a farewell, but the forerunner of renewed interest in these regional treasures. Written with panache and passion - and featuring a dozen essays not included in the original version this new edition is as timely and entertaining now as when Sokolov first set out to record our native culinary customs.