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Author Archives: thegumbodiaries
Bewitching reading? Introducing the Gumbo Diaries Who Dat? Clueless Cookbook List
Online bookseller Abe Books has a wide array of “weird cookbooks” for sale. The site claims there’s a “worldwide appetite for weird cookbooks”and even conducted a poll to discover the world’s weirdest cookbook. Winning the dubious honor was Manifold Destiny: … Continue reading
From Boarding House and Side Board to Wooden Spoons and Wooden Cookbooks
I’d never seen a wooden cookbook cover until last week, and then in a span of four days I saw two cookbooks with wooden covers – published 32 years apart. The older one, published in 1939, has reached American Folk … Continue reading
Restaurant Gumbo: Half a dozen bowls worth sampling
I rarely order gumbo at restaurants, and if I do, it’s because I’ve sampled it first. I’m picky about gumbo. Far too many people dislike gumbo, and that’s probably because they haven’t tasted good gumbo like my grandmother’s, my father’s … Continue reading
Green Gumbo Recipes: 100 and Counting
When a friend refused to believe there could actually be 300 recipes for gumbo, he mimicked the Bubba Gump routine “fried shrimp, boiled shrimp, baked shrimp, shrimp with rice, shrimp etoufee.” His remarks made me pause to wonder if my … Continue reading
Where You From?
I started to eavesdrop when I heard the word “gumbo.” Behind the beauty shop privacy screen, two strangers, each getting a pedicure, were discussing a new Cajun restaurant on the beach. As my stylist shampooed my hair, I listened carefully, … Continue reading
Recipes from the shelves of a bibliophile
Shopping at an estate sale of a bibliophile is better than any trip to a library or bookstore, especially when the book lover likes the same topics I do. The setting of last week’s sale — a rambling 3500 square-foot … Continue reading
Hot off the Press! Get Your Gumbo Recipes Here!
Like any student of journalism in the Deep South, I know exactly what a “picayune” is. I learned the term in Journalism I at University of Southern Mississippi and have grown to appreciate the newspaper lore that accompanies the word. … Continue reading
