Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South

Book Description

Since early colonial times in America, Jewish southerners have been tempted by delectable regional foods. Because some of these foods--including pork and shellfish--have been traditionally forbidden to Jews by religious dietary laws, southern Jews face a special predicament. In a culinary journey through the Jewish South, Arkansas native Marcie Cohen Ferris explores how southern Jews embraced, avoided, and adapted southern food and, in the process, have found themselves at home.

From colonial Savannah and Charleston to Civil War era New Orleans and Natchez, from New South Atlanta to contemporary Memphis and across the Mississippi and Arkansas Deltas, Ferris examines the expressive power of food throughout southern Jewish history. She demonstrates how southern Jews reinvented traditions as they adjusted to living in a largely Christian world where they were bound by regional rules of race, class, and gender.

Featuring a trove of photographs, Matzoh Ball Gumbo also includes anecdotes, oral histories, and more than thirty recipes to try at home. Ferris's rich tour of southern Jewish foodways shows that, at the dining table, Jewish southerners created a distinctive religious expression that reflects the evolution of southern Jewish life.

Customer Reviews:

Matzo balls and memories.......2007-05-24

As a Deep South Jewish expatriate, I can't say enough about how thoroughly Marcie Cohen Ferris did her research. There is no doubt that she has covered the differences-and similarities-of the various southern states with great heart and accuracy! The sheer volume of names of those she got family information from is more than admirable. The book belongs in every Jewish household-northern and southern! And non-Jewish readers will get a wonderful picture of the influence food had in Southern Jewish homes-part of American culinary history.

Okay book.......2007-05-15

Good book if your into a history lesson but I was looking for more receipies.

Outstanding & interesting.......2007-05-13

This book is a wonderful compilation of Jewish history of the South and Jewish food of the South. Fascinating reading about the history and excellent eating. Enjoy!

Too much starch in the matzo balls.......2006-07-10

Fascinating subject matter as I grew up in an area where Jews were a vocal and very assimilated minority. The author's extensive research came to the same conclusions in every chapter: it was hard to keep Kosher in the South and black household help did much of the cooking. As a Jewish woman I am proud of our reputation for a sense of humor and delicious cooking. There are very few recipes; even those were not particularly tempting or typical. The book's major flaws lie in the author's dry, labored, one-note writing style that had me laboring to stay awake.

A Wonderful Read and a Surprise.......2006-04-19

I expected a cookbook (which is why it's 4 stars instead of 5, and that's the *only* reason), but got a history book instead.

It's an amazing book. My grandmother worked for Jewish families in the 50s and 60s and I remember accompanying her to their homes when I was a youngster visiting her in NC. There is a certain nostalgia there as the Jewish people always treated her with respect and dignity. All the while they were walking their own precarious tightrope between the gentiles and the black people.

I also found something more while poring over the pages of this book and that is a link to my family's own Jewish past. I have the utmost respect for the amount of research done by Marcie Ferris. It was a herculean task!

Oh. And the recipes (the few) are pretty terrific.

Carolina Cradle: Settlement of the Northwest Carolina Frontier, 1747-1762

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This is a great book to have.
Carolina Cradle
Most informative and interesting I have read on genealogy .

Carolina Cradle: Settlement of the Northwest Carolina Frontier, 1747-1762
Robert W. Ramsey
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0807841897

Book Description

This account of the settlement of one segment of the North Carolina frontier—the land between the Yadkin and Catawba rivers—examines the process by which the piedmont South was populated. Through its ingenious use of hundreds of sources and documents, Robert Ramsey traces the movement of the original settlers and their families from the time they stepped onto American shores to their final settlement in the northwest Carolina territory. He considers the economic, religious, social, and geographical influences that led the settlers to Rowan County and describes how this frontier community was organized and supervised.

Customer Reviews:

This is a great book to have........2005-12-10

"Carolina Cradle" is probably the best book on this subject; valuable for genealogists as well as people interested in the history of this fascinating period. It is well-documented and should be on your bookshelf.

Carolina Cradle.......2004-04-11

How can you review a book you haven't even read?

Most informative and interesting I have read on genealogy ........1997-11-14

I have always loved this book and wordered if the author wrote any other books.

Average customer rating:

repetition of her first book
Overwrought Fluff
Another keeper!!
Exceptional Read and An Outstanding Newer Author
deep character study

Where the River Runs
Patti Callahan Henry
Manufacturer: NAL Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0451215052

Book Description

Meridy Dresden was once a free-spirited, fun-loving girl. All that changed when the boy she loved was killed in a tragic fire. Now, years later, Meridy must return to the South Carolina Low Country and summon the courage to make a decision that may destroy everything she's worked so hard to protect-including her heart.

Customer Reviews:

repetition of her first book.......2007-10-05

I enjoyed the author's debut novel "Losing the Moonn" but this one disappointed me. It was very similar to her first novel....and I am frankly getting a little tired of the women "remaining true to themselves" and "first love" themes that seem to dominate every book of hers..to the point that it is getting repetetive. We get it, Patti. We women should always remain true to ourselves, and never sell ourselves short, but also never adapt, change, accomodate etc. etc. and when we "recover what we have lost"--and in many of her novels it is not quite clear what exactly these women have lost--we always need to flirt with our former lovers to do so. So please do us a favor..you write beautifully.. so why dont tackle something different for a change? There are already enough Oprah-backed authors who churn out such rediscovery stuff for women with middle-aged angst.

Overwrought Fluff.......2007-08-22

This book has a very promising start. Unfortunately, it doesn't live up to that promise. Henry's writing quickly descends into overwrought, at times maudlin, prose. In some of the reviews of her books Henry has been compared to Pat Conroy. While her writing is evocative of the South, it doesn't have the substance and control that Conroy's does. Some of the sentences in this book that were meant to convey a sense of melancholy, a regret for things lost, actually made me laugh because they were just too overdone. We're meant to feel sympathy and empathy for the main character, Meridy, but the author managed to make her seem spoiled and selfish instead of sympathetic. If you want to read truly lyrical, evocative, well written prose about the South, stick with Pat Conroy or Lee Smith.

Another keeper!!.......2005-10-11

I will be the first to admit that I just love these Fiction For the Way We Live series ~~ and this one is definitely one of the best books of this fall!! I have been in a reading slump for a long time ~~ and this book really took me out of it and into a different world. I just love it!!

This book is set in the Lowcountry region between Georgia and South Carolina. The Gullah proverb: "If you don't know where you are going, you should know where you came from" is the basis of this book. Meridy Dresden finds herself at loose ends when her son, BJ, is off at college and her husband, Beau, is immersed in a trial that he has been working on for over two years. Meridy takes a trip home to Seaboro and not only was it a trip home, it was a journey to rediscover that young vibrant girl that she feared had died along with her best friend who died tragically the night they graduated from high school.

Tulu, her former housekeeper and part nanny, shared with Meridy proverbs about the Gullah culture and shared with her some stories to help Meridy find her way back to having peace within her heart. Meridy embarks on that journey with fear and trepidation after all, it could ruin everything she has worked very hard for.

This book is written with lyrical prose and lovely scene-writing ~~ it makes me keep coming back for more. It was a soothing read too ~~ in today's frantic world, this book set a slower pace and made me sit and relax. It is about a woman embarking on self-discovery, her relationship with her mother and sister, best friend and husband. It is enlightening read and very emotional in spots. It is a book that I would recommend to everyone who loves reading this kind of book. It's perfect for those long dark winter nights ahead ~~ the book is set in summer and the warmth of the novel will linger long after the last page has been turned.

10-10-05

Exceptional Read and An Outstanding Newer Author.......2005-05-07

When she was growing up Meridy McFadden Dresden was a free-spirited, dare devil, fun-loving tomboy. Meridy and her two best friends grew up enjoying and living in the Lowcountry of South Carolina and all through school were inseparable busily charting out a life after college - it was all perfectly planned out. In one terrible moment all those fanciful dreams dissolved and her idyllic existence was changed in a matter of minutes with the death of her best friend killed in a tragic fire the night of their high school graduation. It was a night that changed Meridy's life.

Years later, Meridy is older, wiser and leads what appears to be a charmed life. Married to a handsome successful lawyer, she has a beautiful son with an athletic scholarship to Vanderbilt, the perfect house, and a perfectly scandal free life. Troubled, and looking for answers a trip back home would reopen wounds that had never healed as she discovered that the tragic events of that fateful night and the memories she buried along with her heart and who she was, have come back. With the help of her old Gullah housekeeper Meridy rediscovers pieces of her past and a friend who forces her to confront the pain in order to deal with the challenges she faces in her future as she summons the courage to make a decision that may destroy a life she's worked so hard to protect - including her heart.

*** As I write this review I question whether I can adequately put together the words ample enough to describe just how really great this book was. The beautiful images evoked by this authors lyrical prose and the emotional intensity of feelings she invoked are what separates writers from passable to simply outstanding and it is in this latter category that this relatively new author stands. This is simply an outstanding honest look at one woman's journey of rediscovering who she truly was as she discovered that you can return home again, especially if it means finding the most important things you seem to have lost along the way - like yourself. This is definitely recommended reading for intelligent readers who want to bask themselves in a splendidly lyrical and heart tugging read!

--- Marilyn, for www.allromancewriters.com ----

deep character study.......2005-05-04

Meridy Dresden is married to her college sweetheart and lives in an upscale home in Atlanta. She experience empty nest syndrome because their only child is at college while her spouse is busy on a case that will make him a partner in a prestigious law firm. She loves her husband, but feels disconnected from him as if their relationship is a façade.

Meridy learns from her mother that her childhood friend Tim is being asked to pay for the reconstruction of Keeper's Cottage; the townsfolk blame him for destroying it on graduation night. She returns to her hometown of Seaboro in the Low Country to set the record straight. While at home, she feels reborn as she opens up for the first since her high school boyfriend died. Now Meridy believes she owes her husband the truth about her life before him and prays he accepts and loves the real Meridy.

WHERE THE RIVER RUNS stars a beautiful woman who seems to have it all, but feels empty and only going through the motion of living. In returning to her home town, Meridy concludes that she must face all the aspects of her past that she buried even from herself if she is to become a whole person again. Fans of Anne River Siddens will want to read Patti Callahan Henry's deep character study.

Harriet Klausner

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Surprised at How Much I Enjoyed It...
Low Country family story
Fantasitc
Disappointment
Coming of Age

Sweetwater Creek
Anne Rivers Siddons
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0066213355
Release Date: 2005-08-09

Download Description

From bestselling author Anne Rivers Siddons comes a bittersweet and finely wrought story of friendship, family, and Charleston society.

At twelve, Emily Parmenter knows alone all too well. Left mostly to herself after her beautiful young mother disappeared and her beloved older brother died, Emily is keenly aware of yearning and loss. Rather than be consumed by sadness, she has built a life around the faded plantation where her remote father and hunting-obsessed brothers raise the legendary Lowcountry Boykin hunting spaniels. It is a meager, narrow, masculine world, but to Emily it has magic: the storied deep-sea dolphins who come regularly to play in Sweetwater Creek; her extraordinary bond with the beautiful dogs she trains; her almost mystic communion with her own spaniel, Elvis; the dreaming old Lowcountry itself. Emily hides from the dreaded world here. It is enough.

And then comes Lulu Foxworth, troubled daughter of a truly grand plantation, who has run away from her hectic Charleston debutante season to spend a healing summer with the quiet marshes and river, and the life-giving dogs. Where Emily's father sees their guest as an entrée to a society he thought forever out of reach, Emily is at once threatened and mystified. Lulu has a powerful enchantment of her own, and this, along with the dark, crippling secret she brings with her, will inevitably blow Emily's magical water world apart and let the real one in -- but at a terrible price.

Poignant and emotionally compelling, Anne Rivers Siddons's Sweetwater Creek draws you into the luminous landscape of the Lowcountry. With characters that linger long after you've turned the last page, this engaging tale is destined to become an instant classic.

Customer Reviews:

Surprised at How Much I Enjoyed It..........2007-08-30

Sometimes when I read books of this genre, I am thinking "ok, a quick read - not too concerned about literary quality just entertain me for several hundred pages."

Well, Sweetwater Creek not only entertained me, it inspired and delighted me.

It is the story of Emily, a young girl who is on the edge of young womanhood and carries the baggage of a beautiful mother who left her, an uncommunicative father who doesn't want to deal with her, and a fairly recent suicide of her brother who actually "gets" her, who still "speaks" to her via poetry.

Emily's family home is a Dog Farm and her Boykin Spaniel is a powerful dog. Their relationship is central to the story as young and mysteriously ailing and well connected debutante Lulu Foxworth appeared at the Farm for rest and rejuvenation.

The characters are well-crafted, for the most part. Emily, Elvis and Buddy are particularly well honed - as well as a "cameo" appearance of Lulu Foxworth's Grandmother.

Highly recommended.

Low Country family story.......2007-08-18

Being familiar with the "low country" and the area she writes about in most of her books, I enjoy reading Anne River Siddons. I felt this book was good, but not her best. My personal favorite of hers is "Colony". That book I could not put down, this one I could. I felt some areas of the story dragged on and some of the lesser characters should have had more story time. The background characters were very important to the main character's flaws and issues, and I feel they should have had more
developement and prescence in the story. Perhaps the movie will?

Fantasitc.......2007-08-05

One of my favorite Anne Rivers-Siddons books. Right up there with Colony and Peachtree Road.

Disappointment.......2007-06-07

This novel made me edgy. Descriptions ran on unnecessarily and the vocabulary was stilted...made me think she got to a word and went to the Thesaurus rather than just "keep it simple". Her earlier books were much, much more readable.

Coming of Age.......2007-04-05

The twists and turns in this novel will keep you from putting it down. Get away from it all for a bit with this entertaining story.

Paddling South Carolina: A Guide to Palmetto State River Trails

Average customer rating:

Excellent

Paddling South Carolina: A Guide to Palmetto State River Trails
Gene Able , and Jack Horan
Manufacturer: Sandlapper Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Water Sports | Sports | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0878441611

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2007-03-19

This book is great. It discusses all of the major rivers in South Carolina and gives the reader very helpful information on what they will experience if they decide to go there to kayak or canoe. You get helpful information on hazards, river distance and width, and whether or not a river will be best for beginners/intermediates/experts, etc.

The rivers are separated into regions and for each there are directions on how to get there. Map pages for each river discussed are also in the book, which is extremely helpful. This book is great for beginners who are not sure of where to go and also great for the intermediates who want to find a new adventure. I highly recommend.

People of the Shoals: Stallings Culture of the Savannah River Valley (Native Peoples, Cultures, and Places of the Southeastern United States)

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People of the Shoals: Stallings Culture of the Savannah River Valley (Native Peoples, Cultures, and Places of the Southeastern United States)
Kenneth E. Sassaman
Manufacturer: University Press of Florida
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Folsom: New Archaeological Investigations of a Classic Paleoindian Bison Kill

ASIN: 0813029457

South Carolina's Wetland Wilderness: The Ace Basin

Average customer rating:

A wonderful pictorial study of this beautiful coastal area.

South Carolina's Wetland Wilderness: The Ace Basin
Tom Blagden
Manufacturer: Westcliff Pub Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Nature & Wildlife | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0929969715

Customer Reviews:

A wonderful pictorial study of this beautiful coastal area........1999-04-13

This is a wonderful pictorial of this fascinating and rich landscape. The photography perfectly captures the natural beauty and history of the South carolina coast.

An Antebellum Plantation Household: Including the South Carolina Low Country Receipts And Remedies of Emily Wharton Sinkler / With Eighty-two Newly Discovered ... (Women's Diaries and Letters of the South)

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An Antebellum Plantation Household: Including the South Carolina Low Country Receipts And Remedies of Emily Wharton Sinkler / With Eighty-two Newly Discovered ... (Women's Diaries and Letters of the South)
Anne Sinkler Whaley Leclercq
Manufacturer: University of South Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Between North and South: The Letters of Emily Wharton Sinkler, 1842-1865

ASIN: 1570036349

Book Description

At the age of nineteen Emily Wharton married Charles Sinkler and moved eight hundred miles from her Philadelphia home to a cotton plantation in an isolated area in the South Carolina Low Country. In monthly letters to her northern family she recorded keen observations about her adopted home, and in a receipt book she assembled a trusted collection of culinary and medicinal recipes reflecting her ties to both North and South. Together with an extensive biographical and historical introduction by Anne Sinkler Whaley LeClercq, these documents provide a flavorful record of plantation cooking, folk medicine, travel, and social life in the antebellum South.

While Emily Wharton Sinkler's letters reflect the vibrancy and affluence of Low Country plantation society at the peak of its power and wealth, they also record her philosophical indisposition to slavery and document her significant role in managing the plantation, which meant administering provisions and attending to the health of more than two hundred people. The receipts offer valuable insight into the melding of diverse cultural and ethnic influences—French Huguenot, African, Low Country, Virginian, and Pennsylvanian—and reveal Sinkler's reliance on locally grown ingredients, success in devising substitutions for items that had been readily available in Philadelphia, and skill in treating a myriad of ailments.

Book Description

This rollicking chronicle of life on Daufuskie Island, one of the sea islands of coastal South Carolina, portrays a distinct culture shaped by the physical geography of place, the historic environment of the antebellum South, and the encroachment of modern golf resorts. The unique landscape of sandy beaches, marshes, and woods of pine and oak is inhabited by the fiercely independent locals who've lived on the island for generations. This book captures an island in transition as the native islanders watch the expanding battle between environmentalists and developers eager to claim the lush land for exclusive resorts. Tender, bawdy, sacred, and profane, this poignant rendering of this unique island includes tales of voodooists, smugglers, poets, shrimpers, and Fortune 500 executives.

Customer Reviews:

Lowcountry Characters.......2007-06-27

Pinckney is a master of character development, making his anacdotes of local residents more humorous than just the incident alone. He delves into the mindset and lifestyle of the island residents; rednecks, slave decendants, half-breeds, and transplanted outsiders; their Gullah roots, religion and superstitions (voodoo), politics, social structure, and lifestyle. There is a lot of lowcountry history to be learned in a series of funny and amusing stories. I liked this book so much I purchased a second copy for a friend's birthday and two more of Pinckney's titles for myself.

Average customer rating:

Not her best work!
Yawn........
Slow Starting
Excellent reading!
Sugary, shallow, schizoid but wonderfully entertaining

Islands
Anne Rivers Siddons
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0066211115
Release Date: 2004-04-06

Book Description

Anny Butler is a caretaker, a nurturer, first for her own brothers and sisters, and then as a director of an agency devoted to the welfare of children. What she has never had is a real family. That changes when she meets and marries Lewis Aiken, an exuberant surgeon fifteen years older than Anny. When they marry, she finds her family -- not a traditional one, but a group of Charleston childhood friends who are inseparable, who are one another's surrogate family. They are called the Scrubs, and they all, in some way, have the common cord of family.

Instantly upon meeting them at the old beach house on Sullivan's Island, which they co-own, Anny knows that she has found home and family. They vow that, when the time comes, they will find a place where they can live together by the sea.

Bad things begin to happen -- a hurricane, a fire, deaths -- but still the remaining Scrubs cling together. They are watched over and bolstered by Camilla Curry, the heart and core of their group, always the healer. Anny herself allows Camilla to enfold and to care for her. It is the first time she has felt this kind of love and support.

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Customer Reviews:

Not her best work!.......2007-09-22

I usually love Siddons books. I was excited to find one that I had not read yet at the airport a few weeks ago.

This book had me either crying or stumped the whole read. The character development was good to a point. But, i agree with a previous poster that says how unrealistic it was for the doctor to own so many houses. Yet, they never set up a home.

The 'evil' character by the end of the book had me wondering where that idea came from. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who has not read it. I found the plot turn with the fire to be too much.

Not one of her best books. I had liked it up until the point where a dog goes missing and a fire is started.

Yawn...............2007-02-28

If I hadn't been reading this for our bookclub, I would have never finished this drawn out story.

This book drifted endlessly with no apparent plot into the lives of a clicky group of rich upper-class couples who happened to have associations with the medical community. These couples were, in their own way, very snotty, uppidity, and definately set apart from the average citizen. They called themselves "The scrubs," and shared a beachhouse on one of the islands near Charleston, NC.

Happines and tragidy did befall these couples. With each event page after page of boring recovery left me feeling "All right, all ready, lets get on with the story!"

I gave it a 3 only because the author was able to give the reader insight into the beauty of the area: however, she could have said it in 1/2 the pages.

Don't waste your time or money on this one.

This was one of the most borning and slow moving books I have ever read, and was extremely disapointed. There was no action or plot until the last 10 pages of the book!!!

Slow Starting.......2006-11-16

I'd been wanting to try Siddons, but maybe I choose the wrong book. I've started and finished 3 other books while trying to get going on this one. After 83 pages, I'm going to give it up and try another of her books.
It just feels like the characters are drifting. The descriptions setting the scene appeals, but Anny Butler seems so low-key that she is almost a nonentity.

Excellent reading!.......2006-09-17

Following the lives of a close-knit group of friends as they move from middle to old age is highly appealing, and makes me wish I had a wonderfully supportive clique like this to grow old together with. Although full of death and loss, the story was beautfully tragic and quite life-affirming, however it was more sad than uplifting. Anne Rivers Siddons has a unique style of writing that is very enjoyable to read, no matter what story she is telling, and I have a special fondness for books set in the scenic Carolina low country!

Sugary, shallow, schizoid but wonderfully entertaining.......2006-06-18

Many low country books rely on evocative descriptions of low country environs. The reader is drawn into the magic of the marsh, the ocean, the sweet grass, the romance of a plantation type setting. Anne River Siddons never fails to provide such a wonderful sense of place. Her words make one want to jump on the quickest plane to Charleston to smell the jasmine, slurp the oysters and find the heaven she describes. Tapping into this scenery of the imagination leaves the us in a sweet place before falling asleep to her books. This one is no exception and delivers the expected pablum. Maybe that is, for the most part, all readers really want, a deliverance from the day to day of our lives. And the author delivers on that account. But do not look to this book for substantive development of characters, a plausable progression of events or a less than contrived conclusion to the languid, soothing evolution of her characters. Islands is a book that turns out to be not quite a murder mystery, not quite anything on the mark but somehow a pleasant book that no doubt was a quickie for the writer and equally fast for the reader with no serious expectation. Best read with a Mimosa in a hammock.

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