This wise and witty tale of immigrant assimilation wholeheartedly embraces a passion for food
In the early 1990s, when writing a travel guide to a region of southern Wisconsin settled in the 1840s by immigrants from villages in Europe who kept to themselves well into the mid-20th century, speaking in their native tongues and building in traditional styles, I felt I ought to put in a note of caution: do not expect to find a single item worth eating anywhere on your perambulations. According to J Ryan Stradal, those days are, thankfully, gone, and I could now repeat my journey, spoon in hand, and find plenty of adventuresome and delicious cuisine.
Stradal grew up in southern Minnesota, which means that in middle school he was probably required to read Giants in the Earth, Ole Rølvaag’s novel about Norwegian immigration to the Dakota prairies. The clue is that in Kitchens of the Great Midwest, death comes at the beginning (notwithstanding that page one is laugh-out-loud funny). The first character we meet, young Lars Thorvald, has developed his talent for curing lutefisk (dried white fish) and as a result is mercilessly bullied by his fellow students. Eventually, he becomes a chef; when his daughter Eva, the novel’s protagonist, is born, Lars plans to feed her pureed pork loin, Mom’s carrot cake (the recipe is included) and corn dogs. The aforementioned death is a heart attack, caused by carrying a trunk of lutefisk up three flights of stairs.
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