Main Street of America Cookbook Author:Marian Clark More than 280 recipes highlight the chefs serving today's best hometown cuisine along Route 66. This essential guide includes information on places to see and eat at along the route. — Clark (The Route 66 Cookbook, LJ 12/93) has gone back to "Main Street," traveling once again along the entire route of the old highway, from Illinois to California... more », to see how this part of America has changed. Some communities have been revitalized, while others have just about disappeared. At some stops, Clark found new young chefs serving innovative contemporary fare, while at others she revisited diners and cafes ("classic remains") still dishing up the homespun food they've always been known for. In addition to recipes from Clark's favorite restaurants, as well as from many home cooks, there is information on "What To See," "Where To Eat," and "Where To Stay" in dozens of towns and cities along the way.
Clark writes well, and she's discovered some fascinating old and new places to visit. Recommended for both cookery and travel collections.
U.S. Route 66 stretches from Chicago to Los Angeles. Of all the nation's early federally funded highways, only the Maine-Key West U.S. 1 rivals Route 66's mystique and fame. Clark has traveled the length of Route 66 to chronicle the foods of the roadside restaurants that sprang up along the concrete ribbon and helped populate previously barren southwestern desert lands. Since Route 66 starts in Illinois, recipes in Clark's book first reflect hearty midwestern cooking before gradually giving way to the spices and chilies of the Mexican-influenced cooking of the Southwest. Most of Clark's recipes tend toward ease of preparation by calling for canned and other universally available ingredients rather than fresh, locally grown produce. A new generation of interstate highways now bypasses most of the communities Clark celebrates, and franchise food restaurants have generated culinary uniformity along what's left of Route 66.« less