FD is reading a collection of MFK Fisher’s fugitive pieces, essays from magazines mostly that were not printed in book form when Fisher was alive. It’s called A Stew or a Story and includes some fiction as well as the food essays. Some of them are not as well written as the work she wanted to preserve, though usually there is at least a sentence or two that charms.
More interesting is how these pieces reflect an earlier time in US food history. It’s pretty amazing to realize that in 1976 readers needed a primer on olive oil! Food writers have to seek out rare ingredients and obscure cuisines to get published today. And FD isn’t quite ready for some of the topics (like Lamb Tripe Stew yesterday) that turn up on even a mainstream blog like Serious Eats. Fisher suggests somewhere that older palates are tempted by the rich and strange and highly seasoned, but FD is still not ready for brains or stomach or lungs etc, no, the idea of offal is still awful, even at FD’s advanced age.