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Review by Ann M. Shayne
Roger Welsch puts on a good show -- he lives in Nebraska, owns 48 pair of bib overalls, likes to smoke turkeys in his refrigerator-transformed-into-a-smoker.
Beneath this bucolic veneer, however, lurks the heart of a true intellectual, a guy who hangs out with the likes of writer Jim "Legends of the Fall" Harrison, a guy who does commentaries on CBS' "Sunday Morning," a guy who thinks about what he does. In his latest manifesto Welsch is thinkin' about food, and here at the Curiosity Shoppe we declare that this is one of the funniest books of the year.
"Diggin' In and Piggin' Out: The Truth About Men and Food" makes the "White Trash Cookbook" look like something from Lutece. Welsch is completely unapologetic about his love of cooking in the manly way, a way that involves 1) few tools (a cast-iron skillet does just about everything), 2) simple ingredients (beaver tail, for example), and 3) an open-ended sense of what can be accomplished (a.k.a. no recipes).
There are tons of stories in here, some which must be apocryphal, all of which show Welsch at his expansive best. This is a book not so much about how to smoke a ham (though Welsch appeases his publisher by including recipes for this and other manly dishes) as it is a book about the pleasure of eating. Even a woman can appreciate Welsch's glee, even if she can't quite stomach the thought of pork rinds for breakfast.
©1997, ProMotion, inc.
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