WEEKLY DIGEST: Jan. 10-17, 2008
By Glenny Brock
WE ARE WHAT WE EAT & ALWAYS HAVE BEEN: Birminghamians are obsessed with food, with eating, with cooking, with restaurants. It didn’t start with the current crop of fine-dining establishments but rather with the workaday places that brought Birmingham into being in the first place – the iron and steel manufacturers.
Way back in 1927, right around the time that the Sloss-Sheffield Iron & Steel was modernizing its methods of pig iron production, the company launched a marketing inititative called Pig Iron Rough Notes. The mini-magazine consisted mostly of metallurgical matter, but also included a recipes page called “Gentleman Cooks.” These delicious formulas are the subject of a new book titled Man Food, as well as this week’s cover story.
Elsewhere in the paper we’ve got less appetizing news: Alabama Democratic Conference Chairman Joe Reed is all for black candidates – except the one running for president. But then again what do primaries matter in the age of making playlists?
In the New Year, the living is easy, at least for J’Mel Davidson. That guy means to live right in his own inimitable style.
