Going with the Grain Review

Going with the Grain is a small delight of a palate-refresher in a heavy diet of polemics and missions about food. More of a travel narrative than a food guide, this book reminds us that what we eat should nourish us culturally as well as biologically.

Seligson is an amusing and evocative writer who traveled the world learning about bread in all its different forms. One of my favorite chapters was the one on Morocco, where women make bread dough at home then send it to a local community oven for baking. How, Seligson wonders, do the right loaves end up back in the right home? Children drop them off at the bakery door. The unmarked loaves go in the oven, where they're mixed with other women's loaves as the bread is shifted repeatedly to ensure even cooking. Finally the loaves are piled on trays by the door, virtually identical in shape and size to all the other loaves. Yet it's unheard of for any family to receive the wrong loaves. I won't spoil the story by telling you how!

Throughout, we learn as much about the ingredients that hold a society together as we do about what goes in the bread. In Jordan, Seligson's Amman hotel-keeper showers "Miss Susie" with traditional hospitality, checking on her by cell phone as she visits Bedouins in the desert and treks to the ancient city of Petra. In France, Parisians concerned that the craft of baguette-baking might be dying, organize a "Fête du Pain" to encourage children to become bakers. In India, the author's efforts to make soup in a friend's kitchen meet with polite resistance from the family's cook, who's clearly offended by a guest's efforts to usurp the servants' duties.

Despite its world-wide flavor, much of the book focuses on American locations. Seligson describes the pains taken by New York City's orthodox Jews to keep any trace of leaven out of their Passover matzo, then crosses the country to tell us about the communal ovens of the Pueblo Indians and the tribe's efforts to maintain its culture. In between are stories as diverse as a visit to the Wonder Bread factory in Biddeford, Maine and a stop at the Army's research labs, where scientists have perfected bread that will last three years in military rations.

Going with the Grain is not a book that will change the world. But I took great pleasure in Seligson's lively prose and warm respect for different traditions and people. I recommend the book highly to anyone interested in the intertwining of food and culture.

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Review © 2003 Cynthia Harriman.
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