Hush puppies, fried chicken, crab cakes-fried food is the soul of Southern cooking and has only grown in popularity in recent years. Like every one of James Villas's cookbooks, this one is impeccably researched, with flawless recipes, history, and culture. It is filled with gorgeous color photos sure to tempt even health food fanatics, with crispy, crunchy delights in chapters featuring eggs and cheese, seafood, breads, and Southern staples like grits, rice, and potatoes. Today's deep fryers make frying easier and healthier than ever; it's as easy as pushing a button, with no risk of splattering oil, and Villas's expertly written recipes like Sassy Shrimp Puffs, Georgia Bacon and Eggs with Hominy, Country Fried Steak, Turkey Hash Cakes, and Rosemary Pork Chops will ensure perfect results. This isn't diet food, to be sure, but these are dishes that people love, and it's safer and healthier than ever to fry without any sacrifice in flavor. "With over a dozen cookbooks and two James Beard awards under his belt, Villas weighs in with another well-crafted work, this one focusing on the oily offerings to be found in his favorite part of the U.S"
-- Publishers Weekly "Since Americans on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line relish crisp fried foods, Villas' book, with its clear instructions, will surely reach a large audience.- Booklist Southern Fried "should be on the reading list of anyone intersted not only in Southern cooking, but in taking the pulse of American gastronomy overall."--Julia Reed The Wall Street Journal "Southern Fried is yet another indispensable book by James Villas, a food writer of the old school. He has the absolute highest standards of food and drink, an always engaging writing style, great wit, well-founded opinions, and a deep knowledge of whatever he's writing about, be it the regional country dishes of France or the homey casseroles of his childhood in North Carolina. Last, but hardly least, he writes concise, well-tested recipes. You know by reading them that he's cooked them over and over. In Southern Fried, as usual, he alternately has me absorbed in my reading chair or running to the kitchen to cook-sorry, fry. Crab and Corn Fritters Remoulade, anyone?"--Arthur Schwartz, NPR radio personality and author of Naples at Table: Cooking in Campania "Jim Villas is an aficionado as well as an expert of all things Southern. He makes home frying doable and delicious, with clear instructions and enthusiasm. For those with fear of frying, this is the book to buy." --Nathalie Dupree, TV host and author The veteran cookbook writer and North Carolina native mounts a defense of frying and applies it with gusto.
--The New York Times
