Angela Perez

Food Writer & Editor

Angela was born and raised in a rural town in northeastern North Carolina. She holds a Master’s from Duke University where she concentrated in Russian, Slavic, and East European Studies. She has written about food and food culture for over 10 years. And though she has eaten glorious cuisines and culinary works of art from all over the world, “traditional” Southern cooking remains her favorite. Though, one of the main reasons she created this site was to explore what “traditional” means. She uses personal anecdotes and experience combined with academic scholarship to explore the American South’s foodways and what it reveals about the identity, history, and values of this region. The Southern table ain’t all about feelin’ good and “welcome to my table” when you examine the often brutal history of how some of these foods even made it to that table.

In addition to her 10+ career in corporate communications, writing, and editing, she recently served as an English language teacher for elementary school students. She used food and foodways to help her students celebrate their native languages and cultures.

She is always on the hunt for the foods of her childhood – collard greens with fatback, biscuits, fried okra, bbq, coleslaw, cornbread (by the way, there should never be sugar in cornbread – EVER), grits, and fried fish. Her dad is Mexican and she is hoping, in 2022, to get much more in touch with her Hispanic heritage and to explore Mexican culture and its influence in the American South. Particularly through food. Namely through homemade tortillas – which she could live on. Well, tortillas and collard greens cooked in fat back. And hot water cornbread. And homemade biscuits. And tamales.

WRITING AND TRAVEL INTERESTS
Southern foodways
Multiculturalism and foodways
The language of food
Scuba diving
Snorkeling
Road trips
Bordertown foodways
LatinX culture
Southern culture
Coffee
Pop culture and food

GET IN TOUCH
Angela is available for writing, editing, and consulting projects. If you want to chat about Southern foodways (ANY foodways), great restaurants to try, how Dostoevsky and Faulkner are two sides of the same coin, Chinese film, or anything else, don’t hesitate in reaching out. The site email address is: speakingofthesouth@gmail.com.