'Thank You Please Come Again' pays homage to Southern gas station food shops

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Photojournalist Kate Medley took a road trip across 11 states in the South, documenting the culture of convenience stores and gas stations that serve hot, delicious food. Her new book, Thank You Please Come Again, captures how these establishments serve as important community meeting points across class, ethnic and racial divides. In today's episode, Medley speaks to NPR's Debbie Elliott about how communities of color are playing an important role in this Southern tradition, and how it's manifesting in dishes like cajun banh mis and jollof rice.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. In Baltimore, where I live, some of the best
0:08.5	fried chicken I've had has been from this place called Royal Farms. It's a gas station fried
0:14.3	chicken chain that I'd never heard of until I moved here. And the thing about it is that
0:18.8	the chicken isn't an afterthought. It's like actually
0:22.2	really good and probably just as important to the Royal Farms Enterprise as the gas. Go even further
0:29.7	south, though, and you can find all sorts of different foods at gas stations, catfish,
0:35.3	bond meats, malays, j jolof rice, and more.
0:38.5	Photojournalist Kate Medley spent some time across the south documenting these
0:42.9	combination gas station food shops.
0:46.0	And she talked to NPR's Debbie Elliott about how, while we all lead these segregated lives
0:52.1	across different lines, at the end of the day, we all need gas in our cars and food in our bellies.
0:59.0	That's after the break.
1:01.0	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
1:06.0	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
1:10.0	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:12.6	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
1:16.3	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:20.2	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:25.3	I caught up with photojournalist Kate Medley on a recent winter morning.
1:30.8	How was your drive?
1:32.3	It was beautiful.
1:33.3	I watched the sunrise as I was passing through Yazoo City and came on up into the snowy, icy Indianola.
	...

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