Munchies

To the Editors of The Crimson:

The writer Calvin Trillin has described a popular affliction called "Hometown Food Nostalgia" which results in millions of pounds of sausage, cheese, candy and other goodies crisscrossing the country every year, sent to desperate expatriates. The theory was developed by a friend of Trillin's as he stood in the post office line, holding a package of Kansas City's famed Wolferman's English muffins that he was about to send to his son in Virginia.

We are two willing victims of Hometown Food Nostalgia and confess to lifetime allegiances to such special American foods as the creamy caramels made by the nuns of Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey in Dubuque, Iowa; the thick potato chips fried in pure lard from Dieffenbach's in Womelsdorf. Pa. and the puffy Common Crackers from the Vermont Country Store in Rockingham, Vt.

We think others would like to know about America's time-honored foods made at firms where quality has never wavered, so we are compiling examples of America's best-loved foods for a book to be published in 1984 by a major publishing house. However, we need your help to make sure your state is well represented. Please let us know about any food products from your hometown or elsewhere that you consider absolutely first-rate. We're not looking for alcoholic beverages or a house specialty from a restaurant(unless it also is available in stores or by mail-order), but soups, cakes, ice creams, snacks, canned foods, meats, candy, etc. that are truly one-of-a-kind.

If you could let us know about the product and the address and telephone number of where it's produced-as well as a few words about why you think so highly of it-we would be extremely grateful. We do want to give these excellent products some well-deserved attention, and would appreciate your help in making our book complete. Please drop a note to either of us at the addresses below.

We thank you and so do our future readers who long to know about foods like Lasser's old-fashioned soda pop from Chicago. It's it ice cream bars from San Francisco and Wahoo Weiners from the OK Market in Wahoo, Neb. Margaret Engel   2038 18th St., N.W.   Washington, D.C. 20009   Allison Engel   R.R. #4   Princeton, III. 61356