Fannie Flagg - Fried Green Tomatoes at the Stop Cafe. Fried green tomatoes in the cafe 'Pustanok' Fried green tomatoes in the cafe

Flagg Fannie

Fried green tomatoes at Polustanok cafe

Translation from English by Dina Krupskaya

GRATITUDE

I would really like to express my gratitude to those people who provided me with invaluable help and support while I was writing this book. First of all, this goes to my literary agent Wendy Weil, who never lost faith in me, to my editor Sam Vogen for his care and attention and for the moments of laughter in the process of working on the text, and to Martha Levin at Random House, who became my closest friend. I also thank Gloria Safer, Liz Nock, Margaret Cafarelli, Anna Bailey, Julia Florence, James Hatcher, Dr. John Nixon, Jerry Hannah, Jay Sawyer, and Frank Self. De Thomas, Bobo and Associates helped me during difficult times of need. I am grateful to Barnaby and Mary Conrad of the Santa Barbara Writers Association, Joe Roy of the Birmingham public library. Geoff Norell of Birmingham Southern College, Anne Harvey and John Lock of Oxmoor House Publishing. Thanks a lot to my assistant and typist Lisa McDonald and her daughter Jessie, who sat quietly and watched Sesame Street while her mother and I worked. And I send special thanks to all the dear residents of Alabama - my heart, my home.

Tommy Thompson

“My flesh lives in the Pink Terrace nursing home, but my heart and thoughts have never left the Polustanok cafe, where they serve fried green tomatoes for lunch...”

From the reflections of Mrs. Virginia Threadgoode at the Rose Terrace Orphanage, June 1986.

MRS WEEMS' WEEKLY

"Bulletin of the Stop Station"

NEW CAFE

Last week, a cafe called Polustanok opened in my neighborhood, next to the post office. His owners, Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison, seem happy: things are slowly getting better. Idgie asks her friends not to worry that they will be poisoned here: she doesn’t cook herself, two black women, Sipsey and Onzella, are in charge of the kitchen, and Onzella’s husband, Big George, is personally responsible for the barbecue.

For those who have not yet had a chance to visit the cafe, Idgie informs you that breakfast is served here from 5.30 to 7.30. You can order eggs, oatmeal, croutons, bacon, sausage, ham under spicy tomato sauce and coffee - all this will cost you 25 cents.

Lunch and dinner options include pork chop and gravy, fried chicken, catfish, chicken and dumplings or barbecue. In addition, you can get vegetables, croutons or cornbread, plus dessert and coffee - all for 35 cents.

Idgie says vegetable options include corn with white sauce, fried green tomatoes, fried okra, cabbage or turnips, black eyed peas, sweet potatoes, Carolina beans or lima beans. And for dessert, pie.

My better half, Wilbur, and I had lunch there yesterday, and it was so delicious that he said, “That’s it, I don’t eat at home anymore.” Ha ha! Okay, if that's the case. Otherwise, I don’t get out of the kitchen, cooking for this meal, and still can’t feed him enough.

By the way, Idgie claims that one of her chickens laid an egg with a ten dollar bill inside.

PINK TERRACE ELDERLY HOUSE

Old Montgomery Highway, Birmingham, Alabama

Today Evelyn Couch trudged with her husband to the Rose Terrace again to visit Big Mama - his mother. Her mother-in-law couldn’t stand her, and Evelyn quickly ran away from them to the visitors’ hall to enjoy the stored sweets in peace and quiet. But as soon as she got comfortable, the old woman in the next chair suddenly spoke:

If you ask me what year so-and-so got married, who he got married to, and what the bride’s mother was wearing, nine times out of ten I’ll answer correctly. But for the life of me, I can’t remember when I managed to grow so old. Somehow, unexpectedly, everything happened: once - and already an old woman.

You know, the first time I discovered this was in June, when I was hospitalized with a gallbladder. They probably still keep it, or maybe they threw it away, who knows. The nurse, so fat and scary, was just about to give me a second enema, they just love doing enemas there. And then I see that I have a piece of paper on my hand, like a tag. I looked closer and it said: "Mrs. Virginia Threadgoode, 86 years old." Imagine!

I returned home and told Mrs. Otis, my friend: they say, now all we have to do is sit back and wait for you to die. And she: “I prefer the expression “to pass into another world.” Poor thing! Somehow I couldn’t bring myself to tell her that, in fact, there was no difference: no matter what you call it, we’ll still die.

But it’s still funny: while you’re little, time is marking time in one place, but as soon as you hit twenty, you rush off like an ambulance to Memphis. Sometimes it seems to me that life somehow slips past us, and you don’t even feel it. Of course, I judge by myself, I don’t know how it happens with others. It seems like yesterday she was just a little girl, and today she’s a hop and a grown woman, with breasts and hair in secluded places. How I managed to miss it all, I have no idea. However, I never had much intelligence, neither at school nor later...

Me and Mrs. Otis from a small town called a stop. It's ten miles from the "Pink Terrace", where the railway marshalling yard is - maybe you heard? Hence the name Polustanok. She and I have lived on the same street for the last thirty years. When Mrs. Otis's husband died, her son and daughter-in-law persuaded her to move here to the orphanage. But they asked me to live with her at least for the first time, until she gets used to it here. Then I’ll return home, but it’s a secret, you know?

And it's not so bad here. At Christmas we all wore festive hats. Mine was embroidered with sparkling Christmas balls, and Mrs. Otis has a Santa Claus face. But the cat had to be left at home. It's a terrible pity! I miss her very much. I’ve kept a cat all my life, or even two. I had to give it to the neighbor girl who waters my geraniums. You know, I have four tubs of geraniums in front of my house, and the geraniums are so wonderful, you just can’t take your eyes off them.

My Mrs. Otis is only seventy-eight. She's a nice woman, really nice, just a little nervous. I kept gallstones in a jar under my bed, so she made me put them away. She said that the sight of them made her feel depressed. How small. However, she is a small person, and I, as you can see, am a big lady. I have a wide bone, and so does everything else.

(estimates: 1 , average: 4,00 out of 5)

Title: Fried green tomatoes at the Polustanok cafe

About the book “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Stop Cafe” by Fannie Flagg

Fannie Flagg's novel “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Stop Station Cafe” at one time became a bestseller, worthy of a place on the list of the most best books XX century. The plot of this book takes place at the end of the twentieth century, but the narrative is so replete with retrospective inserts and stories about the 20s of the twentieth century that the reader learns more about the past of the heroes than about their present.

Evelyn Couch is a housewife from Birmingham. It's 1985, her children have grown up, and her husband has long stopped paying attention to her. Together they must visit the nursing home where Evelyn's mother-in-law lives. Both women do not like each other, so they try to spend as little time together as possible. Evelyn is a tired and unhappy woman. She doesn’t know why she lives and has no idea how to overcome apathy and the difficulties that have befallen her. Her only joy in life is eating chocolate bars. Evelyn often suffers from loneliness, and to pass the time in a nursing home, she begins to communicate with Ninny Threadgoode, a cheerful old woman who is ready to talk endlessly about her past. And Ninny has something to remember.

The story of the heroine Fanny Flagg begins in the 20s of the twentieth century. She was orphaned early and was raised in large family girlfriends. Just as early on, Ninny became a widow, and The only son, born disabled, also did not live to old age. In her youth, she and her friend opened a cafe in their hometown of Polustanok, where people of all races, ages, income levels and religions were welcome. The destinies of the cafe's visitors fill Ninny's life with numerous stories, in which she happily takes part.
Now Ninny Threadgoode is 86 years old, but she continues to love life and share her love of life with others. But she is even more willing to share stories from the past. This is the basis of the plot of the book “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Polustanok Cafe.”

Fannie Flagg does not structure her narrative chronologically. She presents the plot as a talkative old woman would tell it: without observing a time frame, jumping from story to story, mixing stories about her personal life with dramas and comedies heard from cafe visitors.

Gradually Evelyn and Ninny become best friends. The old lady's stories captivate her so much that she often visits her new friend rather than her mother-in-law. The heroine of the novel “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Polustanok Cafe” begins to look at own life, taking the lessons of an older friend: there is still half of life ahead, and there is something to do with it.

On our website about books you can download the site for free without registration or read online book“Fried Green Tomatoes at the Stop Cafe” by Fannie Flagg in epub, fb2, txt, rtf, pdf formats for iPad, iPhone, Android and Kindle. The book will give you a lot of pleasant moments and real pleasure from reading. Buy full version you can from our partner. Also, here you will find last news from literary world, learn the biography of your favorite authors. For beginning writers there is a separate section with useful tips and recommendations, interesting articles, thanks to which you yourself can try your hand at literary crafts.

Quotes from the book “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Stop Cafe” by Fannie Flagg

Eva allowed herself the greatest luxury in life - not caring about the opinions of others.

It's strange, sometimes the heart continues to beat even when it's broken.

If you ask me what year so-and-so got married, who he got married to, and what the bride’s mother was wearing, nine times out of ten I’ll answer correctly. But for the life of me, I can’t remember when I managed to grow so old. Somehow, unexpectedly, everything happened: once - and already an old woman.

Calm, adult reasoning... But in reality, she wanted one thing - to scream and call her mother, dear mother, the only person in the whole world who loved her as no one else in the world will love.

Lying with her legs raised, she thought: what could be more disgusting than when a completely unknown man pokes around inside you and looks at something there, as if you were a bag of gifts?

Evelyn stopped the car. She cried, and her heart was torn with grief. Why, she thought, why is it so arranged that people have to grow old and die?

Those who suffer more, talk less about it.

disappointment is what most often destroys.

If there is such a thing in the world as absolute happiness, then it is the feeling that you are in the right place

Download for free the book “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Stop Station Cafe” by Fannie Flagg

(Fragment)

GRATITUDE

I would really like to express my gratitude to those people who provided me with invaluable help and support while I was writing this book. First of all, this goes to my literary agent Wendy Weil, who never lost faith in me, to my editor Sam Vogen for his care and attention and for the moments of laughter in the process of working on the text, and to Martha Levine at Random House, who became my closest friend. I also thank Gloria Safer, Liz Nock, Margaret Cafarelli, Anna Bailey, Julia Florence, James Hatcher, Dr. John Nixon, Jerry Hannah, Jay Sawyer, and Frank Self. De Thomas, Bobo and Associates helped me during difficult times of need. I am grateful to Barnaby and Mary Conrad of the Santa Barbara Writers Association, and Joe Roy of the Birmingham Public Library. Geoff Norell of Birmingham Southern College, Anne Harvey and John Lock of Oxmoor House Publishing. A huge thank you to my assistant and typist Lisa McDonald and her daughter Jessie, who sat quietly and watched Sesame Street while her mom and I worked. And I send special thanks to all the dear residents of Alabama - my heart, my home.

Tommy Thompson

“My flesh lives in the Pink Terrace nursing home, but my heart and thoughts have never left the Polustanok cafe, where they serve fried green tomatoes for lunch...”

From the reflections of Mrs. Virginia Threadgoode at the Rose Terrace Orphanage, June 1986.

MRS WEEMS' WEEKLY

"Bulletin of the Stop Station"

NEW CAFE

Last week, a cafe called Polustanok opened in my neighborhood, next to the post office. His owners, Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison, seem happy: things are slowly getting better. Idgie asks her friends not to worry that they will be poisoned here: she doesn’t cook herself, two black women, Sipsey and Onzella, are in charge of the kitchen, and Onzella’s husband, Big George, is personally responsible for the barbecue.

For those who have not yet had a chance to visit the cafe, Idgie informs you that breakfast is served here from 5.30 to 7.30. You can order eggs, oatmeal, croutons, bacon, sausage, ham with spicy tomato sauce and coffee - all this will cost you 25 cents.

Lunch and dinner options include pork chop and gravy, fried chicken, catfish, chicken and dumplings or barbecue. In addition, you can get vegetables, croutons or cornbread, plus dessert and coffee - all for 35 cents.

Idgie says vegetable options include corn with white sauce, fried green tomatoes, fried okra, cabbage or turnips, black eyed peas, sweet potatoes, Carolina beans or lima beans. And for dessert, pie.

My better half, Wilbur, and I had lunch there yesterday, and it was so delicious that he said, “That’s it, I don’t eat at home anymore.” Ha ha! Okay, if that's the case. Otherwise, I don’t get out of the kitchen, cooking for this meal, and still can’t feed him enough.

By the way, Idgie claims that one of her chickens laid an egg with a ten dollar bill inside.

PINK TERRACE ELDERLY HOUSE

Old Montgomery Highway, Birmingham, Alabama

Today Evelyn Couch trudged with her husband to the Rose Terrace again to visit Big Mama - his mother. Her mother-in-law couldn’t stand her, and Evelyn quickly ran away from them to the visitors’ hall to enjoy the stored sweets in peace and quiet. But as soon as she got comfortable, the old woman in the next chair suddenly spoke:

If you ask me what year so-and-so got married, who he got married to, and what the bride’s mother was wearing, nine times out of ten I’ll answer correctly. But for the life of me, I can’t remember when I managed to grow so old. Somehow, unexpectedly, everything happened: once - and already an old woman.

I didn’t read Fannie Flagg’s book “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Stop Station Cafe” right away. At first I stopped reading because I found it boring and reminiscent of ““. But then I came back and was so carried away that I read it to the end. For the lazy, my video review of the book:

Overall, the book was decent. I recommend! I read it in in electronic format. I think you can easily download Flagg in any format. If you can’t find it, here’s a link from Litres:

Summary of the novel “Fried Green Tomatoes”

In 1985, in Birmingham, Alabama, housewife Evelyn Couch is forced to visit her mother-in-law in a nursing home. Their relationship is tense, and Evelyn, trying to avoid her, meets with another resident of the nursing home, whose name is Ninny Threadgoode. She begins to tell Evelyn stories from her life in the town of Whistle Stop in the outback of Alabama, starting in the 1920s.

Evelyn is having a hard time with a midlife crisis, her children have grown up and started their own families, her relationship with her husband is not the best, she is tormented by thoughts of loneliness and death. Her life, once smooth and impeccable, lost all meaning. Evelyn Couch, at 48 years old, stopped taking care of herself, eating chocolate bars became the only cure for depression. Ninny lived difficult life, she lost her parents early, was widowed early, her only son was born defective and also did not live to old age. Despite this, Ninny, at 86 years old, has not lost her love for life, she is so full of it that Evelyn, who visits her, begins to see her sorrows and sorrows in a different light. Gradually, the purpose of visits to the nursing home becomes not the mother-in-law, but Ninny’s stories and her company. Women, without noticing it, become friends. The people Ninny talks about begin to mean a lot to Evelyn, she often thinks about them, they fill the void in her life. Evelyn Couch changes her attitude towards the future after her older friend reminds her that she still has half her life ahead.

The book is written in a very original way, the reader is invited to observe events from different angles. The author does not adhere to chronological sequence, narrates the events as it usually happens in a conversation, when they present the episode that was remembered in this moment. Some documentary detail in the description of the life of Polustank is given by excerpts from the “Bulletin of Polustank”. At the end of the book, the reader is offered several recipes for dishes that were served at the Polustanok cafe a long time ago, including two recipes for fried green tomatoes.

Reviews of the novel Flagg:

If you bring this volume closer to your ear, you can probably hear someone’s laughter, crying, conversations, the noise of a train, the rustling of leaves, the clanking of forks and spoons. Listen to the sounds breaking through the cover, and you will learn the story of one small American town, in which, like everywhere else in the world, love and pain, fears and hopes, friendship and hatred are intertwined. This story will be told with such sincerity that it will be remembered long years, and Fannie Flagg's novel will become one of the most beloved books - as it has become for so many around the world.

Idgie has always been a tomboy with a keen sense of justice. That’s how she remained when she grew up and, together with her beloved friend, opened the Polustanok cafe, where she welcomes everyone, poor and wealthy, black and white, cheerful and sad. The stories that happen to Idgie and her loved ones are sometimes painfully realistic, and sometimes they are completely incredible, but they always drag you in, making you feel as if all this is happening in real life. real life. For great novel Fannie Flagg is life itself.

Fried Green Tomatoes is a true classic, one of the best American novels of the 20th century. An exceptionally kind, subtle book, imbued with love for people, humor and slight sadness. An undoubted masterpiece.

Good book, I agree :)

I became acquainted with the book a long time ago, I was attracted by its title, and several acquaintances strongly recommended it for reading. As a result, I read it 3 times already and in a couple of years I will read it again).

The plot cannot be described in a nutshell, but still. A small town near Birmingham, living mainly on... railway, the action takes place over several decades, starting in the 20s of the last century. The main events are connected with two friends Idzhi and Ruth, who own the cafe “Polustanok”. In general, there are a lot of heroes in the book - almost the entire town. The narration is mostly told on behalf of Ninny Threadgoode, who, already in a nursing home in 1985, tells amazing stories from the life of Polustank to a middle-aged woman, Evelyn Couch, who visits her. In addition to Ninny Threadgout, the narrators are other residents of the Stop Station, Evelyn Couch (whose life the Stop Station radically changed, although she had never heard of it before) and the author of the work.

Life in Polustanka is measured, but at the same time something is constantly happening. Given the time period and the fact that the setting is the southern United States, there is the Ku Klux Klan, and the Depression, and war. But everything revolves around the residents, who are always ready to support each other, and for a long time no one thought to lock the doors in the town, although times were different. There are a lot of events - both sad and funny, but at the head of everything Fanny Flagg puts kindness and humanity, which makes the book even more pleasant to read, it is so positive and life-affirming.

I won’t spoil things too much, I’ll just say that the book is worth reading when you want something kind, cheerful, a little sad, but at the same time setting you up for a positive wave. As is the case with other books by Fannie Flagg (for example, “Standing Under the Rainbow”), it’s even sad to say goodbye to the main characters, perhaps that’s why I reread the book periodically).

“My flesh lives in the Pink Terrace nursing home, but my heart and thoughts have never left the Polustanok cafe, where they serve fried green tomatoes for lunch...”

Fannie Flagg "Fried Green Tomatoes"
at the Polustanok cafe

Cook and eat green, not yet ripe tomatoes? Come on? Do people really do this? Are you kidding?

Ever since the title of Fannie Flagg's novel caught my eye, I have periodically asked myself these questions. Like many, it seemed to me that tomatoes should be red and fresh, not green and fried. But it turned out that with the right approach, they can perform well even in their unripe form. In Russia, they are most often used to make something like salads and put them in jars. Or pickled, which is also an option.

In the American South, green tomatoes are treated differently. There they are fried and served immediately, still hot. Residents of the southern states value unripe vegetables for their characteristic sour taste. To soften and decorate it, the tomatoes are fried in breading - the result is a crispy outside and juicy inside dish. Either a side dish or an appetizer.

There is another place where you should go based on the film - in the city of Juliet, Georgia, where the film was filmed.

From an abandoned building that used to be a store, director Jon Avnet made Idgie and Ruth Cafe. Once the film became popular, the property owner turned the set into a restaurant, which still answers tourists' questions about the filming and serves green tomatoes.

Fanny Flagg herself told how to cook the title dish of the novel - on last pages books, she shares recipes for what they served at the Stop Station: buttermilk biscuits, pecan pie, Southern Chicken. And there are two options for how to fry green tomatoes. She ended the second recipe with the words “This is the most tasty dish in the world!". Okay, so be it.

Salt pepper
Vegetable oil

Preparation:

1. Cut the tomatoes into slices 5-7 mm thick. Salt and pepper on both sides.

2. In one bowl, lightly beat the egg, mixing the yolk and white. In another, add breadcrumbs, add a little salt and pepper.

You can also add dried garlic and dried herbs to the crackers.

3. Pour into the frying pan vegetable oil– it should cover the entire surface with a thin layer. Reheat well. Dip each slice of tomato on both sides first in the egg, then roll in breadcrumbs, trying to get the breading as even as possible.

4. Place tomato slices in a frying pan and fry over medium-high heat for a couple of minutes until dark golden brown. Carefully turn the slices over and fry on the other side.

5. Remove the finished fried tomatoes, place them on paper towels for a few minutes to remove excess fat, and serve immediately, still hot.