John T. Edge, food journalist and apple pie buff, toured the USA, eating pie any place he could get it. Perhaps surprisingly, he found regional differences to be quite pronounced. Where but in Tennessee would you find a Coca-Cola fried pie? And where but New Mexico would apple pie contain chili peppers? On his travels, Edge thought a lot about Mom's apple pie as an icon of America, and why it strikes such a fond, nostalgic chord for so many people.