Hi Tony,

I'm watching No Reservations, listening to the answers to your fans' burning questions, and I realized I had to write you. You need to come to West Virginia. Please don't laugh, and if you're already laughing, stop. Wild and wonderful, West Virginia is place that will surprise you, and show you and your viewers that while some of the stereotypes are true, we're not all country-line dancing, white trash inbreds who live in trailors. Not that there's anything wrong with trailors. Anyway, you must first learn that we are NOT southern. We are mountain people. We take pride in the fact that we broke apart from the south to fight on the correct side of the Civil War. West Virginia is probably the proudest state in the nation, because we've endured so many years of ridicule. We are wonderful people and the world needs to know more about us.
Now, about the food. You will find great country cooking: deer meat, other wild and questionable game that aren't for the faint of heart, mashed potatoes and gravy, and fried potatoes. Surprisingly, you will also find a lot of Italian food in my hometown of Fairmont, because many Italians from San Giovanni settled in the area to work in the mines. My husband's family is accustomed to eating tiela, pitta piata, macaroni and gravy, and peppers in sauce. It is also where the pepperoni roll was invented. Fairmont can also offer you as many different types of hot dogs as you can possibly come across in so small a town. You could even meet the "hot dog Nazi", who won't let you eat anything but his sauce (which will burn a hole in your stomach), and onions and mustard on his hot dogs.
In addition to all of the culinary reasons as to why you should visit us, we also have a famous writer in our hometown. His name is Robert Tinnell, and he wrote an Italian graphic novel called "The Feast of the Seven Fishes", which was nominated for an Eisner Award. I believe it is going to be made into a movie. Every year a Feast of the Seven Fishes celebration is held downtown, where you can dine on all the different types of fish, of course, and lupines and other strange Italian foods. I bet you didn't know West Virginia could be so Italian!
So Tony, please make the trip to West Virginia. I promise we'll surprise you.

Sincerely,
Emily Santy