Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Sir,

I enjoyed the article, but you're wrong on one point. Fried chicken is not the exclusive domain of Blacks. I am certain that my ancestors who settled in the Southeast over 200 years ago and worked the land, hunted, fished, and raised domestic animals knew how to "fry" chicken. It was a shared culinary experience with Blacks. I grew up in Alabama. Both my parents grew up on farms in Tennessee during the Depression and were poor, "dirt poor." They had no servants to bring them "fried chicken." Otherwise, you're spot on. As for me, I moved away, married a Spaniard, and was converted to a much better diet.

Fried Chicken
Collard Greens
Grits
and yes Watermelon

I didn't realize how much I would miss these fabulous food favourites, until I spent 5 months in Europe.

"Upper Middle Class White Male"
Born and raised in Virginia

Even within the South there are different foods depending on which state you live in. For instance folks in Texas have a different diet than folks in Georgia or Alabama. The foods you find in Louisiana are different from Georgia.
Growing up, we ate mostly vegetables and foods made with ground beef. Some of my favorites are simple things like black beans and rice, corn bread, pot roast, and mustard greens.

I'm a Virginia girl who spent three years in Brussels, wishing at times I could trade my morning croissant for biscuits, eggs, and Jimmy Dean sausage.

Southern food and hospitality go hand in hand. Church suppers often feature some of the best Southern cooking. The receptions held after funerals are another place to find traditional Southern comfort foods, the ones we associate with community and family.

And pork BBQ? A casual dining and summer favorite for so many people.

A funny note: having enjoyed English fish and chips while living in Europe, my husband ordered them at an American chain restaurant and was served FISH STICKS and fries. Oh the disappointment and the SHAME of them calling that fish and chips!

I wanted to take this opportunity to absolutely confirm what AsturiMan stated regarding fried chicken.
I know. It's a little lo-fi considering all the other issues the world is facing, but I didn't want that errant article detail to take hold as fact.
As an Alabamian with a very similar "dirt poor" ancestry, mixed with wandering Irish and a splash of disenfranchised American Indian, I know there is a melding of culture throughout Southern cuisine, but not in regard to the basic frying of chicken.
Nice article, however. Look forward to further reporting on the South.

AntoCapra,
You forgot:
Biscuits and gravy (both sausage and red-eye)
Pulled pork bar-b que sandwiches with the coleslaw on the sandwich,
Corn bread,
Sweat potato pie,
And more than there is room to list here. I spent years stationed in Asia, Europe, and the Middle-East/SWA. The local chow was entertaining as well as good but getting back to costal North Carolina meant hitting the gate as soon as liberty was granted and getting the food that you missed for 6, 9, or 12 months.
Cheers
Andy

Sweet Tea!
The best and most fabulous porch drink in the world! (Nobody makes it better than Memphis, TN, where if you ask 10 different people for their recipe you'll get 10 different fabulous answers! The disparity is ALWAYS in the amount of sugar.)
Jon, please say that you've shared a glass of this sweet hospitality :-)

I am English born and bred, but I have spent a little time with friends in Texas, and brought some of it home with me.

Weekends just aren't the same anymore without some sourdough biscuits and crispy bacon to start the day - my kids love them and I have to make sure that there some in the freezer for them when I go away!

As a native of Georgia, I can recall many a Sunday afternoon of fried chicken, potato salad, field peas and snaps and hot pepper sauce. Not to mention, you could separate the Southerners from the not-so-Southern by the way someone mixed the butter and honey on the biscuit. I've spent a lot of time in Sweden, and now live in Idaho, and there is still not a day that goes by that I do not long for the ease of Southern conversation and good food at the table. Regardless of political or religious affiliation, Southerners usually agree to disagree, and that's a charm that I rarely see elsewhere.

I frequently go a bit spare as to how hard it is to get any soul food in London. There's nowhere to go for cornbread, no Crawfish boils, even cornflower and okra are hard to find.
The bias between places specialising in folk-orientated European menus and American is certainly confusing. Perhaps it's associated with American fast food restaurants which has lead people to an unfavourable impression, although given the number (and popularity) of such franchises it's even more confusing!

Anto Capra,

where were you staying in Europe where you couldn't find a Watermelon? Andy Wash, did you ever consider home cooking? Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ made is always best and that way you can guarantee you get the coleslaw IN the sandwich. Actually, you can get anything you like in London, you just have to know where to go.

My mouth is salivating. But, tell me, what are Grits?. I often read about them.
You may also be able to tell me whether or not Residents in the Southern States availed themselves of the Natural Flora and Fauna which is [or was] so abundant.
My own opinion is that you just cannot beat a good Ruby Murray.

Take Care

Actually, Jon, every part of the US has its own cuisine, although most of the people cooking and eating it wouldn't think of it as "cuisine."

Fresh sweet corn in the Midwest, Indiana honeyrock melons, lobsters and seafood in New England, Tex-Mex food, and on and on. There's quite a variety that is totally unknown outside the US. And in cities with big immigrant populations, you get interesting blends like Cincinnati chili, which no Texan would eat but which is wonderful in its own way.

Deep fat frying has its origins in West African cooking, where many of the slaves came from. The slaves also brought okra with them and various other recipes that now form the foundation of Southern cooking. A lot of Southern food traditions also come from poor people using whatever they had to make some of the best dishes around. BBQ ribs, fried chicken, brisket, burgoo, spoon bread, Brunswick stew, etc. all came from these humble roots.

Every Sunday in the summer we almost always had fried chicken, potato salad, green beans, pickeled beets, sliced tomatoes, corn on the cob and either peaches or watermelon. Iced tea was always on the table in large amounts. My mouth still waters when I think about Mom's and my grandma's cooking.

As a Southerner born, bred and raised in Georgia and South Carolina (mostly in the area of Charleston). I must say that our Sweet Tea is simply the most divine.

I'm currently living in Suriname, South America, and trying to explain to people, both my work mates and the locals why, something like turnip greens must be had with plenty of vinegar; or, why BBQ flavors matter depending on where you live have been trials.

How can you explain the subtle differences in dry, vinegar-based sauce, ketchup-based, or mustard-based? These are just the sort of arguments that will sort out the gradation of Southern a person belongs too. On the other hand, no matter where you go in the South or the color of your skin or what we as a grand people may think of you: if you are a guest at our tables, then you will be treated with the utmost hospitality.

Because that is just so.

The reason most of these traditional foods are not served in restaurants is just snobbery against any food considered to be "food for poor people" or "peasant food".

But all the best flavours in food come from the poor areas... maybe because in years gone by, the poor had no choice but to experiment with different combinations of whatever ingredients they had available, and that way they found what worked really well.

I'll take a good Mexican or Cajun meal at a roadside diner over a high class French or Italian restaurant meal every time!

#10. Cornflour, if its the same stuff on both sides of the atlantic is fairly easy to findeven in supermarkets. Its great for coating meat before stir-frying (Chinese food) so I use it 3 or 4 times a week. Okra can be found in Jamaican food stores- plenty of those in London.

#12 Grumpymatjoe:

I'm from Missouri, so I'll respectfully defer to someone from the deeper South to explain "grits" (as they do it best!).

And after they do, run--don't walk---and get yourself a bowl. Have mercy, they're delicious! And use real butter to melt all over them, not the low-fat margarine stuff.

As a multi-generational northern American on both sides of the family, let me just make a confession.

Almost all our best food comes from the South. Tex-Mex, gumbo, jambalaya, and almost anything you care to name as long as it's fried.

And almost all our worst food is Northern. "Salad" that consists largely of Jell-O. McDonald's, which trained much of the country to eat intolerably bland mush.

We do make some good sausage up North, though, thanks to all the German and Polish immigration a century ago, and I'll hold American-made cake up against anybody else's.

To answer Grumpymatjoe question, Grits are a lightly processed (stone ground grains being the best) corn meal that is usually cooked in a way similar to rice or Cous-Cour but can be cooked in as many ways as you have Southern Chefs.

My favorite being with a bit of cream, butter an a pinch of salt.

grits = coarse cornmeal boiled in water until it's the consistency of porridge/oatmeal.

Some people in the South Carolina lowcountry add milk which makes it creamy and slightly sweet. It's a breakfast staple but there are also traditions of serving grits at dinner, especially the creamier variety.

They're great. I love them with cheese (I yuppify mine with asiago--which is truly wonderful--but cheddar is wonderful too). I also sometimes stir in my eggs and sausage.

Well the US currently has a major problem with obesity. It sounds like this has something to do with it

Oh, you're making my mouth water. I'm from Tennessee, but I now live in Massachusetts, and I can tell you that nothing beats a Southern Sunday Dinner. Fried chicken, collard greens, potato salad, sweet tea, cornbread (or biscuits)...it makes me homesick.

Try as I might, I have yet to find any decent sweet tea outside of the South (unless I make it myself). It's also hard to find the tender greens. I know what I'm going to ask my mom to make when I go home!

You're right about agreeing to disagree. Southerners have many issues--the legacy of slavery being one of them--but over food, you sit down, enjoy yourself, and relax. Whatever problems will still be there after you're done.

For the American expats--can't you substitute polenta for proper grits? It's a little coarser than most grits, though I think it's very similar to the old school stone ground variety

12. Grumpymatjoe:

"But, tell me, what are Grits?. I often read about them."

The description of how grits are made sounds awful, but the result is good.

Corn kernels are soaked in lye water to remove the husk. The rest of the kernel is dried and ground into a meal, which is cooked into a gruel. In the South grits are served like mashed potatoes, with butter on them. Northerners like me don't really know what to make of them and tend to treat them like cooked cereal and put cream and sugar on them. My wife, although likewise a northerner, eats them the traditional way and considers them a comfort food. They're okay. I think it's one of those regional things you love dearly if you grow up with it.

When northerners travel south, there's a definite "grits line," south of which you are served grits in restaurants as a side item even if you don't ask for it.

What are grits? "grits is groceries" we used to say. While you're at it, don't forget "hoppin John" with black-eyed peas, rice and fatback pork.

#19. Good 'Northern' food may not be especially 'American' but with the huge Italian and Jewish communities in New York and Chicago you should be able to eat VERY well up there.

The best place in the states I've eaten was the pacific north west- prawns the size of lobsters and great steaks. Good beer too which is something the US doesn't normally manage (although I love good bourbon)

I think that the poster looking for corn flour (#10 and #17) were talking about what it know in the UK as cornmeal which as some people have already mentioned our Italian cousins call polenta. This is okay for making cornbread but usually a little to fine to make good grits.

Darn. I'm getting hungry and I have only just eaten.

#24 Sure you can make the substitution. But you'll need to pound the polenta a little to make it work.

By the bye, anyone adding sugar to grits is committing a grave faus pas if they do it in public.

re 24, polenta just isn't the same as grits, or at least the polenta we get in Brazil isn't the same.

Being from Mississippi this is my contribution,

Grits are made from coursely ground dried corn. Cornmeal is a much finer grind.
Grits are simply boiled in water, sometimes milk, and idealy served with butter and black pepper as a side dish at breakfast, and are yummy with gravy on them too. When we were young Grandma mixed grits with a bit of sugar and milk as a breakfast cereal.
Leftover grits were rolled in palstic wrap and refridgerated. The next day it would be sliced and browned in a skillet, served with butter and maple syrup.
Grits are like many other things in the South, preference varies by state, the constant throughout is hospitality and sharing the table.

SonOfGehenus is absolutely correct;
if you are a guest at a Southern table, you will be treated graciously regardless because yes, that is just the way it is.

timohio #25:

You're absolutely correct about the "grits line". I lived 6 years in Wisconsin. One morning at a restaurant I noticed grits on the menu and ordered them. I nearly wept--a watery tragedy.

On the other side of the "line", however, I found the popular Northern "Hotdish". Take a can of cream of mushroom soup+whatever is in the pantry+tator tots on top. Pop it in the oven and no matter who made it or what ingredients were in the pantry that day, it was always delicious.
Craziest thing I ever saw, because you never could anticipate what was going to be in the hotdish, but it was always good.

#22
"Well the US currently has a major problem with obesity. It sounds like this has something to do with it"

True given modern life style. 50 years ago, my grandmother cooked like that for the men in the household who spent all day in the fields (actually she did, too--women got double duty). Obesity wasn't an issue. Problem is, the traditional foods remain but the traditional lifestyles disappear.

#29 SonOfGehenus:

I'm laughing at myself. Your comment is exactly why I deferred.
I'm sorry, I can't help it. I must have sugar.
Hanging my head in shame :-)

Nice article! My daughter studies in Georgia (we are from South Africa) and the food varies quite a bit. When she visits SA she really appreciates the food (that she grew up with) as well as chutney and marmite that is not available there. For her the most significant difference is the amount of food that the people in the South consume and the litres of Coke they drink at restaurants. There is certain food eg quiche that she cannot find in the town where she lives, but it is easily available in New York.

She has been invited to many homes and there the food and the hospitality has been absolutely fantastic and the peope so sincere and genuine. The people are friendly and the professors at the university extremely helpful. While she is there, I hope she enjoys every minute of what they have to offer.

Returning from South America to my father's house in Texas a few years back, I found my step brothers were developing some nasty racist attitudes about black and Mexican workers. But after I helped them move home they wanted a Mexican meal for lunch so I asked them to take me to the nearest building site where we hit the taco van. This was a revelation to them, these were the same workers they thought of so badly. To see these fine white folks nervously sat on the plastic seats eating burritos and drinking melon water among the friendly and generous Latino workers and slowly realizing they had been wrong all the time was a treat. Now they always find a taco van to eat at. It's a small step and I guess I won't always be there for them. Next step: I'd love to get them to a southern fish fry. Soul Food rocks y'all!

My mouth is watering! My Southern Virginia born Mom turned out the world's best fried chicken on big platters, cheese grits, angel biscuits, sausage gravy, slow cooked greens with the pot "likker", potato salad, plates of sliced tomatoes, corn bread, succotash, oyster stew, fried oysters, stewed or fried okra and to top it off, peach or blackberry cobbler. I rarely have these foods now but still crave them

Have I been 'blocked' from posting?

22. At 3:00pm on 26 Sep 2008, doepus wrote:
Well the US currently has a major problem with obesity. It sounds like this has something to do with it

obesity rate are hardly an american phenomenon, you have only to search the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ site for uk obesity rates.

I have eaten this way all my life and still and lanky and lean 2 meters tall and 88 kilos.

I enjoyed the article and want to clarify that grits are actually made from HOMINY, which is corn that has been treated with lye. You can certainly boil coarse corn meal until it forms a porridge, but US Southerners like me call that cornmeal mush instead (and in other more exotic places it is called Polenta). I found some mention of non-hominy grits on wikipedia, but I have never ever eaten them or even heard of them until just this moment!

I hope this is helpful!

I grew up in San Antonio, Texas with a Southern mother (South Carolina, Tennessee) who couldn't cook worth a damn and a Texas father who considered Texas to be populated with all the decent people who just couldn't stand the deep South and so all came together to Texas to maintain their virtue. Some of the things he disliked about the South were grits and pork barbeque. When we would visit relatives in Tennessee he embarrassed us kids constantly by complaining about the food. The schools I attended growing up all had Mexican food on the menu for Wednesday and Fish on Friday, a respectful nod to the pre Anglo inhabitants of the state. Because both of my parents grew up poor we had a ritual of eating one southern vegetarian meal per week. This consisted of green beans cooked to a pulp with salt pork, navy beans (also with salt pork), spinach (with bacon bits), and Texas corn bread. My dad wouldn't allow my mother to make southern cornbread. He said it was sweet and tasted like cake. Texas corn bread was thin and extremely crusty, due to the fact that the batter was poured into a basically red hot skillet that had been greased with bacon drippings. Removing the skillet from the oven to pour the batter in was always scary because it was smoking and my dad was hollering. It was like a close brush with death scheduled once a week in the kitchen. Daddy also couldn't tolerate sweet tea (native Texan restaurant help still don't know what southern people mean when they say "sweet tea please." They think (though wouldn't say it, "Sweeten your own damn tea. Are you crippled? Oh yes, I forgot to mention, the reason my father didn't like pork barbeque is because he had grown up on barbequed beef brisket, an absolutely amazingly cheap cut of fatty beef that when cooked all day long on a low, smoky fire is the most heavenly meat known to humans. I now live in Macon, Georgia and I cook it twice a year and invite all my southern and yankee friends. I wrap myself in the righteous culinary mantel of my old time Texas father and give them hell as they are forced to admit how delectable it is.

You make me miss home! I live in Oxford but am currently spending five months in Chile. And I certainly feel you have found the best part about the South: the food. I never really considered myself very Southern, but then I left the South and found my soul aching for fried chicken and fried okra and any other conceivable thing that could be fried.

If you have a chance, don't miss out on Ajax's. Better fried pickles and macaroni and cheese you won't find.

Grits and polenta are not the same animal. It is my understanding that grits are ground hominy, not corn. We never liked to think about the fact that hominy was corn soaked in lye (yuck!). We also never put anything except real butter and salt in our grits. If you used sugar it showed that you were from the North. I like to cook my grits a little longer than the instructions indicate, and add a bit more water as well. Makes for thick, creamy grits. For supper add shredded cheddar cheese. Mmmm.

I am a Southerner by birth, living in as about a Southern town as they get - Clemson, South Carolina. I can attest for much of what Mr. Kelly writes here.

Although there are a few dishes outside of the South that are perhaps known to folks outside the US, such as Yankee Pot Roast or Maine Lobster, when folks think about "authentic" American food, it is Southern cooking that they think of. This is partly because of author Marjory Kinnan Raulings, who wrote The Yearling, and Cross Creek. She also wrote The Cross Creek Cookbook, where many recipies from North Florida Cajuns are found.

A Southern meal is huge and fried chicken is the staple, although barbeque either with mustard-based sauce (here in the Carolinas all the way to Northern Florida) or tomato and vinegar sauce (from Texas as far north as Kansas City) can serve just as well as the main course. Unless you are in New Orleans, where dirty rice and crawfish etoffee are main dishes.

For my new friends overseas here is a simple Southern recipe for you at home. It can be served either as a side or main course.

Red Beans and Rice

2 lbs of Red or Kidney beans (can use canned beans)
1 lbs link sausage, preferably smoked sausage, cut into small pieces
1 can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cup chicken stock
2 medium onions, diced
2 teaspoons each of celery salt, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, (optional - cayenne pepper)
salt, pepper to taste
2 cups rice

Prepare rice

In a separate pot, mix stock, tomatoes, beans, sausage, onions, and spices into pot. Bring to rolling boil then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve beans over rice.

This recipe is a common one from North Florida around the Jacksonville area where I'm originally from. I hope you enjoy.

I am from Memphis, TN and I have to say...

1) As much as I hate to admit it, Carolina sweet tea is much better than any I have found in Memphis.
2) Memphis bar-b-q is the best. Hands down. That is, if you prefer sweet and smoky flavors to mustard/vinegar varieties. I also hate to admit it (but it's true) Carolina bar-b-q is amazing. I wish there was some here. I am not a fan of mustard-based but again, it's all about personal preference.
3) Southern food is meant to make you feel welcome, at home, happy, and familial (with the sharing... caring... etc.). It works like a charm every time. That is the magic of good old hospitality and comfort food. However...

The obesity epidemic is not isolated to the US or the southern states, but is a global issue and those countries with the worst problems generally have the worst healthcare systems and built environments that are not conducive to an active lifestyle. Those countries need reform and increased awareness of the need to facilitate movement through citywide planning (or state/countrywide obviously).

As a British-born Indian it's quite interesting to here some of the comments from our American friends on both sides of the Atlantic.

While I don't really have a clue what half of the dishes that you mentioned are, there are several similarities with (Southern) America that can be drawn for Britain and India. For instance, the distinct lack of decent, traditional English in the USA.

As for the person who commented on 'poor' peoples food, many of the points you made are quite true. In India there exist roadside 'dhabas' (diners) which offer some of the best food in India - making the right choice is crucial to avoid the dreaded 'delhi belly'!!!

And as for sweet tea - sweet asian tea takes the plaudits here.

I'm a brit that spent 2 years living in Kentucky, now I know that's not exactly what you would call the deep south but there was this restaurant chain called Po' Folks - fantastic food. Is it still going?

#44 papabryant:

Thanks for sharing. It sounds terrific :-)


#47 RareDenver:

Po'Folks still has restaurants operating in California, Florida and Alabama (according to their website). Sadly, I didn't see a listing for KY.

Growing up in NYC, I thought that Italian food was the only "real" American food - with Chinese and Jewish deli being the immigrant stuff that tasted good and you had as a special treat. I didn't discover southern food until I was in my 20s and have grown very fond of it, especially BBQ. I still think of Italian (or southern Italian to be exact) food to be the most authentically American though since that's what I and everyone else I knew ate 90% of the time as kids. Old ideas die hard!

I lived in Britain for four years, and every flight back I stuffed a suitcase with bags of grits, cornmeal, yellow rice packages, iced tea bags and cans of boiled peanuts. I never failed to be cheered up on a freezing Scottish morning by streaky bacon and grits. And grits are not just for breakfast. They were always served with venison or fried fish at supper in my family.

I just about hate everything about the South Eastern portion of the USA, but it's food is not one of them. Southern fried chicken makes my mouth water, rather it's the upbringing of white southerners I despise the most. To me, they are the most ignorant and arrogant indivicuals on the planet. And I been to many countries throughout the globe.

Sorry, but the truth hurt sometimes.......a hell of lot more than people think.

#43
In my experience polenta can be similar to grits, depending on how it's prepared. Not exactly the same, but not a bad substitute if you're stranded outside the South.

Although I have ancestors from Arkansas, and like fried chicken now and then myself, the thought of all this southern "comfort food" is giving me indigestion. Thank heaven I live in a part of the US (central California coast) with a substantial contingent of Italian fishermen.

McCain's back on for tonight -

providing some 'Chicken and Waffles' to the menu for the evening.

Dear Foxtrottango,

I live in the southeast but I was raised in the north by the children of southern parents so I have southern roots and northern values. Like many African-American I grew up with my southern granny, cousins and cuisine while living in the Bronx. When I relocated to the south I went thru culture shock, revultion at what I thought were racist ignorant hicks which underlied a sense of superiority of my own progressive intelligence. One day I looked around and realized that I was the only one that was unhappy and that through my slanted cosmopolitian view I alienated potiential friends.
I knew that if I wanted enjoy my life I needed to grow the hell up and learn to understand and empathize with my neighbors even if I disagree with their world view and politics. People are a product of their enviroments, upbringing, education and mostly paradigm. It has nothing to do with them being bad people.

There is so much to love about the south. Beautiful lush springs,mouth watering food, forests and farms lazy humid summers, with BBQ's the sound of crickets, food, fireflys,laid back neighbors, southern hospitality, knowing people in the street by name... did I mention the awesome food? The new south is wonderful, and I wouldn't trade it to live in the congested north.

I live in a confederate flag flying red state and honestly somedays I nearly lose it. We are coming along a little slower than the rest of the country; their is much to be improved socially but you do that by first loving your neighbor, then you can change their minds. As always southerners don't like to be rushed. But I read this week that Georgia may go blue for Obama! Now that's progress.

Proud Southern Peach

Rare Denver Po-Folks is still all around across the Southeast but they can't do it like me!

Like a few people have said every region in the south is different. I'm from a family of great cooks; our recipes are almost like family members so each one has a story. Our favorite holiday dish is shrimp creole which is cajun - but we are'nt from Louisiana. A friend of the family was from Cuba and taught my grandmother how to make this dish. He used prawns and a very thin tomato base. Over the years this dish has evolved and become more southern americian; every cousin has their own variation so here is mine.

Shrimp Creole

2 bell peppers(red or green)
2 small or 1 large sweet Vidalia onion(yellow or white is fine too)
5 cloves of fresh garlic pressed
2 cans of stewed tomatoes
2 jars of spicy pasta sauce
4 tbsp of creole seasoning
Onion powder, garlic powder
1 jar of sofrito(goya brand)
1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper(or to taste)
sherry

4 pounds of large headless shrimp
*You can also add 2 lbs of cleaned shucked Prince Edward Island mussels to the shrimp with out changing the dish too much. If you want jambalya add andouille sausage, crawfish tails, blue crab legs and pepper to taste**

Saute peppers, onions, garlic in olive oil(in that order) add seasoning, sofrito, and stewed tomatoes to a large pot simmer covered on low for 45 minutes. Clean shrimp, shuck mussels put to the side. Add pasta sauce and cook on med heat for 20-30 min. add shrimp and mussels and as much sherry as you want ( I use 2 cups). Cook seafood 7-10 minutes take off heat. Serve over basmati or long grain rice. So Awesome!

Send your recipe requests.

BTW Jon Kelley Taqueria Del Sol is one of my favorite Mexician Restaurants in Atlanta. Good and Cheap.

Now that (#56) is more like it. Creole cooking may be in the south, but it's a different thing entirely.

christianleft (#56), there are several different types of sherry, and you don't say which you use. I would use only a true dry Jerez (fino), myself. I wouldn't cook with anything I wouldn't drink.

Jon,

You see? It's an election year and the debates are tonight and everyone on this blog might be voting several different ways, but all it takes to get us chatting happily together is food! If we could only learn to trade recipes rather than barbed comments, we would be a happier nation. Fatter, perhaps, but happier.

re. 59. Gary_A_Hill:

One thing you can do with cheap sherry is preserve cayenne peppers in it. I pack cayenne peppers in a canning jar and fill it to the brim with sherry. Put it in the back of the refrigerator and leave it for a month. The alcohol picks up some of the hotness from the peppers, and you have a hot sweet sherry sauce that is wonderful in lots of recipes. Try it in stir fries. The peppers retain some of their hotness and are still good to cook with.

Jon,

While you're down in the South you should try one of our country's more unusual dishes - BBQ Gator on a Stick. Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like - grilled alligator on a skewer. I've sampled it twice while visiting Texas and honestly can't complain...and the funny thing is, as the saying goes, it tastes like chicken! But, with a seafood edge. Plus, you get a two-for-one deal...a good meal and a great pair of boots, too. (Yes, I'm kidding about that last bit)

However, as an ex-New Englander now living in California, I feel I must stand up for my old home's cuisine in at least one area - there is quite simply no soup in the world quite like authentic New England clam chowder. Or, as we would say in Boston, "Chow-dah!" It's creamy, seafoody heaven, especially when loaded up with dill and black pepper. Definitely a great Yankee contribution to American cuisine.

Great recipes!

To#44 Papabryant

Consider trying black beans (frijoles negritos) instead of red beans and substituting bacon for the sausage. Serve over basmati rice, topping with chopped scalions and a dash of balsamic vinegar for a different taste.

To Christianleft

Can not wait to try your recipe. I would use basmati rice from Texas. It is wonderful and costs less than imported varieties.

To Garyahill

I totally agree about the sherry and adding wines to recipes as well.

To Timohio

It is enjoyable to have some relief from politics and airing differences. I am willing to try your recipe for peppers. I usually pack mine in cider vinegar with garlic.

ToLashutterbug

Just when everything was so very amiable you have opened the debate on chowder.
I am just joking. New England chowder is wonderful!

Glad you like the recipe Gary_A_Hill but I'm not picky about the sweetness/dryness of sherry, I'll use whatever I have on hand to flavor the pot. One thing I forgot guys

#56

add spanish green olives stuffed with pimento to the sauce in the last 5 minutes of cooking. Note: these can be very salty people with high blood pressure take heed. Cooking sherry is also high in sodium so drinking sherry(whatever variety) is better.

#55, the North is only congested in some parts... Don't judge everywhere up here by the Bronx. You go out to the plains, and there is lots of room, and here in western WI and MN we have enough room -- probably more than the South East!

We eat very well here in the North, too, especially during the summer and autumn, when we can get all sorts of veggies and fruit fresh (picked that day). Someone mentioned sweet corn, and I have to agree, that is one seasonal food I love. It is certainly not worth it to get it out of season, that's for sure!

To #65Christianleft

Olives! One of my very favorite food groups!
I will certainly add that note to your recipe.

I remember my Georgia grandmother making the most delicious chicken and dumplings served piping hot over rice when I was a child. I make it today as a comfort food when it's cold and wet outside. It's basically chicken gently stewed in a white gravy, with dumplings cooked on top during the last 20 minutes. Properly done, it is richly flavored, melts in your mouth and makes you very happy. Unlike hers, I take mine off the bone and cut the meat into smaller pieces before adding the dumplings to which I sometimes add whatever herb appeals to me at the moment.

She also made the most wonderful, dark and flavorful fruitcakes for Christmas, starting them fully two months beforehand and candying her own fruit. How I looked forward to getting one each year way up in NYC. I have her recipe which I treasure, but have not yet found the courage to try it.

To#68Gadflygirl

I also have a recipe like that. You really should try to make your grandmother's recipe.

I have heard people make jokes about fruitcake but that, I believe, must be because they have never tasted your grandmother's or my mother's. You can do it! Share your bounty and change the way fruitcake is viewed!

The folks who are saying that grits are ground hominy (corn treated with lye) are correct. They are NOT cornmeal, or just plain ground corn.

There are a variety of ways to prepare grits. You typically put three times as much liquid as grits, but for baked grits you use a 2:1 ratio and then bake the result with egg, cheese, and a little tabasco (at least that's how I make it). For "regular" grits, in the Low Country (coastal Georgia and South Carolina) they make grits with milk, while up in the mountains they make it saltier, without milk, but sometimes with bacon grease. Lots of people like cheese grits.

When cooked properly grits "set" when they get cold, and that means you can slice leftover grits up and fry them. (Better than it sounds).

I'm a tenth generation American, and my family have always lived south of the Mason-Dixon line. I was raised on grits, cornbread, collard greens, homemade biscuits (quick bread, not what the British call biscuits), fried chicken, okra, butterbeans, fried apple pies, barbeque, and numerous other delights.

I am back in the South after 14 years abroad and I find the food here quite disgusting in spite of being raised mostly on it. My non-American wife agrees. Overcooked, salty .... And people are amazed why I look so much younger than my age. Simple. I get a little less than half the average caloric intake of the people around me. One cannot live as an average American, much less a Southerner and not be over-weight.

Han-Chak #66 you are right. All of the US has its charms and endearing local culture and to love it means to love all of it . BTW I definitely miss the northeastern falls and winters that I grew up in. I was disappointed when I realized it never snows here and our foliage isn't as brilliant as lets say Baltimore. It is always so warm here in comparision.

I was just speaking to some sterotypes that makes people below the Mason Dixon line ALL seem, ignorant and un-nuanced.

It's all good.

Ahhh, you HAVE discovered the South.

Our British friends all marvel at the food, and the portions, and the hospitality.

Congratulations, and y'all come back, ya heah?

Jon, while you're here, you may as well go for the gold and experience famous southern desserts too. I suggest home-made red velvet cake. It's only authentically southern if it's made with cocoa and has cream cheese icing. Every southern matriarch has her own secret recipe, handed down through generations and a slice is only offered to those genuinely liked. ;)

Scamis # 20

The best way to make "grits" is to put one cup of the ground hominy into a bowl, add boiling water, than throw away the contents and eat the bowl!

The Mexicans have a dish similar to it called "atole" and it sure doesn't taste like something one would feed to hogs.

No hate remarks, please, anything not written in Phoenician will be ignored.

In the killjoy tradition of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ, Mississippi is the fattest state in the union, and the Southeast the fattest region. Southern cooking is the reason I'm wary of universal health care.

Not to knock on the South, though. I lived in a single-stop light town in the South for a few years, and I loved it. I even carpetbagged me a man there and ran off with him. But holy hell, I will not touch the food there- grits are a delivery method for butter, and greens for hog fat. Except for pulled pork bbq. After all, I'm only human. Mustard-based sauce, if it matters.

Wellwrought#76

I am a "southern" health-centric(I do slip up on holidays) cook with many, vegatarian, organic, and low fat recipes at my disposal. Basically you may be right about the bad diets but I think things are changing. For example greens which include collards, kale, mustard and turnip are traditionally cooked with fat back or ham hocks. I still have relatives who choose this dangerous habit though many people now use smoked turkey legs, or necks as a substitute and cook greens less time so that they are nutritious. I have discovered a recipe with collards or kale with a vegetable broth, adding garlic and onions and thai coconut milk with no meat and very little fat. These greens are delicious and healty and authentic.

I think Universal healthcare may not be such a bad idea if people had preventative care and doctors that educated clients about alternative healthy lifestyles.

This is a little much to say maybe but traditionally southern foods have been created by the very poor and disenfranchised. Lets take African Slaves for example. They were not given enough to eat and were many times given the left over scraps of pork and chicken. Though poverty and deperation they boiled pig guts(chitlens) which are considered by some a delicasy, pork skins/rinds which can be found in any US vending machine, chicken gibblet gravy anyone? Yams were taken to the US from Africa and planted here; yams were and are a staple in parts of Africa and so became a staple of slaves. The legacy of poverty in our eating habits is intergenerational and trancends race and class. There are so many examples that I can give of how Blacks, Whites, Creoles, Indians have shaped the landscape of the south and how we think about southern food.

southern/soul food truly is a sight and taste to behold. i can think of few things in life greater than an after-church meal with turnip greens, fried okra and catfish. or a pre-game barbecue with all the fixin's... and the 'itus' that follows said meals...

There are many glories to U.S Southern culture, including the lion's share of America's great literature, an unbeatable musical tradition, and Coca-Cola.

But for God's sake, don't sing the praises of Southern cuisine, heavy as it is with fried foods. It's the reason the South is so markedly more overweight than other U.S. regions, and why the mean lifespan is shorter.

Joe_Stump (#79), actually, "the lion's share" (according to Aesop) is 100%. But certainly Faulkner, Robert Penn Warren, and Tennessee Williams contributed a great deal to American literature.

I can't believe none of you have mentioned chicken fried steak! Of all the southern food there is, chicken fried steak with homemade gravy tops it all. Take a big round steak, beat the tar out of it until it's flat, dredge it in an egg and buttermilk mix, then in seasoned flour (salt/pepper/paprika/onion salt/garlic powder) then back in the wash, back in the flour, and then into the frying pan until it's golden brown. Mix a few tablespoons of the drippings with a can of beef broth and two turns of the pan of half and half, maybe some sauteed onions in there, and you got gravy to top it off. Maybe that's a Texas thing though?

I also love grits, but I mix them up with jalapeno and bacon, pour them in a casserole dish, sprinkle cheese on top, and bake them. Mmmm. I don't get the whole cream and sugar thing on them.

This country didn't start getting fat until we got hooked on fast food and television. People I know all eat southern food and stay at a normal weight, but then they're also all ranch types and get tons of exercise.

I'm originally from Charlotte, NC, now living in Louisville, KY (where real sweet tea is still hard to come by, which is a shame because it's damn good with Bourbon).

Had to share that near Lake Wateree, SC, there exists a giant Wal-Mart with nearly an entire aisle of grits. Every kind imaginable. I have photographic evidence. The Wall of Grits...ahhh.

There's nothing like driving down a Carolina road on a summer night with a bag of fresh "bole p-nuts" to go with your sweet tea (sans Bourbon - it's dangerous enough dealing with the p-nuts and the steering wheel).

You folks know how to work up someones appetite don't you? If you're not careful, you're going to be invaded by hoards of hungry Brits, you'll start finding large piles of contented Brits full of grits sleeping it off in the sun.
Now here's something else I think of as 'American food' - pumpkin pie. Is that more of a northern thing? I would really like to try it one day.