Suthran Chow ** Was: Chris (ListMom)

[Guest guest]

Hey Chris, Stephanie, other gud folk ..

 

Gotta comment on a bit of this even though its to Chris. Being as its

getting toward noon meal time fer me now I can handle writing this but

most folk gonna read it whilst they having morning coffee and mebbe some

gonna decide to have sumpin' new fer breakfast today. ;-p

 

> Just read your recipe for the Crawfish pasta dish ) Where on the

> Gulfcoast are you located? I'm in Mobile, Alabama....my sister lives

> in Gulfport, Mississippi about 70 miles west of me.

 

Good kuntry that .. I spent time at Fort McClellan, Anniston, Alabammer.

I know that's Yankee Alabammer fer you but still gotta lotta large mouth

bass fishing round there and they is big'uns too. You oughta teach the

folk how to say Mobile .. most thinks its like furniture whut you can

move easy but the nounceating is on the Mo .. gotta go heavy on the Mo.

 

> Nice to meet someone in my neck of the waters...LOL

> We have the absolute best food in the world in the deep south ) And

> a wonderful place for learning to cook!

 

No question about that! During my last swing tour of the USA I ate 90%

of my chow in restaurants for 90 + days .. started out in Maryland then

swung East to D.C. and then South and follered the coast down to South

Kacalacky where I swung West and headed out to AridZoner .. then headed

East-North-East up through New Mexico, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and

on back up to Maryland. Eating gud along the way and had to buy me two

pairs of pants to make the trip back home in .. both them pants now done

got too big fer me but I reckon I might need'em on the next trip. ;-P

 

During the trip the most exciting foods I ate began around Suthern North

Kacalacky and ended in East TaxUs. Particularly fine wuz the sea food

in Charleston, SC and Vicksburg, MissSippi .. you Yankees gotta know

they be a extra vowel in MissSippi and since we don't need it we don't

say it, follered by them gud ol' down home Suthran veggies all along

the way .. fried green maters, fried okrie (and why they putta " a " in

Okrie I ain't never figgered out), fried apples, biscuits, gravy, grits,

corn bread, chicken n' dumplings, kuntry ham, pork and baby beef

barbeque. Larp'in gud eating it wuz and hongry I get just writing this

now. ;-p

 

In Charleston they got Suthran chow and Gullah chow .. Gullah being a

culture and language of Black African Americans whut settled on some

islands off the South Kackalacky coast .. its a unique language kina lak

Louisanner Cajun .. and the chow is a little lak Cajun chow. Ate

shrimp, crab (normal and soft shell which them Gullahs calls She Crab),

oysters raw and fried, fried catfeesh, frog laig, alligator tail and

such till I wuz grinnin like a aig-suckin' dawg. You don't buy no

little package of shrimp down Charleston .. you take along a cooler when

you go to the market .. but I went out fishin' with my buddy and we

caught some oursef bait-shrimpin. And folks buys oysters in bushel

baskets down there.

 

In Vicksburg, I stayed at the Battlefield Inn .. a old but Grand place.

Stopped cause I was tared and saw a sign saying they got a museum on the

grounds .. plus senior and military discounts. Whilst checking in lady

told me to crank a slot machine handle on the counter and I did and got

three bells and she hollered I wuz lucky and done won a free dinner plus

wuz gonna get one helluva discount on my room cause she had one whut

been dedicated to an old soldier whut done gone under and they only

rented it to retired US Army folk less'n they had to use it cause of no

more to be had and such .. and sho'nuf on the door of that room wuz a

brass plate reading just them words. The discount was 50%.

 

And they gave everbody checking in two chits for drinks at the bar. So

after two Kentucky Bourbons I waltzed into the dining room and commenced

to checking out the menu. Prices wuz cheap but seeing as how I wasn't

gonna pay nuthing nohow I didn't givea lotta attention to the right side

of the menu. Ordered a plate'a shrimp and a plate'a Gulf fried oysters.

Well lemme tell y'all that I can eat'a whole buncha both them foods but

whut they brung me wuz enough fer me and one more me's put together and

it wuz larpin' gud. Them bugs wuz Jumbos and the oysters had fine juice

running out .. both wuz all battered up like Suthran folks batter chow

... how come our Yankee cousins can't batter no chow right? ;-p Anyhow

I'm trying to get'em all down cause Gawd gets mad if'n you leave

critters on the plate and finally .. after letting out 3-4 belt holes

and holding my breath a bit I done got'em all down and had a nice clean

plate.

 

Forgot to mention that my dinner wuz served by a purty gal dressed up in

the style of Scarlet O'Hara. I'm sitting there sippin' a cognac and

some coffee .. trying to get all them shrimp and oysters to settle down

a bit so I can walk out with no fear about my pants busting .. when here

come a handsome young black feller dressed kinda like Rhet Butler and

says to me

do I want dessert and such and starts rattling off whut all they got and

I'm feeling like crying cause it all sounded fine enough to make a man

throw his grandpappy in the crik and I ain't got no more room. :-(

 

(And I later learned them waiters and such wuz all college students.)

 

Howsomever ... since my Mama didn't raise no fools and Uncle Sam done

all he could to train me as a planner I remembered a little refrigerator

in the room and tells the young feller to gimme one'a them nanner

puddings to go and I had it sometime in the early morning light. Then

later I got up and had fried kuntry ham, up easy aigs, biscuits and red

eye gravy alongside grits, homefries and fried apples .. then went back

to the room and put on my traveling pants which is a notch bigger'n I

normally wear.

 

Food out past Eastern TaxUs is sorta boring to me .. ceptin' where Chris

is located down Sam Houston they eats different .. kinda like folks in

Charleston eats down around that Suthran Coast .. Padre Island and such.

But they wuz two exceptions to that .. somewhere twixt that TaxUs border

and Dallas wuz a sign saying all kindsa barbeque so I pulled into whut

looked like a pickup truck parking lot outside a old filling station and

the sign said honk for service or come on in and set .. so I went in.

 

Place wuz fulla folks speaking Mexican and TexMex and wearing hats that

don't no Sadday Nite Cowboy wear .. them wuz workin man hats. Gal come

over and asked whut I wanted and I asked whut you got and she said come

on back here and look so I did. Had 6-7 pans with this and that pork

and beef barbeque so I decided on a tad each of 3 uv'em and she asked do

I want tater salad and I said yes and she said go sit and she gonna

bring it to me but meantime I can serve mysef to beans and peppers whut

wuz on a table in the dining room. Tables had brown wrapping paper

on'em and the salt and pepper shakers wuz beer bottles and the napkins

wuz a roll'a paper towels stuck on a stick in the middle'a ever table.

The place wuz one'a them exceptions I wuz telling y'all about.

 

Other one wuz up in New Mexico .. 7,000 feet or so along the Continental

Divide .. North and West from Silver City in the gold and silver mining

areas and not far fum the historic town of Mogollon .. where I stayed

with my old buddy whut I went to high school with in Kentucky who been a

teacher and done retired in them mountains along with his teacher wife.

We didn't go to no restaurants on account'a thar warn't none nohow to go

to .. up high in the Gila National Forest folks makes their restaurant

going a event fum time to time but its home cookin' whuts the mainstay.

 

Now lemme tell y'all I done et catfeesh in the best places thar is and

that includes campin' on the Red River and on Kentucky Lake whar I

growed up and eating'em five minutes after we caught'em with hush

puppies whut been cooked in the same big ol cast iron pot of boiling oil

... and no way will I put down that life .. but .. my buddy, Monte, done

had some'a them mountain stream flathead catfeesh whut he got fum the

San Francisco River which back home we would call a crik and how San

Francisco came to be up in them mountains I didn't figger out nohow

ceptin' mebbe twas the name of some Black Robe Priest whut lived thar

long ago cause there's a lotta graveyards around them ol' ghost towns

with Spanish names on the stones.

 

Back to them catfeesh .. that boy done cooked'em up in whut wuz mebbee a

Suthran-Mountain style .. not sure .. ceptin' they wuz larpin' gud and I

reckon folks whut think they don't like catfeesh would change they mind

if'n they put their choppers on that batch. Plus Monte makes his own

beer and y'all know that American beer is a lot like'a canoe .. closest

you can get your butt to water .. but this beer wuz some'a the finest I

done ever let slide down my throat and I tell'ya I letta whole lotta

that beer slide down my throat whilst thar. Fried catfeesh and gud beer

makes

a man look forward to wakin' up tomorrow so he can have some more.

 

Only thing I can't tawk about much is whut woulda been a highlight chow

wise on the trip .. in Kentucky. My Mama wuz .. beside being whut most

folk would describe as a sweet Angel living on Earth .. likely one'a the

best danged cooks in the whole world. And Mama used'ta make me buy them

bigger pants the first 3-4 days after I got home cause she would lay on

chow that wuz so gud twould make a puppy pull a freight train. But last

year afore Thanksgiving Mama went on across to the other side and though

she is probably doing better there than she wuz doing in the last days

she wuz here everbody still misses her smiles and her great chow. :-)

 

I reckon I gotta run now cause the time is getting close to 12:30 and my

lazy maid whut now just comes three days a week gonna be hollerin about

" yemek hazir " in a few minutes and today we having eggplants stuffed

with meat and pine nuts cooked in olive oil .. and a smashed eggplant

salad with enough garlic in it to make most American neighbors move to

the next county but just the way I like it.

 

Chris .. you lucky to be down thar in Suthran TaxUs but it ain't got

nary a thang to do with TaxUs barbeque in general though thar be some

gud ones out and about .. its all about whut is just a tad South and

East of you along that Gulf Coast and that's whut Stephanie done said in

a few words in the first place afore I got carried away with telling

y'all all this.

 

> TTYL, Stephanie

> Heaven's Dream Dairy Goats

> Alabama

 

Maid done hollered .. reckon I timed this just about right.

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch http://www.AV-AT.com