Good ‘Ole Southern Cuisine

When we made our decision to move to the south, there were certain things I expected to change about my diet. I anticipated that I would be eating more spicy food; foods with a Cajun or Creole flavor. I knew that gumbo and jambalaya and red beans and rice would be prevalent in most restaurants, along with sweet tea. Let’s not forget about the sweet tea. It is a southern staple. In fact, if you order iced tea and you don’t specify unsweet, you’re probably going to get sweet tea.

I was not wrong in my expectations; however, I’d forgotten about so many other great southern delicacies. Things like cheese grits and fried green tomatoes and blackened everything. I’m learning how to cook this popular southern fare and have acquired more tolerance for spicy foods. Cheese grits with blackened shrimp has quickly become one of my favorites.

What I’d completely forgotten about was greens. That’s right, they are commonly referred to as greens. Nondescript, soggy, runny, slimy plant leaves boiled in salted water and served with butter if you’re lucky. Sometimes you get collard greens, sometimes mustard greens, sometimes turnip greens. It doesn’t matter, they all taste the same and they are all served the same way. No thank you. I will not be fixing any greens, although I did put some collard greens in a lentil soup I made. And, I enjoyed a bowl of bean soup at a local restaurant that was riddled with the slimy green leaves. Yes, I liked it. Will I ever learn to like greens? Probably not plain, but I am keeping an open mind.

Here’s the new things I discovered: Po’ boy sandwiches. These beauties are awesome. Usually you get a choice of chicken or shrimp or sometimes oysters, always fried, in a soft white roll (like a hoagie roll) with different sauces depending on the restaurant and the meat. Sometimes lettuce or cabbage will accompany, but usually not. Lettuce and cabbage are, after all, vegetables, which are not popular here in the south.

Muffalettas. Again, a tasty sandwich, usually made with salami or a similar meat, ham, a thin slice of white cheese, and this strange olive relish stuff. It comes served on a soft white roll with an olive oil spread. Yummy!

Chicken and waffles. It sounds strange, but believe you me, they are scrumptious. Crispy sweet waffles topped with battered chicken strips and maple syrup. Um, um, um.

Crawfish. Crawfish are everywhere and they have their own special season. People order them by the pound and eat the whole heaping three pound mass in one sitting. Three pounds is the recommended portion for the average adult. It’s a huge mound of crustaceans, but boy are they good. And you can boil them up and use them in sauces, like crawfish Julie sauce, which is huge down here. It goes well with eggs or fried green tomatoes. Oh, and it’s pronounced craw, not cray, fish.

King cakes. I’d never heard of a king cake until I got here. King cakes are very popular during Mardi Gras. Little charms are baked into the cake and when the cake is cut, whoever finds a charm in their slice gets some kind of prize or something like that. I guess they’re big at bridal or baby showers too, but I don’t know because I haven’t been invited to one of those. The charms represent good luck or are supposed to be omens for the future. Like if you get a house charm, that means you’re going to be buying a new home. Or a car charm, or a baby bottle charm. Well you get the picture.

Groom’s cakes. This one I had heard of, but they are not as popular in California as they are here in the south. Apparently, after tying the knot, bride and groom are still not officially one unit so each much order their own cake to serve after the wedding feast. Most bridal cakes are traditional tiered cakes, but these groom’s cakes are outlandish and usually baked and decorated to represent the groom’s hobbies or interests. I’ve seen camouflage cakes, fish cakes, bowling cakes, you name it, odd ball cakes. And they’re usually very small, unlike the monstrosities that the brides order as their cakes.

So, life in the south requires a bit of tweaking to my California palette, but all in all, I’m really enjoying the new fare. My waistline reminds me that salads would be a wise menu selection, but my taste buds rebel and must be subdued. Thankfully I have that long staircase that requires climbing about fifteen times a day, not to mention the nightly treks into the basement, another flight of fifteen steps, thirty both ways, for uninterrupted television watching.

So, life is good here in Vicksburg. What local delicacies do you enjoy in your neck of the woods? Seattle has their coffee, New Orleans has their beignets, Alaska has their crab. What’s your favorite local fare? Do you like sampling new foods? Do you like southern food?

Word of the day: Stochastic

Fun fact about me: I enjoy finding new words of the day (week).

Original post by Jansen Schmidt, June 2016. Photos courtesy Google Images.