[What Do They Eat In Pittsburgh?]

Thanks for all the great info, guys. The working title of the page (it may change) is Super Bowl Food: Sushi Versus The Big Sandwich."

Our food stylist is making a copy of a Primanti Brothers sandwich, and we have salmon and sushi for Seattle.

[What Do They Eat In Seattle?]

Hi, PNW foodies-

I have been ordered by my editor to put together a food front on the foods of Pittsburgh and Seattle this week to run before the Super Bowl.

In North Carolina, we have pork Barbecue, grits and country ham. What is the indigenous chow of Seattle? If not indigenous per se, what do folks enjoy chowing down on in restaurants.

Please educate this southern boy.

Thanks a heap!

[What Do They Eat In Pittsburgh?]

Greetings, foodies of the Keystone State-

I have been ordered by my editor to put together a food front on the foods of Pittsburgh and Seattle this week to run before the Super Bowl.

In North Carolina, we have pork Barbecue, grits and country ham. Philly has the cheese steak. What are the native foods of Pittsburgh? Please educate this southern boy.

Thanks a heap!

[Best pit bbq]

Short Sugar's is awesome, as is Lexington # 1. Also, my personal love, Bridges Barbecue Lodge (still AKA Red Bridges, even though Red has been dead for forty years now) in Shelby, NC.

[Brand Name Southern Staples You Can't Live Without]

All of the above, plus Bone Suckin' Sauce, Carroll Shelby's Chili Mix, and in the limited parts of NC and SC they sell it in, RO's Barbecue Slaw. Yummy. And can't forget King's Cane Syrup.

[NC Barbeque Trail]

As a native son who grew up in Kings Mountain, just 12 miles from Shelby, I grew up on Lexington style from Red Bridges, AKA Bridges Barbecue Lodge on US 74. I have personal, inside information that when God sends out for 'cue, it comes from Red's. I have been eating there every chance I get for the last 44 years (ever since I grew teeth) and have never been less than orgasmically satisfied with the chopped pork, wonderful dip, red slaw (which even my Yankee-born wife now likes) and gtrat hush puppies. The best thing about living in Asheville is it's only an hour away.

Eastern 'cue is great, too. I never met a pig I didn't like.

[Who is the classically Southern chef in your city?]

I have been blessed to have eaten at Hominy Grill. The food is heavenly.

About 4 years ago, I was bummed to find that the only Cajun/Creole restaurant in town (Asheville, NC) had closed.

A couple weeks later, I saw a new restaurant with a catchy logo in its place. Checked out the menu board outside, came in and had the best pumpkin gingerbread, hot country ham biscuits and grits I had put down my gullet in ages. When I commented on how good the gingerbread was, the incredibly nice (not to mention pretty) girl waiting on me thanked me and came back shortly with the recipe written in her own hand. Turns out she was Julie Stehling, Robert's sister-in-law and wife of Robert's brother John, who was behind the line. They had left Hominy, where they met, and moved to Asheville to open their own place, Early Girl Eatery.

So who's better? It's a tie. I like some things better at Hominy, and some better at Early Girl. My wife and I have become fast friends with John and Julie, and I have passed many happy meals at my new favorite restaurant.

[Biscuits in Literature]

I am collecting food quotes for a writing project and meed a good quote anout biscuits from a Southern writer. Any literature buffs out there know of a Tennessee Williams, Faulkner, Wolfe or other literary reference to that most noble creature, the high-rising Southern biscuit?

[Essential Southern Desserts]

I guess I should have mentioned that "fruit cobbler" has instructions for all major cobbler fruits (apple, peach, blackberry, strawberry...)

Also, in regards to triffle and Scottish shortbread, the book covers foods that have become a part of our foodways in the South, even if they originated elsewhere. Look at Bill Neal's Southern Cooking and John Edgerton's Southern Food: at Home, on the Road, in History. Both of them minclude those foods because they have been here from the "get go."

Hummmingbird cake seems traditional, but the earliest recorded reference to it I have been able to find (and confirmed by the excellent foodtimeline.org) is from 1978; not exactly traditional.

Caramel cake and pecan tassies are now under serious consideration, as well.

Here is the revised list:

Cakes

Grandma Hill’s Plain Cake

Aunt Ruth’s Pound Cake

Grandma Hill’s Coconut Cake

Apple Stack Cake

Blackberry Jam Cake

Scripture Cake

Lane Cake

Lady Baltimore Cake

Red Velvet Cake

Caramel Cake

Pies, Cobblers and other fruit Desserts

Basic Pie Crust

Aunt Ruth's Sweet Potato Pie

Pecan Pie

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Strawberry Shortcake

Peach Pie

Fruit Cobbler

Chess Pie

Black Bottom Pie

Buttermilk Pie

Jeff Davis Pie

Coconut Custard Pie

Baked Chocolate Pie

Key Lime Pie

Puddings, Fools And Trifles

Real Banana Pudding

Grandma Hill’s Sweet Potato Pudding

Fool

Trifle

Ambrosia

Bread Pudding

Candy, Cookies And Other Treats

Shortbread

Pralines

Bourbon Balls

Pecan Tassies

Divinity

What is Pig Pickin' Cake, Varmint?

[Essential Southern Desserts]

Thanks for all the help so far, guys and gals! Some answers to comments:

How about putting a star or some other sign on the recipes that are best for "Dinner on the Grounds"?

Great idea. I'll work on that later today.

Then there's the cocoa/sugar/milk/egg yolks pudding cooked in a big ole boiler til it blups little air bubbles and thickens into the most unctuous, the most fragrant, the most velvety chocolate concoction on this earth. You let it cool a little bit, pour (spoon would be more apt---it's too thick to pour properly) it into a blind-baked pie crust and top it with the meringue made of the whites. Brown it to gold, let it cool a bit, and get out of the way of anybody else in the house.

Yep, it's that one.

And does Grandma Hill's Coconut Cake have 7-Minute Frosting? That's a good old southern standby.

Yes it does, and is made with fresh coconut, with directions on how to stalk, kill and skin one.

Is Bean Pie traditional in the South?

Only in Southern New York.

Derby Pie

For years, the couple who developed this recipe in the 1940s gave it away, and it appeared in a gazillion cookbooks. After they died, their son trademarked the name and set out to enforce it. I had to remove it from my Web site under threat of legal action, so thanks, but no thanks.

Hummingbird cake. So Southern and old-fashioned, most people don't know about it.

I had it in the original list I started with, but cut it, It may re-appear, but like Dreby Pie, there may be legal things as it is a fairly new recipe compared to the rest (I believe it came about in the 1940s or very early 50s, off the top of my head).

my mother was always making her friendship cake to take to funerals.

This is made in the South, but is more identified with the Amish.

Are you stressing "rural" Southern? I have several traditional New Orleans desserts in my book, Creole Nouvelle: Contemporary Creole Cookery

I only have two New Orleans desserts, pralines and bread pudding. Beignets are in the bread chapter under quick breads. I may put in a Gateau de Sirop (cane syrup cake), but if the book gets picked up and I get to do another, it will be desserts with lots of Creole goodies.

In rural North Carolina, the old folks make a variation on a classic old English dessert called "syllabub"; the Southern rendering of the pronunciation is closer to "sillybub."

Another one I considered, but didn't make the cut. It is in reserve and still might.

Again, my thanks to everyone, and all you folks who are reading and not posting, don't be shy! If you like to eat and can type, let me know what you think. What sis Grandma make that I don't have here?

[Liver Mush]

Jenkins was based out of Shelby. I have not seen it up here (Asheville) in the 7 years since I moved here, so I dom't know if they are still around.

I love Neese's just as well.

For my birthday this year, I threw out all dietary restrictions (I suffer from advanced Dunlop disease from being a food writer and chef) and had what I call a 'Southern Bowl." Take a buscuit, crumble it up in a large bowl. Top with a fluffy scrambled egg, grits, liver pudding and gravy. Oh, man, that's good.

P.S.- Dunlop Disease, for those unfamiliar with the condition, is when your belly dun lopped over your belt!

[Essential Southern Desserts]

I am doing the chapter outline (in preparation for shopping it to publishers) for a book on traditional Southern food.

I am writing my book so that hopefully it will be a definitive guide to Southern food and how to prepare it. Since I have a gazillion dessert recipes, choosing the one to use in the dessert chapter is very difficult.

So I’m asking people whose opinion I respect: what are the “classic” Southern desserts, the ones which define Southern cooking?

Here are the ones I have come up with:

Cakes

Grandma Hill’s Plain Cake

Aunt Ruth’s Pound Cake

Grandma Hill’s Coconut Cake

Apple Stack Cake

Blackberry Jam Cake

Scripture Cake

Lane Cake

Lady Baltimore Cake

Red Velvet Cake

Pies, Cobblers and other fruit Desserts

Basic Pie Crust

Aunt Ruth's Sweet Potato Pie

Pecan Pie

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Strawberry Shortcake

Peach Pie

Fruit Cobbler

Apple Pie

Chess Pie

Black Bottom Pie

Buttermilk Pie

Jeff Davis Pie

Coconut Custard Pie

Baked Chocolate Pie

Puddings, Fools And Trifles

Real Banana Pudding

Grandma Hill’s Sweet Potato Pudding

Fool

English Trifle

Ambrosia

Bread Pudding

Candy, Cookies And Other Treats

Scottish Shortbread

Oatmeal Cookies

Pralines

Bourbon Balls

The two pound cakes are very different in flavor and texture, hence the duplication.

Any comments and additions are welcome.

Thanks!

[Liver Mush]

A very good background on livermush, Kathleen.

As far as I know and have always been told, (I grew up in Kings Mountain, 12 miles from Shelby), the difference between liver mush and liver pudding (other than the textural) is that liver mush contains only liver and cereal, while pudding contains shoulder meat.

I HATE beef liver, but love liver pudding, especially Jenkins brand. Fried up crispy with grits and toast...MMMM-MMM!

[Charleston: Shrimp & Grits, She Crab Soup]

Regarding the gravy or sauce for shrimp and grits: I have seen many variations on this, from a simple butter and garlic mixture to the thicker, brown gravy (usually made with pork fat) to heavy cream to tomato sauce. There is no standard. 82 Queen even uses a barbecue sauce for their shrimp and grits.

As for She-crab soup, 82 Queen's is the best I have eaten anywhere on the planet; sooo creamy and pergectly seasoned.