Varmint and Mayhaw Man Gotta Eat

[lovebenton0]

Great 'logue, delicious pics. Thanks y'all.

Middendorf's thin fry catfish and gumbo -- and Interstate BBQ in Memphis -- three of the things I miss the most about travelling the Southeast doing research!

Did you get to Interstate on the return trip, Brooks?

And, yeah, Waffle House was always a must at 3:00AM. Couldn't deny my doggie one of their egg and bacon sandwiches either.

[docsconz]

Those photos sure do look scrumptious. Wow, that porkchop sure is fearsome. I'm looking forward to the report from the SFA. The CIA is sponsoring a trip down to that neck of the woods this coming spring. Should be fun.

[ronnie_suburban]

Funny? In what way? Like hungry? Empty? Nostalgic? Please fill us in on your innermost longings, even for duck gumbo ...

←

They were somewhat pr()nographic...but in a wholesome way

=R=

[Pan]

I want that catfish! Thanks for posting that eye candy, Varmint!

[tanabutler]

What is the SFA network?

I want that soft-shelled crab!

[Mayhaw Man]

I awoke on Sunday morning to the warbling tunes of the fine quality alarm clock at the Alumni Hotel in Oxford. Dean and I gathered our stuff and headed out, as he had a 10 a.m. flight to catch in Memphis. My intention was to make it back for breakfast and the rest of the morning's festivities in Oxford, but the weather was crummy and traffic was slow.

Time for a new plan. I swung down Elvis Presley Blvd. and restocked my supply of Elvis nail clippers (you can never-ever-have too many around). Once that was done I drove down the street to

I was the first customer of the day. I got a few ribs to go and headed down

As I headed down out of Memphis I remembered, once again, just how much I like driving through miles and miles of cotton at picking time. I grew up in the Delta on the other side of the river and there are few things that can calm me like fields full of white gold. Even on a rainy day, that ride qualifies as one of the few "sure pleasures" I know of. It was awfully wet and the only thing in the Delta ready to be picked Sunday morning were the pockets of the casino goers that pretty much consitituted the only cars on the road Sunday a.m.

I drove for about an hour or so past very wet fields in various stages of picking, (the farmers with luck are done-the ones who still have cotton hanging are going to have a long week-they got about 3 inches of rain today. You can't pick wet cotton) old abandoned houses, churches, graveyards, and long closed gins.

My first stop of the day was at the Crossroads in Clarksdale for a little Abe's BBQ. Robert Johnson supposedly made his deal with the devil at the Crossroads and Abe Dickinson made a deal with The Lord. Man is better off as a result of both negotiations. Both of them, in their own way, could really cook.

I ordered two pork sandwiches and a tamale plate (comes with slaw).

The sandwiches were really good. Thinly sliced butt with slaw and a tangy/spicy thin red sauce. Been eating them a long time. Damn good sandwich.

But ohhh the tamales. I know that everybody has their favorites, but I love the ones at Abe's. They have a really thick layer of masa, and that, to me, makes the tamale. They are spicy as hell with a nice slow burn. No sauce on the side needed here.

After I left Abe's the rains really started to come down. I had a bunch of plans, so I forged on, but no more food pictures as I was concerned about my camera. Sorry. I'm going back at Thanksgiving, so I can fill in later. Anyway, one last shot of the Delta for now. These are modules of pressed cotton. They are hydraulically crushed and this saves the need ot keeping around a zillion trailers that only get used once a year. It is a great idea and saves farmers both time and money. Right now there are, literally, probably ten or 15 thousand of these things in fields that are too muddy to drive in, just waiting to be picked up.

Modularized Cotton waiting to be ginned

A sign in front of a Catfish House near Greenville. Great sign. I don't know about the catfish, as it was closed. Things are still closed on Sunday in the Delta, mostly. Except the casinos. They never close.

Great poster in the men's room at Abe's in Clarksdale.

So as I pulled into Greenville I had a bit of trouble deciding my next move. Drive on tho Vicksburg and hope that Solly's is open (it wasn't) or stop in Greenville and drop some serious cake on a steak and a few more Tamales at Does. That decision took about two seconds. I enjoyed one of the world's finest pieces of beef (go there if you don't believe me, Luger's wishes they could cook like that

Properly stuffed, I drove on in a pouring rain. Later, as I was on Hwy 27 near Utica (that's the town where Eudora Welty took those wonderful cemetary photos back in the 30's and also where the Henry S Jacobs Camp is-HSJ Camp is a very old line summer camp for Southern Jewish Kids. It is on a beautiful piece of property) and I passes a large garage sale that had been moved, literally, into the garage. They had some pretty cool stuff, but the best thing that they had was a homemade lemon/poppyseed poundcake. Lord that cake was good.

And that's that. I have a few more photos to add, which I will do in the morning. It was a great trip and I hope to do it again soon. Mississippi has much to offer the hungry diner who is willing to look around a bit.

[tanabutler]

You are making me horribly homesick. I know those roads, those old wooden places.

But can you please tell me what is "SFA"? Do I need a special radio?

[bleudauvergne]

Thank you for sharing this, Dean and Brooks. I look forward to the rest of the photos.

[Varmint]

But can you please tell me what is "SFA"? Do I need a special radio?

←

Tana, it's the Southern Foodways Alliance, and the main reason for the existence of this new forum.

[Richard Kilgore]

Thanks for the great travelogue and photos, guys.

That porkchop was truly scary, but the duck gumbo and catfish looked so tasty I wantd to lick the screen.