Several months ago, my son-in-law, Lynn Evans (a native Utahn who has developed taste buds that appreciate such finer things in life as Southern cooking) was in the mood for the cuisine of the South. Over the next couple of months, his idea of a quick nip to Mississippi for some really good food escalated into our "four-state feeding frenzy."
Born and raised in the South, I traveled in the cotton industry across the southern coastal states. As a self-proclaimed connoisseur of fine food, I soon realized that a unique style of restaurants was scattered throughout the South -- small, often unadvertised, "mom and pop" establishments, each with its own character and food specialty. Never fancy, usually they looked pretty rough and were almost always hard to find.Through the local folks, one would learn of the "hole-in-the-wall" eateries. Quality of food, not appearance, was paramount.
For five days, we dedicated our salivary glands, short nights and fast driving to more than 35 extraordinary entrees and side dishes at eight different restaurants. From Louisiana, we ate our way to western Kentucky, traveling nearly 1,100 miles north, roughly paralleling the Mississippi River.
Kraemer is a hamlet nine miles long and only one street wide in the swamps about 55 miles west of New Orleans. Nine hundred or so souls call it home. Waterfilled ditches and adjacent swamps with majestic Spanish moss-draped cypress and Tupelo gum trees lined each side of the narrow, shoulderless road. An occasional patch of sugar cane, on islands reclaimed by draining, created a few random gaps in the tunnel-like appearance as the roadway wound through the massive semitropical timber.
As we crossed the old, rusty drawbridge over Bayou Boeuf, we spotted Edwina's Cooking Cajun at Zam's Swamp Tours. For 15 years Edwina's daddy, Edwin "Papa Gator," had operated tours for the busloads of tourists who had no place to eat within 20 or so miles. Thus, nine years ago, Edwina's came to exist,
As we sat in the 1950s vintage vinyl booths, a parade of extraordinary food continued throughout our two-hour visit. Every food item was made "from scratch," and most required several hours of preparation. "We live to eat," explained Edwina Tregle, "not eat to live!" An indescribably wonderful dish of Fried Alligator Tail and tarter sauce, followed by a bowl of seafood gumbo to die for, got us started. (Gumbo, the African word for okra, usually refers to a soup or stew-like dish, which always includes stewed okra, adding a distinctive flavor and thickening.
Also, as with every similar dish, Cajun cooks start with a roux.) Equally as fine were the servings of shrimp creole in a delicate but zesty sauce.
Cajun food is not "fire hot" with seasonings. It is spicy and full of flavor not "fire."
"I can't believe shrimp can taste so good," Lynn mumbled through a full mouth, as the talented head cook explained how she dips the shrimp in an egg wash, then dredges them lightly in yellow cornmeal before deep-frying.
With its old brick archways and wall-mounted gas rotisseries, the Rib Room of the Royal Orleans Hotel in the midst of the French Quarter, is no "hole in the wall." It sits on the site of New Orleans' first hotel and the one-time slave auction block. Since its construction in 1960, it has been one of America's elegant establishments. But we didn't come for sleeping, just eating. In my travels of the 48 contiguous awes and 13 countries, this has been the place for eggs Benedict. We were not disappointed, it was just as delicious as I recalled from my first eating there in 1970.
Only in New Orleans is there such pride in food preparation. Although dessert after breakfast is not normal fare, who could pass up an offer of creme brulee? The taste of this exquisite dish with its tiny flicks of ground vanilla bans, still lingers in our minds.
After a brief stop at Cafe du Monde, famous for its sugared beignets for more than100 years, we watched an ocean-going vessel glide down the Mighty Mississippi as we walked along the river levee, moving from shade tree to shade tree.
At Mother's on the corner of Paydros and Tchoupitoulas streets, the owner Jerry Amato and his manager, Joe Baldares, were seated by the door eating their own food -- which is always a good sign -- and giving directions to the customers as how to negotiate the standing-room-only situation. In spite of its seating capacity of only 85, Mother's serves between 1,000 and 2,000 patrons per day, mostly at lunch.
Although it is served cafeteria style, many items are cooked to order. We sampled the Shrimp Jambalaya, the delicacy of a Soft Shelled Crab Po-Boy (a sandwich on a French bun similar to a sub-sandwich, but garnished with exotic spices and sauces) and a Debris Po-Boy (the definition of debris being things left over, as in the broth and trimmings remaining in the pot roast pan).
Mother's is famous for its baked ham from which cracklings are made daily for customers to nibble as they wait in line. The cooks use the grease from the cracklings in all of the deep-frying. Mother's also prides itself in bread pudding and Shrimp Etouffe. Many folks claim it is the best place in New Orleans for breakfast. Although Mother's has been in the family and feeding folks since 1938 , Jerry and his brother, John, bought the business in 1992.
The building has been standing for well over 100 years and probably looks much same as it did back then, with its bare brick walls, which are now decorated with the pictures of celebrity/customers such as Rush Limbaugh, Johnnie Cochran, and Henry Winkler, V. P. Dan Quayle, Martha Stewart and Julia Child. As one of Mother's other Utah customers, Rick Majerus, would probably agree -- what a happy place!
After a short "heat stroke" of a walk back to the car, we left New Orleans via the longest bridge in the world, 26 miles across Lake Pontchartrain, as we headed north to our next culinary appointment.
After about 200 pastoral scenic miles of driving along state highways with lush green road sides, often groomed as well as many lawns in Utah, a few miles south of Jackson , Mississippi, we turned onto a little county road. A couple of more miles put us in front of an abandoned, gray painted, service station that is now the home of Wynndale Steakhouse and Restaurant.
Since our visit there in 1994, they have added a "no smoking" room with walls of unpainted wafer-boards. The floors are still unpainted concrete and the tables, for the most part, are 8-foot "church-type," although they are now covered with vinyl cloths instead of being bare. The fresh lettuce at the salad bar is served from a No. 3 galvanized tub. Don't let any of this fool you. Until you have sunk your teeth into one of the Wynndale ribeye steaks, you have never had steak.
Your taste buds have been held captive. The more than 1,000 steaks, ribs, porkchops, and chicken served each week are cooked over "live hickory coals" and only seasoned with pepper and the natural smoke of green hickory.
Before leaving on our excursion, Lynn challenged me to I find him a great Lemon Icebox Pie. While we were finishing the last incredible morsels of steak, employee Deanne came through the doorway with three pies. She had driven to Miss Ellen's home and robbed the refrigerator. The Wynndale is owned and operated by Troy and Ellen Welch, and typical of the "morn and pop" restaurants, family and friends are employees.
Ah, breakfast with Frank, just west of the state capitol in Jackson! The restaurant is an attractive, extremely well-kept, old, dark-red brick, one-story former residence that makes you feel right at home when you walk in. The breakfast was top draw and the biscuits, which he bills as "world famous," were fine. But more importantly, let me tell you about the other folks who think Frank Latham's food is something to rave about. The foyer walls are laden with the endorsements and photographs of famous customers, including Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Willard Scott, Bernie Ebbers, CEO of MCI, and Mohammad Ali.
We had more than another 200 miles to put behind us before lunch at the world-famous Rendezvous in Memphis on the Mississippi. If you read "The Firm," you know about the Rendezvous. Since in the late 1950s, this has been my favorite haunt for bar-b-que pork ribs and shrimp. Holiday magazine touted it as also serving the best ham sandwich in the U.S. of A.
When I first enjoyed Charlie Vergo's Ribs, the restaurant was in an alley under some building with a capacity of about 70. Today, old Charlie can seat 750 in his "antique junk" decorated basement down a different alley. T Yes, the ribs are still succulent and tender as I had remembered.
In Utah, ribs are usually thought of as dripping in some reddish, tangy sauce, the Rendezvous Ribs, which are never parboiled, are cooked over coals with only an occasional basting of vinegar for 1.5 to 2 hours then blanketed with Charlie's secret seasoning just before serving. Robert Stewart, who has been with Charlie for 43 years, served our ribs, which on the outside were dry and slightly crusty, yet, juicy and tender on the inside. A side dish of Charlie's version of Red Beans and Rice laced with pork bar-b-que and spicy coleslaw capped off this culinary treat. If this testimony temps your curiosity and hunger, call 1-899-HOGSFLY, and Charlie will over-night you a couple of slabs by FEDEX Even a day old, they are better than any ribs I've eaten.
Another couple of hundred miles, one flash flood, and one wedding later, we were seated for lunch at Big John's Ol' South Rib n' Que with our family of 23, about nine miles east of Benton, Kentucky (population 4700), near the magnificent 184-mile-long Kentucky Lake.
Lynn and I enjoyed samples of Chicken with Cornbread Dressing, Smoked Sausage, Sweet Potato Casserole (to shout about), turnip greens, fried okra, creamed corn, cornbread muffins (I crumbled mine in milk, don't knock it till you've tried it) and Apple Carmel Cobbler. John Morgan is a 6-foot, 9-inch "gentle giant" who tired of the construction business and with his wife, Paulette, opened a country family-style restaurant with a rustic Western atmosphere four years ago.
The front porch has everything from rocking chairs to an old-time horse-drawn sleigh. Every recipe is "from scratch' and most of them are original creations of Paulette. Unfortunately for us, the ribs, which are smoked for five to six hours, are not served for lunch.
As I bit into the pork bar-b-que on a bun and the delicate smoked flavors danced across my well-exercised taste buds, I thought, "how can a pig taste this good?" I was having lunch at Chews Four Little Pigs on the north side of Benton. In a separate building these folks barbecue 20 to 30 pork shoulders a day over hickory wood coals for 24 hours before "pulling." (If it has to be cut, it's not done!) Then the tender meat is served as a lunch or dinner entree or as the most popular item, a BBQ sandwich, complete with the secret sauce and cole slaw.
Since the early 1940s, Benton had enjoyed one main barbecue establishment, where, during the afternoons, many of the local men would gather to enjoy coffee and conversation. As the story goes, in 1992, the new owner discouraged the foodless gatherings. Four former customers, Chambers, Haltom, English and Kinsey, hence "CHEK," built their own little bar-b-que joint so people could continue their happy hour from 2 to 5 p.m. You can, to this day, drink cups of coffee and quart-sized glasses of iced tea, all you want for 25 cents.
When asking Wanda Melton, the owner since 1986, what she thought her place was most famous for, I was surprised when she replied, "running out of food." All of the food is fresh everyday. Of all the culinary education we received on this trip, she made the most important comment: "When fixin' food, keep it simple, and don't experiment with something good."
EGGS BENEDICT
Yield four servings
2 quarts water for poaching
3 tablespoons vinegar
8 eggs
8 slices Canadian bacon
4 English muffins
3 cups hollandaise sauce (recipe below)
Heat water and vinegar in pan. When the water is hot, break eggs into simmering water and simmer until done (3-4 minutes). Fry Canadian bacon in separate pan and toast the English muffin. When ready to serve, put bacon on top of muffin, eggs on top of this and hollandaise sauce on eggs. Garnish with fresh asparagus. Recipe from Rib Room Rotisserie Extraordinaire.
HOLLANDAISE SAUCE
5 egg yolks
1 ounces water
1 1/2 pound melted butter
Juice from 1 lemon
Salt and cayenne pepper to taste
Combine egg yolks and water in mixing bowl. Place in a double boiler over simmering water and beat with a wire whip until eggs thicken. Gradually mix in butter, a little at a time, until all has been used, and season.
CREME BRULEE
1 quart heavy cream
1 cup sugar
9 egg yolks
3 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Mix sugar and yolks together. Scald the cream. Gradually add scalded cream to yolk mixture stirring constantly. Add vanilla. Pour into baking dishes. Place in a water bath and bake for approximately 30 minutes.
Note: Baking these properly depends on a perfectly calibrated oven it's best to bake at a low temperature for a long time than to overcook.
Spread a thin layer of sugar on top of each and place under broiler until sugar caramelizes. Recipe from Rib Room Rotisserie Extraordinaire.
RED BEANS
2 pounds red beans
1 pound smoked sausage
1 pound ham, grade A
1/4 pound ham, fat-rendered
1 ham bone
1/2 pound onions, diced
1/3 pound bell pepper, diced
3 ounces garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/3 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 quarts chicken stock
2 quarts debris gravy
Render ham fat in skillet. Remove cracklins from the remaining fat. Saute sausage and grade A ham. Add onions, bell pepper and green onion until tender. Add garlic, salt, pepper, thyme, bay leaves. Add red beans and stir into vegetables. Add stock and debris gravy. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until red beans are tender and become creamy. Recipe from Mother's Restaurant, 401 Poydras St., New Orleans, LA 70130 ; telephone: 504-523-9656.