Today’s prompt from Long and Short Reviews is, “Food from Our Region We Love”. One potential issue with this: I’ve only been out of the Southland a few times in my life, both times to the Southwest. I’m not entirely sure where “food” ends and “Southern Food” begins. I will, however, try to name a few likely prospects. But first, WWW Wednesday!

WHAT have you finished reading recently? The True Flag, Stephen Kinzer. On the birth of American imperialism and anti-imperialism. Mailman by Steve Grant, a memoir of working as a rural mail carrier in 2020-2021 Appalachia.

WHAT are you reading now? Oh, bother. I started listening to Heroes by Stephen Fry; I’m still trudging along in The Great Crusade, Eisenhower’s WW2 memoir; I’ve started reading a novel about Aeneas and am looking at a book about the discovery of Troy and a book about the Minor Prophets to go along with my Bible in a Year project, and, and, and —

WHAT are you reading next?

I…I have no idea. I mean, LBJ and Truman are glowering at me from a corner because Homer has pulled me into Greece for a week or so, I need to get cracking on the science survey, and I have a great idea for this year’s Blast from the Past. Oh, and I just received Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization in the post. That work has been on my Amazon wishlist since I opened an Amazon account in 2005, but my Greek mood has led to it finally being purchased.

So, uh, southern food

(1) Fried Green Tomatoes. The appearance of green tomatoes in the grocery store means it’s summer, and there’s nothing like fresh FGT’s right out of the skillet. Personally, I slice `em up, dip them in milk or egg, batter them in cornmeal, and then load them with a ridiculous amount of salt and pepper.

(2) Greens. Turnip greens or collard greens, mostly. I didn’t realize these were a regional thing until a friend of mine visiting from the Southwest said he’d never heard of them.

(3) Corn bread, maybe? Surely other people cook cornmeal into bread?

(4) Hush puppies, relatedly. I can’t imagine eating sea food without these little balls of fried corn meal.

(5) Fried okra. I eat this even though I know it’s not good for me. (On any level, besides ‘mm, comfort food’.) Why do southerners eat so much fried food? It’s hot and miserable down here, you’d think we’d be experts in things that don’t require cooking. We should be cold salad experts, not deep-fried aficianados! I also like my okra pickled, especially pickled spicy.

(6) Boiled peanuts. Okay, I’ll admit to cheating now: I search for “foods only in the South”. Surely the rest of you aren’t going around at state fairs without your boiled peanuts? I mean, what do you even carry in your hand if you don’t have that paper sack of peanuts, preferably seasoned ‘cajun’ style.

(7) Biscuits and sausage gravy. The ultimate in breakfast comfort food. Sausage gravy is thick and white. Basically, you fry up an entire thingy of sausage (that’s a technical term for a pound of sausage in a thin plastic wrapper) in small bits, then start adding milk and flour until it’s nice and creamy.

(8) Real grits. Not Quaker instant, that stuff relates to grits as much as frozen fish sticks related to fried catfish. Real grits are cooked slow, with milk and butter, and they’re so creamy and good you’d think this was what the Hebrews were on about with manna. One of my Christmas traditions is to eat grits and tomato gravy for brunch with my godparents (after breakfast with my parents — oofah). Tomato gravy is its own thing, requiring a healthy diet of bacon just to give you the drippings to get started. Southern food means we don’t live as long as everyone else, but by god we enjoy it more.

(9) Pecan pie. Pronounced pu’cahn pie, spare me your pee cans. I always look for this at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

(10) Chicken ‘n’ dumplins’. Another classic that I associate strongly with Thanksgiving. My grandmother used to make them.