My Smoky Pilgrimage to Helen’s BBQ

Fewer than 10,000 people live in dusty Brownsville, TN. It would be easy to blow right past downtown if you were, say, trying desperately to find anything at all worth listening to on the radio. But even if you did, you still wouldn’t miss the town’s biggest attraction, Helen’s BBQ, which sits a mile removed,…

Postcard: NOLA, Five Southern Foods and a Sazerac Cocktail Recipe at Rosedale

On my Southern Food Road Tour, I asked everyone who would talk to me to name five foods and beverages that are most expressive of “southern food,” and the answers varied a lot more than I thought they would. Louisiana in particular was out there on its own, and some of the answers I had…

Southern Cake Recipes: Hummingbird Cupcakes

Hummingbird Cakes are as Southern as they come. A butter cake that enfolds banana, coconut, pineapple, and pecans, it is topped with cream cheese frosting.

Southern Food Road Trip: Bone Marrow Luge & Proof on Main Preview

Proof on Main’s Chef Mike Wajda and I do a fino sherry luge through a spent marrow bone — a unique experience to be sure.

Southern Food Road Tour: Thibodeaux Joke from Eunice, Louisiana

Here’s a Thibodeaux joke from Dwight Landreneau of Riceland Crawfish.

Southern Food Road Trip: Biscuits Lesson with Susan Spicer in New Orleans

Biscuit lessons from Chef Susan Spicer was one of the highlights of the Southern Food Road Tour.

Biscuit Recipes from Alabama, Telephone Pioneers of America Chapter No. 34 Cookbook

Mayo Biscuits? I guess if mayonnaise is just eggs and oil, it’s not so completely bizzare to use it as fat for a biscuit. If you try this one, take a pic and send it in, with your recipe review. Tangy Cheddar Biscuits No Old Bay in this recipe, so maybe Red Lobster is safe. But who doesn’t like…

Southern Food Road Tour: Susan Spicer and NOLA Edition

New Orleans, LA – In just two and a half hours, Susan Spicer, one of the most celebrated chefs in the South, is going to personally give me a lesson in how to make biscuits at her new, New-Orleans themed restaurant Rosedale. It’s hard to overstate how excited I am about this brand new development….

Southern Food Road Trip: Glock Sidetrip in Indiana

I have limited experience with guns, but I did grow up in Kansas, so I’ve shot skeet and been to a gun range and fired shotguns and various pistols with more gun-oriented friends out in the country. John here is amazing, as you will see; someone to have with you when concealed carry is called…

Southern Food Road Trip: Bettie’s Caramel Chocolate Pecan Pie

Humboldt, TN – My AirBnB hostess here, a ferociously charming woman named Christine Warrington, recently moved back home after making her international fortune, with designs on taking out the sitting mayor. Her very first Machiavellian move? Finding a caterer, of course, since the most effective Southern schmoozing is done over a plate. Christine introduced me to Tim Hayes, owner…