Another top 5

[resonant]

which nobody asked for, but I will share anyway because this is the hazard of mobility, that you long for food that's hundreds of miles away.

Top Five Things I Would Be Eating If I Still Lived Someplace Else

1. Raisin brioche from Bennison's in Evanston (and I blame tzikeh for this longing)

2. Open-faced egg sandwich from the Irregardless Cafe in Raleigh. Egg, cheese, sprouts, tomato, mushrooms, onions, avocado, on an English muffin. With a glass of honey-sweetened Red Zinger tea.

3. Fried chicken with three veg from a diner in Waynesville whose name I've forgotten. One of those places where they define Brunswick stew as a vegetable. Homemade biscuits. Sweet tea. A nice quiet evening walk back to the Mountaineer, where all my co-workers would still be slaving away on tomorrow's paper.

4. Boiled shrimp by the metric ton at the beach. Corn. Hush puppies. More sweet tea.

5. Tomatoes and black-eyed peas from my mother's garden. Banana pudding from my mother's kitchen.

Once I saw a poster that said, "What is patriotism, after all, but the love of the fine things we ate in our childhood?"

Comments

[lillian78.livejournal.com]

Stop you're killing me. It all sounds so wonderful. XD

[terpsichoreslyr.livejournal.com]

MMMmmmm, that all sounds so good. And I agree with the poster completely. The amount of shrimp I can consume in one meal is almost embarrassing - except that I don't care. Ever had New Orleans BBQ shrimp? If you want the recipe, it's really good (although not as good as a low-country boil).

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

In a history class I learned once that the three things a conquered people hold on to longer than anything else are their language, and their religion, and their cooking.

[brynwulf]

Oh man... I'm so jonesing for my mother's banana pudding now! She made the best...from scratch. No jello instant pudding for that woman! She was Southern, you know. :)

Thanks for sharing

[dracos-faghag.livejournal.com]

OMG I love and adore sweet tea. And brunswick stew is like, the best stuff EVER. As much as living in Georgia can be frustrating, I'm certainly going to miss the food when I move.

[merelymine.livejournal.com]

Gah. You're making me hungry!

And not to be random, but #3? I think my crazy stepmom used to deliver that paper.

[dementordelta.livejournal.com]

Holy Cow! I've been to Irregardless in Raleigh! I have friends who live in a nearby town and they've taken me there since it's their favorite place in the area. *vows to try the open-faced egg sandwich next time*

[tofty.livejournal.com]

*SMUG*

As much as I miss NO food, I have to say that I don't know what I'd do if I didn't live in the deep south. Probably I'd lose weight.

[elleesttrois.livejournal.com]

Yum

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I'd love to go to New Orleans one day, and i'll give them a try there. I'm 800 miles from the nearest shore now, and there's really no sense in giving me shrimp recipes, because I don't trust the shrimp that made the trip!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I believe it!

The spouse's mother is the granddaughter of Italian immigrants, and on the whole she's one of these people who thinks that food that comes out of a box is far superior to food that's grown in dirt. But she still makes the most magnificent homemade ravioli, filled with Swiss chard and finely ground beef -- mmmmm.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I have in my recipe box an ancient, moldering piece of cardboard cut off an old Nilla Wafers box with the real, the true, the one and only banana pudding recipe. The one that requires a double boiler. Jello pudding has no place in true banana pudding.

I've made it a few times, but nobody in the house likes it but me. Hell, probably nobody in the state of Illinois likes it but me. And it really makes too much (and is too much trouble) for one person.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Ohh, sweet tea. When I went away to college in Illinois, I didn't drink coffee or pop or anything with caffeine in it except for iced tea, and since decent brewed iced tea wasn't available, I basically had no caffeine at all for four years. And then I moved back to the South and started eating like a Southerner again -- and was buzzed and jittery 24/7 for about a month.

And I wish I could go back.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, you're kidding. I really didn't think anybody would ever have heard of the Mountaineer. Best boss I ever had, Clifton Metcalf was.

(And I got it wrong in my entry, too; we worked incredible amounts of overtime, but Clifton would never have stood for us working on a Sunday.)

Does your crazy stepmom still live in Haywood County? It's a great place for crazy people of all sorts.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's a glorious place, isn't it? Definitely have the sandwich. I've made it at home, but it's just not the same. (Well, I tend to leave out the mushrooms and onions, because who's going to sautee mushrooms and onions just to make a sandwich? But it's not the same without them.)

I wonder if my h.s. best friend's baby sister is still one of the chefs there.

[merelymine.livejournal.com]

Isn't it a weirdly small world sometimes? I did a double-take when I saw your post and just had to say something.

Yep, my stepmom still lives in Haywood County. Along with my dad and all the other people I never see on account of her craziness. They live in Canton (I've had to resist making a corny joke about the smell. I think we'll all be better off because of my restraint).

I'm certain that's the paper she used to deliver, I had to spend hours in the car with her sometimes when I went up to visit. I must have been around ten or eleven then, so that means it was about 12-13 years ago. God. Doesn't seem like that long ago. :)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Canton! They say it smells like money!

I must have been around ten or eleven then, so that means it was about 12-13 years ago.

Every now and then fandom whacks me in the face with the sense of how ooooold I am: it was 18 years ago that I worked up there!