Good American food

Not an oxymoron but a reality. This might seem like an extraordinary statement given my usual railings against this cuisine but today I wanted to give praise to home style Southern country cookin'. At the Azalea Festival we stopped into a little cafe for lunch. See how many of these items from our lunch you can identify without having to look them up:

• Sweet Georgia Brown


• Hoppin' john


• Fried okra


• Shrimp and grits


• Cheese sandwich with fruit

Okay I'll give you Lucy's lunch, the cheese sandwich, but the rest is pure Southern style food. And it was very good and we very much enjoy it! And we will miss our creamy grits when we move back to Oz.

Hushpuppies

Ok so here is the explanation for hushpuppies [thanks Julie]. A hushpuppy is deep fried cornmeal in the shape of a mini frankfurt. My southern cookbook tells me there is a distinct difference between North Carolina and South Carolina hushpuppies and claims the NC hushpuppies are 'gumball' sized. Not from what I've seen! They are usually served with bbq style foods like pulled pork and fried chicken and they can be quite dry if left in a buffet heating for too long. Easy for kids to eat but not particularly healthy. Much better to have grits than this fried up version of cornmeal. However I can now appreciate the use of deep frying as a cooking method. No one roasts anything around here as having a hot oven for a couple of hours heating up the house is not appealing. Throwing something into some hot oil for a few minutes and then switching off the heat is a far better way to go in this weather. Or on a different tack just go the salad route!