Home of Flavor

by. Phillip Miller

When it comes to the south, several things come to mind; the sun, farms, blue jeans, blondes, big trucks and ‘huntin.’ More importantly than anything for me, I think of the food!!! With large amounts of historical and present immigration the food in the south has been morphed, molded and mastered. At the thought of the variety and flavor of all the foods available my stomach grumbles. The image I have here is of a chef holding up his fresh of the pit ‘rack o’ ribs’ at Dreamland Bar-B-Que in Tuscaloosa, Ala. These mouthwatering babies can be found in almost every town in he south. With each bite into a southern mean you travel through time. You start of with the spices in your mouth that tells you more than one country has had their hand in this; spices from all over the world are here in your mouth. Then we enter the meat itself and its style of cooking, where did it come from and how has it changed. There are meals that can take days of preparation for that explosion of flavor and utter satisfaction. This cannot be attributed to one person, one people or one country. All of these meals, from fried chicken to mama’s gumbo, they are all products of time, terrain and diversity.

The meal is an important part of southern culture. Except for the food being amazingly delicious, mealtime is especially important family time and social gatherings. Even the neighbor bringing a pie to the new resident is locked into time as southern. Southerners take pride in their culture as well as their ability to cook. There must be hundreds of thousands of ways to make barbecue sauce in the south and mostly all are delicious. Southern food has taken up residence in chain restaurants that have spread throughout the world but most families seem to hold onto their traditions and recipes proudly. Food is the south…