Southern fried chicken. Chicken-fried steak. Heck, chicken fried chicken. Black-eyed peas. And of course, grits. (A Southron tells his Yankee visitor, “C’mon, y’all gotta try grits just once.” The skeptical Yankee replies, “Uh…can I start with just one grit?”)

The ubiquitous fried catfish is not my favorite.  What is my favorite? The occasional whimsical appreciation of sinfully delicious foodstuffs.

Behold the health food display at an aisle endcap in a Publix supermarket in North Florida.  Who says doughnuts ain’t good for you y’all?

And I bet your kids would snack more on grapes if they, like these in an H-E-B grocery store in Schertz, Texas, were more appetizingly labeled. 

42 COMMENTS

  2. yeah, chicken fried steak is one of my favorites – made the mistake a couple years ago of specifying a “full order” instead of a half order at a place in Waco – it took up a full plate, the sides (mashed red skin potatoes, greens and black eyed peas) took up another plate.

    I know there is a lot of good comfort food all over the place, but I am partial to Southern cookin’. And how come you didn’t mention BBQ, Mas?? It’s the subject of endless food wars – is Texas brisket better than Carolina pork?? Is a vinegar based sauce better than tomato based? etc…

    • If brisket, chicken or pork is bbq’d correctly, (low and slow) you won’t want to hide that succulent smokey deliciousness with any kind of sauce! Texas Hill Country mesquite and post oak give the meat all the flavor anyone could ever ask for. God help me, I do love it so!

  3. Unfortunately, I enjoy eating just about anywhere, which is why I need to lose about 30 lbs, but I won’t be able to go to my favorites in leftist states like NY anymore because I refuse to pay sales tax to support leftist governments, so I will not be traveling to those states anymore. I simply refuse to go.

  7. Seems like I ate grits all through my childhood years in the northeast ( Long Island, in fact ). When the family was moved to Florida around the time I turned 12 years of age, I discovered to my surprise that I was not supposed to know what they were, having lived “up north” all that time. Kind of a dumb supposition, when you think about it. It wasn’t as though we were from an off-world location were corn was never grown. Had not heard of “red-eye gravy”. Nor had I ever consumed any during my time in Fla. nor during travels in the southeast. Best Sausage gravy and Biscuits I had was in Quincy.

  8. Oh yes! Those cotton candy grapes at H‑E‑B are tasty! And you may want to monitor your blood sugar! Some H‑E‑B s have awesome bakeries, with great breads – honey, cinnamon & raisins, other awesome desserts. Oh, have you tasted Texas watermelon?!! There are a lot of tasty foods throughout the South. (Well, OK, other parts of the country also..). 😉

  9. Mas, as a southern gentleman, you should really enjoy munching on that most savory delicacy called chitlins with some hot sauce and cornbread. I’ll stay with bacon and pork chops myself.

  10. Not to be a stickler, although vast Texas is pretty far south, I found when living there that many citizens of North Texas like in Fort Worth tended to think of themselves simply as Texans, or maybe Southwesterners, rather than Southerners. Although that might change some the farther into seemingly hotter and more humid East Texas you got. I was introduced to some kind of chicory coffee in Birdland, Pat Boone’s childhood community, within Haltom City, which is part of Fort Worth. That, Fort Worth rodeo, hominy and grits, abundant pecans trees, and pecan pie, are fond memories.

  11. Umm, Mas? You can buy Cotton Candy grapes at Shaw’s in New Hampshire!

    As a Southerner transplanted to NH, I do miss catfish, but I like haddock better. I miss Gulf oysters, but I like New England clams (both bellies and strips).

    Crawfish are the one delicacy I can’t afford to import.

  12. There are a lot of great things in the South. I even like the store names, especially “Piggly Wiggly.”

    • There is a convenience store named “Hogly Wogly” in Tallahassee, the capital city of Florida which I visited once a few years back while getting some gas.

  13. I have traveled all over the U.S.A. From Vermont to Southern California. Based upon my experience, it seems to me that Southerners are the only one’s who have figured out how to brew a proper glass of iced tea.

    Of course, one can find something called “iced tea” for sale all over the U.S. However, what is sold (outside of the South) is not iced tea as I understand it.

    A couple of decades ago, I was in San Diego, CA for a business trip. I arrived late enough that I decided to have supper (it is supper in the South, not dinner!) at the hotel. They had a nice restaurant right in the hotel.

    Well, I order my meal and specified “Iced Tea” to go along with it. The drink that they furnished LOOKED like iced tea, sure enough. However, when I went to taste it, I discovered otherwise. As near as I can tell from the taste, it was made from “Seaweed Squeezings”. About what one would expect in San Diego (The Home of SeaWorld), I guess. 🙁

    The meal, consisting of clam chowder and cooked lamb (lamb imported from Australia!) was different but good. I managed to enjoy the meal despite the strange beverage that I was forced to use to “wash it down”.

    When I am outside of the South, I no longer order iced tea. I order a Coke instead. Coke Cola is truly the same, in my experience, wherever you go. 🙂

    • Glad to see there’s a Coca-Cola connoisseur here. It was a sad time in the 1980’s when “New” Coke came out which tasted like watered down Pepsi. Of course “Classic” Coke was introduced later and now it’s just Coke again, except for all the other versions which I stay away from I know it’s extremely toxic and causes cancer, but I still have one occasionally.

      • Roger, the other versions of Coke keep expanding. Pretty soon we’ll probably see avocado Coke and banana Coke. Hard to beat an ice cold, highly carbonated original Coca-Cola (not the first ones made with cocaine).

    • Most restaurant “iced tea” is made from powdered instant tea. And unfortunately, it’s becoming more common in Dixie as well.

  14. You come to Texas and don’t mention BBQ?????
    Everyone other state claims to have BBQ.
    They’re liars.

    • I would not dismiss the claims of other State’s BBQ so easily.

      I have had excellent BBQ in several areas (Nashville, Memphis and a little place outside of Dunlap) in Tennessee. The absolute best dish of BBQ baby-back ribs that I ever tasted was served, of all places, by a seafood restaurant in Daytona Beach, FL!

      Truth is stranger than fiction!

      This is not to downplay Texas BBQ. Personally, as a Southerner, I never met a plate of BBQ that I didn’t like! 🙂

      • I have relatives in NC, been to Memphis, KC many times – like you I will eat anything!
        But….
        😉

  15. I am straying off-topic again, but we are living in strange times and I simply have to highlight this story:

    https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/secret-service-agents-suspended-bribery-plot-170142622.html

    What do we make of this?

    My only thought is that it shows the TOTAL corruption of our government and our public servants. If there is any truth in this story (who knows with our narrative-driven media today?), it highlights our decay as a Nation.

    Maybe they were just following the examples set at the top? After all, if it is “10% for the Big Guy”, why shouldn’t the little guys also try to grab a piece of the pie?

    They just wanted a piece of the “Washington D.C. Pie”, as opposed to something like “Pecan Pie” that you find in the South. One fattens your wallet while the other fattens your waistline! 🙂

    • Esteemed TN_MAN, if John Dillinger were alive today, he would be running for public office for fear of being eclipsed as a bad man by some of the low actors that we have in high places. The foundations of this country are crumbling before our eyes as the majority Media Mob praises Evil and disparages the Good. Either the propagandists cannot tell good from bad, or more likely, they are getting well paid to gladly twist virtue into ignorance. What is going around will come around, though. For one thing, the economic Golden Goose is being thoroughly strangled, and the value of the plundered Treasury may never be redeemed.

  16. If I was a member of the S.S., I would be leery of someone offering me a free $40,000 rent a year luxury apartment in the D.C. area. I will gladly accept a few dozen boxes of jelly donuts without reservation though, and ask for more later. However, I won’t video record myself eating those delicious donuts and keep the incriminating images on my laptop computer.

    • @ Tom606 – Yes, it shows how cheaply the traitorous prostitutes in Washington, D.C. can be bought and made to sell out their country.

      The Clinton Cash Machine is estimated to have sucked up no more than about $2 billion in bribes. They sold out the U.S. in Uranium One for what? About $145 million?

      A $1.5 billion investment from China plus a few extra millions, from the Russians and the Ukrainians, bought the Biden Crime family. Heck, the “Big Guy’s” cut was only 10%. Wonder what the cut was from the Iranian Deal? Both the old one and the new one that they are working on now?

      Why should a foreign power conquer the U.S. (which would cost trillions) when they can buy our leadership for just a few billions? Clearly, bribery is a much more cost-effective approach, in these days and times, then outright warfare!

      It makes you think. We have the January 6th Political Prisoners rotting in the D.C. jails.

      They simply do not have a million dollars or so, in bribe money, to buy themselves out of prison. Plus, they don’t know the right people to bribe even if they had the money.

      Their real crime was opposing the regime while being too poor to pay for their mistake!

      • Crooked Joe, being an idiot only asked for 10% when he could easily demand 75+% since it’s his high political position which makes those big bucks bribe payments possible. HillBillly was smarter and I’m sure Clinton got more than a 10% kickback from Yassir Arafat when he gave the terrorist leader $3 billion extorted from American taxpayers in the 1990’s.

        Hunter is probably arranging for a wealthy Chinese dude to secretly buy the Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln memorials in D.C. Heck, the Chinese probably already own the Grand Canyon, Brooklyn Bridge, and Statute of Liberty. They certainly have bought the White House and U.S. Capitol, both the properties and those inside.

  18. In the south they will have two pitchers of tea to refill your glass, one sweetened with real sugar and one unsweetened. When I started traveling for business I learned pretty quickly where the boundaries were where you could order a glass of sweet tea. Tea sweetened with artificial sweetener or even with sugar after the tea is cool just doesn’t cut it. I realize there are people who must use artificial sweetener and I feel for them. Being from NC I was always happy to get back home where I could get some Sweet Tea!

  20. Closest to steamed shrimp i could get while in Houston was boiled crawdads. Not quite the same and no Old Bay seasoning, but hey, it was in Texas.

    Still trying to figger out the difference between “chicken fried steak” vs fried steak.

    • “Still trying to figger out the difference….”

      One method is specific whereas the other is generic. Fried steak can refer to any general method of frying some type of steak. It can also refer to different cuts of steak that are cooked by frying.

      On the other hand, “Chicken Fried Steak” refers to a more specific recipe for breading and frying steak and then serving it with gravy.

      So, while “Chicken Fried Steak” is a subset of the generic category of “Fried Steaks”, a steak may be “fried” without actually being “Chicken Fried”, if you see my point. Technically, steak fajitas are a type of “Fried Steak”. However, they certainly are not “Chicken Fried Steak”!

      I admit, it is a bit of a subtle difference but, there is a difference. At least, there is for a Southerner! 🙂

  21. Being from NC to us BBQ ment pork. I worked with a company in Houston and visited quite often. I came to like the Texas style BBQ. When I would come to town I always wanted to visit a place called Luther’s. They severed tea in a Mason jar. Sure miss those trips.

  22. Mas, when you’re down Gainesville way, so about 12 miles south on 75 and stop at the Petro (NOT Pilot) truck stop. Iron Skillet restaurant inside has great Chicken Fried Steak. No Sysco, they make their own. All day, with eggs for breakfast or with mashed potato afterward. Dare you to do the full, a double cut with double potatoes. I schedule my trips to eat there.

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