As the crow flies, Nashville and Memphis are separated by about 210 miles. You can get from one to the other of these two prominent Southern cities–that are probably best known for their signature sounds–in a speedy three hours. Nashville sits on the north-central part of the Volunteer State. It’s considered the cradle of country music. Legendary pantheons of country…
Category: Southern
Ms. Gennie’s House of Chicken – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)
My Air Force friend and colleague Al Garcia once shared one of those amusing anecdotes that will leave your head shaking in disbelief even as you’re practically rolling on the floor with laughter. According to Al who grew up in the Socorro area, his parents had to make a daylong trip to the big city (Albuquerque), leaving him and his…
Biscuit Boy – Albuquerque, New Mexico
In Boris Pasternak’s Dr Zhivago, a sagacious old Russian czarist caught up in the communist revolution lamented “Scratch a Russian and you will find a peasant.” To paraphrase that immortal line “Scratch a cook and you’ll find a chemist.” Think I’ve been ingesting pharmaceuticals? Maybe you should ask Deonte “Dee” Halsey, the affable owner of Biscuit Boy about the influence of…
The Hollar – Madrid, New Mexico
It wasn’t that long ago that if you played “word association” with almost anyone outside the Mason-Dixon line, the first thing coming to mind if you used the term “Southern food” was probably something like “heapin’ helpins’ of hillbilly hospitality.” During their nine-year run as one of the most popular comedies in the history of American television, the Clampetts, a…
Sweet Lake Biscuits & Limeaid
In 2008, Natchez, Mississippi, was officially named the Biscuit Capital of the World, a process which took three years of research by Chef Regina Charboneau. Just our luck, the Natchez native and French-trained chef began serving her famous biscuits at her Twin Oaks Bed & Breakfast in Natchez a decade after our last visit to the “Antebellum Capital of the World.”…
Delvin’s Restaurant & Catering – Amarillo, Texas
Throughout its storied history, Amarillo’s culinary reputation has been based primarily on one kind of food: beef. That’s no surprise considering Amarillo-area ranches produce thirty-percent of the nation’s beef and ninety-percent of the beef in Texas. So when the city on the High Plains is described as a “cow town,” it’s not solely because of the odoriferous emanations from thousands…
K’Lynn’s Cuisine – Rio Rancho, New Mexico
Before permanent signage was mounted, a tethered banner in front of K’Lynn’s Southern & Cajun Fusion in Rio Rancho listed a few of the delicious treasures available in the tiny restaurant: “catfish, BBQ, gumbo, po boys, jerk chicken, carne adovada fries & more!” Yeah, we did a double-take, too. One of those items just seemed a bit out-of-place? If you’re…
Lucy’s Fried Chicken – Austin, Texas
“I‘m only eating the skins, so the chicken’s up for grabs.” ~Joey Tribbiani Several of my earliest memories of growing up in agrarian Peñasco, New Mexico involve chickens. Some of those memories–such as getting viciously pecked by my Grandma Piedad’s cantankerous old rooster–were rather painful. Other memories, however, were of mischievous fun my brothers and I had with our friends…
Nexus Brewery – Albuquerque, New Mexico
Set in Albuquerque, Breaking Bad, AMC’s critically acclaimed television series may have left viewers with the impression that the Duke City is a haven for meth cookery and fried chicken joints. Had the fair city been more accurately typecast, it would have have been portrayed as a mecca for microbreweries. The Albuquerque Beer Scene blog says it best: “It’s like…