A Taste of the Deep South

We were lucky enough to try various new foods during our travels across Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana. These are some of the highlights.

Tennessee

In Memphis one night we ate in a smokehouse and I enjoyed BBQ Pulled Pork with fries – yum! The waitress kindly offered that we could try their “Sweet Potatoes” for free. We were expecting a sweet potato, so we were surprised when she brought 2 massive sweet potatoes topped with brown sugar, cinnamon and marshmallows! It was delicious but we felt awful that we couldn’t finish it!

We tried BBQ pork ribs on Beale Street that were succulent. I’m not a “ribs” person and I don’t like nibbling meat off a bone (I’m not a dog!), but these were perfection!

We also went to a diner from “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” called South of Beale and sampled the duck fried rice, gouda mac and cheese, and chicken salad. It was really refreshing to try something really different (and exciting to be in a place we’d seen on TV!).

Louisiana

You can’t come to Louisiana without trying Gumbo! This is a warming spicy stew with prawns, served with rice.

My fave food was the “Po Boy”. This is a portion of a large french baguette, stuffed with a filling of your choice with salad. We tried crawfish, alligator tail, and roast beef po boys (not together!).

We also tried a “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives”  place called Surreys. This was located well away from the French Quarter in a residential neighbourhood. We were a tad wary given the safety warnings we’d read. But we were fine and found the place ok. It was a charming little cafe which served fresh juice and delicious food. I had “bananas foster” – french toast with banana and a rum sauce – to die for! My BF had a rather more strange concoction of smoked salmon, capers, eggs and stuff like that. We loved our fresh apple juice but found the wheatgrass more difficult to like – I think it’s an acquired taste! 🙂

Florida

It’s not the “deep south” but I can’t fail to mention the Taco Bus in Tampa, Florida. We went to 2 of these. I was a tad concerned about going to the first one as it wasn’t in the most salubrious neighbourhood so I was slightly worried about being shot. But when we got there the people were friendly and we overheard someone who had come there with a foreign student saying “I tried to think of where to take him in Tampa, and I thought “Taco Bus!””. I had a burrito which was delicious. The food is served from an ex-school bus (with a sink in the bonnet so you can wash your hands), and there is seating. After that we were hooked and went to another Taco Bus too!

Overall we loved our little forey into food from the Deep South (and Tacos!).

Next blog:  Newark, New Jersey, USA

Previous post: New Orleans, Graveyards and Safety.

Advertisement