The Thursday Three!

As suggested earlier in the week by Dr. Smith, the following is a blatant copy of the Friday Five, tell-us-more-about-yourself, at-a-loss-for-content sort of thing that each of the membership of the Alabama Uncontrolled Combustion Society and Fruit Fly Fight Club (also known as the Axis of Weevil) can answer (or not) on their own home pages.

As a reminder, just because you AREN’T a member, doesn’t mean you can’t play along on you own blog, EVEN IF YOU LIVE ON MALTA!

Now, to differentiate this set of questions from every other set of similar things out there, we will endeavor to make this a bit more Southocentric. Future topics (should this feature be met with wide acclaim) might include questions about the usual things that have long made the South a literary treasure trove--sultry nights, good food, internecine strife, gunplay, scenic vistas, misanthropy, miscegenation, mullets, music--hopefully all of which will be asked with, and answered with, good humor. We’re not going to get too personal and ask you for the size of your various body parts or your account numbers or anything like that, nor is this intended to start some kind of slapfight between those with differing answers. You are welcome to be as deep and thoughty as you like, but as with all things found on Possumblog, shallowness has its benefits.

NOW THEN, using Jim’s original suggestions regarding comestibles, we fed them (so to speak) into our restored 1954 Univac 120 along with some punch cards and came up with…

THE INAUGURAL THURSDAY THREE

1) What is your favorite food that is usually available only in the southern United States?

2) What is your least favorite?

3) AND FINALLY (Whew--who knew three questions could be so hard to type!?), what Southern specialty food item do you cook the best?

Now then, for my own part--

1) Well, obviously, smoked pig meat. Barbecue is the food equivalent of football here--must be something about pigskin--but it’s hard to find slow pit-cooked, hand-pulled pork barbecue that tastes right when you visit other places outside the South. That is, if you can even find it other places. I remember being met with a blank look when I requested a “sandwich, chopped, inside, with beans and slaw” at a brasserie when I was in Paris. Figures. Stuck-up bunch of snooty people. Second favorite would be anything caught fresh in the Gulf. I mean, you know, like fish. Jellyfish are out, as are driftwood and seagulls.

2) Least favorite would have to be fried corn. I can tolerate fried sweet corn that’s cooked from fresh kernels, but the plain old white creamed corn dumped into a skillet (mmm--just like Mom used to make) is loathsome and should not be served. Except maybe to the pigs. Makes ‘em good and tender. I am also not particularly fond of anything from inside of an animal that decent people would throw out rather than eat. Unless it’s made up into Vienna sausages, and then it’s okay.

3) This one’s hard, because despite any notion you might have based upon past readings, I actually do know how to cook, and I’m pretty good at it. I can fix just about anything, but if we’re talking real down-home food, I do make a mean pot of Hoppin’ John, with cornbread, and turnip greens.

NOW--all of you get to work and see what you come up with!
posted by Terry at 8:16:00 AM