Tales from the Southland

I was in Auburn, AL again and sampled many wonderful Southern delicacies. I stopped at Roger’s in Hogansville, GA along the way and bought a quart of their mustard sauce to reveres engineer. For dinner the first night we ate at a fried seafood restaurant, Cock on the Walk; they actually have a live peacook. We had craw fish tales, lobster claws and cat fish. I also had turnip greens for the first time. Interesting, but I don’t expect to make them any time soon. I may try mustard greens, since they are supposed to be sweeter. We finished off the night with black berry cobbler.

I had sausage gravy and biscuits both days for breakfast. Their’s is much more creamy than mine, I supect that is because they don’t use skim milk. They also had less intense flavor, as compared to mine. So, the next time I make sausage gravy, I’ll use a little more fat and a little less spice.


The second night we ate at a fancy restaurant called the Amsterdam Café. We started with fried gouda cheese grits with grilled Cajun shrimp; the cheese grits here and at Cock in the Walk were much more creamer than mine. The main course was brisket and cheese grits with a pomegranate BBQ sauce (chopped point) and the dessert was homemade strawberry ice cream.

The important thing in all of this was that I learned that my cheese grits need work. I am told it is the type of grits that I am using . I told host that I was using Quaker grits, and after a few oatmeal jokes, he told me that I needed different grits; he brought me a five pound bag of his favorite brand. He is going to ship the sauce and grits to me.


He said after years of research, he figured out that it is 2 cups of water to ½ cup of grits. The oatmeal folks suggest 2 and ¼ cups. So maybe the jokes were warranted. As always, I’ll keep you posted on my progress.


Good on ya,

PS. I know I fell of the wagon and did not blog last week. I had written this one last week, just never got a around to posting it.