Earl Hiers - Uncle Bubbas Savannah Seafood: More than 100 Down-Home Southern Recipes for Good Food and Good Times

SIMON & SCHUSTER
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www.SimonandSchuster.com Copyright 2007 by Earl W. Hiers, Jr. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. S IMON & S CHUSTER and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Food photography Alan Richardson Food stylist: Michael Pederson Prop stylist: Deborah E. Donahue Photographs: page ii Christine Hall, page x Russ Bryant, and unless otherwise noted, all other photographs are from the authors personal collection and are used with permission.

Frontispiece (p.ii): From left, top, Trevor and Jay; Ian, Dawn, Bubba, and Corrie. For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-800-456-6798 or business@simonandschuster.com. Designed by Joel Avirom, Jason Snyder, and Meghan Day Healey Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Heirs, Earl W. Uncle Bubbas Savannah Seafood / Earl W. Hiers.1st American hardcover. cm. 1. 1.

Cookery (Seafood) 2. Cookery, AmericanSouthern Style. 3. Uncle Bubbas Seafood and Oyster House. I. Title.

TX747.H5278 2007 641.69dc22 2006038587 ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-9283-2
e-ISBN: 978-1-43910-342-5 ISBN-10: 0-7432-9283-9 Hey, yall, this is especially for my big sister, Paula Hiers Deen.

I couldnt have done it all without recipes given to me by my Aunt Trina Bearden and Aunt Glennis Hiers. Others whose recipes I love are Betty Archer, Amy Beaver, Bo Beaver, Kathy and Buddy Bethea, Deane Brown, Robin Dermer, Jill Hiers, Susan Greene, Lisa Jackson, Ineata Jellyroll Jones, Kathy Kueker, Sheila Kueker, Joanne Lair, Beth OBrien, and Virginia Robertson. Polly Powers Stramm, who has been writing professionally for thirty years, sat down with me and helped me organize my thoughts and put them on paper. Polly and I worked closely with good cook Ashley Strickland, who tested and fine-tuned the recipes that Ive collected through the years. A million thanks to my literary agent, Janis Donnaud, and Simon & Schuster editor Sydny Miner, who shepherded me through the process from the early days on to the end when the book went to print. Thanks also to folks like Sydnys asistant Michelle Rorke, design director Linda Dingler and designer Joel Avirom, art director Jackie Seow and photographer Alan Richardson for the cover and food photography, copyeditors Suzanne Fass and Mara Lurie; as well as publisher David Rosenthal, associate publishers Eileen Boyle and Deborah Darrock, and publicists Tracey Guest and Julia Prosser.

My Aunt Peggy Ort has looked out for me all my life and even more so after Mama and Daddy died. When she heard I was doing this book, she spent hours going through family photos and recipes. She also jotted down helpful kitchen tips from newspaper and magazine articles that she clipped and saved over a lifetime. Obviously, I wouldnt be where I am today without my big sister, Paula Hiers Deen, who has paved the way for me in every sense of the word. Without Paulas support, sensible advice, and unconditional love, Id probably be a lost soul. I can also say the same about my nephews, Bobby and Jamie Deen, who are like my brothers.

My children, Jay and Corrie, mean the world to me and always have. Im particularly thankful that I found a wonderful woman like my wife, Dawn, who has two fine sons, Iaen and Trevor, who make our family complete.

When children lose their parents at an early age, they tend to grow even closer, and thats what happened with Bubba and me. By the time I was 23, I was already grown and married and starting my own family, so when Mama and Daddy died, it was just natural that Bubba, who was still a teenager, would come and live with us. Little Paula and Baby Bubba Food was always the glue that held our family together, and that is still true to this day. Through good times and bad, we have managed to find a way to gather at the supper table, and bow our heads and count our blessings. When I started my first restaurant with Jamie and Bobby, I dreamed that someday my boys and I would find a way to drag Bubba into the business with us. And anybody who knows Paula Deen knows that when I make up my mind about something, you just better give up and give in! It took some doing, but finally Bubba sold his successful landscaping company in Albany and moved to Savannah to lend us his much-needed expertise in business matters.

With The Lady & Sons restaurant about to bust out of our original building, Bubba helped us take on the enormous challenge of buying and renovating a building at Whitaker and Congress streets in downtown Savannah. Suddenly, we went from a 90-seat restaurant to a 15,000-square-foot operation that serves 1,500 to 2,000 meals a day, seven days a week. Bitten by the restaurant bug, Bubba was itching to get started on a place of his own when I came up with the crazy notion of opening a seafood restaurant. By a stroke of good luck, we found a beautiful building with a drop-dead view of Georgias famous coastal marshes. And thats how Uncle Bubbas Oyster House was born. My precious baby brother couldnt be prouder of his new restaurant, and I couldnt be prouder of him.