Susan Puckett - Eat Drink Delta: A Hungry Travelers Journey through the Soul of the South

EAT DRINK DELTA

A Hungry Travelers Journey through the Soul of the South

SUSAN PUCKETT PHOTOGRAPHS BY LANGDON CLAY

Publication of this work was made possible, in part, by a generous gift from the University of Georgia Press Friends Fund.

Excerpt in from Lanterns on the Levee, by William Alexander Percy, copyright 1941 by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House Inc. and renewed 1969 by LeRoy Pratt Percy. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. Other copyrights and acknowledgments appear on pages 27985, which constitute a continuation of this copyright page.

Map on page xvii by XNR Productions.

Langdon Clays photo on page vi is of Stevens Bar-B-Q in Greenwood.

Published by the University of Georgia Press

Athens, Georgia 30602

www.ugapress.org

2013 by Susan Puckett

Photographs 2013 by Langdon Clay

All rights reserved

Designed by Erin Kirk New

Set in New Century Schoolbook and Franklin Gothic

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

Manufactured in Korea for Pacom

17 16 15 14 13 P 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Puckett, Susan, 1956

Eat Drink Delta : A Hungry Travelers Journey through the Soul of the South / Susan Puckett ; Photographs by Langdon Clay. 1st [edition].

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8203-4425-6 (pbk.)

ISBN-10: 0-8203-4425-7 (paperback)

1. Cooking, AmericanLouisiana style. 2. Cooking, AmericanSouthern style. 3. Delta (Miss. : Region) Guidebooks. I. Clay, Langdon, 1949 II. Title.

TX715.2.L68P83 2013

641.5975dc23 2012022207

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

ISBN for digital edition: 978-0-8203-4493-5

I dedicate this book to the memory of my father, Jacob Charles Puckett, who instilled in me a deep appreciation for my Mississippi roots and the tastes and tales associated with them.

MANY PEOPLE contributed to the creation of this booka three-year endeavor with more unexpected twists and turns than the mighty Mississippi.

Ralph Ellis, my husband and soul mate, kept me on course with an ample supply of good humor, journalistic wisdom, and enthusiasm for tasting whatever bizarre combination of recipe tests I set before him. The gusto with which that proud North Carolinian devoured his first plate of Mississippi-made hot tamales was yet another reminder that this is the person with whom I wish to share eternity.

Nancy Puckett, my mother and number one cheerleader, has put up with more of my harebrained schemes than anyone. True to form, she leapt to my rescue whenever I needed kitchen help or fact-checking assistance, while keeping the dust bunnies at bay. I am one lucky daughter.

Angela Hederman set me on my food-writing path when she was my editor at the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger and generously supported me in realizing the dream of this book thirty years later. As founder of the Little Bookroom (www.littlebookroom.com) in New York, she brilliantly conceived the Terroir Guides series of culinary travelogues through the back roads of popular overseas destinations. I turned to these books frequently for inspiration in devising the geographic framework for Eat Drink Delta.

I thank Laura Sutton and Nicole Mitchell, former editor and director at the University of Georgia Press, respectively, for advocating for this books publication.

University of Georgia Press acquisitions editor Regan Huff deftly managed the mind-boggling array of moving parts required to get it to press, with a big hand from Sydney DuPre. John McLeod got the publicity rolling while designer Erin Kirk New artfully assembled the puzzle pieces into a beautiful and cohesive package.

Lisa Axelberg, who for many years copyedited the food section I oversaw at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, helped me distill my original 600-page monstrosity into a leaner and cleaner narrative. Sheri Castle, a cookbook author and exemplary cooking teacher well versed in southern cuisine, fine-tuned my recipes. Editors Jon Davies and Courtney Denney took meticulous and thoughtful care in polishing the final text.

I credit the following for helping me navigate the tricky territory where I gathered my material:

John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, emboldened me to stand up to naysayers warning me Id never find enough worthy places in the Delta to write about. He and fellow SFA staffers Mary Beth Lasseter and Amy Evans Streeter immediately quelled that concern with a long list of sources to get me started.

Carol Puckett, former president of the Viking Hospitality Group, graciously shared her institutional knowledge and also put me in touch with the ideal photographer for this assignment, Langdon Clay. I thank him not only for capturing the authenticity of the food and the context surrounding it but also for leading me to fascinating places and people I would have never found on my own.

Hank Hargrove, who first introduced me to Greenwood when we were students at Ole Miss, reacquainted me with the region and even some of our old classmates. He has remained a trusted resource I could always call on from afar.

Elizabeth Rahe, a travel writer and one of my dearest friends, guided me to Memphiss most authentic eateries and aided significantly with the research and reporting of that daunting chapter. When she wasnt able to personally drive me to my destinations, she loaned me her GPS, to which she had already loaded maps and addresses of every place I might want to go.