Okay, the Yankees started this time!!

[Uncle Jesse]

It appears the NY Times has fired another shot at Southern cooking. At the end I think they will find themselves and a few skinny models standing alone without anything fit to eat.
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From the Fox News Network:

The New York Times has declared down home Southern cooking undignified in a story that heaped praise on a new generation of Southern chefs while denigrating fried chicken, Cracker Barrel restaurants and the Queen of Southern Food ? Paula Deen.

The food snobs at the Times attacked Miss Paula in the second sentence of their lengthy diatribe ? calling her a ?so-called queen of Southern food, who cooks with canned fruit and Crisco.?

The Times bemoaned the ?hayseed image? of Southern cooking while praising ?a new generation of chefs who have pushed Southern cooking into the vanguard of world cuisine.?

Their headline proclaimed ? ?Vanquishing the Colonel ? Farmers work with chefs to restore Southern cuisine?s dignity.?

You can read the entire story by clicking here. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/di...r=1&ref=dining


?Today, purists believe, Southern cooking is too often represented by its worst elements: feedlot hams, cheap fried chicken and chains like Cracker Barrel,? the Times whined.

Perhaps The New York Times should consider first restoring its own dignity before launching a crusade against shrimp and grits.

It seems to me that the ?so-called? queen of Southern cooking should fly up to New York City and take a cast iron skillet to the backside of the ?so-called? newspaper that printed such nonsense.

But Miss Paula is a genteel Southern lady and would probably just shake her head and say, ?Oh Lord, y?all.?

So as a proud son of the South, I believe it is my duty to defend the honor of our skillet fried chicken, our ham hocks and our sweet potato pies. Nobody speaks ill of butter and gets away with it.

For the record, I happen to have a Cracker Barrel rocking chair in my office at the Fox News Corner of the World ? along with several copies of Paula Deen?s cookbooks. That being said ? I?m really not quite sure why The New York Times felt compelled to launch a broadside against the traditional cuisine of the Southern states.

I?ll take a Cracker Barrel Meat Loaf sandwich and a slice of their Double Chocolate Fudge Coca Cola Cake any day of the week ? over the slop they serve at those five-star New York City restaurants.

Does The Old Gray Lady really want to pick a food fight with Alabama or Mississippi? There?s a reason why the Magnolia State is the plumpest in the nation ? it?s called banana pudding.

In New York City, they eat boiled animal tongues. In the South we use our tongues for licking our fingers.

Southerners eat buttermilk biscuits and sip frosty glasses of sweet tea. New Yorkers nosh bagels and drink seltzer water.

New Yorkers eat fermented soy and tuna tartar ? while folks in Tennessee eat fried catfish ? with tarter sauce.

As an expatriated Southerner living in Brooklyn, I?ve come to realize that this quest to redefine Southern cuisine has taken root in the Big Apple. Chefs who couldn?t succeed in Dixie have moved north to ply their trade. It?s a movement called, ?New Southern Cuisine.?

To be fair, I decided to visit one of those so-called ?New Southern Cuisine? restaurants the other day. To their credit,
they served sweet tea. But that?s about the only southern thing in the building.

The first item on the menu was ?Black-eyed Pea Hummus.?

I threw up a little inside my mouth.

The waiter brought my iced tea and suggested I try something they called ?Arugula Smear.?

I wasn?t sure if I was supposed to eat it or wipe it.

I paid for my sweet tea, went home and whipped up a batch of Miss Paula?s macaroni and cheese. And as I sat down at my table, I prayed this prayer:

?Dear Jesus, thank you for butter. Amen.?

So let this column be a warning to my fellow Southerners. Take up your cast iron skillets and prepare to defend our kitchens from the Yankee invaders. And let our rally cry be heard from the beaches of Biloxi to the mountains of Gatlinburg ? the only good chicken is a fried chicken.

So praise the Lord and pass the biscuits.

[ldice]

STAND UP!! Preach that word. Everything taste better in a little hot oil.

[randyflycaster]

I live in NYC and I don't seriously take anything the NYT prints.

Randy

[fishbum]

Three cheers for Uncle Jesse!!

It is not just southern cooking they are bashing but most of rural American cooking. How can you make a real pie crust with anything but LARD? What is better than going to the smoke house and cutting off a slice of home cured ham for breakfast? Not many real smoke houses left. What do those NY food goons think they are going to eat with fried bluegills? Oh wait, they will probably poach or broil their bluegills!!! Nope, not for me. Bluegills get fried and served with hushpuppies and a cold beer.

I'm done.

fishbum

[EdD]

I'm not really worried about the opinions of the New York Slimes. I am secure in my love of Real Food (tm) and know that it is readily available down here. Those poor columnists probably don't know the simple, but sincere, joy of hoppin' john and cornbread. They're probably the sort of folks who go on to rage and rail against Goo-goo clusters, Cheez-Its, okra pickles, and Spam. Just feel sorry for them, and feel free to have another Krispy Kreme before passing the box over to me.


Warmest regards from the well-fed South,
Ed

[PA Dave]

You've got to consider the source. I'm a yankee born-n-bred, but I'll take southern cooking over NYC cuisine any day of the week. And NYC has some incredibly good food...just not the same.

[DaveMac]

If it helps...I live in Massachusetts and had Southern Fried Chicken for dinner tonight

[eastprong]

The article is about Southerners trying to reinvent an uninspired and ultimately unhealthy cuisine. Or at least take it back to to its beginnings (in terms of quality, local ingredients) and twist it into something creative. Take note: the article talks about Southerners, not Yankees, doing this. Here's to guys like Sean Brock (a Virginian by birth, now in Charleston), who sends a truck up here to East Tennessee to get traditional Southern raw ingredients like Benton's hams/bacons, Sweetwater cheese, and local sourghum to turn into new creations. Bravo for guys like him!

I think the cast iron skillet should be taken to Paula Deen's ample backside, not that of the new breed of Southern cooks. Or the NYT for pointing it out.

--Rich

[NJTroutbum]

Yankee born and bred here as well.....but in the Northeast would probably be labelled as a "Hick"

Worked and visited NYC over the years, and what you will find up there is a conglomerate of dining establishments from "EVERYWHERE ELSE". With the only "NYC Touch" being the inflated prices. Pizza being the one anomoly that I can think of.

I love Cracker Barrel! And it's hard to beat corn fritters fried in Crisco and a Yuengling. You can keep your "Broiled Sprig of whatever, and 50cent-piece sized Medallion Steak" at $50 a plate. Maybe it goes better with a black turtle-neck, skinny jeans & a satchel? Wouldn't know!

[NewTyer 1]

I'm from Mass. also but, have lived in VA for the past 10 years. Heck, I married a girl from Alabama. I can say that I like most Southern style food but feel that they over cook their vegetables. Hell I have gained 60 lbs since I married my wife, eight years ago. Damn those biscuits and gravy