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Welcome to the Southern Foodways Alliance -- an institute
of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture with headquarters
at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi.
The Southern Foodways Alliance documents and celebrates the diverse food cultures of the American South. We set a common table where black and white, rich and poor -- all who gather-- may consider our history and our future in a spirit of reconciliation.
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The 5th Annual SFA Field Trip was to New Orleans. Dates
were July 7-10, 2005.
Fifth Southern Foodways Alliance Field Trip
Sweet Home New Orleans
July 7-10, 2005
For 2005, the Southern Foodways Alliance traveled south
to New Orleans, the papal city of Southern food. In keeping with the
SFA’s programming for 2005, we focused upon sugar and the sweet
life. We tasted rum, distilled from local molasses. Pralines, calas,
Creole cream cheese, bursting-at-the-seams peaches, and beignets,
too. We ate our fill in storied restaurants, among them Commander’s
Palace and Dooky Chase. We reveled in the culinary talents of chefs
like John Besh, Austin Leslie, and Susan Spicer. We sank our spoons
deep into bowls of bread pudding (spiked with a touch of Southern
Comfort) while listening to a historical deconstruction of the dish.
We paid homage to the men and women who have long toiled in Louisiana’s
cane fields. We explored the triangle trade between Europe, Africa,
and the Americas that defined this lovely littoral. Experiential learning
and great eating, that’s what we enjoyed.
Highlights of the Field Trip included:
Thursday | Cane Country Day Trip
40 lucky folks joined us as we barrel across the countryside, up and
over the bayous, through fields of golden sugarcane, bound for Abbeville,
New Iberia, and Breaux Bridge. We fortified for the journey with an
early morning breakfast from La Spiga Bakery. And then we’re
off: Stage plank cookies. And gateau de sirop, made with Steen’s
finest cane syrup. And a visit to Avery Island, home of Tabasco. We
had music and videos on the bus for the two hour trek, and we almost
had everyone home in time for the official opening event of the Field
Trip.
Thursday Night | A Sweet Taste of New Orleans
Celebration Distillation, the oldest premium rum distillery on the
U.S. mainland. We learned how they ferment and distill blackstrap
molasses and sugarcane for their Cane brand rum. What’s more,
we enjoyed a stunning taste of New Orleans food. Among the highlights
were smoked pork shoulder from Zydeque, with a barbecue sauce made
from cane syrup and cane vinegar; Vietnamese sugarcane shrimp from
Pho Tau Bay[;] seasonal vegetables from Lulu’s in the Garden;
black beans and rum from Pampy’s Creole Kitchen; vanilla-laquered
duck from Rio Mar; and smoked and fried quail salad from Bayona.
Did we mention desert? Hansen’s sno-balls, cotton
candy, Roman candy, and pralines. After that, you were on your own.
We recommended Rock-N-Bowl in Mid-City for zydeco or Vaughan’s
in the Bywater for jazz with Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers.
Friday | Eat and Drink and Learn
We began with calas and coffee, prepared by Poppy Tooker and her friends
at Slow Food New Orleans. And Creole cream cheese from Mauthe’s
Dairy. And blueberries and peaches from the Crescent City Farmers
Market. Then foodways scholar Jessica Harris, winner of the SFA’s
Jack Daniel Lifetime Achievement Award, sketched the history of sugar
in New Orleans.
Lunch was at Dooky Chase, home of Jack Daniel’s
Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Leah Chase. We enjoyed crab soup
and other great food. On hand to offer a short history of bread pudding
(and a taste of various styles from, among others, Palace Cafe) was
Rick Ellis, a historian of baked goods, and Susan Tucker, of the Newcomb
College Center for Research on Women.
After a bit of downtime, we gathered at the hotel for
a brief history of the cocktail and a Southern Comfort toast to our
host city. And then we were off (on foot, by streetcar, or in a cab)
to dinner at one of the restaurants listed in the registration form.
They knew we were coming. Many offered themed menus. All treated us
like kings and queens.
Saturday | Poker Games and Plantations
Everyone woke to coffee and beignets at the hotel. We dug a bit deeper
into sugar today. Michael Tisserand, author of Kingdom of Zydeco,
and Nick Spitzer, host of American Routes on Public Radio International,
discussed how life on sugarcane plantations gave birth to indigenous
music. And there was a panel on the future of sugar, moderated by
Elizabeth Pearce of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. Lunch was
a down-and-dirty feast of roast beef po-boys from Parkway Tavern,
crawfish and hot sausage po-boys from Vaucresson’s Sausage Company,
and muffulettas. On hand was Katherine Wahn from the New Orleans Po-Boy
Preservation Society.
We spent the afternoon at our own pace, ambling about
the city on the DISCUS Walking Tour and Ambulatory Poker Game. We
offered a roster of suggested stops, places like the Southern Food
and Beverage Museum (where the exhibit Tout de Sweet will be on display);
Lucullus, the culinary antique store; the African American Museum;
the Museum of the American Cocktail; used book stores that plan to
stock up on their culinary offerings; and air-conditioned boîtes
and bars where you may escape the heat. At various stops, you will
be offered a playing card. And at the close of our evening, we offered
a little something special to the holder of the best hand.
That night, we gather Restaurant August, jewel box home of chef John
Besh. A native of southern Louisiana and a graduate of the Culinary
Institute of America, Besh is one of the hottest hands in the New
Orleans restaurant scene. And he cooked just for us.
Sunday | Brunch in the Garden
We woke to coffee at the hotel and brunch at Commander’s Palace,
the Brennan family’s landmark Garden District restaurant. Chef
Tory McPhail was ready for us with a seasonal, sugar-themed menu.
Traditional jazz wafted through the room. Spirits were high.
Lodging
Accommodations were at the International House, just two blocks across
Canal Street from the French Quarter. This is the place to stay in
the city. Local craftsmen wrought the iron chandeliers that hang on
high. Local photographers shot the pictures that bedeck the walls.
Each room comes stocked with a CD player, and each player comes stocked
with discs by local jazz phenoms.
Our deeply discounted SFA-only room rate was $89 per
night. For a map to the hotel and other information, try www.ihhotel.com.
Cost for the Field Trip was ~$300. Primary Sponsors
were Southern Comfort and Tabasco.
Friday Night Dinner Options were:
- Brigtsen’s Set in a lovely Uptown shotgun,
Frank Brigtsen is renowned for his way with duck, rabbit, and local
fish.
- Bayona Nestled in a 200-year-old Creole cottage,
Susan Spicer’s French Quarter restaurant blends local ingredients
and global influences. Try the crawfish cannelloni.
- Cuvee This Creole-Continental restaurant is just
steps from the International House. Chef Ken Kringlie has won acclaim
for dishes like a napoleon of shrimp and mirliton.
- Emeril’s Flagship of the Emeril Lagasse
empire, this Warehouse District favorite lays down a mean barbecue
shrimp with rosemary biscuits.
- Gabrielle Tucked along Bayou St. John, Greg Sonnier’s
intimate restaurant features such delights as barbecue shrimp pie
and seared foie gras on a pig’s ear.
- Herbsaint Named for the distinctive liquor that
enlivens a Sazerac cocktail, Donald Link’s St. Charles Avenue
bistro is known for fried frog legs and shrimp-stuffed deviled eggs.
- Jacques-Imo’s Funky and always flavorful,
Jacques Leonardi’s Carrolton restaurant serves up reignited
Creole fare. Try Godzilla Meets Fried Green Tomatoes.
- New Orleans Grill (at the Windsor Court Hotel) Jonathan
Wright celebrates his luxe surroundings by way of dishes like roasted
duck with Louisiana peaches.
- Ralph’s on the Park New to the New Orleans
scene, Ralph’s overlooks historic city park. Vibrant local
produce figures prominently into Gerard Maras’s cooking.
Just so you will know who did all the work to make this
weekend rock: The Field Trip was imagined and executed by an all-volunteer
crew of our New Orleans SFA members. Among the effort’s stalwarts
were Lolis Eric Elie, Sara Roahen, Brett Anderson, Sarah O’Kelley,
Brooks Hamaker, Scott Simmons, Poppy Tooker, Liz Williams, Elizabeth
Pearce, Matt Konigsmark, Pableaux Johnson, Susan Tucker, and the Eversmeyer
family.
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Glory Foods
Glory Foods of Columbus, Ohio, is a manufacturer and distributor of conveniently
prepared, slow-simmered and seasoned Southern-style canned vegetables; frozen
entrees and side dishes; and fresh-cut bagged vegetables. All are inspired
by Southern recipes and traditions.
We support this field trip in honor of our company founder,
the late Bill Williams, who was committed to enhancing the presence of
African Americans in the food industry.
Jim ‘'N Nick's Bar B Q
Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q of Birmingham passionately believes that
Southern hospitality celebrated over a table of food, fresh from the
hickory pit and fresh from the garden, represent the very best in Southern
culture. Sharing that belief with you is what we love to do! Toward that
end, we are proud to be the lead underwriter of the SFA oral history
initiative.
Southern Progress
A leader in lifestyle information and products, Southern Progress
Corporation publishes Southern Living, Cooking Light, Health, Coastal
Living, Cottage Living, Southern Accents, Progressive Farmer, and Sunset magazines,
and books through Oxmoor House, Leisure Arts, and Sunset Books. Southern
Progress is a Birmingham-based subsidiary of Time Inc.
White Lily
For more than a century, White Lily, the premier miller of pure,
soft winter wheat, has supplied the cooks of the South with flour for
biscuits, cakes, and piecrusts. In 2003, we introduced a line of grits,
produced with the same attention to detail and heritage.
White Lily is committed to nurturing Southern food traditions
and welcomes the opportunity to partner, once again, with the Southern
Foodways Alliance.
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