SG | It has taken me 40 years to admit this — or maybe not so much admit as to simply realize a fact — but I can't really figure out barbecue. More specifically, the sauce. If I had grown up in North Carolina, it would be all too clear: I would either foster a... Continue Reading →
SG | There is something undeniably satisfying about a sausage biscuit. For one, it unifies two distinct but delicious components of a well-rounded breakfast plate, saving both time and effort. I like to think the sausage biscuit as we know it today was born of this convenience one pre-dawn morning in a warm, Southern farm... Continue Reading →
CG | What is “The South” – capital T, capital S – and how do you know when you’re there? Elsewhere on the blog, we’ve talked about the “Pine Straw Line,” and I’ve heard low rumblings in regards to a “Sweet Tea Line,” but surely one of the truest indicators of Southerness can be found... Continue Reading →
SG | Fall in the North Carolina Piedmont comes on fast, and the leaves are usually falling before I first notice their color. It is lovely, if fleeting, but I've been spoiled. Spoiled by a fall in Asheville many years back. I have since failed to time a trip to Western North Carolina to coincide... Continue Reading →
SG | I recently read an essay by a nervous Southern transplant to California. I believe he was from Georgia. (I would love to link to it, though it's been lost to the perpetual scroll of my browser window.) Said Southerner was doing quite a bit of hand-wringing over a perceived erosion in his accent.... Continue Reading →
SG | The other day I rounded the corner to the front yard to find my five-year old daughter determinedly sizing up a Japanese maple tree. She had her climbing shoes on — that is, any foot covering ranging from flip-flops to rain boots. “Daddy, can you clear this tree for me?” she asked, matter-of-factly.... Continue Reading →
SG | Somewhere along the line, I began judging restaurants by the quality of their sides. Anyone can do a meat or a main course, I figure, but to really nail that side of asparagus and make it memorable in its own right? That takes skill. This belief truly took hold in a Nepalese restaurant... Continue Reading →
CG | David Lowery once posited that "There is nothing in this world more bitter than spring," but I'd counter that with a look at the long, grey, bone-chilling monotony of a Southern February. Let's dig in to our winter playlist and see if we can warm things up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD6mUFcG4DY "Two Winters Long" Irma Thomas... Continue Reading →
CG | Christmas in the South is a strange critter. The traditional imagery of a be-snowflaked holiday wonderland — peopled with rosy-cheeked carolers, horse-drawn sleighs, and lovable scamps bundled up for a snowball fight in a Rockwellian backdrop of evergreens and capacious snowmen — simply doesn’t square with the reality of December in the South. Ours is... Continue Reading →
