gifts from the south
Just the other day, I received some gifts from a far away land. My friend Christopher is in graduate school all the way down in Alabama and was nice enough to endow our new kitchen in San Francisco with some Southern culinary secrets.
White Lily Flour: Apparently, this is the flour widely known in the South for making their one-of-a-kind biscuits. Any southern Grandma worth her bridge mix knows that the lightest and flakiest biscuits are made with White Lily flour. Even my friend Tim’s Georgian MeMa (that’s Southern speak for Grandma) swears by it. I have yet to investigate firsthand the widely asserted claims that White Lily holds the secret to a perfect biscuit, but I imagine it’s true. And as we all know, MeMas are rarely wrong.
Cajun Chef Tabasco Peppers: According to my Californian-turned-Southern-gentleman friend, this stuff is tasty. He says you’re supposed to leave the peppers in the bottle and use the infused vinegar they are soaking in to spice up your meal. The vinegar is a radioactive florescent yellow color so I am thinking this stuff is probably pretty spicy. Also, it’s made in Louisiana so I am hoping Emeril has something to do with it. BAM!
Duke’s Mayonnaise: Now, I know what you are thinking. Why did my dear friend bring me mayonnaise. Well, because this isn’t just any ordinary mayonnaise my friends. I am by no means a mayo-ficionado (see what I did there?), but I have been known to enjoy some smooth and fatty goodness on a turkey sandwich or in a deviled egg just like anyone else. However, this mayonnaise in particular is exceptional. I should know—I ate a spoonful to make sure it was worthy of all the hype and I promise it is. However, this stuff is hard to find outside The South and the East Coast, and as you can seen here it’s hardly available anywhere west of the Mississippi. I guess the people at Duke’s aren’t fans of sharing, or blondes, or surfing, or states with corners. But lucky for me, I have a friend on the inside, a mayonnaise smuggler of sorts. And little do they know, he is from California (GASP!) and totally blonde (SHRIEK!).
