As any true blue Yankee can tell you, people in the South eat some weird crap.
No trip into old Confederate country is complete without a tour of abandoned plantations and a feast of foods that no self respecting northerner would have any idea how to prepare. You haven’t really experienced The South until you’ve tasted the local cuisine.
6 Southern Foods You Have To At Least Attempt To Eat When You’re Traveling Down South
6. Fried Green Tomatoes.
Fried Green Tomatoes in the South
Start off easy. Green tomatoes are fairly bland. I’m almost positive the only reason Southerners fry green tomatoes as opposed to normal, orange to red ripe tomatoes is because they are harder and hold up better to the frying. In fact, feel free to use that as a fun fact at parties. I’m pretty sure it’s true.
The taste experience is going to come from the batter and whatever you get to dip it in. If you’ve eaten any kind of fried vegetable (think fried cauliflower especially), you’re not in for a big culinary shocker here. You are, however, going to gain street cred with your friends back home the next that movie with Kathy Bates comes on TNT.
5. Boiled Peanuts
Boiled Peanuts - doesn't that look good?
If you’re one of those people who sucks on the peanut shells and throws away the inside nut because you don’t like the nutty flavor, boiled peanuts are perfect for you. Also? You are not weird. Other people do that too!
Boiling the peanut makes the inside kind of soft and buttery. A boiled peanut tastes very much like a boiled potato. But shrunken and slightly more salty. You still have to spit out the shells, which makes for just as charming table behavior as the unboiled variety. (Read: for God’s sake, don’t order these on a first date.)
4. Southern BBQ – Ribs
Southern Barbeque - Ribs and side salads
Yeah, OK. You have barbeque in the north. Kind of. But you haven’t really eaten barbeque until you’ve had it made by people who dig holes in their backyards and stick the meat on sticks over those holes. Northerners do not build homemade pits in their backyards. Northerners buy grills and slow cookers and bottles of barbeque sauce from the grocery store. I think Southerners are just laid back enough to sit and watch meat cook for two days.
Listen. You go down South, you eat barbeque. And you eat it in a barbeque joint. That’s just the way it is.
3. Cheese Biscuits
Cheesy Biscuits or Cheese Biscuits or Nirvana
Two months ago I didn’t even know there was such a thing as Cheese Biscuits, and now I’m declaring them number 3 on the list of things you have to eat when you’re in the South. They are that good.
No. They are better than good. God is good. These are the perfect marriage of bread and cheese and awesome and heaven and a little dash of something almost resembling corn bread. I don’t even like cornbread, and I would trade you my first born for a lifetime supply of these babies.
The only place I’ve seen these served is in a barbeque joint. Now you have two reasons to go.
2. Shrimp and Grits
Shrimp and Grits. It doesn't get much more southern than that.
Northerners like to giggle about Southerners eating grits. Most of them don’t even realize that there is such a thing as Shrimp and Grits, or how integral it is to the southern diet. In other words, you’ll sound very seasoned and cool when you go home and tell your friends that you had Shrimp and Grits for breakfast, lunch and dinner while you were down South.
However, before you order your first dish of Shrimp and Grits, you should know that Southerners like to go a little crazy with a plate of grits. They’ll throw damn near anything in with it. If you’re ordering at a restaurant, read the menu carefully so you know everything that’s being tossed into your meal. And don’t be afraid to ask to have something excluded.
In fact, I recommend you hold the brown gravy. Order it on the side if you want to try it out, but you’ll want to taste test your shrimp and grits concoction without the brown sauce that some places drown them in. The gravy can be a little overpowering (and nasty, if you ask me).
And now… for our finale… the number one food you have to eat when you’re in the south…
DRUMROLL PLEASE…..
1. Fried Oysters!
FRIED OYSTERS! MMMMMM!
That’s right, ladies and gentleman. As the dear, sweet waitress that works the weekend afternoon shifts at Hyman’s Seafood in Charleston will tell you, “Fried oysters is a very Southern thing. It doesn’t get much more local than that. And we just love ‘em down here. They’re mah favorite. I eat ‘em every day!”
You cannot say you have eaten southern cuisine until you’ve enjoyed an entire plate of fried oysters. And if you’d like to go crazy southern, splatter those puppies with hot sauce!
Take a big mouthful of fried oysters!
You can be confident knowing that you’ve got the recommendation of a real southern waitress and an authentic travel blogger who has experienced this unique fried food first hand! Go ahead. Dive in!
And then you can tell everyone you’ve eaten real southern food.
You’re welcome.
Pictures by Britt Reints and Becky Zigmond.
Brave display of culinary experimentation by Britt Reints.
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