Five Things I Missed Most About Louisiana

By Rod Dreher • August 3, 2012, 10:17 AM

My friend James Fox-Smith of the very fine magazine Country Roads asked me for a short list of five things I missed the most about home during the many years I lived away from south Louisiana. Here’s what I told him. Excerpt:

GREENS CULTURE

Once, heating my lunch up in a newsroom cafeteria, a black co-worker from Indiana grabbed me by the arm. ”Are those greens?” she said, amazed. “Yes,” I said, “mustards.” “I didn’t know white people ate those!” she responded. And then we had a conversation about greens culture and the South. This made me reflect later on how being a Southerner is a cultural bond that transcends racial division. And it made me reflect on how, with the possible exception of his jambalaya, no meal made me happier when I came home than a mess of my dad’s mustards or turnips, and a wedge of my mom’s cornbread to sop up the pot liquor.

Posted in A Sense of Place, Louisiana, The South. Tagged Country Roads, greens, James Fox-Smith.

17 Responses to Five Things I Missed Most About Louisiana

Erin Manning says:

August 3, 2012 at 10:41 am

My husband Thad, who spent most of his childhood in North Carolina, totally agrees on the storm thing. The last time a hurricane had a credible chance of making a Texas landfall he bought so much bottled water that visiting relatives teased him about the “wall of water” in our kitchen. And so far he’s been disappointed (yes, disappointed when we don’t have hurricanes or closer tornadoes–he was downtown during the Fort Worth one and narrowly missed being outside during that one–or ice storms etc.) I keep telling people that someday our retirement plans will be: storm chasers. They think I’m kidding…

Anyway, if we’re ever in your part of the country and bad weather threatens, we’ll come for a storm-related gumbo party. We’ll bring the bottled water, the ham radios, and a general air of bonhomie that will only dissipate (on Thad’s part) if the storm does.
KateLE says:

August 3, 2012 at 10:53 am

There’s a small family restaurant in Washington, NC that does amazing shrimp’n'grits. Wish I could remember the name.
DeeAnn says:

August 3, 2012 at 11:03 am

Ah, pot liquor. I haven’t heard that term in years. You just brought back childhood memories of my grandmother (who passed away in 1980) and her kitchen in central Florida. Thanks!
Liam says:

August 3, 2012 at 11:17 am

Thank you for avoiding the faux-folksy, potlikker….

I am not a fan of mustard-family greens (though I do like baby turnip greens), sad to say, but being a cabbage lover I adore collard greens, have even grown them way up here north of Boston. Can’t wait till they start showing up at the farmer’s markets (along with brussels sprouts – which, like so many brassics, are best enjoyed as soon after harvest as possible, though collards and kales are more forgiving). Kale is OK (especially the Italian kinds, less so the frilly kind), but collards are just so delicious and versatile. While I do braise them up right, I also like to slice them up and add to to soup in the last 10 minutes of cooking and let them finish off-heat; contrary to popular understanding, collards don’t HAVE to be cooked a long time, it’s just that they CAN be so cooked rather happily.
Sands says:

August 3, 2012 at 11:26 am

Ha. This reminds of a friend of mine who lived in New Jersey for a few years before getting back here to God ‘s country. He had to find soul food restaurants in black neighborhoods to get the kind of food we all eat here. They were the only places with greens and blackeyed peas cooked with ham hocks.

How sad American cousine would be without the South.
BradleyP says:

August 3, 2012 at 11:28 am

I love collards cooked al dente. Saute briefly in oil, garlic, and ginger. Deglaze with soy sauce. Add a cup or two of water and simmer for about 30-45 minutes.

If desperate, canned mustards ain’t bad, but you need the whole can.
Sands says:

August 3, 2012 at 11:32 am

Of course that should be ‘cuisine.’
Mont D. Law says:

August 3, 2012 at 12:04 pm

Greens culture is the culture of poverty, like all eating low on the hog. In Canada it’s beet greens, which I love.

I live in one of those scary vibrant neighbourhoods. You would be just amazed at what these cultures can produce. Ethiopians, Koreans and South Asians do awesome things with stuff that would make you seriously gag.
Saint Andeol says:

August 3, 2012 at 12:08 pm

Rod, I’m afraid I’m going to have to fail you for your choice of excerpts, seeing as how your list included this:

“Dadgum, I was all excited about our town having its own drag queen, and then she had to go get mixed up in that jewel thief business.”
Nickp says:

August 3, 2012 at 12:48 pm

I have lived in North Carolina about 15 years now, and as far as I can tell, storms activate the French Toast instinct among native Tarheels. As soon as bad weather is forecast, the supermarkets run out of milk, bread, and eggs. I just can’t figure out why, if you are expecting your electricity to go out for a prolonged period, you would rush out and buy perishables. Must be part of that Mysterious South thingy.
stillaninterestedobserver says:

August 3, 2012 at 1:20 pm

Been appreciating greens in recent years much more than ever — not coincidentally, when I finally got serious about home cooking. Chard, kale, collard, and turnip greens, all lovely. Oddly enough, the most popular post on my personal blog ever was on carrot greens — and I’m happy to have helped spread that word.
Niall says:

August 3, 2012 at 4:45 pm

“Dadgum, I was all excited about our town having its own drag queen, and then she had to go get mixed up in that jewel thief business.”

I think we’d all like to hear more of this story…
Erin Manning says:

August 3, 2012 at 5:02 pm

Oh, gosh, Nickp! I had forgotten that, but you’re right–I remember being mystified by that when I lived in Charlotte, too! Luckily my husband experienced Hurricane Hugo and learned that you want canned goods and snack foods, flashlights and batteries, and bottled water, not milk, bread, and eggs, during a storm–but we definitely remember the run on milk and eggs and bread anytime bad weather was forecast. I never thought of the French Toast thing–maybe the phrase French Toast Survivalist will one day refer universally to people who rush out to stock up on perishables during bad weather or other apocalypse-light events.
scott says:

August 3, 2012 at 6:27 pm

Can’t remember the product name but that hot and spicy Louisiana vinegar is fantastic on any kind of greens. Can’t believe no readers mentioned it!
Peterk says:

August 3, 2012 at 8:07 pm

Nickp the same thing happens here in Richmond Va. never saw such when I lived in Houston. but in RIC if a big hurrycane or snowstorm is announced as heading out way bread, milk and eggs are all gone lickety-split
Monterey says:

August 3, 2012 at 10:03 pm

Rod, this little exchange you had with the fellow employee about what you love about the south reminds me why it’s so annoying that the Left is always ragging on the south–as if everyone who lives there is some toothless troglodyte.
Siarlys Jenkins says:

August 5, 2012 at 10:30 pm

What people up north call “soul food” is what people down south call “dinner.” Most of the idioms and idiosyncracies that make black people seem a bit strange to northern Anglos and quasi-Anglicized immigrants are really southern.