Snack maker Hunter Yerger has taken a cue from fellow Mississippian Elvis Presley in fusing two wildly disparate Southern traditions. Just as Elvis miraculously blended country pickin' with soul rhythms, Yeager is simultaneously feeding his region's collective sweet tooth and -- sacrilege alert -- cheese straw cravings.Cheese straws are revered south of the Mason-Dixon line, so we had to investigate. "We introduced the concept of the sweet straw," Yerger, owner of The Mississippi Cheese Straw Factory in Yazoo City. "We call it the 'cookie straw.'" The latest addition to the 18-year old company's line of pioneering sugary straws is the Elvis Peanut Butter Banana variety shown at right, a recipe commissioned by the official management team of the Elvis Presley Trust.
"They wanted to do a food product in a tin," Yerger explains. "And peanut butter banana just sounded like a natural for Elvis."
There was a time, when I was between the ages of 9 and 12, when I ate an entire Sara Lee Butter Pound Cake every week. In one night, by the way, with either ice cold milk or ice cold Pepsi (yeah, I like the combo). So I can understand The King's love of pound cake.
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