Southern wine. Photo: Amy C. Evans, flickr

Even in Louisville, Ky., a betting town where success is measured in wins, places and shows, few gamblers would have bet that master sommelier study partners Brett Davis and Scott Harper would pass their diploma exam on the same day.

The local boys defied the odds by becoming the only two test-takers out of 38 to pass the prestigious test last month, making them the first master sommeliers in the state of Kentucky. Harper's workplace, the Bristol Bar and Grille, will fete their achievement at a wine dinner next week.

With fewer than 200 wine professionals worldwide having earned the master sommelier title since it was established 30 years ago, two friends holding matching diplomas counts as a curiosity. Earning those diplomas at the same time is considered extraordinary.

"It's very unusual, very rare," confirms Davis, who's in the wine import business.

In this month's issue of GQ magazine, food guru Alan Richman took a glossy, 8-page look at the food of New Orleans post-Katrina. The idea sounds like a good one, so why is the article so controversial? The problem is that the piece was not gushing, not exactly sentimental and, in parts, not accurate about the city and its food.

To date, the vast majority of the pieces about New Orleans have been stories of survival and of working to restore the city to its former state. People rebuild their homes and lives. Restaurants struggle to clean up, reopen and attract customers. Richman writes some about the touching, uplifting parts and the grassroots movements of people to get their lives back in order, but does not write exclusively about the uplifting parts, in fact stating that "New Orleans shouldn't exist," referring to it below-sea level elevation right on a vulnerable coastline. In another controversial assertion, he says that Cajuns originated in Canada, which is true, contrary to what some of his critics have said. However, Richman also states that he doesn't think Creoles ever really existed, but the term applied to a definite and large group of people in the city. He explains his position in the GQ podcast, by the way.

There is no doubt that Matt and Ted Lee, the authors of The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook are from the South. Putting the title of the book aside, their warmth and generosity are made very clear to the reader as soon as you begin to flip though the pages. And that is exactly the kind of feeling that draws people in to a cookbook and makes you want to try some of the recipes right away.

The book starts out by telling you a story about a quest for boiled peanuts in New York City and how two educated, but homesick, young Southerners turned to food in order to share the food and love of food that they grew up with. Had it been lengthened with a bit more detail, the introduction would have made an excellent book all on its own, but as it stands, the introduction feeds right into the recipes, which seem to all be classic Southern favorites, not approximations of them. They include: Boiled Peanuts (of course), Watermelon Rind Preserves, more than ten grits recipes, City Ham Steak with Red-Eye Gravy. Chicken Fried Steak, Clover Peach Fried Pie, pralines, hush puppies and biscuits. The book is 600 pages long, so you'll have to put in the time exploring the rest of the recipes yourself.

You'll also find sources for specialty ingredients, more stories and the histories attached to old and new Southern staples. And if you try some of the recipes out at home, you may just end up with some of your own stories to add.

Most cookbooks on Amazon have just a handful of reviews, but The Lady & Sons Just Desserts has over 20, a testament to people's love of Paula Deen and of Southern desserts. It is a volume of classic Southern favorites, like Chess Pie, and desserts that are now well-known to many as Paula Deen's, regardless of whether they originated with her or not, like Gooey Butter Cake and butter. Oh, is butter not a dessert?

The recipes range from relatively complex to simple, with a fair few starting off with a box of cake mix, and all the instructions are very straightforward, so it is perfect for a beginner or for someone who simply doesn't bake too much and still loves the idea of something homemade when they do. If you like Paula's easy, charming style and want to impress (or fatten) your friends and relatives without trying too hard, this book will definitely get you there.

The whole concept of Nathalie Dupree's Shrimp and Grits originated with one dish: shrimp and grits, a breakfast dish that is popular in South Carolina. The combination is delicious, but the elements are so versatile that you could order the dish in one hundred diners and get it one hundred different ways. The book doesn't focus only on the ways to prepare this one dish, but it does take the ingredients and showcase exactly how many different ways they can be used. The author shares tips on preparing shrimp and cooking grits to perfection. Variations on the main dish include BLT Shrimp and Grits and a Cheese Grits Soufflé with Shrimp Sauce. If you're looking for something a little different, there are also recipes for things like crackers and desserts - Peach and Grits Cobbler, anyone?

Nathalie Dupree is a great resource for Southern cooking and Southern recipes, with more than 10 cookbooks to her name. If you're already a fan, you can actually order an autographed copy of this book on her website.

If you like to read cookbooks instead of simply using them as a reference book, books that have a real setting are often a more interesting choice. Cultural references and stories help to place the recipes, giving you a sense that you know where they're from and what the people who enjoy the dish are like. Some authors have difficulty finding a middle ground between recipes and story, but the ones who can produce great books. The Boathouse: Tales and Recipes from a Southern Kitchen is a book that blends these two techniques, focusing on the blending of culture and cuisine where the residents of the South Carolina low country (Charleston) and the North Carolina highlands meet. There are more than 80 recipes in the book, ranging from simple Shrimp Paste Sandwiches to a decadent Chocolate Praline Charlotte with Butterscotch Sauce. The book will definitely give you a taste of the South - whether you actually prepare the recipes, or just read about them.

CalorieLab has just released a list of the fattest states in the country for 2006. Their research reveals that Mississippi is the fattest state, where approximately 29.5% of the population is obese based on a three year statistical average. If the statistics are extended to include the overweight population, as well as those who are obese, the results show that over 2/3 (67.3%) of the state's residents are either overweight or obese; Mississippi is the only state to have that dubious honor. Following close behind in the obesity count are Alabama, West Virginia, Louisiana and Kentucky. Colorado is the leanest state, followed in no particular order by Hawaii, Montana and a handful of the New England states.

The data was gathered from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System database from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which reveals some very interesting information about some of the factors that contribute to obesity, such as diet, nutrition and physical activity levels. For example, only 16% of adults in Mississippi eat the recommended 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, compared to 29% in California and 30% in Vermont.

Fruit and vegetable intake is not going to turn the tide against obesity, especially considering that every state except one (Nevada) saw an increase in the percentage of the obese population over the last year. Diet does, however, play a large role in health and gradual changes in daily eating habits, as well as physical activity patterns, could change some of these numbers over time.

I can only think of a few food products that sound less appetizing than pork brains in milk gravy - fermented shark springs to mind - but this is certainly near the bottom of the list. The interesting thing to note about this product is its nutritional information. One can, which is about 2/3 cup, has only 150 calories and 5 grams of fat. It also has 3,500mg of  cholesterol, which is 1170% of the recommended daily allowance. Yikes!

The weirdest thing about this cardiologist's nightmare of a product is that there must be enough demand to justify canning it. According to this article, it's not uncommon in the South, but it also says that it tastes pretty nasty. I have to ask: is anyone really eating this stuff?

[via A Full Belly]

Sonya Thomas, a.k.a. "the Black Widow," has just set a new record in her chosen sport of competitive eating. Yesterday, at a competition during the 16th Annual Virginia State Harley Davidson Owners Group Rally, Thomas ate 60 ham biscuits in 8 minutes, beating out 11 other competitors.

A ham biscuit is a simple, popular Southern snack that consists of a fluffy biscuit, split in half, and filled with ham and butter. The biscuits used in the competition look more like hamburger buns than real Southern biscuits, but that might have made them easier to eat, since the "gurgitators" dunk them in water to soften them up and make chewing easier.

Sonya has another trick to help her get the food down, which is hopping up and down during the final moments of the competition. You can read her account on her website.

What Fried How?

"I could really go for some chicken fried chicken right now."

"Huh?"

"You know!  Chicken fried chicken."

I recently had this exchange exact with Hannah Pandolph, a Texan friend of mine.  You can guess who said the incredulous "huh?"  Even us Yankees love and indulge in fried chicken, but chicken fried chicken?  How is a chicken fried any way other than in the manner of a chicken?

"There's also chicken friend steak," Hannah piped.

There is a reason why Frank Bruni drove through the South and not, say, Montana, on his hunt for the best fast food in the country. It is because there is more fast food eaten in the South than in any other part of the country.

According to Scarborough Research (pdf), while the average American adult eats fast food about 5.2 times per month, residents of Birmingham, Alabama dine at fast food restaurants 6.5 times per month. Given that the examples used by the research firm were McDonald's and Subway, it seems likely that they only included major chain restaurants in their survey, too. Rounding out the top five for fast food consumption were Louisville, KY; Austin. TX; Memphis, TN and Raleigh, NC, ranging from 6.4-6.2 average visits.

The company also looked at the cities in which "sit-down" quick service restaurants, like Applebee's or TGI Friday's, were frequented. Orlando, Florida came out on top, with 4.5 visits per month. The other top cities included Cincinnati, OH; Fort Meyers, FL; Tampa, FL and Atlanta, GA.

Cities like Syracuse, NY and Philadelphia, PA were towards the bottom of the fast food visit rankings, with only 4 visits per adult per month, and Honolulu, HI, Buffalo, NY and Spokane, WA had the fewest "sit-down" visits, at 3, 2.9 and 2.5, respectively.

I was talking to tea-dom's own Emily Thomas about how I loved the weird iced tea she'd made, and to explain the difference between it and mere Snapple. Emily did her impression of Dolly Parton as Truvy Jones in Steel Magnolias exclaiming, "Sweet tea! It's the house wine of the South!"  I shrank back in horror, but then realizing her Dolly impression was over, made a gesture for her to please continue.

"When, I look back on any given memory of my childhood in Florence, South Carolina ," she began, "my mother always seems to appear out of nowhere to refill all of our glasses with sweet iced tea. We drank it more than we drank water.

"This did not seem strange to me until I moved to New York. I ordered sweet tea in a restaurant and the waitress gave me a funny look and said, 'We don't have sweet tea. We have tea and we have sugar.'