I've always wanted to throw my own pig pickin,' and my departure from North Carolina finally gave me an excuse. So I went for it - whole hog, if you will, earlier this spring.

A pig pickin,' known in other parts of the country as a hog roast, or simply, a barbecue, is a Carolina tradition involving a hog, a converted oil drum cooker and a lot of time.

Pickin' (ALWAYS drop the 'g') have been a stable of church fundraisers, family reunions and political rallies in the South since long before the Civil War, as pork was always much cheaper than beef. You can't feed 100 people much more cheaply than with a nice hog and all the fixin's - baked beans, hush puppies, slaw and sweet tea.

Gallery: Pig Pickin'

What is it about Southerners and coconut cake? Maybe the thick drifts of ivory icing remind us of the snow we don't get. Maybe the lacy curls of coconut call to mind the frilled white gowns at the debutante balls we're (still, seriously) so fond of.

Though, in what's perhaps a sign of the changin' times in the New South, the best "classic Southern" coconut cake I've ever tasted was from a Thai restaurant near where I grew up in Durham, North Carolina.

I adore the looks of this Southern coconut cake from Big City, Little Kitchen, adapted from Gourmet Magazine. So light and soft. I'd like to make this on a Sunday afternoon and take a fat slice out to the veranda with a good book. If I had a veranda.

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.

Grits, or hominy grits, are made from corn kernels dried on the cob, removed, and soaked in a solution of baking soda, lime or wood ash. The kernels are then dehulled from the hominy. There is a do-it-yourself process from Mountain Laurel in case you venture to try a grits dish and want to give it whirl in the kitchen. Watch the lye solution ... I've made soap this way and you wouldn't want any going down the gully.

I'd like to see grits incorporated into recipes considered traditionally Northern: any rice/meat combo that doesn't involve shrimp: souffles, tabuli, any rice dish. Still, pork-laced red beans and grits, Andouille (a Louisiana sausage) and grits, creamed spinach and grits ... I feel like the shrimp boat guy in 'Forest Gump.' Seriously, check out the grit scene. And if there isn't one around you, start asking hosts/hostesses to pass along the request to management at your eats joints.

If this picture doesn't look like the epitome of homestyle diner food, I don't know what does. The basket of cornbread looks like exactly the sort of thing you'd expect to see on the table at a place that serves really good fried chicken. The picture was taken at a Harlem restaurant called Amy Ruth's, which is known for their fried chicken and waffles, by The Girl Who Ate Everything. She describes it as being very tasty, as well as "fluffy, light, tender and moist enough not to be classified as 'dry'" and it was, in fact, served up just before she and her dining companion tucked into plates of fried chicken, fried okra and mac and cheese. It's more of a Northern-style cornbread than a Southern one, but if it tastes even half as good as it looks, I don't think that too many fried chicken fans will complain if they get this as a side dish.

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.

Recently, I was struck with a rare craving for a bowl of grits, boiled on the stove the way they do in diners below the Mason-Dixon line, with some butter and salt and pepper. Bargain-savvy as I am, I decided to buy the economy-sized tub of Quaker quick grits, rather than the smaller, less cost-effective box. Proud of myself for figuring out such a great deal, I trotted home with grits in tow and cooked myself a bowl.

I had eaten a bowl of grits for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and breakfast again when I realized that I was stuck with the rest of this huge tub, and that there was no way I could stomach any more of the mushy grains. I forgot, I hate grits!

I'm the type of guy who can't throw stuff away so I needed a way to spruce these grits. And who better to consult than my raised-in-the-South assistant, Emily. 

 "Emily... fix my grits?" I pleaded.

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.

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.

When I was growing up in California, I noticed that chicken-fried steak seemed to be a popular item on school lunch menus and in dormitory dining halls. I never actually knew what it was, so I never ordered it. Was it really chicken? Was it steak? Every time I came across it, it was round, flat and breaded, with what appeared to be dark-colored meat inside. The "steak" also never looked appetizing.

As it turns out, chicken-fried steak is a variant of schnitzel. It is popular in the Southern US, perhaps especially in Texas. The dish is a cut of beef that is pounded until very thin, breaded and fried. The cheapest, least tender pieces of beef are usually the ones that are used for this dish, since the pounding softens the meat and the majority of the flavor comes from the fried coating and the cream-based gravy that the dish is inevitably smothered in.  And even afficianados will tell you that the best parts are often the coating and the gravy.