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By Root 564 0

tamales with sweet corn sauce. Mississippi tamales? Yep. Known here as “red hot tamales” or “Delta tamales,” they were introduced by Mexican laborers around the turn of the century and are a popular street snack in the Delta region. Just up the block from Walker’s is the magical Fondren Beverage Emporium, specializing in rare sodas and bizarre candies. Fancy a celery soda and a bacon-flavored mint?

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A sausage made of pork, rice and spices, boudin (pronounced “BOO-dan”), is one of the most memorable Cajun foodstuffs. Innumerable gas stations and small-town butchers throughout swampy Cajun Country claim to have the “best”. We recommend the Best Stop, a family-run meat shop in the town of Scott, about 2½ hours west of New Orleans. Also try its spicy andouille sausage and the tasso ham.

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Roll into Memphis, on the banks of the muddy Mississippi. This gritty, brightly colored patchwork of a city is known for two things – blues and barbecue. Both are high art forms, requiring complete dedication to the discipline and years of toil, whether that means singing your heart out to drunks in a dingy bar or tending the hog cooker at 4am on an obscure city side-street. Barbecue is usually one of two things here: slow-cooked pulled-pork shoulder or glossy mahogany ribs. Ribs can be either “wet” with barbecue sauce or “dry” with a powdered spice rub. Try them both.

On the south side of town, Jim Neely’s Interstate Bar-B-Que serves the quintessential Memphis pulled-pork sandwich, with tangy tomato-based sauce and a dollop of coleslaw on a soft white bun. Get a side of barbecue spaghetti, an eccentric only-in-Memphis creation. It’s just chopped noodles with barbecue sauce and lumps of pulled pork. Weird, ugly, but oddly satisfying.

Cozy Corner, in a wood-paneled bungalow with peeling vinyl booths, is famous for its barbecued Cornish game hen. True connoisseurs know how to strip every bit of meat from the tiny wings and legs, leaving nothing but a miniature carcass and a pile of napkins. The ribs, thick bologna sandwiches and barbecue turkey are also big sellers.

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TABASCO SAUCE

Across the South and beyond, Tabasco sauce livens everything from collard greens to scrambled eggs. Banker Edmund McIlhenny invented it just after the Civil War to add kick to the boring Reconstruction-era diet, planting Tabasco peppers in the loamy soil of his Avery Island, Louisiana home. Peppers are still grown and bottled on the island today, and the super-secret recipe remains in the McIlhenny family. You can tour the Tabasco factory (www.tabasco.com) for $1.

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Don’t let hoards of tourists scare you away from Charlie Vergos’ Rendezvous. The cavernous subterranean restaurant is noisy and crowded for a good reason. Propping your elbows on the red-and-white checked tablecloth to devour a rack of succulent dry-rub ribs has been a Memphis dining experience since 1948.

Nearby Beale St is all about blues, beer and tourists; head over to South Main for quirky, more sophisticated nightlife options. Crash downtown at the Renaissance Revival–style Peabody Hotel, Memphis’ grandest digs. A troop of pampered ducks waddles around the lobby during daylight hours, taking dips in the marble fountain while guests sip cocktails beneath the chandeliers.

The four-hour drive from Memphis to Nashville should work up your appetite. That’s a good thing, because you’d be remiss to so much as set foot in central Tennessee without stopping at Prince’s Hot Chicken. A fluorescently lit storefront in a decaying north Nashville strip mall, Prince’s has a few white tables and no decor to speak of. Order your chicken (leg quarters are best) at the hole in the kitchen wall, choosing from mild, medium, hot or extra-hot. Try the medium. We don’t know anyone who has eaten an entire extra-hot quarter and lived. All the chicken is pan-fried in a cast iron skillet; if the restaurant’s crowded it can take up to an hour. Your chicken comes crackling hot and dripping with juices, slapped atop two slices of white bread with a pickle. Your lips