Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [107]
The banana pudding is comfort in a dish, its custard interleaved with banana slices and plenty of vanilla wafers, some still firm, others softened into streaks of vanilla grain in the pudding. And who could resist hummingbird cake, the southern favorite that had to be named because hummingbirds like sweet things: spice cake chockablock with bananas and pineapple and spread with a thick layer of cream cheese frosting.
McClard’s
505 Albert Pike
501–623–9665
Hot Springs, AR
LD | $$
If we had to select the best ribs in America (what an awesome task!), we’d think about Dreamland’s smoky bones in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and racks of velvet succulence at Van’s Pig Stand in Shawnee, Oklahoma(Oklahoma). But our holy grail is McClard’s in Hot Springs, Arkansas, a resort town named for its salubrious waters, and still a mecca for travelers in search of a mineral-water cure on Bathhouse Row.
Pork is king in this smokehouse, the pulled pork ineffably tender and moist, its smoky sweetness especially radiant when spread with hot sauce. The signature dish is a rib and fry plate. The ribs are a meat-heavy slab with a sticky glaze of peppery red sauce. They are presented under a pile of gorgeous honeytone French-fried potatoes and sided by fine, bright coleslaw to create a perfectly balanced barbecue meal.
A whole section of McClard’s menu is devoted to tamale plates, ranging from plain tamales with beans to a full spread. A spread is McClard’s term for a pair of tamales topped with sauce-sopped chopped smoked meat, beans, crisp Fritos chips, raw onions, and shredded orange cheese. Spreads remind us of the locally favored Fritos pie, but with the added zest of genuine pit barbecue.
The neon-lit 1942 stucco building that houses McClard’s once offered toot-your-horn carhop service, but now hordes of happy eaters line up to fill the booths inside. The recipe for its sauce supposedly dates back to 1928, when a customer at the McClard family trailer court couldn’t pay his bill and so offered his barbecue sauce recipe instead!
Rhoda’s Famous Hot Tamales
714 Saint Mary St.
870–265–3108
Lake Village, AR
BL | $
The name of Rhoda Adams’s café is no lie. The tamales are delicious, and well deserving of the fame they have earned up and down the Mississippi Delta. She makes them with a combination of beef and chicken; the meats combined with steamy cornmeal are wrapped in husks that, when unfolded, emanate an irresistibly appetizing aroma and are a joy to eat as a snack or meal any time of day.
Beyond tamales, the menu at James and Rhoda Adams’s little eat-place by the side of the road is a full roster of great, soulful regional specialties. For fried chicken or pigs’ feet, pork barbecue or catfish dinner, you won’t do better for miles around. Early one morning Rhoda made us breakfast of bacon and eggs with biscuits on the side. Even this simple meal tasted especially wonderful. Rhoda is one of those gifted cooks who makes everything she touches something special.
We’ve always considered Arkansas one of America’s top-seven pie states (along with Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Virginia, Texas, and Maine). Rhoda’s pies are proof. She makes small individual ones as well as full-size pies. We’ve never tasted the coconut or the lemon pie, but we can say that her sweet potato pie and pecan pie are world-class.
Wagon Wheel
166 S. Broadview St.
501–679–5009
Greenbrier, AR
BLD | $
The best way to get to Bransom from Little Rock is up Highway 65, and if you pass through Greenbrier while hungry, you’re in luck. At the Wagon Wheel, freshly baked, high-domed rolls envelop breakfast sandwiches of eggs and Petit Jean bacon; bread baskets come piled with white toast that is rich as cake; and tall meringue pies are Arkansas-excellent.
We were taken to the Wagon Wheel by our favorite Arkansas tipsters, Tony and Donna Perrin, and while they both sang the praises of the good pies and breads, Tony was particularly enthusiastic about the chocolate gravy. Yes, chocolate gravy! With your