Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [126]
One of the things that makes these sandwiches so especially delicious is the sauce, which is dark red and tangy, with the resonance of pepper and spice, a sublime companion for the meat. Pat Davis told us that it is made from the original recipe his grandfather developed, except for one ingredient, which he swears he doesn’t use anymore. We wondered aloud if that secret ingredient might be opium, considering its addictive qualities. Pat denied it with a sly smile.
Served three to an order, with or without chili on top, Abe’s tamales are packed into cayenne red husks, their yellow cornmeal moist with drippings from a mixture of beef and pork. The recipe is Abe Davis’s, unchanged. “No doubt granddaddy got it from someone in town,” Pat suggests, reminding us that Abe had come to the U.S. from Lebanon, where tamales aren’t a big part of the culinary mix. Why Abe thought they would sell well in his barbecue place is a head-scratcher. “There were no Mexican restaurants here then,” Pat says. “And as far as I know, not many Mexicans.”
Blue and White Restaurant
1355 US 61 N
662–363–1371
Tunica, MS
BLD | $
Tunica has changed dramatically in the years since it went from being cotton farms and shotgun shacks to a coven of casinos and all the vulgarity that goes with them. But out on Highway 61, the old Blue and White Restaurant is operating pretty much the same way it’s been doing things since opening day in 1937. The gas pumps out front are gone, so it is now only a restaurant, not a full-service travelers’ stop, but if you are looking for good, southern food at reasonable prices in an atmosphere that is more down-home than high roller, this is the place to go.
We were lucky enough to visit on the cusp of breakfast and lunch hour. “You have ten more minutes to order breakfast,” our waitress warned. “Then the lunch buffet will open.” Naturally, we did both. For breakfast we had a classic country ham plate, the vigorous, well-aged slab of pig accompanied by eggs, biscuits, chunky sausage cream gravy, coffee-flavored red-eye gravy, and a bowl of stout, buttery grits. What a great morning meal!
When the buffet opened up, we helped ourselves to chicken and dumplings, which was superb: powerfully chickeny, loaded with meat, and laced with free-form mouthfuls of tender flavor-infused dough. On the side, we spooned up black-eyed peas, creamed corn, escalloped potatoes, and some of the most amazing turnip greens we’ve ever eaten. These greens were oily, salty, luscious, and rich, more like the pork that was used to flavor them than the green vegetable they appear to be. On the side of this meal came a sweet-dough yeast muffin and a crisp corn stick: both oven-hot and delicious.
We paid extra for an order of that weird specialty invented a few decades ago in the Delta, fried dill pickles. Blue and White’s are ultra-thin slices with a veil of crust, nearly weightless, served with ranch dressing as a dip. Light as they are, the pickles have a resounding brine flavor that induces mighty thirst. If you are a beer drinker, you will have instant cravings.
Crystal Grill
423 Carrollton Ave.
662–453–6530
Greenwood, MS
LD | $$
Years ago, the Crystal Grill was known for a neon sign that glowed “Never Sleep.” Open from 4:00 A.M. until midnight, it hosted the locals for their predawn coffee klatch as well as C&G Railroad men who’d stop their train on the tracks just across the street for late-night supper. Breakfast is no longer served; at lunchtime, townsfolk flock here with the gusto of celebrants arriving at a church picnic. Multiple remodelings over the years have created a labyrinth of small dining rooms that can seat over two hundred people in neighborly surroundings.
The menu is an eclectic spectrum of