Southern English

[dave1949]

One of the funniest stories I ever heard was told by the female comic, Brett Butler. She said she was doing her stand up act somewhere in the South, Georgia I think, and she was really putting her redneck ex husband and rednecks in general, through the ringer.

She said some guy in the audience stood up and yelled at her the following:

"If somebody had taught you how to make biscuits you wouldn't be up there saying that s**t!

:laughing:

If "The South" ever gets over its inferiority complex, it will be a sad day for comedians.

The test said I was 43% Dixie, barely into Yankee-dom. I guess that would agree with my SE Great Lakes region origins.

 

[k0ua]

No biscuits and gravey? what the He77?.. Well I never!...

 

[2LaneCruzer]

While we do have some tasty treats y'all don't get in the South, I have absolutely no explanation for why biscuits and gravy have not been successfully transplanted up here. We've adopted BBQ with a vengeance and fried chicken is on every menu but wonderful flaky warm biscuits either plain with butter or smothered in homemade gravy are very hard to find. Franchise biscuits from Hardy's are probably available but not worth much.

The other dish I miss up here is fried catfish with typical fixin's. That makes a little more sense as fresh catfish isn't available in the pond out back.

Sharn Jean and I took a little Caribbean cruise a couple years back on the Carnival cruise line. The food was excellent and there was plenty of it. We had breakfast in the dining room one morning, and I asked the waiter if they had any gravy. His reply? "You mean au jus?" The cuisine in the dining room is superb, but it's clear that the chef and the waiters are not from Texas or Oklahoma.

 

[oosik]

There used to be a TV show featuring an older Cajun chef who was a real coon-###
and could speak the bayou language. I enjoyed watching the show just to hear him talk.

 

[smstonypoint]

There used to be a TV show featuring an older Cajun chef who was a real coon-***** and could speak the bayou language. I enjoyed watching the show just to hear him talk.

My guess is that you are thinking of Justin Wilson -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Wilson_%28chef%29

Steve

 

[jinman]

My guess is that you are thinking of Justin Wilson -- Justin Wilson (chef) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Steve

I gawr-ron-tee it was Justin Wilson. He was a very funny comedian before ever having a cooking show. I listened to some of his old comedy records over and over, laughing as much the subsequent times as I did the first time. Ol' Justin's stories made me think he could have been a Cajun Mark Twain if he'd been a writer instead of a stand-up comedian.

 

[smstonypoint]

I gawr-ron-tee it was Justin Wilson. He was a very funny comedian before ever having a cooking show. I listened to some of his old comedy records over and over, laughing as much the subsequent times as I did the first time. Ol' Justin's stories made me think he could have been a Cajun Mark Twain if he'd been a writer instead of a stand-up comedian.

It may be a regional bias on my part, but I think Southern humorists can't be topped when it comes to storytelling -- Justin Wilson, Jerry Clower, Lewis Grizzard, Andy Griffith, Wendy Bagwell, etc.

Steve

 

[jinman]

In order to make southern gravy, you have to have cooked pork sausage, bacon, fried chicken, or chicken fried steak. The drippings mixed with flour and browned to perfection are the difference between tasteless and delicious gravy. Every pan of gravy I make is a tribute to my mother who took the time to show me just how to judge the correct brown-ness of the flour in the skillet and how to add the milk all at once and stir-stir-stir until that gravy was smooth with no lumps. She taught me to listen and watch the bubbles pop just right as the key to when the gravy would be the perfect thickness on the table. Nobody likes runny gravy on bisquits.

Now, red-eye gravy is a thin gravy made with ham drippings and often served over mashed potatoes. Red-eye gravy is very tasty, but it just can't compare to the traditional brown gravy. Some restaurants serve a white gravy with fried chicken or chicken fried steak, but it just doesn't taste like the brown gravy we traditionally serve with biscuits at breakfast.

BTW: I loved my time in the US Navy up around Providence and Newport, RI. I had a ball when we tied up to the pier at the foot of 42nd street in NYC and went exploring he city all wide-eyed and experiencing so many firsts for a young sailor from the south. Boston was also one of favorite liberty ports. Of course, we never made it very far inland since we mostly tried to make it back to the ship each night. In NYC, I think we were as big an attraction to the New Yorkers as their city was to us. There was a steady line of people all the way up the pier, waiting to take a tour of the ship. We just had to close the line at the set times because we could have had people touring that ship 24 hours-a-day. They sure made us feel welcome, but with any big city, you didn't travel alone and you always had to rebuff the panhandlers.

Also, I remember my first duty station after Boot Camp was in Bainbridge, MD. My wife and I stopped in Havre de Grace, Md to get lunch. I ordered a hamburger and fries. I was immediately shocked when the waitress delivered a pattie on a bun with mayo. I thought all hamburgers came with lettuce, tomato, pickles, onion and mustard. It was a shocker.:confused3: Later, I learned that if you wanted a great sandwich, you ordered a hoagie or submarine.:licking:

 

[Daver1963]

I know some Southerners have migrated north and we've had Yankees come down here. Always heard the difference between Yankees and **** (barrier that holds back water) Yankees was that Yankees come down to visit and **** Yankees stayed.
Which leads to a saying that comes from 2nd generation Yankees calling themselves Southern:
"Just because a cat has kittens in the oven we don't call 'em biscuits."

 

[k0ua]

In order to make southern gravy, you have to have cooked pork sausage, bacon, fried chicken, or chicken fried steak. The drippings mixed with flour and browned to perfection are the difference between tasteless and delicious gravy. Every pan of gravy I make is a tribute to my mother who took the time to show me just how to judge the correct brown-ness of the flour in the skillet and how to add the milk all at once and stir-stir-stir until that gravy was smooth with no lumps. She taught me to listen and watch the bubbles pop just right as the key to when the gravy would be the perfect thickness on the table. Nobody likes runny gravy on bisquits.

Aint no doubt about it, Jim knows how to make gravy.

I was talking to my wife about this a while ago, as we were fixing breakfast, and she told me that her St. Louis blue-blood mother never knew how and was not inclined to learn how to fix biscuits and gravy. It seems gravy was never on the menu in St. Louis. the only way my wife's poor long suffering Southwestern Missouri father could get some biscuits and gravy was to order it in restaurants around here. There is quite a difference in culture of Southwestern Mo. and St. Louis. They even talk different than us.

James K0UA