The Journey South pt. 1

I'm a little in between worlds right now-I've officially left Brooklyn and have been drifting South the entire month of September. On the way to Mississippi I made a stop in Asheville, NC and visited the Biltmore Estate-of course they had a Christmas "shoppe" and of course I found these:


Other pickle stops included buying a jar of "Smokey Mountain Baby Dills" from a roadside stand outside of the Cherokee Indian Reservation in Tennessee:

They didn't taste homemade at all and I suspect they are mass produced to appear "homemade" at roadstands just like these all over the region, but still, I needed a pickle on the road and well, they did the job.

I had better luck once I reached Oxford,MS. My first stop was at my friend Laurie's restaurant called Tallulah's Kitchen. She serves a variety of wonderful dishes, but I ordered a container full of FRIED STUFF-her homemade corndog and fried pickles-I've been HOMESICK ok, so just lemme have my fried stuff!

Both were amazing. The pickles were nice and thin, just like I like 'em but they still had a strong pickle-y taste to them. The corndog was simply a religious experience.

Later that same evening, my pilgrimage continued, to the holy places of Oxford, MS; Square Books, Thacker Mountain Radio and of course, my waterin' hole. When I lived in Oxford it was called The Longshot and it was the place I spent a lot of time with a lot of people, but mostly with my friend Jim. We had a table near the Ms. Pac-Man game and the jukebox that could magically be the social center of the universe or the quietest place in town. Now The Longshot is gone and is a sushi place called Two Stick and it was there last week that I made a new pickle freak pal named PJ.

Upon my arrival in Oxford, my friend Laura Beth presented me with a jar of her homemade spicy pickles and I stuffed them in my purse to try later. Several bars and beers later, I made it to The former Longshot with my pals and I whipped out the pickles and passed the jar around. Once PJ explained that his initials really stand for "pickle juice" I went to the bar, grabbed 2 straws and we sucked down an entire quart of pickle juice much to the horror of everyone else in the place.


It feels great to be back.