Having just dined at Zola's at the International Spy Museum, I am noting a very fine dish that seems very Southern. Branzini, a european sea bass, very tasty on its own. I had to try it, menu said that it was served on a bed of spaetzle with turnips and ramps.
If you grew up in Appalachia, you know what ramps are--trash mountain onions used to supplement a hillbilly's spring diet, usually fried up with the winter's last potatoes. An old friend of mine told me once that where she grew up, the poorest children were usually sent home from school in the springtime because they smelled so strongly of wild ramps that no one could concentrate on schoolwork. Ramps are even better than onions, but very strong, and if they are most of what you are eating...ramps and turnips both I love, but admit it, they are not usually found on plates in restaurants anymore. I asked the server, and he said, "Ah yes, a very delicate native wild leek".
Branzini is also known as "loup de mer" or sea wolf. Tastes like a cross between bass and trout, no wolf tones. Perhaps this dish could also be achieved with river bass or catfish?
Spaetzle, small drop dumplings textured like pasta, a traditional German recipe also seen in the Yiddish kitchen. The Huntsville of my childhood was crowded with German rocket scientists and German foods and it was not unusual to serve knackwurst with pinto beans and cornbread.
The capper was the watercress garnish. Madison County, before Redstone and NASA, was known as "The Watercress Capital of the World". Which you might only know if you grew up in Madison County.
Strange metaphysical connections, but very good food indeed.
http://www.spymuseum.org/dine/index.php
