1. Peach Perfect & USA Unfurled

Entangled in those stars and stripes, I’ve loved this country dear

It’s given me a degree fine, and travel huge through many a year

Food-wise it has daunting reach

Do I dare, indeed to eat a peach?

But I’ll focus on my favourites which are spread over its vast sphere

America the beautiful, how do you encapsulate its cuisines from sea to shining sea? The best way is my own way—the foods eaten at one’s university town, in Georgia, tasting our way through 15,000 miles across a large number of US states, camping at the well known National Parks; fishing and water-skiing and eating on steamers on the Mississippi river; the Maine lobsters and the Cajun crawfish in Louisiana. And a Marwari friend in New Orleans making an Okra gumbo—totally kosher vegetarian—how cool is that.

So, first up—Georgia, the peach state, where I spent a year and a half, getting a Master’s degree—doing a thesis in the process which can still be accessed in the library—making friends from 40 countries—mostly Scandinavian—all of us on a Georgia student scholarship; writing a column for the Red and Black newspaper courtesy Muriel Pritchett (she continues to be a friend and writes Romantic novels!) and tasting and coming to terms with some great Southern specialities.

When I was initially told about a biscuit—as a breakfast food, it puzzled me no end. Tea and biscuits was what the British had taught us to savour at four in the afternoon. But what was this all about? I was soon to find out that B&G—Biscuits and Gravy was one of the great comfort foods for breakfast. The biscuit is made from scratch, with flour, baking soda and baking powder, frozen chunks of butter, with buttermilk which adds a tangy flavour and creates a certain tenderness in the biscuits. There’s nothing like being in a person’s home when the biscuits are freshly baked, and they come out flaky and fluffy and crumbly, (somewhat akin to the consistency of scones) are halved and are slathered over with a white gravy which is made from flour and milk and drippings from cooked pork sausage and even bacon and ground beef.

The origin: some say it was during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), when foodstuff was scarce and breakfast had to be the most substantial meal of the day for those working in the plantations. So there you have your biscuits and gravy—tasty to the hilt and so filling as well. It was a bit of an acquired taste, I must admit, but it grew on you.

The easiest food of course was Southern Fried Chicken (no relation of KFC), with something called fried green tomatoes. Hey! You don’t actually get to see the green-ness of it all, because the tomatoes are dipped in a mixture of flour, Cajun seasoning, cornmeal (yes, corn is a big thing in the South), breadcrumbs and milk. Once fried, they come out exactly like our pakoras, or more specifically like our begunis!

We learn that this particular dish was brought to the US by Jewish immigrants in the nineteenth century. It became popular in the South after the release of the film Fried Green Tomatoes starring Jessica Tandy.

I can’t forget the long salad bar at breakfast, at the University of Georgia, where peach halves were presented with gooey cottage cheese slurred into them. And my friend Jennifer used to make a great peach upside down cake for us students who always wanted something homemade. Waffles punched in with strawberries in each grid, and slathered over with fresh cream—you could let yourself go when you were young and not watching calories at all. And honey nut Cheerios—America’s most favourite since 2009 they claim. In any case, I was grossly underweight. And if you are not fussy about something over-sweet, there’s pecan pie, oh so gooey and so flavourful. I do miss pecans (pronounced pik aans)—so protein rich, such a cute shape—definitely prefer them over walnuts. On a recent trip to Zimbabwe, they were selling pecans on the roadside in heaps, and I bought a kilo to take home, never mind the extra baggage on the plane.

Oh yes, we really did get a lot out of Georgia, the peach state. And by the way, it was lovely to be called a Georgia peach—you know....

But there’s this charming town, Savannah, also in Georgia, where Hue Thomas Jr. was our host for the Georgia Rotary Student Fund and where his wife Alma warmly welcomed us into their fabulous Southern home. Savannah is a coastal city with amazing antebellum architecture. Since we could not dig into seafood in landlocked Athens, Georgia, Savannah was the place to go for what is called Low Country Boil—basically a one pot kind of dish with anything that moves in the sea—shrimps and lobsters and crabs and served with rice, veggies and corn on the cob (oh, how I miss today the plump sweet corn and the substantial crab claws).

I must not linger too much longer in Georgia, which, like the song goes, is always on my mind, but move on to another state where hospitality rang high, topping the charts being John and Mary Blue. Rotary was the bond.  John Blue was Managing Editor of The Southeast Missourian and Mary Blue wrote a Lady Bug column for it.

They became my extended family in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and would send me food packets every week by courier to my University in Georgia. But it was what was cooked at home or on our outings that I can still not forget. And there were some very interesting folks like the Cotner family who gave me a true taste and experience of life in Missouri, the Show Me State.

A meal on a steamboat on the Mississippi river—eating St-Louis style ribs –—and thinking of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer in a different context—birthed by Mark Twain in the nineteenth century. My hosts, the Blues had ordered enough pork chops and we had them packed in a doggy bag so Mary could cut them into slices the next day and give us a brand new meal in a salad.

It was from the Cotners—Dr Dan Cotner, a dental surgeon, his wife Polly and their seven kids—all named after organ stops, as they were a musical family who sang in church—that I could go to their country hideout and be taught such a bunch of things. From boating rides where you had to catch fish with a fishing pole and then clean it (aargh the slippery stuff) and get it ready to be grilled for dinner. There was a lake where I learned water skiing, and in the forests, one was handed a rifle to shoot down bottles. Oh how my shoulder ached!

But it was part of the learning process.

Then there was the Kansas City Barbecue which has been around for more than a century, so hearty with sides of baked beans and cornmeal bread and whatever else took the fancy of a particular restaurant or home. Pizzas are also a go to in this state, and when I think of how we feel sophisticated having thin crust pizzas from fancy establishments today in India, the fact is that they had been around in Missouri for a long time, the topping of cheese being the special touch—a Provel cheese which combined cheddar, Swiss and provolone making it extra creamy. The one I could not possibly digest was a Slinger which is had normally for breakfast—imagine, it is a more than filling set of hash browns, eggs, naturally, meat, too and cheese, topped with chilli (of chilli con carne fame) and made further heavy with a nacho cheese sauce over this.

I have persisted with the Southern and middle states, because I knew them best. For a hearty gumbo, Creole style, though, it had to be Louisiana. Gumbo derived from several cultures and hence the ingredients varied from one family to another. There were its French, Spanish, West African, German and of course indigenous roots. Served with rice and slow cooked for hours. An Indian friend would cook us a gumbo that was vegetarian, for remember, one of its main ingredients is bhindi. The word gumbo came from the West African word ki ngombo for okra, or ladies fingers. West Africans used okra as a thickener in their version of the dish. Give me a home style pot roast any day, which also needs slow cooking.

Louisiana probably threw up the spiciest and tastiest Creole and Cajun cuisines, and where else but in New Orleans. They have something called a Muffuletta sandwich. They maintain that the traditional version has both salami and ham, as well as slices of fatty mortadella, Swiss cheese, smoked provolone soft cheese and an olive salad, which has, obviously, olives, chopped up celery, pickled cauliflower and carrot, and seasoned with oregano, garlic and olive oil.

I am surprised Muffulettas did not overtake hamburgers as a go to comfort food which is tastier, if not a bit fussy to negotiate.