NOTE: The Southern Delicacies subseries will be intermingled amongst full-size entries.*

The Hushpuppy

Most commonly seen at local fried seafood houses and barbecue joints, the Southern hushpuppy is among many unsung culinary treasures in the South. Originating during the Civil War, hushpuppies were small nuggets of leftover cornbread, carried in the pockets of Confederate soldiers to feed to their dogs in order to keep them silent on the warpath. (Hence the name.) Now, they’ve morphed into a combination between cornbread, cake and a doughnut and are simply divine when still steaming and dunked into a dish of soft honey-butter. Strangely, hushpuppies aren’t usually seen in homecooked meals but are sometimes found at high-end seafood restaurants in attempts to boast an authentic Southern atmosphere. This effort is usually successful if the restaurant owner or sous chef is a native of the South but any attempt to make hushpuppies by a Yankee will be severely scorned unless his or her parents are Southerners, due to the strict I-Know-Your-Mama/Who’s-Yer-Papa clause.

* OTHER NOTE: Because of the incredible popularity of these blog entries, I’ve bought another domain and am working on setting up a separate blog just for this subject (one reason why this entry is so short), so I can still write about my personal life here and those people who are just interested in reading about Southernisms don’t have to wade through my self-indulgence. I’ll let you know when it’s up. ::sigh:: Like I don’t have enough going on right now. Ah well, at least I genuinely love all the projects I’m working on, even if I’m running out of burners to keep these pots on.