Whole Hog Culture in West Tennessee

Political Incorrectness & BBQ Correctness

I have never understood picky eaters. As a child I was taught to value all food. As a chef, nothing interests me more than transforming less popular foods into dishes fit for kings. So when I heard that Chester and Henderson counties in Tennessee still smoke hogs whole, I told Wro we were going back to the Volunteer State for a history lesson.

I thought we’d fly into Jackson and do nothing but visit smokehouses and eat pork for a entire weekend, showing Wro how American pioneers turned every part of the hog into a delicious treat. He did some research of his own though and talked me into following the Tennessee River as it meanders from Mississippi to Kentucky. Since it all sounded educational, I could hardly say no.

Being a lifelong Johnny Cash fan, “I’ve been talkin’ about Jackson, ever since the fire went out.” I pictured a wild little town with a rough section of honky tonk dives. Instead we found a busy city of over 60,000 people, most of whom seemed to be practicing for the NASCAR circuit. We headed south because that’s the direction that rivers flow. Then we learned that the Tennessee is a perverse river that does everything backwards.

Wro wanted to visit Shiloh ever since I told him we were returning to West Tennessee. Shiloh is one name (Pittsburg Landing is another) given to a great battlefield of the Civil War. As names go, it’s perfectly suited for a place on a river that runs backwards. I’ll explain that after lunch.

Gone with the Wind

In Henderson we stopped at Bill’s, a place that has built a reputation for smoking whole hogs.

Billy Latham greeted us with a big smile and full disclosure.

“I sure hate to disappoint you, but I got bad news. I had hernia surgery again last year and I can’t lift 300 pounds of pig any more. So I’m smoking ribs and shoulders, just like everybody in Memphis and everywhere else,” he confessed.

We tried some pulled pork sandwiches and talked. Latham told us that he bought the business in 2000 to “get retired from logging.” It had belonged to Harold Thomas before that for about two decades until injuries forced Thomas to close. Latham told us that just a few years earlier there were nearly a dozen places in the area practicing whole hog barbecue. A customer shook his head as he rattled off some of their names, which he then summed up as “gone with the wind.”
Latham left us with some good news though.

“There’s an old girl down the highway who still does it right - Liz. She’s got a brand new sign so you can find her if you keep your eyes open. But I’m afraid we might be the last of it. The kids today don’t appreciate the whole hog like their grand parents did and it’s hard to find anyone who wants to go into the business. The younger generations don’t see fit to work hard and whole hog is hard work.”

After getting directions to Liz’s for our return trip, we headed south, up river, to Shiloh.

What’s in a name?

The best names are spelled with irony. The word Shiloh comes from the Bible and means “peace” in Hebrew. In American history, it evokes the bloodiest, most relentless realties of modern warfare. General U.S. Grant made his name there, becoming the “Butcher of Shiloh,” a thoroughly modern warrior willing to sacrifice lives for the sake of victory. After Shiloh produced the worst body count in the history of American warfare, all the romance of the Civil War was gone with the wind.

At Shiloh Visitors Center, a 50 year old video summed up the battle. Grant’s army was losing until the Confederacy lost their leader, Albert Johnston. Then Union troops rallied and won. Afterwards, Confederate resistance was reduced to a series of guerilla raids led by the infamous slave trader Nathan Bedford Forest.

Being from a part of America where the slightest violation of political correctness can get a person kicked out of town, it amazes us that a ruthless slaver is still honored like a hero in the woods along the Tennessee River. His name still graces schools, businesses and even a national park.

Shiloh’s battleground made me think of Brazilian novelist Jorge Amado who wrote that the best fruits are those fertilized with human blood. That theory will be tested here. Peach orchards that figured prominently in the battle were recently replanted and should bear fruit around 2010.

Catfish Slept Here

Thinking about peaches made us hungry so we headed to Hagy’s Catfish Hotel. Even on the banks of a river running backwards, catfish don’t actually rent rooms in this hotel. In the 1930’s, this place had become a popular political campaign stop because of its fresh-from-the river catfish. A Tennessee governor suggested that Norville Hagy open a restaurant and three generations of Hagy’s have been serving them ever since.

The river does not supply the fish anymore, local farms do. But the reputation is still wild. USA Today named it one of the ten best fish restaurants in America, and Wro and I put great value on USA Top Ten lists (we supplied two of them ourselves). We debated over grilled, Cajun grilled or fried catfish and decided to order them all. We both liked fried the best, with just a little cornmeal in the breading.

Liz’s

After letting Wro shop for battleground souvenirs, we headed downriver toward Liz’s in Henderson and a date with American heritage. We saw the sign Billy Latham told us about, walked in and explained that we have come all the way from California and would love to visit.

Liz told us that we’d have to wait because she was expecting a customer with a take out order. Wro explained that we wanted badly to become customers too, as soon as possible. Liz just stood there with her arms folded, gazing at her parking lot.

Across the room, her husband Ike sat in a rocking chair under a large American flag. He finally responded to Wro.

“What kind of customer would you be wanting to become?,” he asked.

“Can I specify parts of the pig?”

“What would you be wanting to specify?”

“Could we get some middlin’s? And maybe a little belly and jowl? And a rib or two?,” he asked. I thought I saw Liz’s eye twinkle and Ike smile.

“Middlin’s are the best part if you ask me. I think we can fix you up,” Ike said, rising from his rocker.
A few minutes later, Ike emerged with two plates full of magic - side pork, hog cheeks, belly and ribs transformed into the most delicious meat on earth by over 20 hours of exposure to smoke while resting between the skin and bones of a 300 pound pig.

We dined like kids - dangling spaghetti-like strands of middlin’s three feet in the air and letting them drop into our mouths. Ike got a kick out of how much fun we had letting those delicious “noodles” slide onto our tongues. He and Liz told us their story.

Liz and Ike Kinchen run this place together now but for years Liz ran it alone. Ike put in 50 years working on heavy machinery for a construction company until they both retired in 1998. Then in 2003 their realtor called and told Liz things had gone really wrong.

“That boy that had my place turned nasty. He was past nasty in fact. The state of Tennessee closed him down. When I came down here with the landlord, I told him I had to think long and hard if I could handle it. There were dirty dishes and dirty underwear all over. And that was nine months after he had cleared out.

“He didn’t take any meat with him when he left. So when they turned off the electricity for non-payment, it rotted. When I opened up the doors of the cooler, maggots ran out all around. Maggots big as my finger because they been eating real well for maggots,” Liz explained.

“It took us six full weeks just to clean the mess up, with one boy helping. You know what it is? Young people just don’t want to do hard work,’ Ike added.
Ike then showed us what hard work whole hogs are, even from the point of view of a man who did 50 years of heavy construction work. He took us to his smoke pits and showed us four 300 pound hogs in various degrees of smoke exposure.

Business is getting back to “pretty good” in Liz’s words. They sell five whole hogs worth of pig meat any week of the year and a dozen in a busy week. Liz said it’s weird how different people like and dislike different parts of the smoked hog.

“Some like dark others red, some fatty, others dry, some stringy, others anything but,” she explained.

We also tried some white and some red slaw ( with BBQ sauce), black eyed peas and fried potatoes. Several visitors dropped by for carry-out orders while we were there. One of them, Gary Carroll, told us that he “needs this pork several times a week.”

“When I was in high school, we would always have to take our dates home by 12:30 a.m.. Then we’d head over to Jack’s Creek, which was the closest whole hog BBQ to where I lived. There were two pitmasters back then in Jack’s Creek: Ee’d go to Tick Massengill’s; Mr. Taylor had the other one. Tick always turned a hog at 1 a.m., so we’d get the pick of that fresh-from-the-smokehouse meat. It was expected that we bring some home with us,” he recalled.

When Wro and I finally pulled ourselves up and out the door, as full of pig meat as humans and bears can be, Liz called after us.

“You two are welcome back here anytime.”

I do not believe I have ever felt more honored.

Back in Jackson we were too tired from all the heavy eating to go looking for those honky tonks Johnny Cash sang about.

Another Riverside Attraction

Since food is our main interest in traveling, we are attracted to all aspects of agriculture. So we headed to Milan and the West Tennessee Agricultural Museum. Over 2,600 implements were on display there and one can learn almost anything one wants to know about cotton. A docent told us about the wondrous future of cotton bio-technology. We were even told that seed companies allow farmers to save their own Bt seeds and replant them each year. This was the only place on earth we ever heard that.

Being inedible, cotton doesn’t hold our interest as long as things you can eat. So we moved on toward the Tennessee River Folklife Museum. This place sits atop the highest point in West Tennessee in Nathan Bedford Forest Park, named for the slave trader who was either a terrorist or a freedom fighter during the Civil War, depending upon who is describing him.

The museum tells a marvelous story about coping with unfortunate circumstances - namely about farmers who were displaced by “Mister Roosevelt’s damned dam.“ The Tennessee Valley Authority flooded the region’s farms and graveyards in the 1930’s and forced the residents to learn how to live off the water. A “Braille boat” in the museum was made completely out of farm machinery. The man who built it refused to ever cash the check the government gave him when it took his land.
Another exhibit chronicled the photography of Maggie Lee Sayre, an autistic photojournalist who worked exclusively with a Kodak Brownie camera. She shot river life from 1930 to 1960 with incredible professionalism.

Pearls before Swine

A few miles from the museum we found pearls without oysters, which seemed appropriate on a river that runs backwards. Tennessee’s official state gem is grown from Washboard mussels at Tennessee River Fresh Water Pearl Museum & Farm, the only freshwater pearl-culturing farm in North America. Jolly owner Bob Keest showed us around and explained that the farm gained notoriety after National Geographic used a photo of Liz Taylor wearing a necklace that featured the most famous natural pearl in the world surrounded by scores of cultured pearls from Tennessee.

The farm exports most of the iridescent shells of its mussels, some $50 million a year worth, to Asia where they are used to stimulate cultured pearl industries. The farm uses pearls as a lure for tourism.
“We could never produce enough to make a living in mass market wholesaling,” Keest explained.

He told us that divers, who have replaced Braille boats, can retrieve 200-300 pounds of shells a day. We watched John Nerran, a second generation diver and a pearl artist, emerge with a load of mussels. John hand-opened his shells and scraped out the meat, which is fed to fish. Since Wro and I are rather fond of mussels, we were astonished at this generosity to catfish, who sometimes grow here to be 100 pounds.
“Remember, the mussel’s main purpose is to filter the filth of the river. It’s not likely fit for human consumption. And since mollusks can reproduce a million times a year, there is no threatened shortage,” Bob explained.
The hand shucking is strictly for tourists. Most of that work is done off-premises by an automated shucking machine. Keest said the smell compared to that of the worst of meat packing plant.

As we dined on a good lunch of fried chicken and southern side dishes, Keest explained his “Little Back Sambo,” a lawn ornament installed at a cross street on the property. He said he was amazed that people had complained about it, “even a woman who works for me.”
Keest isn’t the kind of guy who bends in the fickle winds of political correctness.

“I wasn’t going lose my little black boy. So I got me another one and had this lady paint his face white. Now I got a little black boy and a little white boy. Who can complain about that?” he explained.

In the gift shop, I noticed a poster supporting the local county sheriff’s office. Sixty four officers peered down at visitors and all of them were white. I was beginning to understand how Nathan Bedford Forest remains a hero in these hills.

Lexington Q - Not North Carolina

On our way back to Jackson, we stopped in Lexington, a town with even more whole hog heritage than Henderson. First stop was Scott’s Bar-B-Que.
Owner Ricky Lynn Parker explained that he had been “pretty much adopted” by B.E. Scott, who founded the place in 1960 and taught him everything he knew. Parker bought the place in 1989 and claims that absolutely everything is still done “exactly as Mr. & Mrs. Scott did it. And we only do whole hogs.”

Parker also said that he would never have gotten into the business if he didn’t “do fine working 80 hour weeks and sleeping about 3 hours a night.” He said that his wood is all hickory and comes from Savannah, where we learned about Shiloh. I love it when circles come together like that.

Scott’s Bar-B-Que smokes pigs in an open pit for “just less than all day and all night.” Parker was too busy filling a catering order to talk much, so we headed down the road to Curt’s Smoke House and the future of whole hog barbecue.

Curt Blankenship bought a barbecue that had long been called Hay’s, named for a man who also owned a butcher plant that supplied all of western Tennessee with whole hogs.
Curt told us he was 29 years old and that his favorite part of the pig is middlin’s. Something new, something old.
“I bought the place April 13, 2007. Hay’s sold the butcher plant to a Florida guy who pledged to keep supplying whole hogs. So, I don’t think the whole hog culture, as you call it, is going to disappear,” Curt said.
In another example of circles closing nicely, Blankenship told us he learned his way around a pig pit working for Ricky Parker at Scott’s.
Curt is his own pit master. How hard is the work?
“I go home at 2:30 a.m. and am back at work at 7 a.m.. My brother and my Dad fill in, so I can get a break,” he said.

“I do it because it’s a way to please everyone. There’s not too much in life where you can do that,” he declared.

We left feeling a warm glow from knowing that we had probably not eaten our last middlin’s in West Tennessee. And that there are still young men who like hard work and value old ways of doing things which, sometimes, can please everyone.

If You Go

Airlines

American Airlines serves Jackson.

Lodging

Supertel Inn

1890 Highway 45 Bypass Jackson, TN 38305 877-477-5817
This is a fledgling chain with just three properties on line when we stayed, but scores more in the works. This one was a former Hampton Inn that didn’t want interior hallways, a requirement for all Hamptons now. I like front door access to my car in warm weather. The free Wi-Fi worked easily and that isn’t the case in a lot of luxury hotels. Nor is a free breakfast.

Whole Hog BBQ

Liz’s BBQ
311 South Church Ave.
Henderson, TN , 731- 989-9700

Curt’s Smoke House
93 College Drive
Lexington, TN, 731-967-3222

Scott's Bar-B-Que
10880 Highway 412 WestLexington, TN , 731- 968-0420

Hog Slaughter
16319 Hwy 412 ELexington, TN, 731- 967-3222

Other restaurants

Hagy’s Catfish Hotel Shiloh, TN, 731-689-3327

Bill's Bar-B-Q .531 South Church St.Henderson, TN, 731- 989-4075

Roadside Attractions

West Tennessee Agricultural Museum
Ledbetter Gate RdMilan, TN, 731- 686-8067

Tennessee River Fresh Water Pearl Museum & Farm
Birdsong Resort, Marina & Campground
255 Marina Road
Camden, TN 38320, 731-584-7880, 800-225-7469
http://www.tennesseeriverpearls.com/

Tennessee River Folklife Museum
1825 Pilot Knob Rd.Eva, TN, 731-584-6356

Shiloh National Military Park 1055 Pittsburg Landing Road Shiloh, TN, 731-689-5696
Shiloh National Military Park - Shiloh National Military Park (U.S. National Park Service)

Acommodating “the Mother of Invention”

“When the fire dies in the hearth, the funereal delights of cold snakes come into their own.” Piero Camporesi

Poets prefer “the good old days” but hard times have inspired most of civilization’s great discoveries. In the food industry that was the case even before civilization began. When prey became scarce, ancient hunters invented salting, smoking, cold storage and air-drying. Ancient gatherers invented pickling in winter climates, not in tropical areas where fresh foods were always available. Civilization arose when tribes determined to keep a constantly burning public hearth, so that hunters, gatherers and planters could start their personal fires without rubbing sticks together.



Those fires evolved into communal ovens, temples, churches and governments.


Long before Plato noted that “necessity is the mother of invention,” men had pushed the limits of their environment until their carelessness forced them to adapt to newly limited resources. In The Iliad, Homer’s heroes consume an ox over an open fire every 300 verses and disdain fish as a food of destitution. By the Golden Age of classical Athens, fish was luxury food and wood was so scarce that Athenians invented braziers, making charcoal a major industry. For the next thousand years, most of the great inventions in cooking compensated for exhausted supplies of wood. Cauldrons, fireplaces, ovens, ranges, clay pots, woks and kitchen cutlery were all invented to cook more food with fewer resources.


Iowa’s food history, even its prehistory, developed in reaction to catastrophic events. Descending glaciers dumped the world’s richest silt on a tongue-shaped midsection of our state - the Des Moines lobe. Then grazing animals migrated to the bountiful tall grasses. Hunters tracked that prey here. When planters came, first slowly in wagons, then rapidly on railroads, they cleared the grasses and the forests to grow corn, the king of grains. In the 19th century, western and northern Europeans in Iowa reaped the greatest harvests in the world.


The state’s agricultural was converted, from vast diversity to just two cash crops, in reaction to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Corn and soy beans were easily processed into non-perishable food stuffs that aided the World War II effort. After that war, those two crops created the backbone of an industrial food revolution that led to the political invention of government-subsidized proteins. That created the cheapest food in world history - measured in the number of hours of labor required to eat. Contemporary Americans are more distanced from hunger than any people who ever lived. But all things are relative and in today’s economic chaos, everyone is looking to cut their budget, including their food budget. If history is prelude, then new creativity will follow.


Already in Des Moines some chefs and restaurateurs are ingeniously breaking such eggs. In the Shops at Roosevelt, La Mie owner Joe Logsdon had a state of the art French bakery that was productively serving breakfast and lunch. He tried dinner service but it stretched his staff and hours and it wasn’t as productive. Tag Grandgeorge had been running the kitchens of some of the more interesting restaurants this decade - Arthouse and Grand Piano Bistro among them. After spending time in France and New York, he wanted something smaller and more French. Rent never sleeps, so Logsdon offered to share his space with Grandgeorge, who opened Le Jardin for dinner only, with an entirely different staff. Two of the city’s best cafés now have a better chance of turning a profit.


Jesus Ojeda came to Des Moines after the closing of Le Francaise, a legendary Illinois café that made most national critics’ short list of America’s best restaurants. He worked there under Don Yamaguchi, one of America’s most creative chefs. After a stint with George Formaro at Centro, he opened his own café El Chisme. Determined to make all his food from scratch, even in a little family diner, he realized that tortilla recipes could be easily changed to make pizza crusts with the same machinery. His creative spark began mixing slow foods of Mexico and Italy in cross cultural applications. Then he began making scratch pasta, everything from angel hair to lasagna sheets.


Sometimes, the best new ideas are old ideas. Like snout-to-tail eating, a hot new alternative to the modern decadence of raising entire animals for just a few choice cuts and shipping the rest off to fertilizer and pet food companies. Le’s Chinese BBQ has been cooking snout-to-tail for a years now with pigs, ducks and chickens. Old Castle recently custom-built a rotisserie large enough to roast three whole sheep at the same time. Customers can not only find lamb now, they can specify orders anatomically, a service that has been unavailable here for most of the last century. Norwalk’s La Quercia, producer of pork products for the nation’s best restaurants, is applying snout-to-tail thinking too. That company introduced new guanciale, pancetta, lonza, lardo, spallacia, and prosciutto products last year, all made from precious acorn-fed pigs. That pig diet had disappeared even in its Duchy of Parma homeland but snout-to-tail made it practical again.


Some economizing ideas go to extremes. One of Iowa Pork Council’s “best tenderloin” awardees, Larsen’s Pub recently served us a tenderloin sandwich on a very cold bun. When asked if it could be toasted, the owner replied, “To do that, we’d have to light the grill. So we don’t do that.”

Door County Cooking Schools

Where Multiple Personalities Are a Good Thing

Sometimes my bipolar bear Wroburlto tries to argue his way out his doctor’s appointment with deductive logic:

“If we are what we eat, then I can learn more about myself in cooking school than in psychotherapy.”

The more we travel, the more sense his argument makes to me. Recipes can be marvelous lessons in anthropology, history, ethnicity and human coping. For instance, we keep finding that immigrants are more apt to preserve heirloom recipes than the folks who remained in the old country. In a strange land, a recipe becomes a sacred touchstone to the family history and changes would be blasphemous. Back in the old country, the same recipe evolves as new ingredients and convenient short cuts become available. Today, you might have better luck finding authentic 19th century Bohemian dishes in Texas or Iowa than in Bohemia.

There’s always an old way and new way to cook the same thing. Often, the new ways develop to cope with environmental or economic crises. In the Iliad, Homer’s warriors roasted an entire ox over a blazing wood fire every 200 verses. By the Golden Age of Athens, wood were so scarce that the Greeks invented braziers and charcoal out of necessity. Maybe that’s where Plato got his line about “the mother of invention.”

Different schools in Door County, Wisconsin teach cooking from all points of the old versus new dilemma. So I decided to take Wro there for multifaceted sessions in the good eating -- and self analysis.

A Kingdom So Delicious

When French fur trader Pierre Esprit Radisson discovered the Door County peninsula in the late 1600’s, he dubbed it "A Kingdom So Delicious." That kicked off a three hundred year old tradition of converting the county’s abundance of fish, food and game into breakfast, lunch and dinner. National Geographic magazine used Radisson's quote as a title for a 1969 cover story that turned the county one of America's first culinary tourism destinations. These days food-oriented travelers visit to experience Door's unique variety of crops, its commercial fishing industry, organic farms, grass-fed ranches, a USDA Potato Gene Bank and cherry, grape and apple harvests.

Savory Spoon - State of the Kitchen Art

Three very different cooking schools allow them to apply the kingdom’s bounty in both old and new ways. Since Wro is a contemporary bear, we began our education at Michael and Janice Thomas’ Savory Spoon Cooking School and Marketplace (SS). From first impressions, you’d think this place was old fashioned. It occupies Ellison Bay’s original school house, opened in 1879. As Wro often says (about himself, usually) - don’t be fooled by first impressions. This place is state of the art.
Michael remodeled the old school house into a modern cook’s dream kitchen with: Wolf Sub Zero appliances; refrigerated drawers on a butchering island; warming drawers all over; plus a dishwasher that runs on a one minute cycle! From June through October, Janice teaches classes ($75) for up to 16 students. She runs culinary tours to France and other destinations in other months.

During our class, Janice divided students into teams and supervised us preparing a full menu of: pork tenderloin medallions in Port wine & cherry sauce; a salad of roasted apples, pecans, cherries and Black River blue cheese; a Swiss chard and black olive tart; green bears with orange and toasted maple pecans; and a blueberry tart.

Our menu turned out well, in large part because Janice stalked her students to prevent us from messing up her recipes. Wro, who likes to improvise in the kitchen, was supervised more than anyone else. SS distinguishes itself from most cooking schools by offering access to cutting edge tools of the trade. Even professional chefs can find things here they have never seen before. Best of all, we get to use and compare them.

For instance, Janice encouraged us to try out several different kinds of cutting boards: bamboo cutting boards to chop onions and inlaid walnut and oak cutting board to chop celery. We used more kinds of knives and knife sharpeners than I knew existed. We tried out three different tools that were designed just to peel garlic, though none worked for as well as our trusty old Chinese cleaver.

“Raspers for zest, rollers for garlic,” Janice advised as Wro appeared frustrated about so many apparatus options.

Her amazing pantry included things that I had only previously seen at the Fancy Foods Show - blood orange vinegar, Maldon salt, etc.. SS stocks a large inventory of trendy things. So if you fall in love with a new rasper or an old Himalayan salt, you can probably buy it after class.

I don’t believe I ever met anyone who was as familiar with so many different kitchen appliances, tools, gadgets and luxury condiments. If I ever have to throw a party in a brand new million dollar mansion, I would want Janice to help me inaugurate my kitchen. Coincidentally, she does that, frequently. Among several special services, she offers, “kitchen christenings.” People all over North America fly Janice into their new homes to help them throw its first party without the stress of wondering how their state of the art kitchen works. Like, what do you do with refrigerated drawers?

Washington Hotel - “Make-Do” Cookery

To get to our next session of self discovery, we had to cross Death’s Door. I’m not being dramatic. That’s the name of the strait between the Door County peninsula and Washington Island. Wisconsin’s largest island, at 36 square miles, it’s located just north of “the tension line” which marks the halfway point between the Equator and the North Pole. Although I am familiar with all kinds of tension, II never heard of that before Wisconsin. In Door County, someone brought it up every couple hours. I think it’s supposed to make you feel better about the choppy sea.

At the end of Highway 42 we luckily ran into Northport Pier and the Washington Island Ferry. Tip: Get there by 6:45 (or 4:30 in winter). Otherwise you will have to paddle a canoe to the island to be there before the next morning. If you get voted off the island, you have to get to the ferry by 6:15.

After vehicles ($24) and passengers ($11) were loaded on the deck, we took a 30-minute ride past nearby Plum, Pilot and Detroit Islands. Wro was told that he was making the same passage as: the Native Americans who paddled their canoes from island to island; French explorers who came to the area; and schooners that traveled the area a century ago. He enjoyed the rough ride more than his Mamabear did. I don’t like still water, let alone the kind that foams at the mouth and jumps up and down around your boat. I had to admit though, the ride was worth it.

In 1850 immigrants founded the second oldest Icelandic settlement in the US on the island. It quickly became a shipping center. Today it’s a friendly year-round home to 650 people and an destination for tens of thousands of visitors each year, mostly in summer. To my land-loving joy, one of the first things we saw after escaping the boat was the Washington Hotel - our reason for being there. Built by a ship captain, the hotel had been a service for boat workers during repairs. It quickly became a tourist attraction and culinary destination.

Current hotel owner Leah Caplan is a respected chef, spirits historian and Slow Food Movement guru. Her resume includes a Culinary Institute of America degree, and twenty years in top kitchens of Tokyo, New York, the Carolinas and Madison, Wisconsin. That latter town is home to America‘s best farmers market -- New York Times R. W. Apple proclaimed it that and no one else ever possessed as broad a perspective as he did. Leah worked closely there with a lot of local niche farmers and food artisans.
“Seven years ago I took a bite of an apple and immediately bought in to the Fresh & Local philosophy,” she told us. Once under its spell, she started looking for a place to expand its dogma. She found the hotel, or the hotel found her. Neither is sure which but they agree that they were made for each other.

“We’re just trying to keep the hotel’s tradition and revive farming and sustainable agriculture on the island in so doing,” Leah said.

Agriculture needed revival, almost nothing was being grown here when she bought the place. Leah’s first thought was to restore the local potato industry but the island couldn’t compete price-wise with industrial potatoes from out west. She figured that local agriculture would need to add value to its raw product to make sense, or dollars.

“We thought about vodka and potato chips,” Leah explained. By the time her thought process reached that point, she had built a bakery. It needed wheat more than it needed potatoes.

“Because local agriculture disappeared before the middle of the 20th century, there have never been any (agricultural) chemicals on the island. So organic wheat was easier to grow here than elsewhere. One farmer promised to grow 30 acres of it,” she recalled.

Caplan promised to buy whatever he produced. Ever since then she has made all the hotel’s pasta and bakery goods with Washington Island organic wheat. Her brick overn pizza are made with island wheat flour too. She now produces well-reviewed organic vodka, gin and whiskey from local grains. Two years ago, her Island Wheat Ale became the biggest selling new product in USA microbrewery history.

“And we still have wheat leftover, from just 30 acres,” she beamed, like a wise lady.

Caplan uses flax as a rotation crop every 3 years and has encouraged locals to diversify the island’s home grown bounty.

“A friend has organic chickens and wants organic chicken sausage. So we’re thinking about that for the flax,” she explained.

Even her recipe after thoughts are local. Death’s Door Gin uses Leah’s home grown juniper berries, coriander and fennel. She says that maybe the new sustainable agriculture will reverse a 70 year trend of young people leaving the island after high school.

“The bigger hope is that sustainable food economy will stop the exodus of kids from the island - by offering an industry other than tourism, which is too seasonal to support families here. We want to grow 100 per cent of the products we need here and revive fishing too. There are only two fishermen left on the island,” Caplan explained.

Only whitefish and their by-catch, the burbot, can be commercially fished without limits. So, of course, Leah uses burbot (a.k.a. eelpout) even though it has a two day shelf life and can’t be frozen.

“It’s called the lawyer fish, because it’s heart is in its ass,” she laughed.

To facilitate sustainability, Leah installed steam showers instead of Jacuzzis and only uses organic bed linens in the hotel. She burns used butcher paper and cloths in her ovens. The restaurant buys island raised beef and lamb and uses the whole animal in the kitchen.

Caplan employs twenty people at the hotel, including her mom and cousins. She also owns a coffeehouse in Madison that uses island-made products too, especially brick oven goods.

“That way I can keep a baker employed year around,” she explained.

As you might have guessed, Leah’s cooking school is as different from the Savory Spoon‘s as Hannah Glasse is different from Martha Stewart. Leah’s courses include “Oneida Life Sustenance” “Indian Cuisine in the Heartland” and “Cave Aged Cheese.” Big events include Caplan’s “Juniper Harvest and Cooking with Spirits Weekend” (each November) and “A Meal in a Wheatfield” each July.

Wro and I learned to make crepes and then tried some of Leah’s inventive products - homemade vanilla extract, made by marinating vanilla beans in vodka.

“Vodka livens acidity, which is why it’s so good with citrus,” she told Wro.

There were no Savory Spoon type amenities here.

“I am a make-do chef. I make crepes, lots of them, and I have never used a crepe pan in my life. A frying pan will do fine for me, thank you,” she said laughing while showing Wro how to flip a crepe without a crepe pan.

Inn at Kristoffer’s

Door County’s third exceptional cooking school had a very different genesis. After careers in mortgage writing, public relations and fund raising, Terri and Christopher Milligan decided to open a restaurant in Door County. They expanded their vision to included a cooking school in 1993 when they found the perfect location adjacent to a marina in the adorable village Sister Bay. Former corporate exec Christopher manages the front of the house while Terri manages the kitchen.

Unrestrained by the limitations of Washington Island’s sustainable agriculture, Terri is able to focus on fresh and local foods that would be comfortable in San Francisco or New York. Both her school and restaurant set a cosmopolitan table based around her back yard garden, the woods and the bay.

On our visit, sous chef Eric Thomas had discovered a surprise special ingredient for the menu - wild chanterelles. Terri said he also finds marvelous wild cepps in fall and morels in the spring. A relaxing ambiance and Terri’s warm personality made the inn a perfect place for us to wind up our lessons and sessions. We lingered over a four hour dinner as the setting sun turned Green Bay blue, red and then black.

I start salivating just recalling all the marvelous things we ate there. Caesar salad featured local lettuce too young and fresh to be out after dark - so we ate it fast before the sun set. Zucchini fritters were accented with mint from Terri’s restaurant garden and served with the best chutney (apricot and cherry) anywhere. Green Bay whitefish was pan fried in cashew flour and served on a chantrelle and crawfish risotto, with a lemongrass lobster broth finish. Salmon was baked in parchment paper with fresh vegetable. Brie was topped with local apples, figs, blackberries and cherries that had been cooked in sweetened cinnamon brandy.

Pumpkin caramel custard and crème brulee (burnt tableside) were as rich as the greens were fresh. Local currants, blueberries, cherries and even bumble berries all made their way into a pie.

I know that sounds like a lot of desserts and it was. Then we found out that Terri and Eric made Tart Tatin, the most famous upside down food in the world. We indulged in that puff pastry of French kings, for purposes of self discovery.

Evaluating the three psycho-culinary sessions, Wro and I concluded:

~ Savory Spoon is the best place to go if you need discipline, or if you want to try out the latest in kitchen gadgetry or technology.
~ Washington Hotel is the best place to go if you want to save the world from industrial food, or just to experience the joys of old fashioned cooking, coping and flavors.
~ The Inn at Kristofer’s is the best place to go if you want to enjoy magnificent cosmopolitan food in delightful ambiance.

If you have three personalities, like some of us, then you need to experience all three.

If You Go

Savory Spoon Cooking School
12042 Highway 42
Ellison Bay, WI 54210, 920-854-6600
www.savoryspoon.com

Washington Hotel & Cooking School
354 Range Line Road
Washington Island, WI 54246, 920-847-2169
www.thewashingtonhotel.com

The Inn at Kristofer's10716 N. Bay Shore Dr.Sister Bay, WI 54235, 920-854-9419
www.innatkristofers.com

Lodging
Washington Hotel
354 Range Line Road
Washington Island, WI 54246, 920-847-2169
www.thewashingtonhotel.com

Landmark Resort4955 Landmark Circle Unit 4215, Egg Harbor, WI 54209, 920- 868-3205www.thelandmarkresort.com

Outdoor pool, indoor pool, hot tubs, fireplace in lobby, steam rooms, fitness center, game room, tennis court, shuffleboard court, volleyball court, basketball court, laundromat

White Gull Inn 4225 Main Street ~ PO Box 160 ~ Fish Creek, WI 54212, 888-364-9542 www.whitegullinn.com
Exquisite antique furnishings and a fabulous dining room anchor this inn that has been part of county lore for three centuries. Walking distance to the county's best shopping too.

Recipes

Janice Thomas’ Port & Cherry Wine Sauce (for pork medallions)
2/3 cup port
1/3 cup cherry wine
Half cup dried cherries, chopped
Half cup fresh tart cherries, chopped
1 ½ cups chicken stock
2 teaspoons fresh chopped thyme

Place saute pan over medium heat and add port, cherry wine and
cherries. Boil until reduced by half, scraping bottom of pan while
reducing. Add stock, thyme and additional juices from your entree.
Boil sauce until it becomes slightly thick. Add your cooked meat and
reheat. Serve on warm platter with garnish of fresh thyme.

Terri Milligan’s Pumpkin Creme Caramel

Makes 7 to 8 depending on the size of your ramekins

Caramel1 cup sugar1/3 cup water
Pumpkin Custard6 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks1 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree1/2 teaspoon cinnamon1/4 teaspoon ginger1/4 t. ground cloves2 teaspoons vanilla extract or one split vanilla bean2/3 cup sugar1 1/2 cups milk1/4 teaspoon salthot tap water for baking custards

Lightly spray eight 7 to 8-ounce ramekins with non-stick spray such as PAM (or lightly butter them). I prefer to use ramekins that have straight edges as it makes unmolding easier.In a heavy saucepan, combine the sugar and water. Cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. DO NOT STIR. Swirl the pan by the handle if you need to combine the ingredients.Raise the heat once the sugar is melted and cook until the mixture begins to turn a deep caramel color (about 10 to 15 minutes).

When caramelized, carefully pour the mixture evenly on the bottom of the 7 or 8 ramekins. Tilt the ramekins to make sure the bottoms are completely covered with caramel.Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, egg yolks, pumpkin and spices.In a small saucepan, heat the milk with the vanilla extract or the split vanilla bean. Carefully pour the milk into the egg mixture, whisking the combine. If using a vanilla bean, remove the split bean from the mixture. Divide the mixture evenly among the ramekins. Place the ramekins in a baking pan with sides at least 2 inches high. Pour enough hot tap water in the pan to go up halfway on the outside of the ramekins.Place the baking pan with the ramekins in the preheated oven and bake for approximately 60 minutes or until the center of the custards are set.Remove from the oven. Carefully lift the ramekins from the water bath. Let them cool for about 30 minutes then place them in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or overnight if possible.
To unmold, take a small paring knife and loosen the sides of the custard. Invert onto a dessert plate and garnish with whipped cream and chopped pecans if desired.

Janet Thomas’ Fresh Blueberry Tart

Crust
1 cup flour
Half cup unsalted butter, softened
Pinch of salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. white vinegar
Place flour, sugar, salt and sugar in food processor and pulse five
times until it appears to be ground meal. Add vinegar and pulse till it
comes together like a mass. Press doough into a 9 inch tart pan with a
removable bottom and up the side to creat a strong edge.

Filling
3 cups blueberries
Half cup cugar
2 Tbsp. Flour
¼ tsp. Cinnamon
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Toss sugar, flour and cinnamon with two cups of rinsed berries. Pour those into prepared pastry. Bake at 400 degrees F for 45
minutes to an hour.
Remove from oven and immediately top with the remaining
berries. Let cool for 30 minutes and remove from the pan. Slice and
serve.

Terri Milligan’s Salmon with Spring Vegetables in Papillot

Serves 6
6 tablespoons hoisin sauce
(available in the Oriental section of most supermarkets)
2/3 cup orange juice
2 cloves of garlic, minced
six 8-ounce salmon filets, skin removed and pin-boned
24 pieces of fresh asparagus
1 zucchini, julienne sliced
1 yellow squash, julienne sliced
1 red bell pepper, julienne sliced
zest of one orange
6 pieces of parchment paper - approximately 24 inch squares
Combine the hoisin sauce, orange juice and garlic in a mixing bowl. Place salmon filets in a glass pan. Pour marinade over the
salmon pieces, turning to coat. Refrigerate in the marinade for 30 minutes.
Combine the zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper in a bowl. Unfold one of the pieces of parchment paper. Place 1/6th of thevegetable mixture on the paper, approximately 2 inches from the center crease. Place a piece of marinated salmon on top of the vegetables. Top with 4 asparagus spears and a few pieces of orange zest. Carefully fold in the edges of the parchment to seal, starting at the top of the heart.
Place on a large baking sheet. You should be able to place three
salmon on a sheet pan, depending on their size. You do not want to
over crowd them. Repeat process to make a total of 6 salmon
papillots.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the
oven and transfer the packets to serving plates. Carefully slit open
the top of the paper to let the steam escape and expose the cooked
fish. Serve fish in the paper.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Slice off tips of the asparagus.
Trim and discard the tough lower end of the asparagus and cut the
spear in half crosswise. Slice each asparagus half into very thin
matchsticks and transfer to a medium bowl. Reserve asparagus
tips in another container.
Fold each piece of parchment in half. Cut into a large heart
shape. The paper should look like a large valentine.

Terri Milligan’s Apricot and Door County Cherry Chutney
Makes approximately 3 cups
Serve this delicious chutney on crackers with a piece of montrachet or
bleu cheese. It's also great with grilled pork tenderloin, chicken breast
or duck!
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
1 large garlic clove, chopped
1 1/2 cups chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup dried Door County cherries
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
a pinch of cayenne pepper
a pinch of salt
approximately 2 cups water - or as needed to just cover mixture
In a food processor or blender, combine the vinegar, ginger and garlic. Pulse to combine the ginger and garlic with the vinegar.
Pour into a nonreactive heavy medium saucepan. Add the remaining ingredients and pour in enough water to barely cover. Stir well.
Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar. Cook slowly stirring oven to avoid scorching, until the chutney thickens and the liquid is syrupy - about 45 minutes to one hour. Cool completely before serving.
Store, covered, in the refrigerator or can for future use.

Going Coastal in Mobile

Because Wro loves costume parties, he had been suggesting we visit the Carnival city of Mobile, Alabama for a long time. He finally convinced me with a photograph of a restaurant sign there - “Happy Hour Oysters 25 cents.”

True Love

It took all day to fly there commercially so we were famished when we arrived. Fortunately, Wro made reservations at Wesley True’s place - True. Wesley is a Mobile home boy who spent a decade sharpening his knives in cutting edge cafés like Oxford, Mississippi’s City Grocery and Manhattan’s Danube, Bouley, Mesa Grill, Gordon Ramsey’s, Public and Aquavit. After that Wesley called his daddy in Mobile and asked if he thought the old home town was ready for a culinary bump-up.

Daddy Rick met us for dinner and said he built the restaurant in 40 days - I guess he didn’t waste anytime thinking about the answer to his son’s question. He also said he knew Wesley had some culinary talent when, years before he had any training, he threw out the salsa and chips his father had purchased for a family reunion and made both from scratch with fresh ingredients.

Mobile is a traditional food town and Wesley doesn’t rock the boat too much. You can find down home favorites like shrimps & grits or speckled trout with conecuh sausage on the menu, along with filet mignon. His wine cellar covers a wide spectrum. He also offers a tasting menu, by reservation only, that allows guests to enjoy what he learned working with guys like Marcus Samuelson, John Currence, David Bouley and Brad Farmerie.
Ours began with a poached shrimp, oysters and caviar appetizer plated with cauliflower root chantilly and celery sea foam doused in chllied dashi and shrimp broth. This was a marvelous entry level offering, for both the dinner and those wetting their feet in the waters of contemporary cuisine. Tastes and essences were reconstructed but without altering one’s expectations. A shrimp was still a shrimp.

Wro and I had oysters on our mind so we applauded Wesley’s oysters three ways: with celery sea foam and yuzu gelee; with Bloody Mary sorbet; and with beet mignonette. Our next course presented divine local snapper, skin-on and too fresh to be out of the water after dark. He was served with braised artichokes, Meyer lemon confit, bacon veloute and home made black truffle, which our waiter applied tableside from a French coffee press.

Next up was a roast duck breast, flavored with saffron, served on a coconut reduction and plated with pineapple, a pine nut puree and vanilla-pickled chili salad. Good dancing partners.

True’s pastry chef Kaylan Roma then presented a strawberry trio: a consommé, with pistacchio ice cream; and as a cream whipped with brandy. Her second dessert course brought a chocolate fondant cake with a cocoa nib tuille, vanilla bean ice cream and raspberries.

Having multiple desserts always helps me sleep. We checked into our room at the Marriott Riverfront and slept like oysters in a bay.

Historic Mobile

Mobile is a dream destination for little boys, not just the ones who like to play dress up and dine in fine restaurants. The town’s history is filled with pirates, war heroes and baseball superstars. We began our first full day at the 1857 (some say 1856) National Landmark building that had served as both the Southern Market and the Old City Hall. Our docent told us that it was also a slave market until 1860.

Mobile is America’s original melting pots. Six flags have flown over the city - French, Spanish, British, Alabama, the Confederacy and the USA. The Native Americans who preceded them all didn’t fly flags. Unlike most of Mobile, we were told that the Southern Market was always integrated for both vendors and shoppers. One display interested Wro, who often thinks he is Irish. It showed how cotton was loaded for market in 500 pound bales moved on steep chutes. Slaves worked the top of the chutes and Irish laborers the bottoms because “Slaves were worth far more than Irishmen.”

We learned in another display that Mobile probably produced more great baseball players per capita than any American city - Hank Aaron, Billy Williams, Satchel Paige, Ozzie Smith, Willie McCovey, Amos Otis, Milt & Frank Bolling and Eddie Stankey - all home town products. The original pro team here was named the Iron Acid Earth BB Club. We tried in vain to purchase T shirts with their logo - Wro reasoned that it’s probably been trademarked by a rock band.

A temporary exhibit celebrated pirates. Among the trivia gleaned there: Mobile’s founder was a pirate named Iberville; The pirate Laurens de Graaf was a mulatto freelancer who always employed musicians on his ship; John Lambert was the cruelest of the pirates of the Caribbean, he retired to Mobile and opened a butcher shop where he once nailed a worker to the wall by his ears; A Civil War superhero named Rafael Semmes resembled the fictional Rhett Butler in many ways. During the Civil War, he captured 64 Union vessels. On our visit, he captured Wro’s heart.

We learned a lot about Mobile’s cast iron industry, which built the lovely grills and lattices one associates with the French Quarter of New Orleans. Much of Mobile’s finest work was melted down for the WWII effort and the industry never recovered.

Mobile languished after the Civil War until WWII, when the ship building industry led an exponential population growth. Ship builders like Ostral still lead the local economy as was apparent from our hotel room window.

A block from the museum Wro found the French Fort Condé which protected Mobile from pirates, Brits and Spaniards from 1723-1820. The current Fort Condé, about a third the size of the original fort, is recreated in 4/5 scale, and opened in 1976 as part of Mobile’s United States bicentennial celebration.

MS Holiday - One Huge Kitchen

We crossed the street and boarded the MS Holiday of Carnival Cruise Lines for a Bon Voyage tour of the ship. Wro and I met the galley steward who told us about planning for 12,000 meals a day for two weeks! Yikes, we complain about how hard it is to plan a one-time cooking show and dinner for 100 people.

The food & beverage manager on this ship shops for 8000 pounds of beef, 5000 pounds of seafood, 3000 pounds of pork, 7500 pounds of fruit and vegetables, 4500 pounds of flour, 1400 pounds of sugar, 600 gallons of ice cream, 900 gallons of juice, 12,000 gallons of milk and 3600 eggs. That’s his shopping list when they dock in Mobile.

While touring the ship’s lounges we learned that some specialize in weddings, others in renewal vows and others in karaoke. We were told that each week, the ship’s guests drink 16,000 soft drinks, 20.950 beers, 4000 bottle of wine and about 3000 liters of booze. I was sort of relieved that we were only staying for lunch.

We helped the food & beverage manager make room in his kitchen by consuming: crab cakes on a cured cucumber salad; a course of spaghetti with stewed eggplants and fresh mozzarella; charred strip loin of beef with heavenly truffled mac & cheese; cured tomato and broccoli Provencal; a salmon medallion with baby shrimp and lemon artichoke essence; and chocolate cake with ice cream. All were served on a lavish linen and silver-set table with impeccable service.

Mardi Gras Museum & Joe Cain Lore

After lunch we paraded to the Mardi Gras Museum, to the tune of a song by Mobile native Jimmy Buffet about margaritas. That museum parties-on in an old funeral parlor - not a typical party atmosphere but Mobile is not a typical party town. We learned that Mobile’s Mardi Gras differs from New Orleans. The queens’ trains are so heavy here that they require ball bearings. I am not making that up! The trains are made new each year - a ninth month process which has created a local industry. Wro asked what it takes to become a queen. Our docent explained that “the queen must not be a nerd. She represents the city.”

The super hero of Mobile’s party scene is Joe Cain (1832-1904). He revived Mardi Gras from the ashes of Reconstruction by appearing as Slacabamorinico, chief of the Chickasaw. Joe defiantly rode a coal wagon through the streets of town on Shrove Tuesday and the good times have been rolling ever more. In 1967, Joe’s grave was moved from Bayou La Batre to the Church Street Graveyard in downtown Mobile. A year later Joe Cain Day was proclaimed a holiday in Mobile. Today The Order of Joe Cain’s Merry Widows worship and mourn there. This being Mobile, they throw a party at his grave every year. Conversations, we were told, go like this:

“He loved me the most.”

“No you lying slut, he loved me more.”

BBQ and Science

Stories about slut fights in old funeral parlors always make us hungry. So we moved uptown and had a snack at Saucy-Q Bar BQ, a place that had been recommended to us by good authorities: 1.) our housekeeping staff; 2.) the hotel’s front desk; and 3.) a full crew of city workers.

The Elbert Wingfield family has been running this barbecue and soul food joint, at different locations, since 1990. The insiders we talked to particularly recommended Elbert’s whole and half chickens. Thank you too much. We also tried his ribs, pork shoulders and sausage, plus some collard greens, red beans & rice, mac & cheese and a knuckle sandwich. Since this was only a snack, we split one dessert - a sweet potato pie.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center. The museum is designed with interactive exhibits which somehow made medical science interesting and fun for easily distracted boys like Wro. He actually learned a few things about his body in the interactive exhibit “My Body Works.” He even got to practice virtual open heart surgery. I learned that my blood pressure was high, duh.

Having explored five hundred years of history and party lore, plus a cruise ship, I was exhausted and decided to relax in our hotel all evening. That easy to do in any of the Marriott’s of Mobile which include three super properties: the historic Grand Hotel and Battle House; plus the modern Renaissance Riverfront. All have extensive collections of Alabama art, including folk art which appeals to us for its playful whimsy.

In the Harbor Room of the Renaissance Riverfront, we dined amidst several paintings by Nall, a legendary Alabama artist and gallery owner. Our maitre d’ pointed out that Nall likes to include male sex organs in every painting. After digesting that amusement, we munched on some veal meatballs on fresh greens and a two soups - a ginger shrimp bisque, which is a good idea, and a divine cream of cauliflower with Port drizzle, which is an even better idea.

Wro ordered angel hair pasta with white beans, dried tomatoes, spinach, garlic and truffled chevre. I seized a rare opportunity to try some Ashley Farm chicken. That North Carolina company is raising heritage breeds and other fowl that I heard about all the way out in Des Moines. I expected a small bird but my half chicken weighed over two pounds. Served with roast leeks and mashed potatoes, it was down home cooking, to the exponential factor.

Somehow we made room for dessert - doughnuts of cinnamon cake crumb with custard. We crawled back to the room while enjoying Alabama art along the way.

Damn the Torpedoes, Eat the Oysters

We began our third day by driving to Dauphin Island. Wro wanted to see Fort Gaines where Admiral Farragut ( "another hottie sailor") issued his famous command “Damn the torpedoes full speed ahead.” The island and the bay have changed more than the fort, which was designed short and squat, to hide from enemy ships. Ralph Oalmenn, a friendly soldier, explained that the fort was about 900 yards from the Gulf during the Civil War but it’s only 12 yards away now.

Ralph also showed us why the US Army used to require infantrymen to possess “two teeth that touched.” You needed them to load an Enfield musket. Among the other trivia we learned: The USS Alabama carried 600 pounds of gunpowder -- a broadside firing made the ship float sideways; Fort Gaines’ soldiers were poisoned to death by its cisterns which used oyster shells for filters. The shells acid leached lethal quantities of lead from the cistern lining.

At the nearby Estuarium at Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory, a former Air Force base has been converted into a K- 12 learning center owned by the Alabama Board of Education. They practice better environment methods than the fort did - permeable parking lots, for instance! Either Mobile or Seattle leads the nation every year in rainfall, so these are worth their cost, which right now is triple the cost of asphalt.

We learned about the famous “Jubilees” which occur when bottom feeding fish are thrust into shallow water by oxygen starvation which is caused by heavy rain pouring into the bay. Crab, shrimp, flounder, eels and other demersal fish thus become so easy to catch that huge crowds flock here at least once a year

Our docent told us what we began to suspect from the way Fort Gaines has gone coastal since the Civil War.

“Dauphin Island is the poster child for federal abuse of a natural barrier island.”

We learned that goats used to frolic here, climbing the hills to escape the alligators. Oyster reefs used to attract all kinds of turtles. The Estuarium is trying to rebuild the marsh with hope that the old denizens will return. Inside the facility we met some very good looking fellows: horse shoe crabs; giants snails and sport fin hogfish.

So far, it’s inconclusive if a man-made marsh can work. There’s lots of march grass growing but no shrimp yet.

Michael’s Downtown

Manmade marshes always make us hungry so we checked out Michael’s Downtown. Chef Michael Ivey has a quite a story. Twenty years ago he opened Michael’s Midtown where he put his own personal mark on southern cooking with lighter, Mediterranean touches like cooking collard greens in olive oil instead of lard and ham hocks.

Michael championed fresh & local food and slow food long before anyone here was using those terms. Then in 2000, he was diagnosed with hepatitis C and closed his bistro. While recuperating and waiting for a liver transplant, he cooked at a homeless shelter downtown. Things got worse and forced him to sell his home and spend his savings on day-to-day living. In 2007, Michael got a new liver and then remodeled an old building downtown. He serves a completely new menu daily, based on what’s fresh, local and sustainable.

In a party mood, Wro tried some crab macque choux (a corn chowder associated with Mardi Gras). I went with soft shell crab meuniere. Then we shared fresh gulf snapper with a fresh salsa, enchiladas of smoked duck in mole and a cheesecake with fresh strawberries. We should all cook like our health depended on the recipes!

Feeling healthy, we motored out to Mobile Bay’s landmark Bellingrath Gardens, 900 acres along the Fowl River where Bessie Bellingrath famously transformed her husband Walter’s fishing and hunting camp into a formal garden that could have pleased a French king. Bessie's 10,000 square foot home is furnished in antiques that made her the delight of dealers in New Orleans, where she was famous for paying top dollar. On our visit, people were celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the camellia becoming Alabama’s state flower, replacing the goldenrod.

Trellis Room

Camellia celebrations always make us hungry so we returned downtown to enjoy Mobile’s ultimate dining indulgence - the Trellis Room of the Battle House Hotel. Because Wro likes to play dress up, we first toured the hotel’s Crystal Room - the preferred site of debutante parties and Mardi Gras balls for over a hundred years.

Built on the site of Andrew Jackson’s headquarters in the War of 1812, Battle House history dates from 1852. Stephen Douglas was staying here the night he lost the Presidency to Abe Lincoln. Woodrow Wilson made his famous speech about the US never waging war again here. Today, a brand new skyscraper addition brings modern amenities to the hotel’s historic gravity. Adjoining the gorgeous lobby, the Trellis Room is all about tradition, with a barrel vaulted ceiling and a Tiffany glass skylight. Mr. George Moore greeted us with some stories from his half century of service there.

Chef Charles Meraday comes from Goldsboro, N.C. a town dear to our hearts. It’s the culinary center of Eastern Carolina and home to Wilber Shirley, the master smokehouse guru of pig country.

Charles had the good sense to bring some Carolina chickens to Alabama, the same Ashley Farms birds we enjoyed at Harbor Room. He searches the country for similar products of distinction.
We began dinner with an Alabama wild shrimp platter, served on risotto cakes with a tomato confit. Then we had some silver dollar crab cakes with roasted pepper relish in a Chianti reduction. We followed that with a little filet of real Kobe beef with braised shallots and thyme jus.
We moved into a second course of Caesar salad, with Parmesan crisps and a squash bisque with poached lobster tail and pumpkin seed oil. The "catch of the day" brought grouper with some mushroom risotto, spinach and white truffle oil.

That wasn’t Charles’ pairing, it was a special request of Wro’s, for bipolar bear reasons I think. I was impressed how cheerfully his whim was granted. I had filet of prime beef, because the Kobe appetizer was so good I still craved beef. This came with root vegetables and a potato gratin. We barely had room for desserts but we rallied because it was our last night in Alabama. We started with a cherry trio of a tart, ice cream and soup. Then we moved into the crème brulee phase of the evening, with vanilla bean version that paired well with roasted strawberry cheesecake.

Wro said that he dreamed that night about having his debutante ball in Crystal Room. I dreamed of cherry soup and dancing crab cakes.

We did a little shopping the next morning before heading to a Mobile landmark for the opening bell at Wintzell's.

Wintzell’s

Cigar chomping J. Oliver Wintzell opened the original Wintzell’s Oyster House. in 1938 as a six stool oyster bar. His family sold the place in 1980 but J. Oliver’s wall of home spun wisdom remains in tact.

Since J. Oliver’s time, the place has been known for oyster’s “fried, stewed or nude.” We started with two dozen naked ones - big old boys, Apalachiolas, the oyster that, legend has it, inspired the original Oysters Rockefeller (at Antoine’s in New Orleans for John D. Rockefeller). Personally, neither Wro nor I understand why anyone would cook fresh oysters when they taste so good raw. Big Joe Evans doesn’t understand either. He holds the record at Wintzell’s for eating 403 raw oysters in one hour. I fell short in my effort to get my name on the wall. Obviously, two dozen wasn’t enough, we doubled up. That was for starters.
Then we tried some West Indies salad - the recipe of which is so simple it only requires one sentence -

“Mix lump and claw crab meat in equal proportions, add chopped onions and marinate in red wine vinegar for 24 hours.”

An oyster sampler included three cooked versions of the specialty of the Bay. Gumbo delivered deep flavor and natural okra thickener.
For entrees we tried some fried Gulf shrimp and fried catfish, a compulsory part of southern dining. I remember eating some boiled red skin potatoes, sweet cole slaw and home made bread pudding. Those Apalachiolas have a way of making people forget about everything except them. Just ask Big Joe Evans.

When we checked in at the airport, we regretted that we had not also ordered the fried riblets and the banana pudding. As soon as we told the ticket agent we’d eaten at Wintzel's, she asked if we had enjoyed those two items. Now we have a new reason to come back to Mobile.

If you go

General information

www.mobilechamber.com

Hotels

Renaissance Riverfront Plaza, 64 South Water St., Mobile, AL 36602, 866-749-6073, http://www.pchresorts.com/

Grand Hotel Marriott Resort, One Grand Boulevard, P.O. Box 639 Point Clear, Alabama 36564 251-928-9201 www.pchresorts.com

Battle House, 26 N Royal St., Mobile, AL 36602, 251-338-2000, www.pchresorts.com

Attractions

Dauphin Island Sea Lab
101 Bienville Blvd
Dauphin Island, AL 36528
Phone: 251-861-2141
www.disl.org/

Fort Gaines
251/861-6992
51 Bienville Boulevard
Dauphin Island, Alabama 36528
www.dauphinisland.org/fort.htm

Bellingrath Gardens & Home, 12401 Bellingrath Gardens Road, ,Theodore, Alabama, 36582, 251.973.2217 www.bellingrath.org

Mardi Gras Museum, 355 Government St., Mobile, AL , 251-432-3324

Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center and IMAX Dome Theater, 65 Government St.,Mobile, AL 36602, www.exploreum.com

Carnival Cruise Line, 201 South Water St., Mobile, AL 36602, 888-744-7662, www.carnival.com

The Museum of Mobile
111 South Royal Street
P.O. Box 2068, Mobile, AL, 36602, 251-208-7569, www.museumofmobile.com

Fort Conde, 150 South Royal Street, Mobile, AL 36602, 251-208-7569, www.mobile.org/html/conde

Restaurants

True, 9 Du Rhu Drive, Mobile, AL, 251-344-3334, www.truedine.com

Michael's Downtown,101 N. Conception St., 251-473-5908

Wintzell’s,605 Dauphin St., Mobile, AL 36602, 251.432.4605, www.wintzellsoysterhouse.com

Saucy-Q Bar B Que, 1111 Government St, Mobile, AL 36604, 251-433-7427, http://saucyqbbq.com

Trellis Room at the Battle House, 26 N Royal St., Mobile, AL 36602, 251-338-2000, www.pchresorts.com

The Harbor Room, 64 South Water St., Mobile, AL 36602, 866-749-6073, http://www.pchresorts.com/