Deep South culinary delights

As soon as I typed that title, I thought, "Someone - Dale, for example - will come along and lecture me on how Canadians don't know the South from the Deep South and that North Carolina isn't anywhere near the Deep South."

To which I say: accents, heat and humidity, and food like hush puppies. Deep South enough from my perspective.

Again, no work chat on this blog, but a dip into a work-related thing (and heck, why not? I blog social activities when I'm away at library conferences, after all).

These, my friends, are some of the culinary delights I experiences last week in Chapel Hill. No, that is not snark. I rather enjoyed the food I ate, simple as that.

For starters (though not a the first meal), I had lizard chips. How cool would it be if they actually were going out to the back yard, snaring some iguanas (they must roam free in those tropical climes, right?) and slice and dice them into tasty chips? Well, maybe not, and I admit the name was a little too bar-food chic/cheesy. But come on, pickles and jalapeno rings batter dipped and fried? Good stuff.

The South is known for barbecue. A lot of places are known for barbecue, of course. In this case, it was a vinegary-tasting shredded pork dish - pulled pork for the one or two of you in Canada who are reading this.
Don't look at me like that: it's not common outside of the South, truly. The Hopping John on the plate, however, was nothing more special than rice, beans,and salsa. The collard greens, not pictured, were fine. That was at a place called Crook's Corner on the Tuesday night. Good as it was, the dessert was better: banana pudding. Nicely done, topped with a fluff of meringue lightly browned. Good.

Dianne and Meredith do not look happy with the meal, and fairly so: the vegetarian option wasn't quite as good as what we had. But see? Carolyn and Jake also partook of the barbecue-laden Carolina sampler and were mighty happy.

Back to the home of lizard chips, the Top of the Hill. Oddly, I didn't photograph my steak dinner, a tender and tasty piece of meat. Instead, I caught Dianne, happier with her dinner, portabello grits cakes. Oh, and Richard,
the adorable and whipsmart roomie from this past week. I don't know what he had for dinner, however. Steak?

My last night in Chapel Hill I went with Dianne and Meredith, Jason and Hilde (shown in the photo) for some music and a drink on the lawn of the Carolina Inn. Hilde went back to the dorms after that, but the rest of us continued on to the Carolina Brewery for dinner. Cheap, and good beer. Jason's Tarheel Burger looked impressive, I admit. I had the barbecue again, and it was fine, but not as good as the Tuesday night meal. Dessert was lovely, though: gelato from a little sweets shop in the thick of the Franklin Street crowd. A cup of pistachio and pomegranate gelati brought out my best come-hither look. And that capped a week of North Carolina dining quite well, I do think.