My mother is astonished when I say she was a good cook but she really was. Being Southern we of course had very good pork products. When I moved to California I gave up on pork products (with the exception of the pork chops at the Daily Grill and the BLTs from the Kokomo Cafe in the Farmers market) because the quality was so poor. Now that I'm Jewish (over 16 years since my visit to the Mikveh) I totally avoid treyf. The point being that for proper Southern fried chicken you cooked it in bacon grease that you collected each morning when you cooked breakfast. That was the best but no one does that anymore … too unhealthy.  Mom was a full-time chocoholic and would make her own chocolate icing from scratch using baker's chocolate. She ruined all commercial chocolate cake for me … except the high-end stuff. Dad did a killer lamb curry (he was in India for part of World War 2) and a pretty decent chile con carne.

A side note for food nostalgia buffs. When the Reform Judaism biennial was in Atlanta, Georgia back in 1995 my wife Ellen took me to the Merrimac Cafe* where they serve southern food like your grandmother (if you're my age) would have put out for Sunday dinner. I was awash with food nostalgia and taste flashbacks and was glad I went. I do hope the place  is still in business. I would recommend it to all. I sincerely doubt if they fry chicken in bacon grease … if they did I would not just be tempted by treyf but might give in.

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*Alas … a quick web search seems to indicate that the place no longer exists. There is a Mary Mac's Tea Room  and there is a chain called Merrimac Restaurants but is there anyone in the Altlanta area that knows of the place I'm describing? 

opticalguy1954@yahoo.com (Spencer Gill)
Last Edited By: opticalguy Apr 1 11 10:05 AM. Edited 3 times.