What's your cookin'?

Throughout the semester, we have hinted a lot about southern food through stereotypes, generalizations, and media. With Bastard Out of Carolina, the concept of southern food comes up yet again with Mama Anney working in a diner. Dorothy Allison goes into detail about the diner food when Glen first visits Anney at work with Anney's brother. So, I thought for this week, we focus on finding information on Southern food; it's your turn to interpret this openly: from opinions to a focus on a certain restaurant.

Here is my response:

So another reason I wanted this topic is I wanted to chance to explore one of my close friend's favorite place to eat, Cracker Barrel. My friend was really craving good ole' Southern food and did not want to go Cracker Barrel. So we drove up to Canton, GA to go eat at his favorite Cracker Barrel which I marked on the map. So after eating there in Canton, my interests sparked upon the history of this Old Country Store. I discovered that Dan Evins established the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store as somewhat of what we now call rest stops. Basically, he wanted a "home-y and trustworthy"all-in-one stop for travelers that provided gasoline, a good meal, candy, and a place to rest from the road. The name came from old country stores he used to visit where "the stores were a community's unofficial meeting place where folks gathered around a barrel full of saltine crackers to visit with friends and trade some common sense wisdom."



Also, I think Cracker Barrel represents the South in many ways other than just their country cookin'. For example, they believe in a social responsibility that they phrase as "Pleasing People." This reminds me of the concept of Southern Hospitality in Southern Culture. During my visit, everyone in the store and the restaurant were extremely nice and caring and made you feel like you were at home. Moreover, the place was so packed that we had to wait for around an hour and a half. That just proves how much people love the hospitality that Cracker Barrel provides.

So your turn: what's the southern cookin' around you?!