When one thinks of Southern food, fried dishes often come to mind. Well last weekend, that stereotype was 100% true!

On Saturday, Adam, Kiwi, Sarah and I went out to eat at Seafood Junction Too in Byhalia, MS. Byhalia is about 15 minutes south of Memphis. Kiwi used to work at this place about two years ago and since I love seafood, I was looking forward to it.

It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, however. Granted I do live in the South, there are very few times that I actually find myself saying “wow, this is VERY southern”. Saturday was one of those rare occasions

Adam and I decided on the buffet, which was filled with all kinds of seafood and other fried foods, some I had never tried before.

Adam is demonstrating the proper way to eat fried frog legs. I tried frog legs too, but only ate one leg… wasn’t too thrilled with the taste. And no, it really didn’t taste much like chicken lol.

Overall the food was really good, especially the shrimp and fried catfish. Oh, and the chocolate brownie dessert was absolutely delicious! I would definitely go back to Seafood Junction Too just for the shrimp and catfish

MMMmmm, BBQ heaven!

On Sunday, I got a chance to try another new fried food: fried broccoli. Kiwi works at a fast food place called Abbays. Their slogan says it all; “How the South does fast food”.

I have heard Kiwi talk about the fried broccoli before but hadn’t had a chance to try it for myself. So, that is exactly what I did…

The broccoli was alright, but a little too spicy for my liking. Ranch dressing helped this, but I am not sure I would order it again.

I just got word of this over at Leo Chiang’s Blog - 12 of the 7-Eleven stores across the U.S and Canada have been converted to Kwik-E-Marts to help promote the upcoming Simpsons Movie! How cool is that?!

Unfortunately, there aren’t any 7-Eleven stores left in my area or I would be there racking up on some goodies! Head over to Leo Blog to check out all of his pics from a recent visit.

“NEW YORK — In a gut-busting showdown that combined drama, daring and indigestion, Joey Chestnut emerged Wednesday as the world’s hot dog eating champion, knocking off six-time winner Takeru Kobayashi in a rousing yet repulsive triumph.

The two gustatory gladiators quickly distanced themselves from the rest of the 17 competitors, processing more beef than a slaughterhouse within the first few minutes. The two had each downed 60 hot dogs with 60 seconds to go when Chestnut, the veins on his forehead extended, put away the final franks to end Kobayashi’s reign.”

Courtesy ESPN

My friend Molly brought over some leftover fish from their fish fry today. The fish is called crappie (pronounced “croppie”) and is very tasty. I had never had any other fish besides catfish until trying the crappie last year during our fishing trip out at Sardis Lake.

We made it out to the lake very early, around 8 a.m. if I remember correctly. The weather was looking a bit gloomy but the sun eventually made its debut and the clouds disappeared.

Molly’s dad, “Captain Rick” took us out on their pontoon boat. We brought plenty of snacks and even more fishing poles for the long day ahead.

The fish we caught were not overly large, but in the end we came out with more than enough to make for a great fish fry.

It was a little chilly in the morning but by midday, it was just a bit on the warm side.

If you look closely, this fish actually has a smaller fish inside of its mouth!

We were actually planning on having more people come out, but not everyone could make it.

A good time had by all. We will certainly have to do it again this year!

Yesterday I went to the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Contest at Tom Lee Park on the banks of the Mississippi River.

We (Kiwi, Adam, Sarah and I) arrived around 7 p.m. and I was sad to learn that the taste-testing segment ended at 6 p.m.

This is the first time I have been to this event and it wasn’t exactly what I expected.

I was thinking there would be a few booths here and there, maybe some tents cooking and showing how they season their food. Nope - it was more like something you would see here in the Grove on gameday. And with that, I mean partying, loud music, great food and plenty of alcohol to go around!

And much like the Grove, you really won’t have much fun unless you know someone with a tent - and that is where we were in luck! Kiwi’s sister just happens to be dating someone that was sponsoring a few tents, so we got access to one of the tents for the evening.

The tent had a couches, a full bar with free drinks and food… can’t beat that!

Mmmm, talk about some good barbecue! This stuff was outstanding - I tore through my sandwich in record time. The baked beans were delicious as well!

There was even barbecued samon - a first for me, but it actually tasted really good. BTW, why feed yourself when you can have a female do it for you! LOL

There were plenty of drinks to go around. I had a few Sex on the Beach mixed drinks, some blue drink with the name Smurf in it and some Jell-O shots - good stuff! Somehow both Sarah and Adam managed to spill food / drinks on me… not surprising heh.

After a few drinks, Adam was confident that he had located our coordinates on the map lol.

We left around 11 p.m. to beat the crowd that would be leaving when the event closed at midnight. All in all, a fun night with some great friends, food and drinks - What more could you ask for!

“The College of Pig Knowledge. The Granddaddy of Grills. The Largest Pork Barbecue Cooking Contest on the Planet. Three stuffed days of smoked heaven where contestants eat, sleep and live pig.

You’ll see funny faces, famous faces, and might end up having your face on one of these special reports on NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, Southern Living Network, PBS, A&E, TBS, Gourmet Magazine, Food & Wine, Martha Stewart Living TV, or one of many other media reports.”

Yours truly will be in attendance this Thursday for some fine barbecue sampling! I had to do some research on this, since this will be my first time attending.

Local codes prohibit teams from selling barbecue to the general public, but you can still get your fill by becoming a taste-testing judge! $3.00 gets you five different samples to choose from - and the best part, you can judge as many times as you want! All ballots count and the winner of the People’s Choice Contest will be announced on the final day! I will be a voting machine that day, no doubt!

Yesterday Sarah and I ordered some food from Zaxbys (chicken place). I got a grilled chicken sandwich and a 20-piece order of buffalo wings. I got the wings so I would have something to snack on the next day. I ate a few of the wings after my chicken sandwich and saved the rest for later (today).

I pulled the wings from the fridge earlier and was a bit disappointed to find that the wing sauce had pretty much dried up: unacceptable! So, I decided to make my own sauce.

I used Memphis’ own Corky’s BBQ sauce and Frank’s RedHot sauce. The Corky’s sauce has a sweet taste to it with a very mild spice. The Frank’s sauce is, well, hot! I wanted the best of both worlds, so that is exactly what I did.

I used more Corky’s sauce than Frank’s, as I don’t want it to be too spicy. Next, I mixed the two…

The mixture looks a bit blah, but hopefully it won’t taste too bad.

As you can see, the wings are pretty dry looking. I spread the sauce over the wings, then flipped em and repeated the process. I ended up adding a bit more Frank’s as it wasn’t quite hot enough. A quick visit in the microwave and I was ready for the moment of truth.

The verdict: excellent!

Sarah picked up the ingredients to make homemade pizza yesterday and we decided to give it a try today. The pizza dough was from Pillsbury and came in a can like biscuits, kinda strange. Anyway, we had to heat up the dough for about five minutes then add toppings.

We only used cheese as the topping; cheddar, provolone and mozzarella. The end result was pretty tasty, except for my stupid oven that likes to burn the heck out of everything. You can cook something at half the required temperature and half as long… and it will still burn!

Deviled eggs are one of my favorite foods! Too bad I don’t know how to make them… until now! Sarah got the recipe from her mom and we decided to give it a try.

First, boil a dozen eggs. We let them boil for about 30 minutes. After that, add the eggs to cold water to cool them down faster. Then, remove the shells and rinse the eggs off. Next, slice each egg in half “long-ways”. Remove the yolks and put them all in a separate bowl. Now, add mayonnaise and sweet relish. We used a good bit of mayo then finished it off with relish. Now, just fill each egg half with the mixture, refrigerate and enjoy!

I grew up in a trailer park for half of my life, and you had to do what you had to do to get by! Ok, so it wasn’t really that bad… but I did live there for a long time.

One of my friends, Buster (Keith and KattiKawn, insert laughter here) showed me how to make some ghetto food. And today, I will be sharing that with you all!

The recipe is easy enough. Take a soft shell flour tortilla, add a hot dog then cover it with cheese. Wrap it up like a taco, put it in the microwave for about 20 seconds and it’s time to eat!

I know what you are thinking… “that looks absolutely disgusting!”. And you are right, it doesn’t look very good but it tastes great and is very cheap and easy to make as a quick snack. Give it a try sometime, you might like it too!