Daily Dose of English 112
(American) Southern Food
Daily Dose of English 112
Intermediate
Hey everyone, my name is Ben and you're listening to a Daily Dose of English. This is a short, simple podcast that you can listen to every day to improve your English. You can find the transcripts for all episodes and more on benslanguagelab.com. I'm glad you could make it today. In this episode, we're going to be talking about American Southern food. We've talked about other kinds of food before. I think it's been a while. I don't think I've recorded one of these food episodes in a bit, but today I was hungry. and I wanted to talk a little bit about food. But I'm changing it up a little bit. Instead of talking about another country's American version of the food, I wanna talk about a version of American food that is sort of specific to a certain region, which is Southern food. which is the South in the U.S. is a bunch of states. Actually, let me pull up a map and sort of see where the South is in my mind. Because it's not literally South, it's sort of Southeast is what we consider the South. And so, okay, let's see. So when you hear somebody talk about the South, it usually includes Texas, kind of Louisiana, Mississippi, maybe Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kentucky. even Missouri maybe, which is pretty Northern comparatively, and then also North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and maybe the Virginias, maybe. I think maybe like parts of, like that's where the Appalachias are, so that's kind of Southern, but that's like a different kind of part of the US. But yeah, so it's sort of like this, if you look at a map of the US and you split it into two halves, right, the left and the right, the west and the east, basically everything that's like this bottom quarter on the east side is considered the south. Not everything is, and there's different, if you ask different people, it'll be different depending on where they're from or what, that sort of thing. And people from the South, like that area, will definitely consider different parts, different, maybe connected or not connected to the South or whatever it is. So it's not a set specific thing that here is the South, here is not the South. It's sort of a loose line that you can generally kind of group that corner of the U.S. as the South. And that's not to say that every part is the same at all. There's actually a lot of differences between a lot of those states. Louisiana and Florida, and in Texas really specifically, all three of those are very different. A couple other states like Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, those get a little bit closer together, but there's definitely tons of differences. And so when we think of the South, that's generally the food that we think of. Food from that part of the US. And it's really, really good. Because there's not only a lot of variety, but there's just a lot of delicious flavor, usually because it has a lot of fat. And that is fine by me, honestly. I don't eat it that often, so it tastes delicious. and probably the most famous southern food is, are gonna be biscuits. The US version of biscuits, which are also called buttermilk biscuits, and they're actually surprisingly easy to make. They are, or buttermilk biscuits or cream biscuits, sorry. They're flour, cream, and then like some salt if you want. And I think you can put baking powder in there too. But that, you mix that up together, you make this dough, it's very shaggy and very dry, and then you bake it for 10, 15 minutes and you get these delicious, buttery, flaky biscuits that you can put stuff on. Biscuits and gravy are very famous. That's where you drench the biscuits in gravy, which is a sauce made of like, oh geez, what's the word? Sausage and cream and more flour and more butter. And it's also very, very good. If you wanna try some American Southern food, I definitely recommend looking up Kenji, Cream biscuits, okay, wait, something like that, hang on. Kenji, K-E-N-J-I, biscuits, how do you spell biscuits? Biscuits and gravy, there we go. So Kenji, biscuits and gravy, Kenji is K-E-N-J-I, and he's a very cool chef that makes videos on YouTube, and he does tons of different kinds of food actually, so great YouTube channel in general, all in English. And his five-ingredient biscuits and gravy is very, very good, very easy to do. And like I said, it's literally just five ingredients, flour, baking powder, salt, cream, and sausage, or whatever it is. Really, really good. Definitely recommend it. And yeah. What else is there? Other delicious Southern delights are macaroni and cheese, especially baked. That's a famous one. Baked means you put it in the oven as well. But then there's things like fried okra, lots of pies. Oh, tomatoes grow really well down there and so tomatoes are definitely a big thing in Southern cuisine. Chicken and dumpling soup is good, or even just chicken and dumplings, I think. It's sort of like chicken soup, but without as much broth and more sort of potato-y, starchy dumplings. Really, really good. Fried chicken is also super duper famous. Fried chicken, if you think of maybe you have Kentucky fried chicken in your country, that is based off of Southern food. They have biscuits there, actually. Um, and fried chicken is very, very famous, definitely really good. And if it's done right, it can't be done poorly, but very delicious. It's chicken that's been battered in, um, a, like a sort of, not a dough because a dough is for making bread, but it's, it's not a sauce either. It's like a thick, A batter really is the word that we have for it. A batter is made of like flour and liquid and egg and stuff like that and spices to make it really crunchy and crispy and just freaking delicious. Fried chicken is definitely a favorite but that reminds me of a of a food cart that I used to go to in New York, in Harlem, called Harlem Seafood Soul. And it has really good Southern seafood, like sort of from the coast. And a lot of, not a lot of, I don't know why I said that. And their specialty was actually shrimp and grits. Shrimp and grits. Shrimp is, well shrimp, and you make it pretty typically. But then grits are, corn that is made into a fine sort of mushy powder, and then you mix it with basically a bunch of butter and salt and pepper, and it's just so good and rich and creamy. It's hard to describe, because it does sort of feel, texture-wise, a little bit like baby food, but when you have it with a ton of butter and salt and shrimp, it is so good. It is really, really delicious. Shrimp and grits are definitely a must try. There's a bunch more food as well, but I want to go to a dessert because America is often known for things like apple pie, pumpkin pie, and desserts rather. Even like ice cream, we have sort of that creamy style ice cream instead of other ones that are based in water or ice, right? Cream, cream. But peach cobbler is definitely a very typical southern style dish when you think about it. Cobbler is basically like some layer of fruit or filling, usually with a bit of some sort of spices and something else on top. And then with a, not a crust, but like something on top that becomes crunchy and crispy and delicious. And so peach cobbler can actually be really, really simple. It can just be peaches, fresh peaches on the bottom, maybe even with a little bit of like sugar on top. You can have a filling, but you basically wanna get peaches that aren't gonna be too wet and too liquid. and then the top is just going to be like flour and sugar and cinnamon and stuff like that and then you bake it and it becomes this absolutely delicious sort of thick almost pie-like amazing dessert that if you want a taste of of the south You could definitely look up a southern style peach cobbler recipe and try it. You can even do it with dried peaches. Not dried, what am I talking about? Canned peaches. They're a lot sweeter and I don't like them as much because they can be kind of like, ugh, they're too sweet. But fresh peach cobbler, holy shoot, it is so good. There's tons of other dishes that I could go over. Shepherd's pie. sweet potato pie, banana pudding, going to the tomato sandwiches, okra, fried okra, just so much stuff, casseroles. There's so much good food down there. If you want to get into like Louisiana, jambalaya is really good. That's a rice dish. But yeah, there's just not enough time to go through it all. I definitely recommend trying to make some of it at home. See what you can find in your home country and make some of these dishes and try them. It's a great way to learn some English because you probably are going to find the recipes in English and try some stuff. If you look up Southern food just online, you're gonna find some really good options. And so, yeah, that's my recommendation. That's your homework. You know what? You have to do this. I'm requiring you to make something Southern and try it, because it's gonna be good. That is a joke. If you don't want to, you don't have to, but you should. Okay, well, that's all that I got for today. Thank you all so very much for listening. I hope that you're not hungry now, but if you are, try making some Southern food and I'll see you tomorrow. Have a good one. Bye.
For email updates, subscribe to my blog via email or RSS feed.