Southern Cookin'

This morning, I was thumbing through the Yellow Pages and started reading menus for fun. The first one that caught my eye was from a barbeque restaurant, the Ole Hickory Pit. They included an old-timey description of how the restaurant was founded on the principles of traditional Western KY pit barbeque. Of course, the restaurant itself included an authentic hickory barbeque pit. As the ad succinctly put it:

And yes this oven pits where hand built by Murvin.

I couldn’t quite tell if this sentence was a train wreck of grammatical errors, or if the wording was intentional.

The next menu that stood out was from the Oakroom, at the Seelbach hotel. This is the eminent Louisville institution also mentioned in The Great Gatsby. I’ve never been inside the restaurant or the hotel, but eyed the tasting menu carefully, figuring this would be a good purview of contemporary Southern cooking. The more interesting items included:

Line Caught Salmon: Salsafy Purée, Zucchini, Lemon, Grilled Calamari

What on earth is “salsafy” purée? Is it purée that’s been salsa-fied? Isn’t salsa already a purée anyway?

Lobster: Olive, Chick Pea, Corn, Marshmallow

Now, marshmallow is a prominent addition to foods like sweet potatoes and hot chocolate, but I’ve never pictured it alongside lobster. I’d be interested in seeing how this dish is presented; all the complementary foods are of the small kernel/piece variety.

I also saw a couple listings for burgoo, which I've never eaten but have a passing familiarity from reading all the Little House on the Prairie books. Actually, I haven't seen the word since I finished the books. From what I recall, it's a type of stew that sometimes includes squirrel...maybe I should have looked into this more while at Cornell?