mississippi delta

THIS FERTILE RIVER BASIN IS THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE BLUES AND HOME TO SOME OF THE MOST DIVERSE CUISINE IN THE SOUTH.

Driving through the Mississippi Delta, I can't help but be overwhelmed by the sheer flatness of the landscape. In fact, aside from triangular rooftops and weatherworn telephone poles, this place is all horizon. Some folks might see this as a negative. Not me. The largely uninterrupted line of sight allows me to spot almost every mom-and-pop restaurant, gas station (remarkable bastions of expertly fried goodies), roadside stand, and tamale cart.

By most definitions, The Delta begins in Memphis and bends its way along an 80-mile-wide, 200-mile-long path of the Mississippi River down to Vicksburg. The area's signature foods are the result of generations of multiple ethnic culinary traditions. With contributions from African, Italian, Jewish, Chinese, Lebanese, and Mexican men and women, The Delta personifies the great American melting pot.

Tamales: Perfected by Diversity

No food better exemplifies this blending of cultures than hot tamales. No one knows exactly when this gem officially made it from Mexico to The Delta. It probably arrived in the early 20th century when Hispanic laborers came north to work the cotton harvest.

"It was really an international exchange of food cultures," says Joe St. Columbia, Sr., whose Sicilian-born father, Pasquale, began selling tamales during the Depression. "Years before [the Depression], Daddy met a couple of Mexican men who could understand his Sicilian dialect because it was similar to their native language. From them, he learned the art of making tamales," Joe explains. "Eventually Daddy went into business with a young African American couple, and the business took off."

Stop by his storefront tamale factory, Pasquale's Tamales, in Helena, Arkansas (a few miles west of U.S. 61), for his Italian-inspired versions, which are simmered in a spicy cuminlaced tomato broth and topped with chili, cheese, chopped onions, and jalapeño peppers.

Catfish: The New Cotton

The fertile soil of The Delta is legendary for its production of cotton. Now aquaculture-in the form of farm-raised catfish-has trumped agriculture. More catfish are raised in The Delta than any other spot on the planet, and the mild, flaky-white fillets now grace both upscale and humble menus across the South.

One person who knows a thing or two about the subject is Ed Scott, Jr. When the future of his family's row crop farms looked bleak, he decided to follow his dream of farming catfish. "I went into fish-farming in 1981, building eight 20-acre ponds and later opened my own processing plant," he says proudly. Retired for almost 10 years, Ed still holds the distinction of being the only African American to have owned and operated a commercial catfish processing plant in America.

Now in his eighties, Ed oversees frying catfish with the sternness of a drill sergeant and the finesse of a conductor. According to him, when the fillets break the surface of the bubbling oil and begin to float, they're ready. "You know, I'm not supposed to eat this," he says, "but I just can't give it up."

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Mid-Apr 2005
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