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Around Adair with Ed Waggener In this report: Lisa Fisher on tomato pie. Russell Guy's big tomato plant. The young gene in Hancocks identified by Oral. The Most Delicious Sandwich in the Universe. Explaining Country Ham to a Canadian. An Ronald McDonald House memory. Our newest restaurant critic and his standards. New restaurant ventures & challenge to Lockhart, TX. By Ed Waggener Lisa FisherClark sent a testimonial to tomato pie link posted yesterday. She wrote, "The Paula Deen 'tomato pie' recipe is a favorite in our family. We love it!I recommend all those great Adair County cooks try this one." That's high praise, considering lofty esteem we have for the source. Paula Deen should appreciate it. For those who missed the link to the recipe, Click Here The recipe is a bit ambitious for me, but it would be great if some Adair County restaurant or cook made some for us to sample. This is the truth I had once thought that the greatest tomato grower of all times was the late Donald Pedigo of Edmonton, KY. He could take six plants, plant them in a raised bed in his back yard, inside concrete wire cages, and raise enough tomatoes to feed a good portion of the entire population of the capital of Metcalfe County. But now, I hear of a project that may exceed Donald's. Oral Hancock said that Russell Guy Perkins just puts one tomato plant in the ground, and it will feed a multitude. "He plants it next to his house," Mr. Hancock said. "He has to train it up a utility pole," he said, "because they have to pick most of them from an upstairs window." We know it is the truth, because Mr. Hancock told it at a Betty's OK Country Cooking table, in front of Rev. Mike Lemmon and Allan Wall and, who don't tolerate nonsense, and we noticed that the "Liar's Table" sign which used to adorn the location is gone. One could only conclude that the establishment's owner reasoned that it was no longer appropriate, what with the intellectual and scientific discourse which pervades the venue these days. There's nothing told but the God's Truth there now. A brief digression from the topic Oral Hancock is undergoing that metamorphosis which only occurs in butterflies (a tadpole analogy would be inappropriate here) and Hancocks. You'd expect busloads of Swedish scientists to be arriving any day to study the Hancock anti-aging gene. Most of them live a day longer than Methuselah, staying strong of wit and body. Hundred year old Hancocks are as common as horseweed. Actually, the answer is quite simple. We don't actually need a busload of Swedish scientists to figure it out. Mr. Hancock knows the answer. "We reach 60 and turn the other way," Oral Hancock said. "It's monkerism. We've all got it. Combs get redder. We're immune to smoke. And whisky turns to water in our mouths. Nothing can hurt us" he said. "that's why you see so many young old Hancocks." Had I heard it anywhere else, I would have been a little sceptical, but it was told at the now Truth-be-told Table, just yards from the Trinity UMC steeple. The perfect sandwich #1 This is, in fact, the start of one of the most enjoyable seasons of the year is here: It's Tomato Days. The tomato plant has shaped Adair County history since the days when hundreds of us migrated each year out of country to harvest the tomato crops around Scottsburg, Austin, and Crothersville, Indiana. There's was a day, when out of necessity, the summer was filled with a paucity of bologna, goose liver, and velveeta in favor of vegan meals of a fat slice of tomato sprinkled with salt on white bread slathered with Miracle Whip. Today, that meal, once scoffed at by oyster and prime rib eaters, is considered a delicacy. Big tomatoes, the kind which make two single slice of tomato sandwiches per tomato, with tomato overhanging the on four sides, are in at Garlin and for sale. At $1.25 per pound, four pounds, good for eight sandwiches and left overs for salad, are available at Jake Willis' Garden in downtown Garlin. The Perfect Sandwich #2; a generational difference There is a generational difference in the approach to the perfect sandwich. I grew up in hard times. Momma made the best biscuits in the world. Perfect crusts, perfectly sized with a tin-can cutter Daddy made, with perfect white side walls. We grew tons of tomatoes. Daddy bought country hams on his mail route, so that would be our morning fare for weeks on end, until the ham gone. As the late Steve Aaron's sermon on the wall stated, "Familiarity breeds contempt." The real delicacy was storebought, 15 cents a loaf, Kern's bread from E Campbell's--later David Branscum of McDonald's fame-Columbia supermarket. We may have foundered on biscuits as kids, that's why light bread is the greater delicacy. The biscuits were good, but there was never getting enough white bread. To this day, I consider it a royal confection to take a slice of white bread, pull the crust off and throw it to the birds, and compress the soft bread back into a bite size dough ball. It is better than angel food cake. The ultimate luxury food. Pen, our resident product photographer, sees it differently. It's a generational thing, I guess. Perfect biscuits provide the "Most Delicious Sandwich in the Universe,.He writes about it today. The protocol marries some pretty ultimate foods: Perfectly sized and finished biscuits, red ripe tomatoes, and country ham. In our family, everybody defers to his food critiques. If he says it, it's so. So I'll probably lose out when I pit a Super Jake Willis against the Most Delicious Sandwich in the Universe. Country ham, the real thing, as practiced by orthodox Mannsville ham perfectionists, not the ersatz products from Virginia and Western Kentucky, may be the perfect food. It is understood in Adair County, but not everywhere. Pen poses a question we may all face one day in our lives: "How do you explain Country Ham to a Canadian." It is a question to ponder. Answers are welcome Our other food critic Evan Waggener, the younger member of our movie critic team of Graham & Evan, who rate movies by the number of "You gotta sees," (187 for Ratatouille) Linda gets, is also a restaurant critic. The complete line, is, "Mema, you gotta see (name of movie), so we can talk about it." Evan recently made the Smokey Valley Truck Stop, 40 Bond Ct, Olive Hill, KY, 41164, which was featured on the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives." We're supposed to get a report on that one soon. Evan ranks restaurants by the number of sausage links he gets with breakfast. A four-link restaurant is top of the line. Above that, you're in Spinal Tap "11" territory. Evan came to mind all during the RMH talk at LWC Evan and his brother Graham are never out of mind, but Tuesday, when Sue Warner updated the Columbia-Adair County Chamber of Commerce about the Ronald McDonald House in Lexington, I couldn't help but remember him all through the talk, and how important the Ronald McDonald House in Nashville was in our lives. It's the reason why Linda and I always drop whatever change we have at a McDonald's in the Ronald McDonald House coin box. It's homage to Evan. And thanks for the Ronald McDonald House being there when we didn't know he'd make it. The most helpless I've ever felt in my life was standing on the sidewalk in front of their home in Owensboro and hearing a helicopter flying south overhead headed for Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, carrying our tiny little grandson. It was the most fearful uncertain time we ever went through. Evan was born needing surgery to survive. We were told the problem could be symptomatic of a bigger problem, one which would affect him a lifetime. The period of not knowing about Evan's prospects, about financial difficulties, about what life ahead would be like were tough on the family, particularly two young parents. Fortunately, the Ronald McDonald House was there. Monetarily, it was important. Lodging in Nashville is pricey, by most any standard. But it's bigger benefit was the reduction of stress. Evan's parents had a "home away from home," and a group which anticipated needs. The outcome of the tests were good. Evan made it through the events just fine, thanks to the great medical staff at Vanderbilt and the prayers of so many, and today, he's engaging life with unbounded exuberance. In addition to movies, Mema, and games with anything spherical, Evan loves food. We'll want to see how much better his review of Smoky Valley Truck Stop is than Guy Fieri's was on "Triple D." Restaurant developments The little outside dining seafood place is travelling. It was being disassembled last night at its North Columbia, Campbellsville Road, headed for the Circle R lot on Russell Road, where a Michael Lee Stephens/John Johnson venture is beginning to take shape. With this edition, Columbia will exceeds Lockhart, TX, in barbecue fame. And, at Knifley, KY, Randy and Melinda Quinn's Old Town Inn is now just weeks, maybe even just days, away from opening. Yesterday the grill was installed in the restaurant, which will be in the Knifley Grade Center building, in the town whose name is synonymous with good food. Widely respected Adair County cook Jewell Brown, Melinda's mother, will be part of the Old Town Inn staff. This story was posted on 2008-07-17 08:48:39
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