Photo Archives from ColumbiaMagazine.com. Click here for more photos.

Epicurean Kentuckian: Experimental Chef's Poke Sallet 2010-05-03 - Photo by Ed Waggener. Epicurean Test Kitchen There's a primal urge in the head of every home born and truly Born Again Adair Countian to eat poke in the spring. Old timers thought it had therapeutic value. I just like its taste. And it seemed the thing to do as the tender plants came up around the edge of the yard. The salad on the left is what came of the inspiration: Washed and fresh cut poke, cottage cheese with country store slather of Miracle Whip, walnuts, carrots, very sweet white onions, and boiled eggs with a good douse of vinegar. Tasted pretty good, and despite the old folks' warnings for the green to be double-biled, with plenty of lard, or else it would be pizen, I lived. The astringent taste of fresh poke was good, though a bit of iceberg lettuce, in a three to one ratio, lettuce to poke, might have improved it. For sure. Real bacon would have helped. It was a complete meal - or at least it would have been with the bacon and some of Mema's cornbread. -Ed Waggener. I am open to higher criticism and gracious suggestions. -EW Permalink | Comments?

If you have photos you'd like to share with ColumbiaMagazine readers, please email .jpg files to photos@columbiamagazine.com. Please include your name, an email address or phone number, the date the photo was taken, and the location and names of anyone in the photos.

Contact us: Columbia Magazine and columbiamagazine.com are published by Linda Waggener and Pen Waggener, PO Box 906, Columbia, KY 42728.
Phone: 270.403.0017