 |
|
     |
|
|
The True Story of the Southland The Secret of Southland Mac and Cheese How to Make a Southland Club Sandwich |
THE SECRET OF SOUTHLAND It had been one of those grueling Sunday dinners when the kitchen was as hot as the boiler room of the Titanic and we had all done just about all the cooking that day any reasonable person could expect. One of our cooks at the time was Ella who many of our older customers will remember. She was a quiet, long suffering employee who had worked for our family for many years and Ella was a master of the Southland style of cooking. Stuffed with chicken and dressing and all the fixings, people were lined up at the register slowly making their way out when a customer saw Ella standing by the steam table and made straight for her. I have no idea who this woman was but she was dressed to the nines in her Sunday best and seemed to be overwhelmed with our cooking. She broke out of line and rushed up to where Ella was standing and began to practically gush praise upon our food, especially the macaroni and cheese. She demanded to know how we did it. Everyone else's Mac and Cheese tasted bland and prepackaged she groaned, like something that goes straight from the freezer to the microwave. Our Mac and Cheese was a small yellow buttery square of paradise and she wasn’t leaving until she found out who made it and how. She began to almost demand that Ella disclose her cooking secrets and much to my surprise, Ella did. "Well", Ella drawled out," first you gets you an ole beat up stove that has all the numbers wore off the dial. Then you find an eye that still works and you lights that and turn it up as high as it'll go." With bright and shining eyes the seeker leaned over a little closer to Ella. "Then you gets an ole banged up pot and fills it up about this much with water and sets it to boilin'." The woman was nodding constantly soaking in every detail but I could already see a faint shadow of doubt clouding her eyes. Now, like a lot of folks there was a lot more to Ella that met the eye. Ella wasn’t just a great cook [when she felt like it] but also had a clever and wickedly sly sense of humor and she really started laying it on thick. "Gets you a couple of lumps of butter about the size of goose eggs and throws that in with a handful of salt." Size of goose eggs? A handful of salt? This woman had never seen a goose egg in her whole life and salt is something vilified as a lethal poison by professional dieticians and nutritionists. A dark scowl began to bloom on this lady's face but Ella ignored it and plowed on ahead full speed. "Then when it's boiling real good you puts in a little bucket of noodles and you cooks them for a hour or two until theys done…" This was the point when the lady turned on one expensive heel and made straight for the door, stopping for a moment to glare fire from her eyes at us all and stomped away in a huff. I felt bad about it; after all we need all the business we can get. Ella looked at me with big brown innocent eyes," What she mad about? I was just telling her how we cooks Macaroni and Cheese." And you know what? Ella was telling her how we cook Mac and Cheese, but it just wasn’t at all what the woman expected so she must have guessed that we were having a little fun with her at her expense. Ella was essentially telling the truth, only it wasn’t what this woman was expected the truth to be, but it nevertheless was the truth. So now you know the secret of the Southland restaurant's famous Mac and Cheese, or part of it anyway. |
|
Copyright © 2007 The Southland Restaurant. All rights reserved. |
|