Thursday, August 14, 2008

Ode to the Fried Green Tomato

The first time I heard about fried green tomatoes was the southern movie of the same name. This chick flick is full of female empowerment and women hating men but it does have some merits for a guy and I did manage to watch it all the way through. I was especially curious about these damn tomatoes; they looked kinda good but why would anyone fry a green tomato? Couldn’t they just wait until it turned red?

It wasn’t until several years later that I enjoyed my first green tomato. It was at The Lady and Sons restaurant in Savannah which was obviously a good place for an introduction. (Paula Deen, after all, should know a little about southern food). I hesitated at first; I prefer my tomatoes fresh, juicy and red but was pleasantly surprised when I bit into a crusted and juicy green one.

Since that time, I have become a big fan of this southern specialty. Last week, I tasted the best one yet. It was at Cha Bella, an organic restaurant in Savannah, where all the food was superb. The fried green tomato had a very light cornmeal coating, was tender and juicy on the inside and was sitting in a buttermilk sauce. Cutting into it was like cutting into butter and the taste was a little hard to describe; I guess I would say that it was slightly tart with a mild tomato taste.

Oh hell, words don’t do it justice. You just have to try them for yourself.

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