Southern
Foodways Alliance Trails:
ON-GOING REGIONAL PROJECTS
Integral to an appreciation of our region’s diverse
food cultures is the collection and preservation of the stories behind
the food. The Southern Foodways Alliance Oral History Initiative documents
the lifework of people who grow, cook, serve, and savor Southern food
and drink. In addition to oral history interviews, we produce multiple
documentary films each year, bringing some of these subjects to life.
Featured here are excerpts from some of our regional Trail
projects. We created the Trails in an effort to document iconic foodways
of the South and to support culinary tourism throughout the region.
What are you waiting for? Hop on a Trail and go!
| 
The Southern BBQ Trail
www.southernbbqtrail.com
The Southern Foodways Alliance and Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q
invite you to set out on the bbq trail. Meet Susie Headrick, who
taught her family about cooking bbq when they purchased the Green
Top. Learn about the origins of the sauce that’s made every
week at Top Hat Barbecue. Visit Chuck’s Bar-B-Que, where your
belly will be filled pork, your soul with the gospel. The Southern
BBQ Trail includes oral histories, photos, film snippets, audio
clips, and an interactive map for hungry travelers. Grab a napkin
and go! |
|

The Southern Boudin Trail
www.southernboudintrail.com
The SFA and McIlhenny Company, makers of Tabasco, invite you to
set out on the boudin trail. Visit T-Boy’s Slaughterhouse,
one of the last of its kind, where the boudin is as fresh as it
can get. Learn about the days when casings were stuffed using cow
horns from Jimmy Guidry, the boudin maker at Don’s Specialty
Meats. Meet Robert Cormier, co-owner of The Best Stop, who has traced
his Cajun heritage back a handful of generations to family in Nova
Scotia. The Southern Boudin Trail includes oral histories, photos,
film snippets, audio clips, and an interactive map for hungry travelers.
Grab a link and go!
|
| 
The Southern Gumbo Trail
www.southerngumbotrail.com
The SFA and McIlhenny Company, makers of Tabasco, invite you to
set out on the gumbo trail. Learn how to make a roux with Billy
Grueber from Luizza’s by the Track. Meet Lionel Key, an artisan
whose uncle taught him to make file from sassafras leaves. And then
visit the Olivier family for dinner, where you might find three
different versions of gumbo on the table. The Southern Gumbo Trail
includes oral histories, photos, film snippets, audio clips, and
an interactive map for hungry travelers. Grab a spoon and go! |

Mississippi Delta Hot Tamale Trail
www.tamaletrail.com
The Southern Foodways Alliance and Viking Range invite you to set
out on the tamale trail. Meet Elizabeth Scott of Scott’s Hot
Tamales, who has been making and selling hot tamales for more than
fifty years. Visit the Bourbon Mall, where the tamales are fried.
And learn how Sicilian immigrants factor into the Delta’s
long history with these bundles of meat and masa. The Mississippi
Delta Hot Tamale Trail includes oral histories, photos, film and
audio clips, a “Hot Tamale How-To,” as well as an interactive
map for hungry travelers. Grab a shuck and go! |
You’ll find much more at our website
www.southernfoodways.com.
|
 |