The difference is the vegetables. As protein has dominated the American plate for 70 years, it's easy to see what's been overlooked once it's holding center.
Apps were easy. Karen went with local roasted plums stuffed with ricotta and herbs and a few other things. I ordered the chicken skin (first picture), which I'm aware is not a vegetable, because that's good stuff, and wasn't prepared for a bowl that can only be described as "eat only the best parts of the best fried chicken ever, with some buttermilk ranch." And now I need to make an appointment with a cardiologist.
Mains were remarkable. I rarely order fish (not that I don't like it; dining out is how I forage my mammals), but the catfish beckoned. And the fish was the afterthought, even if it was perfect. The real show was with the squash, onion, fennel, pepper, and dill melange, which I hope to be buried in. Karen's grouper with wheyed potatoes and spring onions honored the same philosophy, but she kept eating mine.
Also, order the cornbread. It is best described as "ham-perfumed."
So this is where I see American food going, and it's a lot like all immigrant, peasant, and slave roots: do a lot with a little; source locally; put the emphasis on veg; and use heritage, sustainable, happy animals. That probably sounds hackneyed at this point, but the focus on the meat, which was a beautiful thing until it became the awful, tasteless, formless, corporate abomination that it is, started the whole vegetarian revolt in the first place.
Maybe Sean et al can work against that.
PS: Karen had a pecan waffle at Waffle House this morning. Heavy on the syrup. Unusual, but promising.
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