anthony: some time ago something crawled, or slithered, or grew like a fungus. something that started small, got bigger, lurched like a swamp thing out of the mud and moist earth and humid nights of the delta. then, it took over the world. so next time some smart ass foreigner, horrified by our latest ham-fisted foreign policy blunder wonders out loud, what good is america? well, you can always pipe up that the blues, rock n roll, r&b, and soul all came out of this place one state mississippi. i took a walk through this beautiful world felt the cool rain on my shoulder found something good in this beautiful world i felt the rain getting colder sha la la la la sha la la la la la sha la la la la sha la la la la la la geno: right now we re in the middle of downtown jackson. farish street. anthony: it is a street with a lot of history. what did it used to be like back in the day? geno: the street was packed with folks. folks all over, they
all we re doing is doing what we do. anthony: there is a discomfort level about exploring southern foodways, or particularly mississippi foodways. when you re talking about high-end, traditional southern cooking, you re talking plantation, slavery cooking, cause that s where these recipes came from. so to revel in that you don t wanna tumble into nostalgia you the potential for awkwardness, uh, and offense, is enormous. john t. edge: right. i wanna be careful. i m not saying that s what i want the south to be. i m saying that s what people come to the south looking for. anthony: right. john t. edge: they come to the south looking for the past preserved in amber. but the reality is something different. i don t wanna fix the past. i don t wanna fix it in 1865, or 1965. i want it to progress and change. i wanna document the change along the way and celebrate that change. the burden of race is upon us and we ain t gonna shake it. and that can make us better.
meet you. julia reed: florence is in charge of the salad bowl and has been for this is florence is doe senior s sister-in-law. uh, when did y all open up for us? 1930? florence signa: 1941. julia reed: 41. close enough. anthony: like a lot of folks around here, dominick big doe signa got his start selling hot tamales to go. in the beginning, the place catered to the black community. but after word got out how good the food was, white people started coming. which led to a kind of weird accommodation to the segregation of the day. blacks came in the front, white people snuck in the back. the menu expanded with the clientele. what human qualities are unique or marked in the native of mississippi? julia reed: i cannot address mississippi cause like i said, the delta is a whole nother planet. anthony: wow. okay, better question then. how does the lifelong delta resident differ from the other julia reed: you had to be a little crazy to wanna come in the first place,