>> anthony: right. >> geno: when my great grandfather started getting the pig ears, the local butcher was giving it to him because he was just throwing them away. >> anthony: it's everything, you know, we love about bacon -- the texture, the mix of fatty, lean, all that. oh, that's good. mm. man! that is just hard to beat. >> geno: isn't it good? >> anthony: mm-hmm. >> geno: it's a good sandwich. >> anthony: and, of course, some hot tamales. which, at this point in history, are about as mississippi as they are mexican. like the blues, they came out of mississippi in the early 20th century, as mexican migrant workers came in to replace african-americans who were headed to work in the great factories and stock yards of chicago and detroit. >> john t. edge: you know, sitting down here, um, eating tamales, we can sketch a history of mississippi. and that's kind of what i'm most interested in doing. helping southerners understand that their foods are as african as they are western european. and -- >> anthony: if not more. >> john t. edge: and hopefully by way -- if not, oh, largely. you know music, and, you know, and all the other cultural