Food for Thought
While I was in Nashville, Tennessee, last weekend, my friend Jody took me to a couple of "meat and three" restaurants. They're a traditional southern eatery that specializes in home-cooked meals made up of a piece of meat -- your choice -- and three side dishes. As a vegetarian, I was slightly nervous heading into barbecue country, but I didn't need to be. If you go to a meat and three and order the veggie plate, you get your choice of four side dishes -- sides such as mashed potatoes, turnip greens, corn casserole, red beans and rice, and spiced apples. What wonderful food! If you'd like to have a go at a traditional meat and three, Roadfood has compiled a directory of "memorable local eateries along the highways and backroads of America." You can even search for meat and three's -- yielding finds in Iowa, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky -- even New Hampshire. According to a panel discussion at the Southern Foodways symposium, meat and three's are dying out. This might be the case, but the meat and three's that I visited were quite alive. If you head to Nashville, head to one of the local meat and three's. You won't be sorry.