We stood in the large kitchen adjacent to the Janet Huckabee Grand Hall at the Arkansas Governor's Mansion that Friday afternoon to make an announcement foodies have been waiting on for years: There's about to be an Arkansas Food Hall of Fame.
The hot apple pies on the counter were tempting, but there was work to be done first. So I introduced Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and he talked about the foods he loved when he was growing up on a farm in northwest Arkansas. He noted that his parents had been raised during the Great Depression and that he learned from them to enjoy what he described as "Depression-era foods" such as cornbread and fried potatoes. I can relate to that. When everyone was finished speaking, we cut into the pies and ate.
The Department of Arkansas Heritage, under the leadership of Stacy Hurst, took the initiative in creating the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame. An annual banquet will recognize the people, restaurants and events that make the Arkansas culinary scene unique. Nominations will be accepted until Nov. 9 for Hall of Fame restaurants, which must be owned by Arkansans and have been in business for at least 25 years. No national chains allowed. A panel of judges on which I'll serve will select three inductees each year. Other categories include proprietor of the year, food-themed event of the year and a people's choice award that will be determined by public votes rather than judges.
When I returned to the private sector in 2009 after 13 years in government, I contacted my former employers here at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette to see if they might be interested in letting me write a weekly column. Since I had spent more than nine years in the governor's office and almost four years in a presidential administration after a stint as this newspaper's first political editor, I'm sure they figured that I would write about politics most weeks. But I came to the conclusion that there already was so much political commentary on this page. That's why I decided to make Arkansas--its towns, its colorful characters, its fascinating history, its food, its music, its events--my niche.
It's difficult to explain Arkansas to outsiders. We're mostly Southern but also a bit Midwestern and a tad Southwestern. The Ozarks are different from the pine woods of the Gulf Coastal Plain, and the Delta is different from the Ouachitas. I've tried to take Arkansans on a journey to all parts of this state in this column for more than seven years. Nothing I write about gets the kind of response as the columns about food. The way to an Arkansan's heart is through the stomach, it seems. That's why my Thanksgiving column last year started with the fact that I'm thankful to live in a place where I can eat a turkey sandwich at the original Burge's in Lewisville, grab a plate lunch at the Pickens Store in Desha County, consume some buffalo ribs at the Lassis Inn in Little Rock, pig out at Jones Bar-B-Q Diner in Marianna and have a Friday night catfish dinner at The Whippet in Prattsville.
I've never felt that the Arkansas food culture receives the credit it deserves on the national stage. Unlike our boastful Texas neighbors with their full-time barbecue editors at magazines and people waiting in line for hours at barbecue joints, Arkansans quietly prepare great food, enjoy eating it and then move on with our lives. Though national television shows and magazine articles focus on North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, Arkansas can hold its own when it comes to barbecue. I've long believed that the strongest barbecue area in the region is east Arkansas.
At Craig's on U.S. 70 in DeValls Bluff, you walk into the ramshackle building and are immediately asked if you want your barbecue sauce mild, medium or hot. In Marianna, Jones Bar-B-Q Diner, the winner of a James Beard Society American Classics Award, is in an old house in a residential area. While it's hard to determine the exact year it opened, there are some food experts who believe it's one of the oldest continually operated black-owned restaurants in the South. Up in the far northeast corner of the state, you can find the Dixie Pig at Blytheville. The "pig sandwiches" there have drawn people from not only Arkansas but also Memphis and the Missouri Bootheel for more than 70 years. While east Arkansas is regarded as having the most quality barbecue restaurants per capita, the most famous barbecue restaurant in the state is McClard's in Hot Springs. Given the fact that Bill Clinton grew up in Hot Springs, McClard's has received national media attention through the years.
Yet there's more to Arkansas cuisine than barbecue--a lot more. On a Friday night in August, I sat in one of my favorite restaurants, Gene's in Brinkley, eating a couple of fried fiddlers. For those of you not familiar with the finer things in life, a fiddler is a small catfish that's fried whole. My taste for fiddlers developed early in life. My grandfather at Des Arc would go to the fish market on Main Street and request that they save him any fiddlers brought in by the commercial fishermen on the White River. You cannot find fiddlers in many restaurants these days, but Gene DePriest in Brinkley does them right.
So what is Arkansas cuisine? Here's my best shot: Traditional country cooking done simply and done well, using the freshest ingredients possible. Now thanks to the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame, we'll be able to celebrate the people, restaurants and events that do it best.
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Freelance columnist Rex Nelson is the director of corporate community relations for Simmons First National Corp. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 09/20/2016