Thursday, June 18, 2009
Conversation Bites / Retail Five Items or Less: Foods Purchased Only by Native Nashvillians
Posted by Nicki Wood on Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 10:14 AM
Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are. If it's Dream Whip, you must be from Nashville. For years I've kept a list of groceries around here bought exclusively by native Nashvillians, and possibly also by native Louisvillians, Birminghamians and Charlestonians, too. The reason? Each is a critical ingredient in an important recipe from a Junior League cookbook.
Beau monde seasoning
Kraft Garlic Cheese Roll
Dream Whip
Durkee's sauce
Patty shells
As far as I can tell, all of these are still available on Nashville supermarket shelves, except Kraft Garlic Cheese, which was discontinued after the holiday season of 2007. Not every market in every neighborhood stocks them, but enough to keep the natives appeased. I found Dream Whip at the Hillsboro Village Harris Teeter, for instance.
I'm a little relieved, honestly, because I worried about the potential for social unrest after H.G. Hill closed.
For Southerners who have emigrated to other places, there's Hard to Find groceries to supply the Big Five, plus Famous Chocolate Wafers, which I would have added to the list, except that would have been six.
What about your hard-to-find ingredient? Have you asked a grocer to stock it? What is it, and where do you get it?
Comments (22)
Showing 1-22 of 22
I know when I moved to South Carolina to go to college I missed Purity Milk. I lived in Nashville my whole life assuming Purity could be bought anywhere. Nope. And none can compare. Purity has the best milk there ever was, and I swear to live in Nashville my whole life, just for it.
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Looks like the Hard to Find store is closed. Bummer.
It would be comforting to know that I could buy those Kroger lemon cookies that smell like Aqua Net if I ever moved away.
Never mind ingredients - I miss Nabisco's Brown Edge Wafers - a light, crunchy cookie with, oddly enough, a browned edge.
Fresh brats & brat buns.
Bakalar's wieners.
Fresh cheese curds.
Premium Grain Belt beer.
Murph's Magic Mix - Was made by the late Wayne Murphy of Nashville and found at the Belle Meade HG Hills. Like the label said "good on everything but ice cream". His son Woods runs Pub in the Woods in Bellevue and I believe Murph's is the secret ingredent he puts on their smoked wings!
Roux in a jar. Used to be able to get it in Louisiana but when I asked the woman at Inglewood Kroger if they had any, you wouldn't believe the look I got.
Cap'n J, I found Roux in a jar at one of the stores in the Farmers Market a while back - the hot sauce store, I think. With all the changes down there, I don't know if that store is even still around but it could be a starting point. Good luck!
@BW - are you talking about "Magic Dust" from the people that once ran Johnson's Meat Market??? Who later took over the meat counter at the Belle Meade HG Hills? That shit has MSG...
Ugghhh, no, not Magic Dust. Murph's was a homemade mix with Wayne Murphy's mug on the front. I still have a jar, although I'm sure it's a little dated.
My mom swore by that cheese log! It was involved in almost every holiday meal of my whole childhood. We mourn its loss to this day.
The Famous Chocolate Wafers are definitely a hard-to-find item for me. I make a cake-like thing with them and freshly whipped cream.
Anyone know if there's a local store still selling Spice Round during the holidays? It was a big Nashville thing for years, but in the past only H.G. Hill's stocked it.
http://www.geocities.com/metroarchives/spicedround.html
My deskmate at the Banner lamented the leaner reformulation of Spiced Round in the mid-1990s. It used to have lardoons of fat threaded through it, but they cut those out. As for ordering it, the last I heard, you could order it, but I can't recall where. Maybe Kroger.
I miss SUNBEAM Bread!
Remember Little Miss Sunbeam?
In fact, they used to have Little Miss Sunbeam Look-Alike Contests...alas, I was/am a brunette.
Me too! In fact, it was just TODAY that I was telling a story about my 5th birthday at the Sunbeam Bread bakery! I haven't thought of that in years. How strange.
Isn't the Lane Motor Museum in the former Sunbeam bakery? They reserved a niche for cool Sunbeam memorabilia and ads. It's still a cool spot for birthday parties--my kids enjoy it a lot.
As for Nashville's disappearing foods, as late as 2003 I bought canned date nut bread for my grandmother at Hill's. You would push it out of the can, slice it thinly, and spread with cream cheese for tea sandwiches.
can you believe that in some parts of the country they don't stock tubs of ham spread and pimento cheese spread? i used to think you could only get them at my grandma's house!
I've always looked for Sun Drop or Squirt while in other cities, have yet to find a single bottle.
You might be a Memphian if you eat:
Pancho's Cheese Dip
Pancho's Dressing
Jackson's Lemon Jumble cookies (http://www.murray-cookies.com/cgi-bin/brandpages/product.pl?product=2550&company=142)
You can buy all of those at the Krogers in Memphis. Luckily, the Belle Meade Kroger started carrying the Lemon Jumbles at my request (though I haven't checked on them in a while--I need to do that because they're a favorite summer cookie). And you can make Pancho's Dressing at home (http://www.recipezaar.com/Copycat-Panchos-Dressing-Recipe-111063). But I still have to buy the cheese dip when I go visit my mom (or request her to bring some to me). Yummmm.
Dream Whip is pretty common in Memphis, but I've never heard of any of that other stuff. Then again, I was wrong on that Duke's mayo thing. I'll check my community cookbooks.
@Lesley: I had totally forgotten about Pancho's--I'm native to this area (we know each other, actually!), but I had a friend who lived in Memphis while she was in college. We ate more Pancho's cheese dip than should be legally allowed whenever we had the opportunity. Thanks for the reminder!
Lesley,
Pancho's ruled! In junior high I started "dieting." I would always order the Pancho's taco salad - nothing compared to that dressing. Later in life, I found out the fat content - ahhhh! As for Pancho's cheese dip, it can't be beat. Nice memories.
I miss being able to go to the local bottler and get a case of Dr. Pepper (pre corn syrup days), in those perfect 10 oz bottles with the 10-2-4 logo. Portion controlled, returnable bottles, the ultimate green recycling - reuse (washed and refilled) - all done in by throw away "no deposit" bottles and cans. (Yes, they can be recycled, but not reused.) We really might be devolving after all...
