Columbia, Tenn., is the place to be this Friday and Saturday for a little Southern goodness as the annual
Southern Fried Festivalcomes to town. The town square will be the site of two days of music, arts and crafts, a Kids Zone and plenty of fine food. There will also be a 5K race to burn off a few of those calories and the Bluegrass Bus Museum will be on site Saturday, filled with music memorabilia that date back to the 1930s. And, brace yourself: A
Barney Fife impersonatorwill be performing from noon to 8 p.m. on Saturday to entertain Mayberry devotees.
The festival will also feature a Tennessee product that has been making a new push into the retail market, Savannah Classics Hushpuppies. Savannah? Tennessee? you might be asking. Well, yes, the Savannah in question is actually in the southwest corner of our state near Pickwick Lake. The area is known for its fried fish, specifically at Hagy's Catfish Hotel, a restaurant still owned by the Jim Hagy who also owns Chef's Market in Goodlettsville. The land has been in the Hagy family since 1825, when Henry Hagy and his wife Polly docked their flatboat and settled on several acres of bottom land.
An offshoot of frying up all that catfish was the development of a fine recipe for hush puppies, and patrons began to purchase the little golden morsels by the bagful out of the restaurant. This endeavor expanded into commercial sales to other restaurants and the building of a factory to produce thousands of hush puppies per day.
In 2004, Savannah Classics was purchased by John Bryan of the Bryan Foods family. Since then, Bryan has expanded distribution to grocery stores in 15 Southern states for sale in the freezer section. Locally, they are available at Harris Teeter, Kroger, Publix, Walmart and IGA grocers. The company makes 26 different flavors for commercial use, but only three varieties for retail sale: Original, Sweet Corn and Jalapeño.
Traditionally, hush puppies are mainly served as a side dish for fried fish, but the company is seeking to expand the public's consciousness to try their products as a side with all sorts of meals. For example, in North Carolina, hush puppies are de riguer as the accompaniment to barbecue. Since many home chefs hate to fire up the ol' deep fryer unless there is catfish or chicken involved, it seems like too much of a pain to make hush puppies from scratch.
Fortunately, Savannah Classics fries their hush puppies in advance, which makes them quite easy to simply reheat in the oven. Of course, you can certainly drop them in a fryer instead of baking them, but these pups still offer up that crispy crunch even without the benefit of hot oil. The company sources all the ingredients from Kentucky and Tennessee and cooks them in soybean oil, so locovorism and health concerns are both recognized as part of their production. I'm a particular fan of the sweet corn version, since I've always been a fool for corn muffins and corn pudding, and (gasp) I'm not a total sweet-cornbread hater.
A 1-pound bag yields about 25-30 hush puppies and costs $1.99 to $2.99, so Savannah Classics Hushpuppies make for an easy and affordable change-of-pace side dish as opposed to that bag of krinkle-cut-kurly-fry tots that are made crispy by the addition of some coating which might be fiberglass-based. If you make it to the Southern Fried Festival, they'll be handing out free cups of pups, or you can visit their Facebook page for more info.
So what do you think, Bitesters? When was the last time you made hush puppies from scratch? Would you consider serving them with something other than a Captain D's menu item? Are you ready to get pupped?
