viCARIous: What is Jacksonville's Cuisine?

[Dog Walker]

donax soup

Instant nostalgia hit!  Family lived at the beach when I was a kid and we were sent out with strainers at least once a week.  Little green onion, little pepper, little garlic....yum!

That's a soup you will NEVER get at a restaurant.

[fieldafm]

Isnt that more of a St Augustine thing though?

[Dog Walker]

  Any beach where the little critters grow and burrow is possible, but when I mention donax soup to anyone who didn't grow up here a long time ago there are just blank looks.

[rjp2008]

I've got it - the Jax Omlette!!

Hearty, Protein, Healthy, can throw tons of things in it, Sunny Eggs hearken to farming/southern country breakfast tradition, Can make it Spanish style, Indian, slap it on a BBQ sandwhich - WOAH! Even better - the JAX BBQ OMLETTE SANDWICH.

[billy]

Swisher Sweet and a Bud tallboy

[fieldafm]

Swisher Sweet and a Bud tallboy

LOL

[billy]

Yeast roll from the Alfred I. duPont Jr. High cafeteria circa 1969.

[billy]

Yeast roll from the Alfred I. duPont Jr. High cafeteria circa 1969.

Yeast roll from the Alfred I. duPont Jr. High cafeteria circa 1969.

(almost forgot)....served with a Gin Julep from Dos Gatos

[RWNeal]

John T. Edge stopped by my department at the library a few years ago when he was working on the revision of his book Southern Belly. He asked these same sort of questions to get a handle on the Jax food scene. The only thing I could come up with was the endless variations on "camel riders," a term I had never encountered anywhere else and still embarrasses me a bit after a decade here.

[stjr]

Camel riders... don't forget "steak 'n a sack"

I don't partake, but what about dishes made of gator meat.  Or, maybe rattlesnake, armadillo, possum, raccoon, or deer!    A smorgasbord of road kill.

[billy]

Stop the presses, but stop me if this has been brought up before on MJ!
White Trash Cooking (Jargon Society Press) by Ernest Matthew Mickler, a Palm Valley native.
( pre minimansion era, the early days when my Dad claimed the residents would cut down tree and throw them in the Intracoastal to slow down passing boats in order to reduce the wake size.)

This is a serious and affectionate examination of recipes many of you will know, if not admit.
Great photographs as well. I think there is a Volume II.
Someone permanently borrowed my copy.

Did anyone know Matthew? He may no longer be with us.

[billy]

Camel riders... don't forget "steak 'n a sack"

I don't partake, but what about dishes made of gator meat.  Or, maybe rattlesnake, armadillo, possum, raccoon, or deer!    A smorgasbord of road kill.

I had armadillo, courtesy of the Boy Scouts at the Fair in the mid-(19)60's.....
"Go on", they said, "It tastes just like chicken..."

[viCARIous]

Southern Belly and White Trash Cooking I & II - just ordered them on Amazon.  Thanks for the suggestions!

[jaxmoviebuff]

What about Chicken and Waffles from Metro Diner on Hendricks?

[RWNeal]

Southern Belly and White Trash Cooking I & II - just ordered them on Amazon.  Thanks for the suggestions!

Also, order anything still in print by Bill Neal, especially Bill Neal's Southern Cooking (Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/2aqp2dc). I can personally vouch for that one as he has a number of our grandmother's recipes in it. Bill's books were more focused on the Carolinas, but there is a lot of great general Southern stuff in there.