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CULTURE
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FOOD&DRINK
HOTSAUCE
A tasty Southern topping is
having its moment
Move over, pimento cheese:
Mississippi comeback sauce is
ready for its close-up. The creamy,
coral-colored sauce has inspired
residents of Jackson, Mississippi,
to “come back” for more since the
1930s, when it debuted as a salad
dressing at a Greek restaurant
called The Rotisserie.
These days, the mayonnaise-
based sauce, which tastes like a
cross between Thousand Island and
a Southern rémoulade, is a fixture of
Jackson’s cuisine, served by the cup
or squeeze bottle and accompany-
ing everything from crackers to
shrimp and fried chicken. “You will
find it at every restaurant, at every
party and in every local cookbook,”
saysMalcolmWhite, longtime
co-owner of the popular Hal and
Mal’s restaurant andmusic venue
in downtown Jackson and, more
recently, director of tourism for the
Mississippi Development Authority.
Despite the sauce’s history, chef
Rob Newton, owner of Southern-
inspired eatery Seersucker in
FREEFORALL
Seattle’s “food forest” brings foraging to
the people
IN SOUTH SEATTLE’S
Beacon Hill neighbor-
hood, grapes and pumpkins are still ripening
inanungatedgardensandwichedbetween the
heavytrafficof15thAvenueandJeffersonPark.
And if you want some, just come and get it.
This is the Beacon Food Forest, a seven-acre
slope of public landwhere anyone canharvest
nuts, herbs, berries and vegetables. Fruit trees
standclosetotheroadand,upahill,pathswind
through plots of vegetables surrounding an
open gazebo. The first public foraging zone of
its kind, the food forest is run by a volunteer
group, which, with the help of a $100,000
grant from the city, started planting items like
blueberries, shiro plums, salmonberries and
medicinal herbs in the fall of 2012.
Designed to be self-sustaining, the food
forest resembles anaturallyoccurring forest—
albeit a tastier one. Food-providing greenery
appears in vertical layers, from the ground
cover of pumpkins and onions to a canopy of
highvolumewalnut trees. Becausemost of the
forest consists of perennial plants that take a
while to mature, this past summer’s first har-
vest was thin—mainly quick-growing berries
and herbs—but by next summer there will be
lotstopick.Inthefuture,co-founderGlennHer-
lihy says, the forest should grow enough food
that, even if people take more than their fair
share, there will be plenty for everyone—not
that everyone will even need it. “We wanted
to bring a li le more nature and green to our
neighborhood, but it’s had an impact I didn’t
count on,” he says. “Nowfolks are learninghow
todo it themselves.”
—HEATHER HANSMAN
AMuseBouche
The hot new dish at Austin’s qui makes tribute
toMichel Bras
At qui in Austin, Texas, the new restaurant from Paul Qui—the
winner of “Top Chef” Season 9 and James Beard’s Best South-
west Chef 2012 award—the menu is bursting with originality
(see: cheddar cheese ice creamsandwich). But the dish that best
showcasesQui’s knack for culinary poetry pays explicit tribute to
another fine toque. The “Ode toMichel Bras”—anhomage to the
famous French chef—might theoretically be called a salad, but
that would be a bit like calling a Lamborghini a ride towork. The
dish features bits of vegetables, flowers and herbs that highlight
the local bounty, with each element strategically prepared to fit a
dynamic ensemble of flavors, colors and textures on a painstak-
ingly composed plate—a concept dubbed
gargouillou
by Bras.
The version at qui morphs constantly but might be as simple
as a grill-charred onion cup cradled in rich dashi-green-garlic
puree, decoratedwith strawberry vinegar, lemon cucumber and
a scattering of borage petals perched puddleside. You can bet
the kitchen used tweezers.
—JOLYON HELTERMAN
PRETTY
ENOUGH
TO EAT
Paul Qui’s
meticulously
plated “Ode to
Michel Bras”
SHOVEL-READY
A volunteer at the
Beacon Food Forest
MELANIE COERVER (BEACON FOOD FOREST)
