IMAGE: ALAMY
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PAID CONTENT FOR TRAVEL SOUTH USA
T
he Outer Banks, the Ozarks, Route 66… if you’ve heard of them, your knowledge may have passed through the lens
of Hollywood. However, unlike the TV shows, the American South is vast and diverse, united by a language yet distanced by geography. To truly know the states, you have to be there. For one thing, they’re more sophisticated
than some fi lms may have you believe. Around the Missouri plateaus, esteemed chefs are melding Appalachian and indigenous fl avours for discerning diners from St Louis to Springfi eld. And winemakers are plumbing the vineyards for European- grade Chardonels to serve alongside. Meanwhile, over the river in Kentucky, bourbon is being elevated by speakeasies and small-batch craft distilleries: they call it ‘urban bourbon’. Arkansas is often overlooked in the race
to discover the South. Yet just west of Little Rock, you can sink into an ancient thermal spring, then virtually disappear into the wild hickory forests and mountain trails, peeking over the clouds for a reminder of just how inconceivably vast and undeveloped the US can be. Next door but a world away is Mississippi,
Autumn in the Blue Ridge of the Appalachian Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina
a haven for Southern blues and a country- music stalwart to rival Tennessee. You can’t drive 10 minutes on Highway 61 — the so-called Blues Highway — without a turnoff for a legendary juke joint. In Tennessee, meanwhile, the locals have turned their attention to the abundance of wild ingredients and put them to work
in time-honoured recipes tweaked for new generations. Leave Nashville for the Great Smoky Mountains and sample Appalachian cooking in a classic red barn plucked from a Grant Wood painting. Travellers have fl ocked to the coastal
South for generations, but few can say they’ve explored the dunes of the wispy-thin barrier islands, or paddled over the briny bay to slurp North Carolina oysters straight from the sea bed. Fewer still have embarked on a seafood safari in the backwaters of Alabama. On the Gulf Coast, the state’s historic port city of Mobile is a shellfi sh haven, a place to bow at an altar of ice heaped with sea creatures. And though many are familiar with the
refi ned grandeur of the coastal cities, with their antebellum architecture and special melting-pot character, there’s so much more to the Southern states than their sumptuous urban fabric. Take Louisiana: down on the bayou, a lush wetland dripping with Spanish moss, frogs and gators steal the show with their swampy performances. And birdwatchers get an eyeful of long-legged seabirds anchored on the sultry coast. South Carolina, meanwhile, refuses
to be pigeonholed by the glamour and gourmet heft of Charleston, its coastal gem. The folks living inland uphold centuries- old traditions of down-home Southern barbecue, distinguished by a tangy peppery mustard sauce. Pit-masters from Greenville to Columbia, the state capital, show off their culinary chops on spit-roasted whole hog drenched in the stuff . The vibe here is easy. And that’s as addictive as anything. EH
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