Dan Pashman: Would you say pimeno or pimento, how hard do you pronounce the T? I’m trying to assimilate here.

Heather Ehl: Pimento, yeah.

Dan Pashman: So let me

Heather Ehl: Actually I won’t even tell you how bad I misspelled the sign so that’s a whole ‘nother thing. That’s like you know.

Dan Pashman: OK I’ll say it again. One pimento cheese sandwich.

Heather Ehl: OK, you could live here, you can be taught. 

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: This is The Sporkful, it’s not for foodies, it’s for eaters. I’m Dan Pashman. Each week on our show we obsess about food to learn more about people. 

Dan Pashman: This is our Sporkful month in the South! Last week, I spoke with legendary Memphis restaurateur Karen Blockman Carrier. She shared so many great stories, she talked about growing up in a kosher home in Memphis, and throwing a party in high school where one of her friends unwittingly started frying up some bacon. And then, right then, Karen’s parents walked in the door. You’ll have to listen to find out what happened next… but Karen’s cooked for Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise, she has stories about that, and she was also so thoughtful discussing how her background as an artist informs her work in food. I hope you check that one out.

Dan Pashman: Today we have a very different story from the south. Because before I was in Memphis, I was in Birmingham, Alabama. I went to Birmingham in part because there’s a legendary coconut cake there, which I had to eat. It’s a coconut pecan cake with a creme anglaise made by the pastry chef Dol Miles, at Chez Fon Fon, and it was phenomenal. But also, starting in Birmingham would allow me to take a road trip to Memphis via Alabama and Mississippi, stopping at a series of restaurants in gas stations -- something the south is famous for.

Dan Pashman: I should say, this is an episode I’ve been wanting to do for years. I mean first off, I love a road trip, and I’ve been hearing about all the great food at southern gas stations for a long time. Finally I would have my chance. But before I left, I wanted to learn more about how this came to be a thing in the first place.

Kate Medley: We are a car centric culture in the South. We drive a lot. And on our way to somewhere else, you know, we stop and we get gas and, and we use the bathroom at the gas station and we get snacks at the gas station and often, you know, we have breakfast or dinner there as well.

Dan Pashman: This is Kate Medley, a photojournalist who was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. Growing up, she says everyone knew about gas station restaurants, so it didn’t seem noteworthy. While she worked toward her Master’s in southern studies at the University of Mississippi, she’d get Indian food from a BP in town.

Dan Pashman: But eventually, she decided that the quality, and variety, of food at southern gas stations was important. So Kate spent 10 years documenting these places. The result is her book of photography and essays that came out in December 2023, called Thank You, Please Come Again. And for Kate, it’s not just about food. It's also about the folks who run these gas station restaurants. 

Kate Medley: These are the people who are literally keeping us going as, as we move around the South and, and beyond. And they're really good at what they do. They're a really integral part of our communities.

Dan Pashman: Kate says that changes in the gas station business over the last 30 or 40 years led to the proliferation of these restaurants.

Kate Medley: You know, I mean when we look back on the history of gas stations, there's a time that, you know, probably you and I remember where there were the old mechanics bays in every gas station. And, you know, I think as time went on and we see, we see that function, set apart from the gas station, removed from the gas station. 

Dan Pashman: The gas station stopped being a place that you would take your car to get it fixed.

Kate Medley: Correct, around that same time, you know, we see, you know, convenience store food. The food, the beverage, the cigarettes, the interior offerings became a big profit driver for these businesses. And increasingly, you know, the interior spaces are getting bigger.

Dan Pashman:  In large parts of the country, certainly here in the Northeast, where I've spent most of my life, it kind of stopped there. Like, yes, I've noticed that convenience stores and gas stations have gotten bigger and nicer on average, but the food hasn't exactly gotten any better. In the South, the food got better. 

Kate Medley: I would agree. You know, they are crafting their menu and their menu is changing based on, you know, what their customer is coming and saying. Well, Dan Pashmang, I wish y'all, you know, had had this burger today, or I wish that y'all were selling tacos now. Well, maybe they'll start selling tacos because, you know, Joe Schmo asked for it. 

Kate Medley: You know, you look at a place like the Mississippi Delta and some of these gas stations, they're the only commercial entity for 30 miles, and so they have to be the everything to everybody. They have to be where you fill up your tank. They have to be where you get your live bait, and in some cases, you buy your ammunition, but certainly, you know, you have to be able to buy basic groceries.

Kate Medley: You want to be able to buy hot food. You want to be able to buy your beer. And you want to be able to, you know, have, have a community moment while you do that. This is where, these are spaces where people sit around and they talk about the weather and they talk about the economy. They talk about politics.

Kate Medley: It's often, in these rural areas, the only place where people are gathering and sitting around inside on a Tuesday morning.

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: I was ready to set out on a road trip to experience a bit of southern gas station food culture for myself. And this journey wouldn’t just be to the meat and threes you might associate with the region, although there are plenty of those. My itinerary included sushi, tacos, a very specific regional pasta dish, and more. I rented a car, and skipped breakfast. 

MUSIC 

Dan Pashman: Now, I'm not going to have to go far for my first stop. It's right here in Birmingham.

Dan Pashman: I was looking for Mac’s One Stop, a take out place in a Texaco gas station right in the heart of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Dan Pashman: Oh wait, I think I just took a wrong turn. Did I?

Dan Pashman: As we heard, many of the south’s best gas station eateries are in more rural areas -- and I had some of those on my list. But there are spots in cities that serve the same purpose. After a few loops, I found Mac’s. 

Car Door Closing

Dan Pashman: Inside it mostly looks like a typical convenience store. A few rows of chips and candy bars, a wall of coolers full of soda and beer. But by the counter, where you might expect to find bubble gum, you’ll instead find freshly baked cinnamon buns. If you look past the counter, through an open door, you can see into the kitchen -- yes in the back of this convenience store, there’s a full working kitchen, with two or three people chopping, grilling, and frying. 

Dan Pashman: And above that doorway is a menu that includes a jalapeno burger, chicken finger po boy, homemade chili, and a chalkboard that displays the Wednesday special. Sadly I was there on a Tuesday, but from what I saw on Facebook that could be any kind of meat and three situation – one week recently it was baked lemon chicken with collard greens, squash casserole, and cornbread. 

Customer: I'm trying to find, uh, I'm trying to find, uh, bus. 

Heather Ehl: Uh, maybe one block over.

Dan Pashman: That helpful person is Heather Ehl, who runs Mac’s with her husband, Allen. She inherited the business from her parents. She’s been working at Mac’s for 37 years.

Heather Ehl: We've always been in the gas station, service station business. Then, probably around 85, the convenience store kind of boomed off, and so my dad started this, so. It's been a, uh, long 37 years, but, you know. 

Dan Pashman: So you must be almost 40 now. 

Heather Ehl: Oh, you are so kind. So very kind. No, um, almost 56. So, yeah, a life in one job. I think that's probably, I should get a prize for that. That doesn't happen a lot. 

Dan Pashman: Right, right. When you first started working here, did you think you'd be here for 30 something years? 

Heather Ehl: No. I actually had, um, a desire to be in either fashion, home decor, or something along those lines. 

Dan Pashman: But as an only child, Heather always expected she’d have some role in the family business. She just didn’t realize it would be such a big one.

Heather Ehl: Back in the late 80s, early 90s, it just took off, and it just consumed me. So, yeah, I was like, well, I'll just do this. I'll stay here. 

Dan Pashman: What was it about it that pulled you in like that? 

Heather Ehl: Um, to tell you the truth, I think it really has been a lot of just dealing with the people.

Heather Ehl: I mean, most of our customers are lifelong customers that we've had. I would say that a lot of them come in two to three times a day. So, we know them probably more so by name than I get to spend with some of my friends. [laughs]

Dan Pashman: As I said, Mac’s is in a busy metro area by the University of Alabama Birmingham, or UAB, which includes a major hospital. In the time I was there I saw customers in hospital scrubs, construction workers, cops, a mother visiting from Atlanta-- whose daughter wanted her to try Mac’s. Almost everyone had clearly been there many times before. The handful of newcomers all said they were there because someone told them they had to try it. Heather said UAB has transformed this part of this city in the decades since Heather started working at Mac’s.

Heather Ehl: When we were having all of this stuff built up and just overwhelmed with construction workers, we did a lot of, you know, chicken fingers, fries, stuff that they could grab and go that was quick and easy for them. And then once that kind of slacked off, we went a little bit more to, well, let's think about, you know, homemade chili or, you know, burgers and patty melts and more specialty sandwiches.

Heather Ehl: So we also used to make, way back in the day, donuts. But then when Dunkin Donuts moves in down the street- we'll let them do that. They can get up early- I'll sleep in that extra hour. Um, but you know, I mean, you just have to, you kind of have to modify what works best, what your clientele kind of want, and what you can do that is quick and easy, because people want quick, but it's good quick and easy.

Dan Pashman: I hear a lot of buzz, especially about the smoked chicken salad sandwich. What's going on with that, Heather? Tell me about it.

Heather Ehl: Well, that is something that, um, my husband decided to do. He's a big griller, cooker-out kind of guy. Ended up getting one of those big green eggs for Christmas.

Dan Pashman: The big green egg, as you may know, is a backyard grill and smoker.

Heather Ehl: But the smoked chicken salad, it's a boneless, skinless chicken that we smoke on the green egg, bring in, make it in house, keep it pretty, actually pretty simple. We don't like to mass produce it because we don't want it to be overwhelming. You know, we like to have stuff that kind of: Oh, I'm sorry, we're out of that today. And they're like, okay, well, you're gonna have it tomorrow. Oh, okay, well, I'll come back tomorrow. So, you know, you kind of want to leave them wanting a little bit of something. You don't want to, you know, overwhelm them.

Dan Pashman: It's good to run out once in a while. 

Heather Ehl: Yeah, every once in a while you gotta let people know, hey, okay, that's fresh, just like I told you. Right. Because we're out of it. 

Dan Pashman: Right, right, right.

Dan Pashman: For many years, the main cook at Mac’s was Patrick McMillan, but he died during Covid. Two years ago, Preston Lenyard took over the kitchen. Preston went to culinary school, and had worked at some other local restaurants.

Heather Ehl: When Preston came, he was like, Well, I think we need to expand a little bit. And let's try something different. So I'd have to give him all the credit for that. Cause that was way out of my wheelhouse. And I was, I was like, Oh, goodness, here we go with change. Okay, we'll try it. But, um, yeah. 

Dan Pashman: What were some of the things he brought in?

Heather Ehl: Oh, now we do, like, our Wednesday specials. Now we do, like, hamburger steak, gravy and onions. Mashed potatoes. We do yams. We do cabbage. Tomorrow's special is smothered pork chops with broccoli cheese casserole and cabbage. 

Dan Pashman: I could see Preston working, and I wanted to talk to him, but I didn’t want to bother him if he was busy. Heather helped me get his attention.

Heather Ehl: Preston. Preston. Oh, he's ignoring me. Hey. Why don't you come back here and chit chat for a second? He gets very nervous.

Dan Pashman: Oh, that's alright, I'll be very, uh, very friendly. 

Heather Ehl: He's gonna be very gentle. 

Dan Pashman: Hey Preston, how are you? My name's Dan Pashman. 

Preston Lenyard: How you doing? 

Dan Pashman: Nice to meet you. Is it alright if I ask you a couple quick questions?

Preston Lenyard: Sure.

Dan Pashman: Heather says you brought a lot of new additions to the menu. Tell me about that.

Preston Lenyard: Well, for right now we're doing, I do a lot of desserts. My most famous dessert is the red velvet cake and a honey bun cake. And then they fall in love with cookies for some reason. Everybody's a cookie monster. 

Dan Pashman: You might be able to tell I'm here from out of town. And, uh, I live in New York. And in New York, it's pretty tough to find good food in a gas station. Here in Birmingham and around the South. 

Preston Lenyard: Some of your best food is in gas stations. 

Dan Pashman: That's right. So I think that folks from other parts of the country would be surprised to hear a professionally trained chef like you whipping up all this incredible food from scratch at a gas station.

Preston Lenyard: Yeah. Yeah, but I'm telling you, if you want to eat good, follow a trucker. 

Dan Pashman: Okay. Follow a trucker. 

Preston Lenyard: Follow a trucker. And so in gas stations, people want to stop, get something quick and go. And then they're pleasantly surprised when they come in and they can see a full fledged southern meal. They grab it, go to work, and pleasantly surprised. So that's cool. I like that. 

Dan Pashman: Yeah. And you've got a whole lot of regulars here too. 

Preston Lenyard: Most of our customers are regulars. Coming every day. Every day. And I really like to see them. You get to know them. You get to know what they eat. When they walk in the door, you can go ahead and start their food before they even go to the register and fix it. So it's something of a family atmosphere. Right. And I really like that.

Dan Pashman: One of the regulars who I met was Officer Dereck Patton

Officer Dereck Patton: I'm gonna get my face ready. I got a face for radio. Hold on. 

Dan Pashman: Uh, you come here often? 

Officer Dereck Patton: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Based on a daily basis. 

Dan Pashman: Every day? 

Officer Dereck Patton: Basically, yes. 

Dan Pashman: So you patrol nearby? 

Officer Dereck Patton: Uh, patrol nearby and eat nearby. So yeah, I do a little bit of both. 

Dan Pashman: Do you have one go-to on the menu? 

Officer Dereck Patton: Uh, lately right now since it's kind of cool outside to chill right now.

Dan Pashman: Now, does that come with any fixings you get? 

Officer Dereck Patton: Any Uh, I normally just do chili. Um, you can do with, uh, cheese. I normally do like old school, with a grilled cheese. 

Dan Pashman: Oh, you got a grilled cheese sandwich on the side.

Officer Dereck Patton: Yeah. You can get one. 

Dan Pashman: And you dip that into the chili a little bit. 

Officer Dereck Patton: Yes. Yes sir. With some crackers as well. And they got good cooks back there. Great cooks, I'm gonna say. Great, great cooks back there. So that's really, um, that's the job well. 

Dan Pashman: Now you're making me want to dip a grilled cheese with some chili. 

Officer Dereck Patton: Hey, go ahead. I'm telling you. Better go. They ran out last time, so I need, make sure I put my order in before they run out so.

Dan Pashman: Gotta get on it quick. 

Officer Dereck Patton: Yes, sir.

Dan Pashman: Heather wasn’t kidding about letting things run out! I put in my order, got my food, and got back to the car to eat. 

Dan Pashman: Okay, this is the smoked chicken salad at Mac’s. Very famous for this. Ooh, this looks good. I don't know if I've ever had a smoked chicken salad sandwich, and it is very different. I mean, more different than I would have expected. Toasted white bread, lettuce, tomato, smoked chicken salad. Tons of flavors, super simple, super fresh.

Dan Pashman: To the pimento cheese sandwich. Mmm. That is some really good pimento cheese. That's all you need, really. Oh, I got some on my microphone. Not the first time. Alright, one last thing to cover is Chef Preston's homemade cinnamon bun, which they warmed up for me. I'm gonna start with the part of the cinnamon bun that has the most frosting, which also might be the messiest, but I gotta be me. I mean, warm cinnamon bun. What else do you want me to say? The best.

MUSIC 

Dan Pashman: After Mac’s, my appetite was primed. But I didn’t finish everything, because I had four more stops ahead of me. I dropped my rental car into drive, and hit the gas.

Dan Pashman: Alright, I'm on the highway out of Birmingham. Ready for stop number two. Gas station sushi.

Dan Pashman: That’s coming up, after the break.

+++BREAK+++ 

MUSIC 

Dan Pashman: Welcome back to The Sporkful, I’m Dan Pashman. As I mentioned at the top, we’re doing shows based in the south all month long here on the show. Next week we’ll hear the story of legendary southern chef Edna Lewis, then after that we’ll have the story of a barbecue pitmaster and preacher in rural Tennessee. For last week’s show I was live in Memphis with the restaurateur Karen Blockman Carrier. Her restaurants have dishes and flavors from all over the world, but growing up in an Orthodox Jewish household, her exposure to food was a lot more limited.

Karen Carrier: So I went to this place called Burkle's Bakery. And this waitress came up and she goes, “You know, what do you want?” I said, “Well, what's, what's catfish?” And she looked at me, she had teased red hair and her big eyebrows painted on. She went, “Sug? Where you from?” And I went, “I'm from Memphis.” She goes, “Well, what'd you eat growing up?” And I went, “Brisket, tzimmes, matzo ball soup, gefilte fish.” And she looked at me like I was from another planet.

Dan Pashman: Karen’s life has so many twists and turns and she has so many great stories, like the one day she worked for Martha Stewart, you gotta find out why she only lasted one day. She opened restaurants in New York and catered to some very high end clients, and then started over in Memphis with restaurants that changed the dining scene when they opened. Check out that episode from last week wherever you got this one. 

Dan Pashman: OK, let’s get back to the show.

Dan Pashman: From Birmingham I jumped on I-22, and headed 40 miles northwest to Jasper, Alabama. Bayou Fresh Seafood is a gas station restaurant known for their sushi. Heather Ehl, the owner of Mac’s in Birmingham, said she and her husband sometimes drive up to Jasper just for this sushi. Southern Living Magazine named this place one of the best gas station restaurants in the South -- I didn’t even know that category existed! I needed to see what the fuss was about.

Dan Pashman: I pulled up to a gas station on a four lane road with a few other stores in each direction. Inside, Bayou Fresh feels more like a restaurant -- while it’s part of the same building as the convenience store, it has its own door, so there are no rows of chips and Twinkies in sight. There are 8 or 10 tables and a sushi counter with a few stools -- that’s where I sat down.

Dan Pashman: I met Camelia Castillo, who had been working there for nine years. She’s a server, but she does lots of jobs around the restaurants. She’s 26, and Bayou was her first full time job.

Dan Pashman: How'd you end up working here? 

Camelia Castillo: Um, my sisters worked here for like 11 years, so. 

Dan Pashman: So she brought you in? 

Camelia Castillo: Mm hmm. Most of it's like family that work here, so. 

Dan Pashman: How many people who work here are you related to? 

Camelia Castillo: Um, both of my sisters, two of my sisters work here. One's a server, one's a sushi chef. 

Dan Pashman: Camilia’s sister who’s a sushi chef is just 21. The owner, Mr. Zhou, started training her recently. Mr Zhou, or Zhou as most of the people at the restaurant call him, is originally from China. He came to the U.S. 30 years ago, and worked in various restaurant kitchens around the country, before settling in Alabama. He bought this business in 2012 from a Vietnamese family -- back then they were serving Southern and Cajun seafood dishes, things like catfish, tilapia, and oysters. At first he kept it the same, but after a few months, some customers asked him if he could make sushi, so he figured out how to do it.  

Dan Pashman: As he told me, even though some people requested sushi, he wasn’t sure how many folks would actually be into it.

Mr. Zhou: Because I'm scared. The country, people always like fried. I don't think so. They like sushi.

Dan Pashman: But Mr. Zhou gave it a shot. He came up with some rolls with fried ingredients, added some raw sushi options, and put them on the menu. 

Mr. Zhou: Lot of people, first time they got, they like it, you know? That’s why I'm so surprised, you know, for me. 

Dan Pashman: You were surprised that they liked it? 

Mr. Zhou: Yeah, they liked it. They want to try new things. 

Dan Pashman: How does it feel for you to see the success of the restaurant that so many, that so many people know about it?

Mr. Zhou: Before, we just wanted to make a business, right, just a business. Now we're just thinking, oh yeah. We use our heart to go work. 

Dan Pashman: Put your heart into your work. 

Mr. Zhou: To pay back everything, you know. You can gather a lot of loyalty, people come back. We're really good.

Dan Pashman: Mr. Zhou had to get back behind the sushi counter, but as I chatted more with Camilia, she said she sees that customer loyalty too.

Camelia Castillo: If you work during the day, it's mostly like workers coming for like lunch and stuff like that. And then, uh, night time it's like families and stuff like that. We watched a lot of like their kids grow up and stuff. So it's nice. Everybody that comes in here, I know them, they know me, I know their order and all that. And, you know, it's mostly like the same people that come here every day.

Dan Pashman: As I sat at the sushi counter, Camila guided me through the menu 

Camelia Castillo: So. Everyone likes to rock and roll. It's got the shrimp, crawfish, um, crab, jalapenos, and everything like that. So, and a lot of people like it because it's not raw. So, we have a lot of people that will eat raw, but mostly a lot of people like, like the fully cooked, deep fried. We're in the South. Everyone likes everything fried. So, they usually go for the fried cooked rolls.

Dan Pashman: There was edamame, gyoza: a lot of the dishes you’ll see at other sushi restaurants. But there were also some menu items I didn’t recognize.

Camelia Castillo: And we have a Chuck roll, which is we have a customer who's literally came in here like every day since we've opened like him and Zhou have become best friends because he sits where you're sitting, and he comes here every single day, lunch, usually dinner, he's here. So we have a Chuck roll. His name is Chuck. But yeah, we name them after customers if they make up rolls and stuff We just kind of add them to the menu and stuff like that. 

Dan Pashman: The inside of the chuck roll is a mix of spicy tuna and cucumber, and on the outside -- crab mix, avocado, salmon, tuna, eel sauce, spicy mayo, and green onions. I was looking through the menu, trying to figure out what to order… when suddenly, I got distracted.

Dan Pashman: Was that a plate of blackened shrimp that just came by?

Camelia Castillo: Yes.

Dan Pashman: That looked insane.

Camelia Castillo: Everyone loves our blackened shrimp, everyone loves it.

Dan Pashman: Camelia Castillo says they get their shrimp fresh from the Gulf. I knew that I had to get a plate of that. I also got a Rock and Roll, and a yellowtail roll, so one cooked roll and one raw one. A few minutes later, the blackened shrimp arrived. Before I even took a bite, I knew that this fresh gulf shrimp was going to be good. 

Dan Pashman: First of all, I'm smelling this, this blackened shrimp, I smell the pepper, I smell the spices, but it also really smells like shrimp, which sounds like a crazy thing to say, but like so much shrimp is kind of like frozen halfway around the world and you don't know. It's just like, it doesn't have the same amount of flavor. And this like from, from two feet away, this smells like shrimp. 

Camelia Castillo: We probably sell over 200 pounds a week, I'm sure of shrimp, just shrimp. So. 

Dan Pashman: All right. All right. I'm going to try some. You like, you like the lemon squeeze? I'm a lemon person, 

Camelia Castillo: Oh yeah. I'm lemon all the way. All the way.

Dan Pashman: Mm that is so good.

Dan Pashman: Then the sushi came out- First the famous rock and roll and then the raw yellowtail roll. They were both excellent.

Dan Pashman: As I finished eating, I looked up from my plate. Just as Camilia promised, Chuck, the Chuck of the namesake Chuck Roll, was in the restaurant, like he is every day. He had found a seat in a booth, so I went over to say hello.

Dan Pashman: So, Chuck, I apologize. I'm sitting in your seat at the counter. 

Chuck: Oh, that's no problem. I'm glad to give it to you. 

Dan Pashman: Were you a big sushi fan before you started coming here? 

Chuck: I was, yeah. I was a big sushi fan. And at the time, Jasper didn't really have good sushi. And Mr. Zhou, we met him early on when he first opened. And we just started, we took a chance and just came in. And yeah, he really impressed us. And after a few months, he asked us what we thought about, You know, would we want to bring sushi? Would we think it was a good idea if he brought sushi? And we were like, yeah, heck yeah. Of course, I didn't expect it to be as good as it was. So the first time I actually tried it, I was like, Oh wow.

Dan Pashman: So, you are the Chuck that the Chuck roll is named after? 

Chuck: Correct. 

Dan Pashman: That's quite an honor. 

Chuck: I guess you could say so. 

Dan Pashman: Do you ever brag to people that you have a role named after you?

Chuck:  Not, not really, you know, I mean, not brag. I mean, you know, it's not that big a deal to me, but you know, it's fun. It's more just fun. 

Dan Pashman: But if someone ever says, hey, you know, I just moved to town or I'm here visiting, you know, I sure do love sushi. Where is the best place for sushi in Jasper? 

Chuck: Yeah, I'm gonna say, you know, go to the gas station, you know. It's funny, I just met somebody last night. It was a very similar situation, and I did say, if the Chinese guy's there tomorrow night, she said she was gonna come tonight, and I said, tell him to hook you up and get a Chuck Roll. It does come come up, not bragging.

Dan Pashman: Just a polite mention.

Chuck: Throw it out there.

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: Now I'm back on the road, 95 miles to Tupelo, Mississippi. The birthplace of Elvis, and hopefully, a plate of chicken spaghetti.

Dan Pashman: Chicken Spaghetti is a Mississippi specialty. Perhaps the most famous version in the state is made by Olivia Manning, wife of Archie, mother of Peyton and Eli Manning. Olivia grew up in Mississippi and I’ve heard her recipe for chicken spaghetti is often featured at events in the state, especially at the University of Mississippi, Ole Miss, where she, Archie, and Eli went to school. As a Giants fan, I imagine eating this dish, here in Mississippi, will bring me closer to Eli.

Dan Pashman: But what is it? Well, recipes vary but it usually starts with a base made from cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup, then you add peppers, onions, and cheese. I read that this place, Thomas Street Grocery, makes it fresh every day. But from what I could tell from their Facebook page, they only serve it until 1 pm, and I was on course to arrive closer to 2. I called ahead to see if they could put some aside for me, but no one picked up. 

Dan Pashman: I pressed the gas. Finally…

Dan Pashman: Alright, here we are at the next stop.

Dan Pashman: I walked in -- there were no customers. I had clearly missed the lunch rush. I went up to the cashier and asked if they still had any chicken spaghetti. He shook his head and said no, it was all gone.

Dan Pashman: I was crestfallen.

Dan Pashman: Then I looked to the right and saw the steam table where the cooked foods were displayed. I walked over and saw a metal container, nearly empty, but with a bit of spaghetti in a creamy, pinkish sauce in the bottom. It was crusty around the edges. It had clearly been sitting out.

Dan Pashman: Isn’t this chicken spaghetti? I asked him.

Dan Pashman: Yyyyes, he said reluctantly. But it’s a little old.

Dan Pashman: It looks good to me! I said.

Dan Pashman: He scraped out the bottom of the bin, glopped it into a styrofoam container, and I sat down in one of the formica booths by the window, near the beef jerky.

Dan Pashman: This is the last of their chicken spaghetti today. He was reluctant to serve it to me, but I think he could tell by the look in my eyes that I desperately wanted it. So he said, he said he would sell it to me at a discount. So I'm eating some discount, several hour old chicken spaghetti at a gas station in Tupelo, Mississippi. And I am having a blast. It's a very thick, creamy, sort of cheesy sauce. The chicken is sort of shredded in.

Dan Pashman: I took my first taste, and it was very good, but I thought it needed a little something.

Dan Pashman: I’m gonna put some hot sauce on it.

Dan Pashman: Fortunately, there was a bottle of Louisiana hot sauce on every table. 

Dan Pashman: Mmm. That's really good. I mean, it's thick. But it's actually, It's like, this chicken spaghetti to me is almost like chicken pot pie spaghetti. 

Dan Pashman: It was shockingly good. Comforting, rich and creamy, but not overly heavy. The hot sauce was a key addition.

Dan Pashman: Well, I feel refueled. Time to go.

MUSIC 

Dan Pashman: I took the rest of my chicken spaghetti for the road, jumped back in the car, and got on I-278. I drove 50 miles west to my next destination.

Dan Pashman: Alright, I've turned off the highway, and I'm heading to downtown Oxford, Mississippi. Home of the University of Mississippi.

Dan Pashman: This stop was probably the most famous of the ones on my list -- 4 Corners Chevron, known for one dish in particular.

Dan Pashman: Home of the chicken on a stick. Well, when you see that sign, you gotta pull over. 

Dan Pashman: Again, from the outside it looks like a standard gas station with a convenience store that also looks pretty typical, even on the inside. Just two things stand out -- next to the register there are several big trays of fried chicken, behind a fiberglass shield. And in the corner, they sell Chicken on a Stick T-shirts at 30 bucks a pop. 

Dan Pashman: I ordered my chicken on a stick-- I got it with ranch and sweet and sour sauce, and sat outside on one of the few picnic tables.

Dan Pashman: This is a college town, University of Mississippi, Ole Miss. School's not in session, it's the middle of a weekday afternoon, so it's kind of quiet. But the woman who works here, she didn't want to be interviewed, but she told me that from 7pm to 2am, there's a line snaking through the whole convenience store, out the door.

Dan Pashman: The students come and get chicken on a stick to bring to the bars, then they come back after the bars for more chicken on a stick. Now this chicken on a stick is, it's a foot long. And you can't see the stick. She hands it to me in a bag, I'm like, is it, is it on a stick? She's like, yeah, there's a stick in there.

Dan Pashman: So, it's like a very, long, very straight chicken finger. I think it's multiple pieces of chicken, actually. But they're kind of all pressed together. Fried to golden perfection. Alright. Here we go. Mmm. That is juicy! I mean, look. It's basically chicken tenders. It's on a stick. I can understand why you would want to eat this before and or after going drinking. 

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: One more stop.

Dan Pashman: As I drove north through Mississippi, the sun began to set.

Dan Pashman: All right, I have arrived at my final stop on this road trip. Tacos de Soto in Southhaven, Mississippi. I'm right up on the Tennessee border, just a few minutes from Memphis. This is a marathon gas station and a taco joint.

Dan Pashman: This was probably the biggest convenience store of any on my trip, and the taco options were laid out in a long steam table, metal containers full of meats and fixins.

Dan Pashman: When I got inside, I met the owner, Paul Bar. He’s been living in Mississippi for 20 years, running this gas station for 18.

Paul Bar: I came from California and, you know, I love tacos. We used to do a lot of fried foods here and we had so many Hispanic workers coming in. I said, you know what, let me change it to what they actually like. So that's when my idea came into my head, you know what, I need to put something like taco truck food.

Dan Pashman: There are no taco trucks in Southhaven, because of zoning regulations, but taco trucks are of course a huge thing in California. In other words, like so many other gas station restaurants, the food at Tacos De Soto is a reflection of what customers want, but also of the background and perspective of the owner. 

Dan Pashman: Can I ask you, like, are you Hispanic or you just love tacos? 

Paul Bar: Uh, no, I'm Indian actually, I just like Hispanic food. I grew up in California among mostly Hispanics. 

Dan Pashman: Right. 

Paul Bar: And the majority of the restaurants here, they, you know, they kind of wash it down, the Hispanic food, to not what it's supposed to be, but they kind of water it down to what Americans like, right? Which is hardly any taste, but I keep it original. Whether you like it or not, that's what we sell, that's what Hispanic food is supposed to be. Right. So that's what we try to. 

Dan Pashman: Like Indian food, a lot of flavor. 

Paul Bar: Yeah, exactly. A lot of flavor. So that's why I tell them, hey, you know what, sell it or not, man, keep it original. 

Dan Pashman: Right. 

Paul Bar: And, um, so far, you know, God's blessing, we've been doing great. I mean, this is our bread and butter. 

Dan Pashman: You, you said that this is your bread and butter. Like, do you make more money from tacos than from gas? 

Paul Bar: Oh, absolutely. The night and day difference, you don't make no money out of gas. And gas is just to bring people in. There's no money in gas, man. 

Dan Pashman: That's so interesting. So, so, so the gas brings in the customers, you make the money in the store. 

Paul Bar: Inside the store. Almost every gas station you see gas, you know, everybody thinks, you know, you becoming a millionaire selling gas. No, you can't even pay the bill selling gas.

Dan Pashman: I asked Paul what brought him to the area.

Paul Bar: I was a correctional officer in California for 10 years. And then, you know, things happened. I ended up getting into business after that. It was a crazy world, bro. I never thought of moving to Mississippi of all places, right? But, uh, you know, I guess you end up where you meant to be.

Dan Pashman: It seems like it's going well.

Paul Bar: Yeah, it's going well, man. I love it here. You know, life is slow paced, and it's not so hurry hurry like California, you know, everybody got their different opinion, but once you get to know the people here, man, they're not like what they describe, everybody's racist, this is, it's not like that, but once you get to know each other, you know, I know right now the whole country's divided, but like once you talk to people, man, it's the same thing. People want the same thing. 

Dan Pashman: I got one barbacoa taco -- I wish I could have ordered more, but I was running dangerously low on stomach space. After the first four gas stations, my tank was full. They gave it to me in a small styrofoam container and I got back in my car.

Dan Pashman: The guy offered me different sauces and then he said you want this sauce? You want the mild sauce? I'm thinking to myself: you think I can't handle the hot sauce? Give me the hot sauce. I'm just trying to bite it. Oh that? Yeah. Whoo! And it's hot, but it's good. That hot sauce is no joke.

Dan Pashman: The barbacoa itself was soft and tender, just a really well made taco. Paul had told me that he wants to expand, open a take out window, set up some picnic tables in the parking lot. I could see this place becoming a real destination.  

MUSIC 

Dan Pashman: I finished my taco and pulled out of Southaven…

Dan Pashman: Well, I have just crossed the border from Mississippi into Tennessee. I think I can see the Memphis skyline in the distance. My road trip is coming to an end.

MUSIC 

Kate Medley:  What's the best thing you ate? 

Dan Pashman: Ooh,  you're going right to the heart of the matter

Kate Medley: Mm hmm. 

Dan Pashman: After my trip, I connected back with Kate Medley, the photojournalist you heard earlier. Now that I had gotten a little taste of gas station restaurant culture, I wanted to check back in with Kate, who had spent over a decade documenting gas station restaurants for her book. I told her my highlights:

Dan Pashman:  The Gulf shrimp, the blackened Gulf shrimp at Bayou Seafood was very tops, and then maybe the chicken spaghetti.

Kate Medley: You don't grow up in Mississippi without eating chicken spaghetti.  It's outstanding

Dan Pashman: Working on this project for Kate for 10 years, what surprised you? 

Kate Medley: Hmm. I cover national news that's happening around the South and often that is news of, of hardship, of what divides us, of inequality, of struggle. So what surprised me again and again  on this journey, it sort of helped my soul to go into some of these places and we're all just sitting around having a good bite to eat and, having conversation and really celebrating the commonalities that we share. Celebrating where we are in the world, this culture, this community, and for me that sort of became a balm, to be able to stop into some of these places and, a lot of times, it was a slam on the brake, stop, you know, I didn't know where I was going in advance, but something caught my eye and, you know, I'd open that little glass door and hear the bell jingle and, and, and hope for something really wonderful inside, hope for a surprise, a delicious bite to eat or a kind person, some conversation, and, and I was lucky to find that a lot of my stops. That's what compelled me to keep going and to keep stopping.

MUSIC 

Dan Pashman: That was Kate Medley, her book is called Thank You, Please Come Again. We’ll have a link to it in our show notes. And if you want to see photos from my trip, follow me on Instagram! I’m at The Sporkful. 

Dan Pashman: On next week’s show, as we continue our month in the South, I talk with the food writer Deb Freeman, who produced a new documentary on Edna Lewis. While Edna Lewis has had a huge impact on Southern foodways, there’s still so much about her story that hasn’t been told. That’s next week.

Dan Pashman: And if you are looking for more Sporkful to listen to, check out last week’s show, live from Memphis with the legendary restaurateur Karen Blockman Carrier.