Cornbread is yellow-cornmeal batter baked in a cast-iron skillet with a butter or bacon-fat crust, the canonical Southern bread for any savory meal.
Where to eat it: 6 restaurants across 2 cities.
Cornbread is the Southern bread, predating wheat-flour biscuits in Alabama and persisting through Reconstruction as the staple grain bread. Birmingham meat-and-three counters serve it with every plate; Niki's West runs the cafeteria version, Eagle's serves it with collards and Saw's puts it next to the white-sauce smoked chicken. The Alabama version is unsweetened or only mildly sweetened; sweet Southern cornbread is a more Northern interpretation.
Common allergens: Dairy, Eggs
Tip from the editors. The skillet must be screaming hot before the batter hits it; that's what gives the canonical crackly bottom crust.
Niki's West on Finley Avenue West Birmingham has run the meat-and-three from a cafeteria steam table since 1957, opposite the Alabama Farmers Market.
Why locals love it: Tourists rarely cross the rail tracks to the Acipco-Finley district to find this 1957 cafeteria; locals queue for the catfish.
Tip: Get there by 12:30 for the fried catfish and turnip greens; weekday lunch is the peak.
Eagle's Restaurant on 16th Street North in Smithfield is the Black-owned soul-food anchor since 1951, with the Friday catfish and a multi-generation kitchen.
Why locals love it: The Smithfield Black-owned soul-food kitchen since 1951 sits a block from Acipco and most non-locals never find it.
Tip: Order the Friday catfish; closed Saturday and Monday so plan around the schedule.
Saw's BBQ in Homewood near Birmingham serves the canonical Mike Wilson pulled-pork sandwich with Alabama white sauce slaw under $12 from the 2009 shack.
Try: Pulled pork sandwich, $9-12
Bully's is the best-value James Beard award-winning meal in the United States: oxtails, catfish, and six sides for under $14, in a modest dining room.
Try: Soul food steam table with oxtails, neckbones, catfish, and sides
Order: Oxtail plate with mixed greens, mac and cheese, and yams
Tip: Arrive before 13:00 for the widest steam table selection; popular items sell out.
Campbell's Bakery has made the same iced tea cakes and petit fours since 1962 from recipes unchanged since opening, in a Fondren shop that Jackson residents.
Why locals love it: A 1962 Fondren institution beloved by locals for petit fours and iced tea cakes, almost entirely unknown outside Jackson despite being one of the state's oldest continuously oper
Tip: Order a dozen petit fours to take away as a Jackson food souvenir; they ship nationwide.
Hen and Egg's Sunday brunch buffet features Gulf shrimp grits, gumbo, and chef Nick Wallace's rotating Southern dishes from a first-floor service station.
Order: Sunday brunch buffet upstairs with Gulf shrimp grits and rotating Southern favourites
Tip: The Sunday brunch buffet has the most variety; weekday breakfasts are counter-service and faster.
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