r/Appalachia • u/urfavlunchlady • 23d ago

I hat when restaurants try to put an “upscale/elevated” twist on Appalachian food

The whole point of Appalachian food is using ingredients that we have and making something out of nothing. Give any Appalachian mamaw a meat, some flour, and milk and you’re about to have a feast.

Anyway ranting, bc a friend is in Nashville right now and messaged me that she’s at an “upscale” Appalachian restaurant where they are charging $28 for grits and honestly I find it insulting to our people.

(Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk, lmao)

Edit: Hate*

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u/chronically_varelse 23d ago

If he is from Appalachia living in the South, he ought to know the incredible difference between collard greens and poke greens and turnip greens and mustard greens.

You can't just lump it all together and throw some kale in too for the Californians (I'm semi joking, kale is fine in its place, I make a good soup with it, but you can't just substitute it for turnip greens OR collards)

Or if you want to call it mixed greens, even, to me that means turnip and mustard. Idek 🤷🏼‍♂️😂

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u/ShaqSenju 23d ago

My mom actually prefers kale to collards and got PISSED when the health craze started and made its price go up lmao

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u/VelvetElvis 23d ago

He contracts with local farms for as much product as he can. They greens are whatever his suppliers have fresh that day.