Down Under Travel

Enjoy the mischevious antics of the Lefton boy figurines. Skillfully crafted by artists, these figurines show boys as babies through toddlers to teens. If you love collectibles figurines, then you should include a Lefton figurine in your figurine collection.

Lefton figurines not only show boys at different ages, but they show different time periods as well. You’ll love the figurines show the boys doing simple chores like shining their shoes or playing a muscial instrument.

Lefton artists also have designed a Lefton figurine for each holiday. Many of those include boys. You’ll find a Lefton boy figurine for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, even St. Patrick’s Day. The Lefton Colonial Village has many pieces that make it look like a Winter Wonderland. Let it become part of your Christmas decorating tradition.

I love to think of my home accessories as a scrapbook that shows all of the fun, interesting and momentous occasions in our family. There’s a Lefton figurine that shows a little boy sledding. I bring him front and center every Christmas and he stays out for the rest of the winter. He reminds all of us of our blustery New England winters and all of the fun we had out sledding for hours at a time. I’m sure that you’ll find Lefton figurines that have the same wonderful memories for your family and friends.

Potatoes are common ingredients in American recipes and dishes, and French fries are practically ubiquitous in the U.S. You can’t exit a drive-through window at a fast-food eatery without being asked, “Would you like fries with that?” but where did French fries come from? Are they really French?

After doing a bit of research on this topic, I still don’t have a definitive answer. Food historians are split over the debate. We do know that potatoes weren’t introduced to Europe until after Spanish explorers found the spuds when they discovered the Incas in the 1500s. The Incas of Ecuador and Peru had been eating potatoes for some 2,000 years by then. The Spanish tried the tubers, but they weren’t impressed and ate them only in emergencies. Nevertheless, they took some of the potatoes back to their homeland. A decade or two later, Sir Walter Raleigh introduced the potato to England.

It took a long time for spuds to catch on with Europeans – except for the Irish. For the most part, potatoes were thought to be unfit for human consumption and were often used to feed pigs. Even worse, it was believed that potatoes caused diseases, including leprosy. A few European rules, however, tried valiantly to force peasants to grow and eat potatoes to avoid starvation. One such farsighted ruler was Prussia’s Frederick II.

Surprisingly, it was the Seven Years’ War that ultimately convinced the French that potatoes were safe to eat. The war, fought between France and Britain, Prussia, and Germany, started in 1754 and lasted until 1763. A chemist from France, Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, serving as an army pharmacist in the war, was captured by the Prussians. While serving his time in prison, he survived on a diet of potatoes. Once he returned to France in 1763, Parmentier set about changing notions about the potato to his countrymen.

Parmentier had quite a battle in his endeavor. There was even a law in France that forbade the growing and eating of potatoes, on medical grounds. In 1772, Parmentier was finally able to have the ban on spuds lifted, and the Paris Faculty of Medicine announced that potatoes were not poisonous or the cause of diseases. It took a while to convince the rest of the French, however. Parmentier began serving potatoes to dignitaries at dinners he hosted, hoping to change minds about the lowly spuds. Still, it wasn’t until a major crop failure in 1785 that acceptance of the potato was widespread in France. By the early nineteenth century, potatoes were being cultivated and consumed across much of Europe. But what about French fries?

Here’s where the real debate starts. Both France and Belgium claim fame to the first fried potatoes, but no one knows when this occurred. Evidence reveals that it had to have been prior to 1802 because in that year, Thomas Jefferson served potatoes to his guests that were “fried in the French fashion.” We also know that at some point about this same time or soon after, French fries, or “frites,” were being sold by street vendors in Paris.

French fries really caught on in the United States after World War I. American soldiers had enjoyed the deep-fried spuds in France and Belgium, and when they returned home to the USA, they wanted to continue eating the delicacies. The popularity of the French fry really took off in America after that. Restaurants and drive-ins began making and serving them, and they soon became a part of Americana. It’s interesting to note that in many nations outside Europe, the fried potatoes are often referred to as “American fries.”

When you visit the United States, you need to try several regional cuisines – especially southern food. To many Americans, southern food showcases the best America has to offer, including fresh ingredients and a lot of history. Southern food is almost as old as the USA itself, based on the cooking traditions of Native Americans, European immigrants, and African slaves. Be careful, though. Because of its rise in popularity, many restaurants are touting their dishes as “southern,” when they’re not southern at all.

The best places to find authentic southern food is in the Deep South. This includes the states of Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Northern Florida. A few chain restaurants in the South serve real southern food, including Cracker Barrel and Ole Times Country Buffet. You’ll have better luck, however, with privately-owned restaurants. In fact, some of the best southern food is served at small mom-and-pop establishments. How do you know if the restaurant served authentic southern food? If you’re in a small southern town, and the restaurant’s parking lot is filled with vehicles that don local license plates, chances are good that you’ve found what you’re looking for!

What should you order? If you’re on the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico coast, try the local seafood. Fresh seafood is hard to beat, especially when it’s deep-fried the southern way or steamed with lots of southern spices and herbs. Some great examples include fried shrimp, fried oysters, boiled or steamed shrimp, fried or grilled grouper, blackened redfish, stuffed flounder, fried soft shell crabs, crab stew, and scallops. Try your seafood with a side dish of cheese grits, and don’t forget the hushpuppies!

If you’re not near the coast, opt for some great southern barbecue. In the South, barbecue means pork – pulled pork. Pork shoulders are smoked for hours and hours over hickory, pecan wood, oak, peach wood, or apple wood, and a tangy sauce is usually applied. For sides to go with your barbecue plate or pulled pork sandwich, try coleslaw, potato salad, or baked beans.

For some typical country southern cooking, you have to try some crispy fried chicken. If you’re not crazy about chicken, try fried pork chops or country fried steak, instead. Be sure to get rice or mashed potatoes with some good ole southern gravy.

Southern food

If you’re not from the United States, you might not be very familiar with Southern food. Southern dishes and Southern recipes are extremely popular in America. Once enjoyer only by those folks lucky enough to be born and reared in the Southern states, Southern food has gained immense popularity in the past few years and can now be found even in some top-shelf restaurants in the Northeast, the Midwest, and the West. What, exactly, is Southern food?

Southern food is known by more than one name. after all, there are different regions within the U.S. South. Much of it is known as “soul food,” but there are also distinct regional cuisines that originated in the South. These include Cajun foods, Creole cuisine, Low Country cuisine, and Gullah-Geechee dishes.

 Cajun food was born in Louisiana, typical of the “Cajuns,” or Acadians – descendants of immigrants from Canadian Maritimes. These islands include New Brunswick, Prince Edward, and Nova Scotia. Creole cuisine often overlaps with Cajun food. Creole is popular in Louisiana and in cities like Charleston, South Carolina. Low Country foods are those historically prepared in the “low country” of South Carolina and Georgia.

One of the most fascinating food cultures is that of the Gullah Gullah or Geechee people whose descendants now inhabit a few small islands along the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina. The original Gullah were brought from Africa as slaves to work on the huge rice plantations of the coastal South. Although the term “Gullah” or “Gullah-Gullah” has stuck in South Carolina, these people are usually referred to as “Geechee” in Georgia. Many people use the term Gullah-Geechee for cooking methods and recipes typical of this group.

Southern food has been influenced by several groups of people. These include African slaves, Native Americans, and immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, and England. Of course, local farming practices and native wild fruits, game animals, and fish and seafood had a huge impact on Southern food.

Some form of BBQ cooking is done in practically every corner of the globe, but in the American South, BBQ cooking is an art form. We take it very seriously here, and it’s a big part of living in the South. Unlike many other regions in the United States, BBQ cooking can be done all year in our warm climate. And believe me – we take advantage of our glorious weather! Many folks barbecue or smoke meats just about every weekend.

BBQ cooking is a great excuse for a party or get-together. A crowd usually stands around the grill, pit, or smoker as the meat cooks, and practically everyone present offers his two cents on cooking techniques, the best mops sauces, and the best homemade barbecue sauce. At any given barbecue, there might be numerous barbecue sauces from which to choose. There might be a couple of bottles of commercial bottled sauces, but most will be homemade BBQ sauces. There seems to always be a continuing competition, especially among the men, as to which one makes the tastiest homemade barbecue sauce.

So…what kind of meat can you expect to find with BBQ cooking in the South? Down here, it’s all about the pork…the pig…the hog. We love our pork, and we can cook it to smoky perfection. We enjoy cooking and eating spare ribs and baby back ribs, but when we refer to “barbecue” as a dish, we’re referring to larger portions of pork that are cooked for hours, absorbing lots of wonderful smoke. This might be pork shoulder roasts, pork loins, fresh hams, or even a whole or half pig.

BBQ cooking

The most popular Southern barbecue dish is pulled pork. That’s meat that’s been smoked over charcoal or wood and then shredded, or “pulled,” into small fibers. The meat is often mixed with a sweet, tangy, and/or hot barbecue sauce. Sometimes the sauce is served on the side, instead of being mixed directly with the meat. The preferred pork cut for pulled pork comes from the shoulders, which are called “Boston butts.”