Last spring, Alton Brown and his crew blew through the Mississippi Delta, collecting footage--and tamales--for the second season of Brown's Food Network show Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run. SFA oral historian Amy Evans met up with the guys in Rosedale, where they visited with Barbara Pope of Joe's White Front, ate tamales, and speculated about the origins of the Koolickle. Now, those moments are collected in a book of the same name.

Last week, Alton Brown blew through the Delta again, this time for some book signings. He spent the morning at TurnRow Book Company in Greenwood (a great Delta town with some fabulous tamales, by the way), and then hit the SFA's hometown of Oxford in the afternoon. Read a great review of Feasting on Asphalt by our friends at TurnRow.

Brought to you by the Southern Foodways Alliance
May 23-25, 2008

Follow blues scholar Scott Barretta along Highway 61. Dish Chicago culinary history with Bruce Kraig, the Horace of hot dogs. Feast at West Town Tavern as Susan Goss pays homage to Edna Stewart and other old guard Chicago soul cooks. Take a bite out of a Mother-In-Law. Get the blues with Jimmy Burns at The Hideout. Shop the Maxwell Street Market. Wolf a catfish sandwich. Get in the swim at an aquarium barbecue pit. And more. Lots more.

For an additional fee, guests have the option of going on a Chicago X'Cursion. These mini-tours, guided by local folks who know their city best, will showcase the South in Chicago (Up South) and still get you to lunch on time. One of the X'Cursions is an on-the-ground education in Mother-in-Laws. Hike through Chicago with LTH forum leader (and mouse geneticist) Peter Engler, who contributed photographs to the Tamale Trail's Chicago Connection page, in search of the Windy City's famed tamale in a bun. Visit a tamale factory, and learn how these Delta treats arrived to the Windy City.

Visit the SFA's main site for more information and to register.

Right across from The Ranchero on North State Street (old HWY 61) in Clarksdale, this eye-catching stand has been a popular stop on the Tamale Trail. For seven years, Big Jim Cole served many a red hot from the walk-up window, along with barbecue, hog maws, and koolickles by the gallon. But Big Jim recently sold his stand and is now working on opening a new location on HWY 49. In the interim, you can still get Big Jim's hot tamales here. He's supplying the new owner with tamales as fast as he can make them. Know, though, that all of Big Jim's decorations are gone, so if you're in Clarksdale and need a tamale fix, be on the lookout for a naked beige building with nary a sign.

We conducted an interview with Big Jim for the Tamale Trail, but it has yet to be posted. We might just sit on it until he gets his new location up and running, which he hopes will be sometime this spring. Check back here for updates.

The Shanty in Cleveland is now the Grapeland Grill. Owner Jonathan Vance expanded the restaurant and decided that the new space needed a new name. No worries, the tamales haven't changed a bit.

Read our interview with Grapeland Grill tamale maker, Tamara Calhoun, right here.

Luke Duncan, author of the "Rolling Along the Tamale Trail" article in the Oct./Nov. issue of Y'All magazine, has created a tamale page on Squidoo. Check it out!

Photo by Luke Duncan.

Check out the eight-page spread on the Tamale Trail by local writer Luke Duncan that appears in the Nov./Dec. 2007 issue of Y'All magazine.

By the way, the tamale painting that opens the article was created by SFA oral historian (and artist) Amy Evans.

It used to be that the only time you could get tamales in Drew was when the Hot Tamale Heaven truck came to town on weekends. But now, Walter and Jessie Sculark sell HTH's tamales at their new restaurant, Drew Fast Food & Bar-B-Q, every Friday and Saturday.

For those of you who know Drew, the Sculark's used to have the PC Diner, where they served a mean meat-and-three. Unfortunately, they're focusing on short orders now, but Mrs. Sculark is still making her killer sweet potato pie, the perfect thing to follow a meal of tamales.