NORTH AMERICA Dive into the South

The US is a melting pot of cultures and cuisines, which is most evident throughout the Southern States. From oysters to Orange Beach, spoonbills to the Smoky Mountains, here are some great reasons to visit the South.

- Ellen Himelfarb, Jacqui Agate , Zoey Goto

The Outer Banks, the Ozarks, Route 66… if you’ve heard of them, your knowledge may have passed through the lens of Hollywood. However, unlike the TV shows, the American South is vast and diverse, united by a language yet distanced by geography. To truly know the states, you have to be there.

For one thing, they’re more sophisticated than some films may have you believe. Around the Missouri plateaus, esteemed chefs are melding Appalachian and indigenous fl avours for discerning diners from St Louis to Springfield. And winemakers are plumbing the vineyards for European-grade Chardonels to serve alongside. Meanwhile, over the river in Kentucky, bourbon is being elevated by speakeasies and small-batch craft distilleries: they call it ‘urban bourbon’.

Arkansas is often overlooked in the race to discover the South. Yet just west of Little Rock, you can sink into an ancient thermal spring, then virtually disappear into the wild hickory forests and mountain trails, peeking over the clouds for a reminder of just how inconceivably vast and undeveloped the US can be.

Next door but a world away is Mississippi, a haven for Southern blues and a country music stalwart to rival Tennessee. You can’t drive 10 minutes on Highway 61 — the so-called Blues Highway — without a turnoff for a legendary juke joint. In Tennessee, meanwhile, the locals have turned their attention to the abundance of wild ingredients and put them to work in time-honoured recipes tweaked for new generations. Leave Nashville for the Great Smoky Mountains and sample Appalachian cooking in a classic red barn plucked from a Grant Wood painting.