[soft blues guitar playing]
[birds chirping]
-[audience clapping] -Hey, get on with it.
That's it. That'll do it.
[theme music playing]
♪ A happy, hungry man ♪
♪ Is traveling all across The sea and the land ♪
♪ Is trying to understand ♪
♪ The art of pasta, pork, chicken and lamb ♪
♪ He will drive to you ♪
♪ He will fly to you ♪
♪ He will sing for you ♪
♪ And dance for you ♪
♪ He will laugh with you ♪
♪ And he’ll cry for you ♪
♪ There’s just one thing he asks in return ♪
♪ Somebody feed, somebody feed ♪
♪ Won’t somebody, somebody feed Phil ♪
♪ Somebody feed him now ♪
[blues music playing]
[Phil] We were looking at where we're gonna go this season,
and we started doing a little research,
and I kept hearing that I should check out the Mississippi Delta.
I have to say the food looked amazing,
and the history is amazing, and the music is amazing,
and the people seem amazing.
The Mississippi Delta technically starts
in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee,
and goes all the way to Vicksburg, Mississippi.
So here we are.
[man] Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to the South's grand hotel, the Peabody Memphis.
I want you to greet Mr. Phil Rosenthal.
[Phil] I've had some wonderful honors in my life…
but today might be the greatest honor of all.
[announcer over PA] Ladies and gentlemen,
the march of the world famous Peabody ducks.
[blues music playing]
[Phil] That's right.
When this hotel opened in the '20s,
some guys went out, uh, duck hunting, and they got drunk.
They brought the ducks used to attract other ducks
so you can shoot and kill them.
Then they thought, "We should keep the ducks in the hotel."
[elevator beeps]
They live in a little apartment on the roof.
[man] Very nice, duckies.
[whistling]
Goodbye, ducks.
[quacking]
What we know as Southern food came about
by taking what was cheap and grown or raised here,
and making it tasty, using techniques from the homeland.
Perfect example is barbecue,
a slow-cooking style from the Caribbean that turns tough meat tender
so it can be spiced and sauced into deliciousness.
Southern classics are everywhere.
Yet you'd be surprised to learn there are people who've never tried them.
[blues music playing]
Hi. You're Desiree?
-[Desiree] Yes. -This is a nice cozy corner you got here.
Well, thank you. [chuckles]
[Phil] This is Desiree Robinson.
She's run this place for many, many years.
-Can I ask you a question? -Yes.
How much sugar does it take to make tea "sweet tea"?
If I were making this for me and wanted to be happy…
-If you wanted to be happy, yeah. -I would put at least three tablespoons.
That's sweet.
I like sweet, sweet, bitter, bitter, hot, hot…
-Sour, sour, spicy, spicy. -Yes.
So… What?
[Desiree laughing] Oh.
Oh, my goodness. Hello.
-[Desiree] Do you like sauce on barbecue? -I like everything.
[Desiree] Those would be prettier with sauce.
[Phil] Oh, oh. Oh.
I shouldn't have eaten this week.
[chuckling]
Mm. Smoky, good.
-[chuckles] Glad you enjoy it. -I love it.
So your whole family's here. They help you?
My oldest grandson is in charge right now.
But I heard you had a great-grandson.
My great-grandson is right there.
-What's his name? -Alexander. He--
Come here, Alexander.
There's a picture of my husband somewhere,
but he looks more like my husband than my husband looks like himself.
Hello, young man. Are you hungry?
Yep.
[Phil] Do you see anything on this table you like?
What's that?
[Phil] This right here? That's a whole Cornish hen.
-Would you like some of that? -Is that chicken?
It's like a little chicken, but it's almost better than chicken.
It's like super chicken.
I want chicken.
-You wanna try it? -Yeah.
Break off a leg there.
You want me to help you? There you go.
Oh.
-Oh, yeah. Look at that. -Oh.
Comes with a handle.
-[Desiree chuckles] -[Phil] Pretty good, right? Do it.
I like it.
[all laughing]
It didn't even get to your nose. I like it.
[laughing]
I love it. Have you had the ribs here?
-I never ate one. -What?
I wanna try one.
Do it. You mean to tell me,
you're in the family and you never had that?
Uh-uh.
He's never wanted to try some of this before?
-No. -Come on, right?
I like it.
-I like it too. -I'm glad you do. [chuckles]
[Phil] What's your favorite food of all the foods?
Bologna.
[stammers] What are we waiting for, Alexander?
Now, when I got bologna sandwiches as a child,
it was a way of my parents showing me
they didn't really care that much about me.
But here, it's a big thick piece of meat
that's skilleted, sauced, coleslawed, put on a delicious roll…
You want to go home and slap your parents.
Look at this. I'm gonna give you the whole half a sandwich.
-How's that? -What?
[Phil] Yep. Here you go. That's all you. Okay?
[Desiree] Thank you.
-Let's bite it together. You ready? -Yeah.
[Phil] The whole sandwich. The whole sandwich.
I like bologna.
You don't want the sandwich part, just the bologna part?
-Yeah. -You do what you want.
Gotta get all the cheese.
No, you're going to like that. That's the coleslaw.
Are you ready?
One…
[laughing]
Two, three.
[chuckles]
-Yummy. -[Phil] Yummy.
You wanna try it with the bun and the coleslaw?
-Uh-uh. -You're just like my kids.
-What's that there? -That's potato salad. You like that?
Huh? -[Phil] Potato salad?
-Potato salad? -Did you ever have that?
-No. -[Phil] You wanna try it?
Yeah.
-[Desiree] Eat some beans. -He said, yes.
-He said yes? -[Phil] He said he's ready to taste.
It's cold and creamy and sweet and delicious.
Wait, it's cold?
-Potato salad's always cold. -I hate cold.
No, you don't.
-I do. -I know you don't.
-You know how I know? -How?
'Cause you like ice cream.
-Like, you get to lick it. -[Desiree laughs]
And I have to chew this with my teeth and, like--
So, do me a favor. Take a little piece on your fork.
You ready?
You're the most careful person I've ever seen.
It's good. You know it's good.
-[Richard chuckles] -I don't like it.
-What don't you like about it? -I taste the coldness.
-[Phil] You taste the coldness. -[chuckles]
-Oh! -[Desiree chuckles]
-I do that all the time. -I bet my mama will know what I did today
because of the mess on my face.
[laughing]
-This is a five-napkin place. Right? -[chuckles]
[rock and roll music playing]
[Phil] Many places claim it,
but the birthplace of rock and roll is right here
at Sun Studios, an R&B label that recorded legends
like BB King, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash,
and of course, the first recordings of a guy named Elvis.
Today, I'm invited to the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church
to judge the men's cook-off.
Hi, everybody. Hi.
I guess the different judges are judging different things, right?
Yes, you see. This is appetizers.
Yes. I'm good with appetizers. Who doesn't like appetizers?
I haven't judged many food competitions, but I'm going to take this very seriously.
-Tell me your name. -I'm Marian.
-Hi, I'm Phil. -Phil, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, Marian. Are you from here your whole life?
You know what, I was born in Alabama, that's where I grew up.
But Memphis is my home because I've been here since '89.
-Yeah. -And I love it.
I'll tell you something.
I've been here not even two days, and I love it already.
You love it.
-I do. -See, there?
All right. Should we compare notes? You're going with the tortilla soup first.
-Tortilla soup. -Here I go.
[indistinct chatter]
-That's good. -That is good.
What do you think? Maybe a little too much salt?
-It is a little salty. -A little salty, right?
But I don't want to influence you.
[Marian] Okay, let's try the broccoli cheese corn bread.
Broccoli cheese corn bread.
I like this.
Yeah, I like that too. That's pretty good.
Hee-hee. What's next? It looks like an egg roll.
This is the soul roll.
[Phil] The soul roll.
-Marian, a little sweet. -I didn't expect it to be sweet.
I didn't either. I'm moving on.
-That's sausage and cheese. -Sausage and cheese. We gotta like that.
What do you think?
I think the cornbread's winning.
-[Phil] So far. -[Marian] Let's try this chicken salad.
It's got apples in it. Yuck.
Has anyone tried to bribe you yet?
No. [chuckles]
Not yet.
[chuckling]
-[Phil] I'm hoping for a bribe. -Yeah, that'd be nice.
[laughs]
Excuse me, how is that chicken?
Delicious.
[Phil] He's not giving it up.
It was delicious.
[Phil] I see it. You don't have to say anything.
It was delicious.
-[Phil] You two. -What she said.
[laughing]
-I think you got to know somebody to be-- -To be in the entrées.
To be entrées. Yeah.
Mm. This is good. Now what's this one? Taco soup.
I like it.
That one would be good with the corn bread dipped in it.
-Marian! They go together. -They go together.
What if we award two of them…
[chuckles]
as a team, but we have to-- From now on, you have to work together.
-That's the rule. -Exactly. There you go.
-Yes! Dipping in the soup. -See that?
-Isn't that good? -Marian. Yes!
Marian and I voted for the cornbread.
Now we're free to mingle in the big room and gorge on everything else.
[woman] ♪ Give me some mains ♪
Sing that again.
♪ Give me some mains ♪
I'm gonna sign you to a record contract.
Turkey! Yes!
I like that big leg. What if I just take that big leg off your hands?
-[waitress] All right. That's oxtail. -[Phil] Wow. Wow. Oxtail!
[Marian] We did a good job, didn't we?
I think we picked a winner. I hope it's ours.
-I do, too. -[Phil] The one we liked, right?
'Cause if the one that we didn't like wins,
I'm gonna start flipping some tables over.
[chuckling]
By the way, the broccoli cornbread won.
[drums playing]
[blues music playing]
Beale Street's been the heart of this city's live music scene
since the 19th century.
And crowds still gather here
every night of the week to listen to the blues.
[laughing]
I'm having such a good time down here. Only one thing could ruin it.
[all] ♪Happy birthday, dear Richard ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
[all clapping, cheering]
[Phil] What are you doing? You have to blow it.
Have you ever done this before? Here. All right.
[cheering, clapping]
Can you believe it? Sixty-eight years old.
[man] Just give it to the crew, come on!
-Come on, crew. -There you go.
-You want to share with your friend? -Thank you.
All right. Here we are.
Brian! Appreciate it…
[Phil] Now that that's over with, here's a little something off the beaten path.
It's a house. Hello, everybody.
-Hello! -Hi! I'm Phil. How are you?
Well, wonderful.
[chuckles] Hi. Nice to meet you. Hi. Hi.
Oh, I love it.
Hi, Talbert.
Hey, man. How you doing?
[Phil] Talbert Fleming is the owner and chef
at Jim and Samella's here in Memphis,
which is named after his grandparents.
-Oh, my God. -[sizzling]
This is the real thing.
Talbert grew up eating his grandma's cooking
and helping his grandma cook.
Then he took over a house across the street from where she lived
and turned it into a full-blown restaurant.
Oh, my goodness. This is breakfast!
-This is how we roll. -[all laugh]
[stammers] I gotta start rolling this way.
[all laugh]
You sit at a communal table.
-Hi, how are you? -We get our fix in the morning.
[Phil] I think you're already famous
because I think I saw a magazine article about this place,
-and I saw your picture. Is that right? -That's probably right.
-[Phil] You're the queen of the place? -Yes!
-[Phil] Do you have a king? -I do. There he is.
[all laugh]
-I wasn't horning in on you. [chuckles] -Don't worry.
And this is maybe the best part of traveling.
Sitting with people you just met and sharing a meal with them.
-Look how busy it is loud and fun and-- -[woman] It is. Yes.
-All the time. -[Phil] All the time?
-Yes. -[Phil] During the week too?
If I came 8:30 on a weekday--
[Doris] He would be here.
[all laugh]
Especially these characters.
They're the neighbors from across the street.
Now, I heard Jim and Samella, the originals,
they lived across the street.
-Two doors down. -Next door to you.
-And you were friends? -[woman] Yeah.
[Phil] Hello.
-[woman] Oh, my God. Mm. That looks good. -Smells so good.
Okay, we need to say grace.
[James] Father, we thank you for the food we about to receive,
for the nourishment of our bodies through Christ, amen.
-[woman] Now, y'all can eat. -[Phil] Amen.
[chuckles]
Oh, hello.
[Morgan] It's like a caramelized apple on top of there.
And then he makes a Crown Royal syrup.
[Phil] Crown Royal buttered apple waffles?
Yes, please.
-[woman 1] All right. -[woman 2] There we go.
-[Phil] Come on. -[Morgan] Right?
[Phil] I'm gonna tell some people.
[all laugh]
-Crown Royal sauce. -Crown Royal sauce.
[Kasha] Okay, taste that.
-[Phil] Oh, yeah. -[Morgan] Get that piece, yup.
[Phil] In my house, that'd be kugel. You ever hear of kugel?
-[Kasha] Uh-uh. -[Phil] It's a Jewishy thing.
[Kasha] So good.
[Phil] Wow. This is good.
Forget what I said. It's nothing like kugel.
Phil, this is some shrimp and grits.
Wow!
Thank you!
-[Talbert] Shrimp and grits! -Yay!
[all laugh]
I didn't know if it was call-or-response or not.
[laughing continues]
-Is it wrong to drink the gravy? -[Doris] No.
[laughs] I think that's why they put it in a cup.
[all laugh]
-I love it. Hello. -Lobster.
-[Phil gasps] So that's… -Fried lobster tails.
[Phil] Now at first, I thought, "Why would you do that to a lobster tail?"
[mellow music playing]
[sizzling]
It's battered like it was fried chicken, so it's…
I guess, a chicken fried lobster tail.
I don't know, I-- Does a lobster tail need to be chicken fried?
Must we chicken fry everything, people? But…
I'm telling you, this is one of the great dishes.
As soon as this came out, I forgot about everything in my life.
I mean, have you ever seen this anywhere else?
-Hey, guys, how's everything tasting? -Oh, it's delicious.
Talbert! Now I'm a fried lobster fan. I never had this.
[all laugh]
[woman] Hey!
The lobster is, like, so tender and juicy
underneath your batter, which is…
sensational.
You liking it, Phil?
It's my new favorite way to eat lobster.
Favorite way to eat lobster.
So now, but tell me the truth. The rest of your day now, today,
-you're not going to be moving much. -[all laugh]
-No, I-- I'm not moving again. -[all laugh]
[woman] She doesn't move much at all, but I'll be on the move.
[chuckling]
I'm 77 now. I've enjoyed every day.
-That's it. -[woman] Yes.
Tell me the secret of 58 years, happy marriage. What's the secret?
Stay on your knees. Pray.
[all laugh]
I'm kinda-- I'm kinda there, too.
I'll never forget this experience. It was absolutely beautiful.
Thanks for having me.
It's been a pleasure.
Let's hear it for Talbert, everybody!
[all cheering, clapping]
It's like your ideal vision…
I love you.
…of what Southern hospitality is.
-Love you. Take care. -I love you.
Hopefully you come back.
I can't wait. Are you kidding? I can't wait to come back.
[birds chirping]
Memphis, very nice.
I got to experience beautiful Southern hospitality so far,
and now we're hitting the road.
Now it's a road picture.
I'm doing something I've never done before.
Go to Mississippi.
I never wanted to drive across the country. You know why?
Because I thought my back would hurt.
So luckily, there's lots of small towns along the way here.
We are on Highway 61.
Our first stop on the road trip from Memphis is Clarksdale, Mississippi.
And the must in Clarksdale is Abe's.
Abe's was started by a Lebanese immigrant in 1924,
and this is his take on Southern barbecue.
This is my kind of place.
It's a no-nonsense place
where the food is gonna be good. I know it's gonna be good.
-It's been here as long as I can remember. -Yeah.
And you never come through Clarksdale,
you don't stop by Abe's and get you a barbecue.
I love it. I love it.
This fella with the world's best accent is Hank Burdine.
He's an author, a gentleman farmer, and a Delta historian.
Look, it's a double-decker.
Looks like a Big Mac of barbecue.
Mm!
How about it?
[Phil] Come on. No, that's kind of perfect.
Such a tang, right?
Now see, you don't have whiskers like I do,
I need lots of napkins when I eat this stuff.
-I need napkins. -[chuckles]
-[Phil] Wow. That's good. -[Hank] So good.
What else are they famous for?
Well, you in the heart of hot tamale country.
Greenville, as a matter of fact, is the hot tamale capital of the world.
See, now, I didn't know.
It's such a multicultural mix of different nationalities here.
[Phil] Migrant Mexican farmworkers brought tamales to the Mississippi Delta
in the early 20th century,
and they quickly became a staple.
We call this some kind of fine eating, right here.
-[Phil] You're Pat? -How y'all doing? I am.
My grandfather was from Lebanon, and he came down in 1914.
Why here?
His parents put him on a boat with his two younger siblings.
-[Phil] Yeah? -And told him, "Go."
How he got to Clarksdale, I don't know.
I-- I think it's incredible, the story of how influences and cultures settle
-and where they settle. - Yep.
Do a lot of stuff together,
work hard together, and we eat together.
[Phil] So much music comes from right where we're sitting, right?
[Hank] Mississippi is the birthplace of American music.
-Right. -You got Elvis Presley.
He cut his teeth on the blues and all like that,
and, like-- like Muddy Waters said,
"The blues had a baby, and they called it rock and roll."
So whatever kind of music you listen to,
it has its roots right here in the Delta.
Yep.
And Clarksdale is the home of the blues right now.
Highway 61 is known as the "Blues Highway."
[Phil] Yes.
With a very special place here, right behind us
is the intersection of 49 and 61.
[both] The Crossroads.
[Hank] And that's supposedly where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil
to learn how to play the blues.
Now a lot of people meet crossroads in their life.
Right. Everyone has a crossroads.
And it doesn't necessarily have to be at midnight
on a lonely road in the Mississippi Delta.
That's why the legend persists, because it's so relatable.
[Pat] Is everything good?
I really truly want to finish everything, but I'll die.
[chuckles] You'll die pleasant, though.
[laughing]
That could be your logo too. "You'll die pleasant."
[blues music playing]
Our next stop is almost 40 miles south of Clarksdale.
This is Cleveland, Mississippi, named after President Grover Cleveland.
It's a stop on the Blues Trail and a thriving little cultural center
with its own branch of the Grammy Museum.
[upbeat music playing]
[Phil] Today, we're meeting some future award winners.
These are kids from the Delta Arts Alliance.
It's a community center, and the kids dance and make art and sing.
Wow!
Excellent.
[Phil clapping] Bravo! Yay!
Every kid should have this opportunity, I think.
[kid] Have you ever been a leap before, Phil?
A what?
[kid] Have you ever been a leap?
Not in about 40 years.
[kid] Okay.
Actually, we got a pretty cool hip-hop move that we could show you.
-Really? -Yeah.
So, boys, you know how we start here?
We have our legs out.
Good. We're gonna actually turn and down.
Now, our leg comes up and as we hop up, we--
From here…
Now, Phil, try to walk all the way around,
just like that.
Now, when you get back, drop back in and move.
-Whoo! -[Richard chuckles]
[kids laughing]
[kid 1] We killed Phil.
[kid 2] I don't know CPR.
[Phil] There's only one way to resuscitate a guy like me.
More food.
Lucky for me, just down the street is the Delta Meat Market,
where Cole Ellis has brought kind of newfangled cooking
to this part of the world.
The restaurant opened in 2013,
and that same year, his friend Matty Bengloff opened the Delta Dairy
right across the street.
[Cole] So here we have the wedge salad.
It's been a Delta Meat Market staple just about since the beginning.
We cover it with our house-made buttermilk dressing
and garlic sweet chili sauce, tomatoes, bacon, and blue cheese.
Just like most steakhouse wedges, but with our little touch on it.
[Phil] So here's a guy using new recipes, all locally sourced.
This is the butternut squash soup with chickpeas, mint, and honey.
The butternut squash come from a friend of ours down in Flora, Mississippi.
It is delicious.
Around here, it's mostly commodity farming.
When you drive by the fields, that's all corn that's going on barges
to feed animals and be processed,
so the few local farms that do grow what I like to call "people food,"
we try our best to support them as best we can.
-[Phil] Great. -[Cole] Thank you.
So tell me about your culinary education.
Years spent around my grandmother's stove, learning, picking up different things.
I decided, "Hey, I might be good at this. Maybe I'll try to do it for a living."
I got my chops up working through Magnolia's
and Hominy Grill and a few other Charlestonian staples.
And, uh, in 2013, my wife and I decided this is where we wanted to raise our girls
and moved down here and opened Delta Meat Market.
[Phil] I'm a fan already.
I've had three bites of soup, and I'm finishing this salad.
[Cole] Oh, yeah.
-[Cole chuckles] -Maybe I'm not.
-Yeah. -[server] I hope you saved room.
Oh, yeah. I saved a little room.
Here comes, like, an artisanal turkey sandwich
and sweet potato… Wow!
-All right, so-- -I'm exci-- Oh.
And beautiful hanger steak over fries with gravy…
[Cole] What you have here is our infamous hanger steak frites.
-Very fancy. -True that.
[Cole] Any time you put a French word with something that makes it fancy.
[laughing]
Instead of truffle and all the other nonsense,
we use Hoover Sauce. Hoover Lee, out of Anguilla, Mississippi.
[Phil] I've tasted that before.
Mm, that's good.
Oh, my God, I wanna keep going. Okay, I will.
[all chuckling]
I was wondering how people here must have reacted
to this kind of food.
[Matty] People like what they're used to.
What I've always liked about what Cole's done
is that they take different things but make it approachable.
It doesn't matter how you open a mind, right?
-[Cole] Right. -Sometimes you gotta open a mouth first.
-[Cole] There you go. -The mind will follow.
[seagulls coo]
[blues music playing]
Down the road a little ways, you'll find the town of Greenville.
Once one of the largest and most cosmopolitan cities in the state
with a thriving downtown and a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper,
the bottom started to drop out of Greenville when the port moved out
and the malls killed Main Street.
Thankfully, a few institutions are still here.
[rock and roll music playing]
♪ Don't ring my bell Baby, I ain't home… ♪
[waitress] Here you go. Thank you.
♪ Sorry, baby I ain't got the time… ♪
How do you do?
[Phil] Jim's Cafe. It's been open since 1909,
and Evelyn runs the place just like her dad did for decades,
and her grandparents did for decades before that.
-Hey, Phil! -[man] How are ya?
Hi. I was told that if I came into Jim's,
I would find something called the Table of Knowledge.
-That's correct. -Yeah.
[Phil] It's nice to meet y'all.
[Tom] We come here to enjoy.
-Right. That's what we're here for. -And to learn.
But most of us already know everything, so it's hard for us to learn anything.
[chuckling]
You've had political differences at the Table of Knowledge.
[Tom] Every day.
[Tom] They call me the only liberal here.
But yet you're all friends, and you're all eating lunch together every day.
We agree to disagree and be agreeable about it.
That's nice. That's how it should be.
-[Phil] Look at that. -[man 1] Look at that thing.
-That's the dirty burger, isn't it, Frank? -[Phil] What makes it dirty?
-[man 2] You'll have to ask Evelyn. -Why do they call it a dirty burger?
[Evelyn] Because my son's nickname is Dirty Brown and he made that sandwich up.
So now that leads to the question, why do they call him Dirty?
[Evelyn] I didn't ask.
-Dirty Brown! -[Evelyn] I didn't want to know.
Okay, we'll find out.
The Table of Knowledge will find out.
[chuckling]
Are you all born and raised in Greenville?
-I was. -[man 1] Some of us.
I wasn't, but I been here a long time.
[man 2] But most of us have been here 50, 60 years.
That's all? You have family here. You have grandchildren here.
-[man 1] Not here. -Not here?
[Benjy] Most all of our kids have gone off to somewhere else.
-They move away. -'Cause there's not much opportunity.
I understand, but what's the hope? Where do you see it coming from?
I see the new lofts. I see the butcher shop.
We've got a $41 million federal courthouse gonna be built a block away here.
There's always hope.
[man 2] Benjy, you want an onion ring?
Look at that! That's what you want in an onion ring.
-I'd come here just for these. -[man 2] They are delicious.
[Phil] This table here, do you call them the "Table of Stupid?"
-[man 1] Yeah, we do. -[all laugh]
[man 2] We do.
-[Evelyn] Excuse me. Dirty just came in. -[Phil] Hi.
-He did? Let's talk to him. -Come here for a minute.
Hey. I'm Phil.
-Jerred Brown. -Hi, Jerred.
So here's the question for the Table of Knowledge.
I've been sitting at this table. They don't know everything.
They don't know why they call you "Dirty."
Got the nickname in high school from football.
It was football.
Is that the official story?
It's the story I'm sticking to.
[all laughing]
[phone ringing]
-Here. -Thank you.
I'm in a big meeting. Call me later if you can. Thank you.
[laughing]
-That was very well handled. -[all laughing]
I gotta remember that when my wife calls.
This was fun, you guys. I'm feeling smarter already.
[all chuckling]
[rain tapping]
[birds chirping]
[soft music playing]
Now we're going to a special place.
This is just down a residential side street.
Just another house on the block.
Hi, everybody.
I didn't know what to expect.
I thought I was coming in, and I was going to get the usual around here,
which is pretty damn good.
Fried chicken, ribs, barbecue.
I didn't know that I was walking
into one of the best steakhouses in the country.
Dominic "Big Doe" Signa started the place in 1941,
and his grandson Baby Doe is still there making steaks.
And the first thing you see is these massive hunks of meat going,
and beyond the threshold,
you are greeted by maybe one of God's greatest creations.
-Hello. -[woman] Hello.
You must be Flo.
-Yeah. -I'm Phil.
Well, Phil. I'm so glad to meet-- No, we're hugging folk.
-Oh! I love it. -Oh, yeah.
-We're hugging. -[Phil] I like you.
I don't shake hands with anybody. I hug everybody.
This is Aunt Flo.
-[Phil] Glad to meet you. -I'm so glad I came.
I don't get a reception like this in my house.
-You don't? -No. Can you live with me?
-Yeah, I will. -All right.
-Goodbye, Doe, I'm gone. -[all laughing]
I'm going home.
I just got a good offer.
Look at your beautiful salad bowl.
-I heard about this famous salad bowl. -That's right.
[Phil] Beautiful. This is the famous "Wet Salad."
You know what the secret ingredient is?
-Love? -He knows everything!
I just knew looking at you that was going to be the ingredient.
Yeah, I'm going home with him. Come on.
-Let's go. That's right. -Goodbye, Monica!
-[Phil] Show's over, people! -[Flo] I'm-- I'm going home with him.
[Phil] Goodbye, everybody!
But before we run off together, I should maybe try her food.
And here's Julia, the reason I'm down here in the Delta in the first place.
-Hey. -Hello!
For those who watched the New Orleans episode,
you met Julia Evans Reed,
who's a wonderful raconteur, society lady and great author.
She's also the ambassador for the South,
especially the Mississippi Delta 'cause she's from here.
That's a pot.
-[Julia chuckles] -That's a work of art.
It's taken about, you know, 60 years.
Here's Hank joining us again.
Come on, booze is literally-- Come on! What?
-[Hank] Good booze. -They just leave this on the table--
-No, drunks like me bring it. -[Phil] You brought this?
You have to.
Honey, we were a dry state until 1966,
so they never bothered to get a liquor license
'cause why would you? You bring your own wine,
which means you get some really good stuff.
Can I give you some of the good stuff?
No, I have some cheap stuff, and it's delicious.
What do you got in there?
I just need a little extra. I need a patch.
-[Julia] My God. -It's called a patch.
[laughing]
I highly recommend a tamale with your salad.
[Phil] Aren't these little beauties?
[Julia] This was the first solid food I ever ate as a child.
They just gave me a hot tamale and told me to shut up.
[Richard laughing]
It didn't work.
I was eating here in utero, man.
There's a picture of my mother eight months pregnant with me
sitting on the front steps.
-You came out a hot tamale. -Mm-hmm. It was meant to be.
Hank was bragging that you guys grew up together.
Well, Hank's a little older than I am.
-But you know… -[Hank] Well…
Mm.
-Flo, I love your salad! -You love it?
-Yeah, it's delicious. -Good.
Tell my boss, I might get a raise.
-Yes! -[chuckling]
Florence, when did you come to work here?
I came to work here before I married my husband.
-Jughead. -Jughead, that's right.
He was a brother to the original owner.
-To Doe? -To Doe.
I stood up there, see where she's standing there,
-frying those french fries? -[Phil] Yes.
That's what I did, and my husband was opening oysters through that window.
I let the french fries burn too much because I would…
-Looking at him. -[laughing]
That might be why my wife is not a great cook.
[laughing]
Florence, you gotta come sit by me.
-Me? -Yes!
Oh.
You made the salad, your work is done, my friend.
[Flo] Okay. Okay.
-It's mighty good too. -[Julia] Oh, my God.
This should not work on paper,
-this salad. Right? -[Julia] No, I know.
This is a very sopping wet, soggy-looking salad…
until you eat it.
There is nothing fancy in this salad. It just tastes fantastic.
Then look at this, the broiled shrimp in that gorgeous sauce.
Oh!
Suddenly, giant hunks of garlic bread to zobble it up,
and then the fried shrimp.
[Julia] I've done a survey, that's fairly official actually,
of fried shrimp around the country.
-[Phil]] This is the best? -Yep.
-Do you do anything wrong? -Mm.
[Julia] Tell Phil about Jughead, your husband.
The distracter.
[chuckling]
What was your first date?
Now, my first date with my husband was on Halloween night,
to a football game.
How many years ago was that?
Well, I married when I was 23,
-and I'm 39 now. -[all laughing]
Okay? So I'm gonna let you do the math.
Do you remember the game?
Nah. I was just eating popcorn, looking at him. He's so good-looking.
[all laughing]
[Phil] Doe's Eat Place is legendary and not just with the locals.
-Liza Minnelli was in here. -What?
-Her mama was in here. -Judy Garland was--
We had Willie Nelson sitting over here.
Johnny Cash been in here. Willie Nelson been in here.
They just happened through.
[Phil] It's easy to see why.
Oh, look at that.
That is not for one person.
Look at the size of these steaks!
I thought, naturally, a steak that size is for the table.
Oh, my God.
It was for me. A giant steak, for me.
Hee-hee.
Look how soft that is. Wow, and look how it's done. Perfect.
Come on!
[Hank] You're in the right part of it now.
I'm in the right part of it now.
[all laughing]
-As opposed to the really bad part of it. -[Hank] That's meat.
-What do you think? -It's a thing of beauty.
[Julia] Those french fries? Fry 'em over there in those ancient iron skillets.
-[Phil] This is fancy, steak frites. -[Julia] I know.
When they lose the skillets, it's all over.
[Phil] This is incredible.
Did we run out of wine?
-No, we got plenty of wine. -We do?
-God damn. -[all laughing]
[Skype call ringing]
[Phil] Yes. Hello.
-[Max] Did you get a haircut? -I did right before I left.
-There's not much hair left. -[Phil] Look who's talking.
[all laughing]
[chuckling]
This is Memphis?
Memphis, Tennessee is where the Mississippi Delta begins,
and then Highway 61 takes you along the mighty Mississippi.
People are very-- Look like they're friendly.
You know what? Absolutely right. That's the best part.
There's such diversity,
and everybody gets along with everybody.
You know, I was at this Jim's Cafe
right down the street from where I'm staying.
I was at the-- You would like this, Dad.
Six old men sitting around, and they meet for lunch every day.
And they have a sign literally on the table,
"Table of Knowledge."
Every day?
[Phil] Yeah, pretty much, right? Every day.
You know, the guys at the table even, they have differences,
but they never let them get in the way of their friendships.
And it was a real lesson in how it could be.
What we see on TV is the worst of the worst.
But in reality, we saw the opposite.
Because most of the time, things are-- People are nice.
It's just not exciting to talk about.
You know what happened today when these two factions met,
and they're on opposite sides of a thing? They had lunch and they all got along.
[all laughing]
Right? What's happening there? What's going on?
We did have an interesting morning in that we had our eggs
and all the eggs…
This is four eggs now.
All of them, double yolks.
What? You hit the jackpot.
Dad, that's like Christmas and New Year's and Hanukkah
all rolled into one.
We hit the jackpot.
-Okay, can I tell you one more thing? -What?
Yesterday, we saw a ladybug
outside the window,
and we opened the window,
and another one flew in, and then we got that one.
-So not just double yolks… -Two ladybugs.
Double ladybugs. People…
-[Phil] This must mean something. -What's this mean?
-It's very spiritual. -Okay.
[laughing]
-What else is new? -Yeah.
Dad, welcome to my world.
-Very interesting. -[chuckling]
"You're a fascinating woman." Is that what you're thinking?
[laughing]
What?
I get to hear stories like that all the time.
What else is happening? Did you play Password?
Max made up the word.
He didn't want to play, but he wanted to give you the words.
-One… -Cultivate.
…was "cultivate."
That's a very hard password.
I think it was too hard, and we couldn't get it,
and then you said, "I'll use it in a sentence."
And go ahead, Max.
Yesterday, I was waiting for a bus,
but it was too cultivate so I took the subway.
[laughing]
[Phil] So you guys have to suffer through Password.
No one can get the word,
and it turns out he only wrote the word so he could do that joke.
What else?
Escort.
Escort? And you used it in a sentence.
I had to jump over the fence, but I didn't make it, and I got my escort.
[laughing]
-[Max] All right. -This is-- "All right."
It's a very good show I've got here. I must say.
When you're on, it's a very good show.
Have a good time.
Goodbye.
Bye, Richard!
[Phil] I think I got a nominee for the Table of Knowledge.
[country music playing]
[sizzling]
This is the Highland Club, a little south of Greenville,
and it's where we'll have a little reunion
of some of the nice folks we've met along the way.
We're going to get some catfish fried up
by a man named Dan,
and many consider it the best in the Delta.
♪ If my baby rides the levee I believe I'll ride the levee too ♪
[Phil] Music today provided by Ferd, Raymond, and Valley.
Hank is here. Of course, Julia.
Cole Ellis from Delta Meat Market met us.
My old friend Talbert from Jim and Samella's.
♪ If my baby rides the levee I believe I'll ride the levee too ♪
[clapping]
[woman] Whoo-hoo!
[Phil] Henry? You're gonna eat something? Can I give him a hush puppy? Sit.
-Yeah! -[man] Neat.
[Julia] Oh, puppy!
You're an ad for hush puppies.
All right, get in there.
-Don't be shy. -Come on.
-[Talbert] They ain't gotta tell me twice. -[man 1] Oh, my God.
[Phil] What do you got there?
[Cole] This is that rotisserie chicken and cabbage salad.
-[Phil] And what do you got? -[man 2] I got crowder peas and chow chow.
[Phil] Yes, yes, yes. Here we go. Potato salad.
-This is alligator? -[woman] Yeah.
[man 3] How big was it?
That one was nine-and-a-half, I believe.
[Phil] Here I go.
Alligator, people.
With a little alligator sauce.
But look at this catfish.
Is that a good plate, you think?
Gotta taste everything, right?
[chuckling]
This is amazing. The peas, the alligator, the chow chow.
-Mm. -Did you do the alligator yet?
-Yes. My God. -I love it.
-[Phil] Here I go. -The alligator.
[Talbert] Mm.
[Hank] That's good.
That's good.
That seasoning and that sauce. That would make my shoe fit.
-[chuckles] -All right.
It's not like a tender meat, alligator. It's chewy.
-Yeah, it's true. -But it's good.
You know what? You actually want it to be.
'Cause alligators are tough in nature.
Right. Yeah.
So you can really just bite into it and savor it.
Exactly. You could wrestle it, like gator wrestling.
The trick to alligator is you eat it before it eats you.
That's right.
Yay! Yay! Yay!
-You did great with this alligator. -Yeah?
The sauce you had with the alligator is a Mississippi thing.
It's called comeback sauce.
Yes, I understand that.
Yeah, and he's saying they make a boom boom sauce,
which is pretty similar to the comeback.
Yeah, I was real spicy. The boom boom sauce--
I'm talking about when you dip it… It's boom, boom.
[all laughing]
And you know what happens later.
[all laughing]
-[Talbert] There's also two booms as well. -[all laugh]
[Phil] It's just not me, right?
-This is fantastic. -No, it's not just you.
It's so light and not greasy.
-[Talbert] It doesn't taste muddy. -Yeah, man.
-[Phil] Can I meet Dan? -[woman] Yeah.
I ate your catfish. I've had four or five pieces already.
-Good. -I wanted to shake your hand.
[Dan] Thank you so much.
Phil, it's never a disaster when you eating with a master.
[Hank laughs]
-The master of disaster. -[all chuckling]
That's him.
A lot of the food around here is indigenous.
People got to eat what's around them.
But the art is in making it worth living for.
-Goodbye, everybody. -[Cole] Anytime. Yeah, absolutely.
[Phil] Thanks for the hospitality, my friends.
I don't know what I was expecting.
I love being here.
But look at these people.
They don't know me. They don't have to like me automatically,
but it's not just me. They seemed to truly love each other.
They love and welcome strangers.
Isn't that how the world should be?
-Bye, Phil! [chuckles] -[Phil] Look, there's a dog.
-Hank! -Come on, Phil.
-Who's that? -That's Boudreaux.
Boudreaux!
Hank volunteered to give me a ride home via the river.
[jazz music playing]
Here it is, the mighty Mississippi.
See how she winds and winds.
Boudreaux, you're the captain!
Edith Wharton had a quote.
"One of the great things about travel
is that you find out how many good, kind people there are."
That was never truer than about the Mississippi Delta.
What kind of wildlife is here? Are there alligators in the river?
Alligators. Probably one swam by while we were here.
[Phil] No! Hey, I got an idea. Let's go back.
[Hank chuckling]
[theme music playing]
♪ Come sit at his table ♪
♪ If you're happy, hungry, willing and able ♪
♪ See how breaking bread ♪
♪ Can turn a stranger right into a friend ♪
♪ He will drive to you ♪
♪ He will fly to you ♪
♪ He will sing for you ♪
♪ And he'll dance for you ♪
♪ He will laugh with you ♪
♪ And he'll cry for you ♪
♪ There's just one thing he asks in return ♪
♪ Somebody feed, somebody feed ♪
♪ Can somebody, somebody feed Phil ♪
♪ Oh please somebody, somebody feed Phil ♪
♪ Somebody feed him now ♪