The South Will Rise

This question may have been asked a million times, but it hadn’t occurred to me until recently- why is banana pudding always served as dessert at BBQ restaurants?  Not that I am complaining at all- I love banana pudding, it is one of my favorites.  It is such a staple at my favorite BBQ haunts, that I have always taken it for granted, but we had a curious experience up in the Catskills pertaining to BBQ that got me interested in this question.  We were down in the small town of Phoenicia down at the bottom of the mountain, and we saw a BBQ stand.  Intrigued and thinking this might be a quick and easy thing to grab for dinner, we went to the stand to buy some BBQ to take home with us.  When Corby asked to buy 3 lbs of BBQ, the proprietor of the stand was incredibly confused and asked, “Do you want a 3 lb sandwich?”  “No, no- we just want to buy 3 lbs of BBQ- you know, in bulk.”  This did not actually help.  “In bulk? I don’t know what you mean,” our friendly salesman said.  When Corby then said, “You know- in bulk- so we can take it home… for dinner… later… We are from South Carolina,”  we just got completely blank stares.  “Well do you at least have any banana pudding?” I asked- more stares.  Clearly, we were speaking different languages when it came to BBQ.  We laughed about this the whole way home, and I am sure they laughed about the crazies from South Carolina who wanted a 3lb BBQ sandwich for a long time too.  So, needless to say, we will be waiting until we return back south to get some BBQ- especially in bulk.  But, I did start wondering why banana pudding is always served BBQ.  After some googling, I haven’t found an answer.  It seems that bananas were imported (as they are not naturally found in the United States) from Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica, etc, so it makes sense that they would be more abundant in the South.  Vanilla Wafers weren’t around until 1901-1902, and while they make banana pudding that much better, that is no explanation.  My explanation would be that some genius was eating BBQ and then had banana pudding for dessert and thought, “Now those are the two best things I have ever eaten and should always be together.”  I applaud that person and agree whole-heartedly.  Here is the original Nilla Wafer Banana Pudding recipe from Nabisco (http://www.nabiscoworld.com/recipes/recipe.aspx?recipe_id=55431), and if you have any other insights to this issue, please share!!

Tags: baking, Banana Pudding, BBQ, Catskills, dessert, Nilla Wafers, southern baking, southern food