The list of restaurants sounds a lot like the places visited by Alton Brown in his Feasting on Asphalt.

I'd come up with a brilliant idea but I'm hobbled by paraskevidekatriaphobia.

Who would drive a car sporting a bumper sticker reading, "I'm Stickin' with the Pig"? Perhaps it's somebody who wishes to make a churlish comment about his/her spouse, partner, or significant other? Sort of a cross between "Stand By Your Man" and "I'm With Stupid"?

Nope. That's the Piggly Wiggly pig, not just any pig. The car, I should add, had North Carolina plates. EL

Sounds to me like a ride owned by a certain Features reporter with the initials J.B.

Lazy day posts...hmmm...how about ethnic food markets? Or, since so many of us aren't from here, where to find regional foods from other regions (I was shocked to find Vernor's, the miracle drink of my home, in DiPasquale's). What makes a good hot dog bun, and where do you get them. Sausages - best kind, where to get, just what is the difference between a bratwurst and a kielbasa, etc. The best cookbook each of us owns. Margarine - is there *any* use for it? What is a good breakfast? What is the best breed of tomatoes, apples, eggplant, etc. How do you set the table?

I seem to remember sonething about popular reaction to other national supermarket chains (Wal-Mart?) coming in. Could be related to something like that.

In any case, enjoy your visits to Piggly Wiggly. Wherever I travel I try to stop by local stores to see what things they have that I cannot get in the Baltimore area. A near-guaranteed way to get your airline checked bag opened and inspected is to have several cans of food and vegetables inside.

Pigglgy Wiggly is where Ms. Daisy shopped -- Morgan Freeman would drive her there. I hated that movie but I am cursed with remembering trivial details.

Elizabeth,

Can you get us a dinner reservation at the Burntwood Roadhouse in Monteagle for Monday night? (No smoking section please.)

Don't think I'll have the ribs this year.)

Margarine? See scene from Last Tango in Paris.

Lissa - Are you kidding? There is a world of difference between a bratwurst and a kielbasa. The former is German, the latter Polish. It's all about spices and meat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bratwurst
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kielbasa

Forgive my passion but ...
http://www.bratwurstpages.com/brats.html

And my personal favorite ...
http://www.usinger.com/

Next time I'm visiting home, I'll pick up a care package.

As a native Tennessean - my Mom is originally from Chattanooga, so I remember that drive over Monteagle Mountain! - I hope you'll have a good visit.

And I'm also familiar with the Pig. Maybe the car owner perceives Piggly Wiggly as a "local" (regional - you know how we Southerners are!) chain and is protesting some big new national grocery moving into town and threatening its existence?

Self-appointed D@L soundtrack coordinator here ...

I nominate the Velvet Underground's song, "I'm Sticking with You" as this post's theme song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQvyC3VubOQ

A different version was also part of the movie Juno's lamecore soundtrack.

Not restaurant related, but how about a post on good grilling tips or recipes, since the season of the grill is upon us? (And this request is not motivated by self interest just because I finally got around to buying a grill a few weeks ago and need to work on my skills . . . )

As a Lazy Day post, how about the title of a cookbook I saw years ago, You've Had Stranger Things in Your Mouth?

Welp, this week's TTT was summer drinks. How bout a TTT on summer / grilled foods to go with those drinks?

And just so's y'all know, THE place to get German sausages is Binkert's Meats on Philadelphia Rd. near Rossville Blvd. They make their own sausages and smoke their own pork chops, then sell em virtually dirt-cheap. What a bargain! Dang...I'm droolin'...gotta get some weisswurst and bauernwurst tomorrow.

VDP - Re: Last Tango in Paris - If I recall correctly, that was butter.

I know kitkat, and while that is an explicit scene, what would make it pornographicic would be margarine (in Paris). I just imagined a horrible version of an I Can't Believe It's Not Butter commercial. Ommm.... trying to stay Claritin clear.

Piano Rob, I know the difference (I'm a German from near Poletown, in Detroit), but I've had to explain it way too many times.

Besides, there are so many things to talk about when it comes to sausage! We could probably spend threads dissing veggie sausages alone...

VDP - LOL. Missed your tongue in cheek (no pun). Right you are, marg. would have taken it from sensuous to pornographic.

How about a thread on Marlon Brando "food"? In addition to LTiP, he evidently crammed cotton balls in his mouth for Vito Corleone. We could just do culinary movies in general, and hopefully not just re-hash last year's post on foodie movies. For example: weirdest use of food, most creative, most nauseating, etc.

Matt - one of the most nauseating food scenes in any movie I saw was in one of the Indiana Jones flixs when he was forced to drink a chalet of "blood." The mere thought of that scene still turns my stomach. I almost ralphed when I saw it then and the thought still grosses me out.

Lissa, the eight year in me is chuckling at your last post. So Piano Rob, what about the sausage in Poletown? [ :-} I think this is really off the rails.

I think any use of margarine is considered pornographic in France.

That would be a funny bumper sticker for my car, if I was a bumper sticker kind of person. Plus I don't want to encourage piglet too much.

Veggie sausage!!?!! (holds up fingers in Cross configuration, even though he's Jewish). Gack.

Matt, ever seen the British film, "Eat the Rich?" That might be weirdest, most creative and most nauseating, all at once. Funny, too.

I think I promised I'd have the shallow to you yesterday. So you know what my shallow promises are worth.

MOF, did you burn your fingers?

Oh, hon! I got a PIG sticker on the back of my uber-suburban mom car, because I live in PIGtown.

EL... will you please pick me up one of the "sticking with the Pig" stickers and I will use it as an auction item at a p-town fundraiser!

Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of fleet Street. The worst pies in London. It's priest; have a little priest. And there's shepherd's peppered with actual shepherd.

Jonathon Gilbert asked : "MOF, did you burn your fingers?"

No, but they did tingle a bit when I got them too close to my monitor.

Re Mrs. Lovett's pies: Forget the Royal Marine 'cause you have no idea where its been.

That reminds me of a very bad joke from grammar school - what kind of meat do priests eat on Fridays?

KristinB,
You might be onto something. Perhaps the driver's local Pig is being threatened by a Safeway, or maybe a Winn-Dixie or Publix? Those two drove the local Piggly Wiggly around here away, I think. Closest one to me is like 50 miles away. There's lots of them in south FL.

EL: Maybe the North Carolina license plate was the ominous sign. (Sorry, folks, that's an inside joke.)

Dottie is right about Binkert's, but it's pretty out of the way for most of us. Years ago I was told it supplied the sausages for the German Embassy. Binkert's now packages many of their sausages and some retailers carry them. My source is Fenwick's Meats in Cross Street Market, but I'll bet there are others (Graul's?)

Lissa:

You could try Shoppers for Vernor's too. I think it's gross but my boy's roommate went on and on about how he was flabbergasted to find it in College Park. I dunno if the one(s) in Bmore carry it but they all tend to be kind of the same.

Thanks, TwoToedSloth. I'm not much of a soda person, but every so often, I just need Vernor's.

We used to say you had to be raised on it to like it. I don't think that is strictly true (folks who like ginger beer like it), but if you are expecting Canada Dry, it is quite a shock to the system.

My great-aunt used to glaze hams with it.

FH Jim, Graul's does carry Binkert sausages (bratwurst, weisswurst, bauernwurst, and sometimes knackwurst), at about a 25% to 30% mark-up. I'm cheap, so I go to the original store.

Personnally, I am a big fan of Harris Teeter, another popular southern grocery chain. I grew to know them during my freshman yr in Greensboro, NC. Excited that one will be coming to town! I wonder if my 11 yr old VIC (Very Import. Customer) card still works!

Ok, Mr. Gilbert - what kind of meat do priests eat on Friday? (And I should really know this one but I can't find it.)

Jonathon: Thanks for distracting Piano Rob. His reference to Sweeney Todd cut a little close!

Back in the day (when Izzy still ruled) employees at the Giant I shopped at made me feel like family. I'd have happily displayed a Giant bumper sticker if they had them. Nowadays, not so much.

While we're still debating what to talk about -- I'm guessing I'm not the only one who visits local supermarkets when I travel, just to see what's new or different.

Hey, Canon - MrOF also paraphrased the Sondheim! But I haven't been distracted enough to summon Mrs. Lovett to re-open the shop. After all, there's that earlier game-show post that had a delicious depiction of Owl Man. Oops ... did I say "game"? Whew - that was a close shave.

Jonathan - awaiting the answer to the question, please.

Forgive me, Jonathon, for stealing your punch line -- mea maxima culpa -- but Piano Rob seems eager for this.

What kind of meat do priests eat on Fridays?

Editor's note: (Sorry, this goes a little too far for the judicious editors who are valiantly posting comments. Maybe you and Piano Rob can share the punch line by email?)

(Please wait to throw things until I've ducked behind the rood screen!)

Mather, the Harris-Teeter has opened in the Kings Contrivance Village Center in Columbia. Since they were giving out new VIC cards, I assume yours would be valid.

Saw that one coming ...

Rood screen: lovely pun (at several levels,) Rev'd. Canon. I t hope you and I aren't the only ones to get it.

"Editor's note"? I'll have you know that I am at my prie deux as I type - complete with rood screen.

And yes, I would like some cheese with that whine - er, wine.

Actually, I must extend my thanks to the editors for saving me from having to do even more penance!

I learned the punchline to the joke long before I knew what a double entendre was (and even longer before I understood why they were used and what they were used to talk about!). When the answer popped into my head yesterday straight from elementary school, I didn't pause to think about it twice. In retrospect, and in a context which is very different from 45 years ago, I'm just as glad to have been bleeped, and I apologize to anyone who is offended by any mention of the content of said bleep.

Now, where were we ... potato chips or peanut butter?