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entertaining u newspaper: your monthly guide to entertainment
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David Lee Murphy
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by erin thursby
scopes1925@msn.com
What: Shrimp & Grits: The Wild Georgia Shrimp Festival & Uncle Bubba Book Signing
When: September 14th -16th
Where: Jekyll Island
I love a good, Southern food festival. Not far from Jacksonville, at Jekyll Island in Georgia, they’ll be holding their annual Shrimp & Grits Festival on the 14th -16th. There’s food and fun for the whole family, and it’s just an hour and twenty minutes away from Jacksonville’s city center.
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The three-day fest kicks off with a golf event on Friday, September 14th, next there’s jazz, food vendors and shrimp boat cruises. When I think of a cruise, I rarely think “Wouldn’t it be nice if I could take a cruise on a luxury shrimp boat?” Perhaps anything on a boat qualifies as a cruise when there’s alcohol. Saturday and Sunday they have shrimp boat tours and shrimp boat excursions, which make far more sense to me.
With cooking demos, cooking contests and a shrimp-eating contest, any food fan who attends had better adore shrimp. If they do, this fest would be the time to worship these decapod crustaceans, or at the very least, enjoy eating and consuming their tiny, tasty little bodies.
One of the highlights of the fest (and there are many) are the appearances of Bubba Hiers. Now, you might not know who Bubba is, but he’s the brother of Food Network’s Paula Deen. Bubba seems to be a celebrity by proxy, launched there by being in his sister’s orbit. But he’s got his own claims to fame, including a restaurant in Savannah, Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House, and a new book of his own, UNCLE BUBBA’S SAVANNAH SEAFOOD: More than 100 Down Home Southern Recipes for Good Food and Good Times. It’s already been to print more than once, and it was just released this year. When I spoke with him in an EU interview, he seemed okay with being Paula’s baby brother. “She’s my big sister,” says Bubba “and we’ve always been very close.” Bubba has helped Paula with her restaurant ventures, often working behind the scenes on the administrative end.
His book includes many of the recipes used at Uncle Bubba’s, like their cream corn muffins, their Key Lime Pie, Southern sides, fried pickles and deep fried Southern seafood.
“The secret to our great Key Lime Pie here at Uncle Bubba’s is slivered almonds that we use in the crust. Not chopped, but slivered.”
When asked which recipe in his book is the easiest, Bubba replied, “They’re all easy, ‘cause we’re not chefs. We’re just regular ol’ cooks. My book, and all my sister’s books, you can buy your ingredients at your local grocery store… I think anybody can cook out of my cook book, from the beginner to the expert.”
The book covers many Southern basics. Bubba says it’s difficult to choose a favorite because “There ain’t much I don’t like to eat.” But, he says that one of the best appetizers at the restaurant is “my char grilled oysters, cooked on a lava rock grill and we put garlic butter on them and grated parmesan cheese…” The menu items at Uncle Bubba’s are in the book and come from good friends and family members. These are the things that Bubba and Paula have “grown up with over the years.” Bubba’s book features about 125 recipes, to which they had to whittle down considerably.
Bubba will be judging one of the food competitions along with other local celebrity chefs. He’ll also be doing two book signings, one at the Friday VIP dinner and the other on Saturday at the Festival from 11 am - 1:30 pm. For more on Bubba’s book and his restaurant, visit UncleBubbasOysterHouse.com
All three days at the Shrimp & Grits Festival feature great activities, but Saturday would be the day to go, since it’s packed with activities from morning till night.
Fireworks end the night on Saturday. One can only hope that they’ve found a fireworks specialist skilled enough to have an image of giant shrimp exploding in the sky. Grits just wouldn’t translate into fireworks, so we’ll leave it at that.
For a complete schedule of the events at the Shrimp & Grits Fest, go to jekyllisland.com/shrimpandgrits
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