Hey, AM-- If you lived in the South and can only recall "collard greens and burnt fish" then your time there was either a) spent in jail or b) spent with some really bad cooks. ;\) If you really like good food, then you missed out, and I feel very, very, VERY sorry for you.

Peel 'em and eat 'em shrimp right off the boat from the Gulf will make normal people forget about any steak from the Midwest, and just because beef in the Midwest is good doesn't mean the folks there know how to cook it-- although I will give Wisconsin credit for their brats. Although the very best Midwest steak I've ever had came from a little steak house (Jake's?) in Tuscumbia, Alabama. It beat the stuff at Lawry's in Las Vegas or Ruth's Chris Steakhouse hands down. I better stop because I think I just gained five pounds thinking about Southern food....

Keith