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DocuSign Envelope ID:A7B705FD-OEDD-4AC5-8764-8905D8B8991 F <br /> The North Carolina Table <br /> Excerpts from six stories in various stages of editing <br /> Mama Dip's: A Celebration of Southern Food and Music <br /> William Ferris <br /> Food and strong southern women have always played an important part of my life. Before <br /> moving to Chapel Hill,I lived in Oxford, Mississippi, where I directed the Center for Study of <br /> Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi for eighteen years. My days there often began <br /> with breakfast at Smitty's, a restaurant just off the Square run by Louise Smith. Mrs. Smith <br /> always greeted me with hot coffee, a plate of steaming biscuits, and home-made preserves. <br /> Sometimes I was joined by my friend Motee Daniels, a bootlegger who sold moonshine to <br /> William Faulkner during Prohibition. When Mrs. Smith asked, "What would you like, Motee?" <br /> he always replied, "All I need is some kind words and a cool drink of water." <br /> In the evening,I would often drive to the outskirts of Oxford and up a hill to Isaiah's Busy Bee, a <br /> small,two-room restaurant with three tables in the front room and a kitchen in the back run by <br /> Georgia Isaiah. Mrs. Isaiah had cooked for several chancellors at the University of Mississippi <br /> and was renowned for her culinary skills. She prepared one meal with ice tea and a delicious <br /> desert each evening. While I ate, Mrs. Isaiah would lean across the counter and tell me all the <br /> news from Oxford. <br /> When my wife Marcie and I moved to Chapel Hill in 2002,we enjoyed the celebrated foods <br /> prepared by Bill Smith at Crook's Corner and by Ben and Karen Barker at Magnolia Grill. But I <br /> also longed for a southern cuisine in Chapel Hill that would connect me with Louise Smith and <br /> Georgia Isaiah's food that I knew and so loved in Oxford. <br /> We quickly made that connection when we met Mildred Council and enjoyed a breakfast of grits, <br /> eggs, and fried green tomatoes with hot biscuits and coffee at her restaurant Mama Dip's. I also <br /> enjoyed lunches and dinners of fried chicken livers,baked sweet potatoes, and sweet tea. <br /> But I needed more than just delicious food. I also sought stories to accompany that food, and <br /> those stories came in abundance when I spoke with Mildred Council. Sitting in her favorite <br /> booth near the entrance of her restaurant,Mrs. Council greets her visitors with a warmth that <br /> makes the food complete. Our friendship has grown and deepened over the past fifteen years in <br /> ways that have profoundly enriched my life. <br /> 1 <br />