TUPELO, Miss. —
I carry on a friendly argument with friends who live in big cities like New Orleans and Memphis, and rave about their so-called convenience.
In little Iuka, I can drive the seven miles in from my house, go to the grocery, the post office and the bank, have at least one spontaneous conversation with a friend or an enemy and be home in less than 30 minutes. It doesn’t get more convenient than that.
My parry brings up the big-city thrust. “Oh, but we have interesting restaurants,” the city dweller will say, smug in the obvious.
I’ll admit Iuka’s culinary offerings, while good, are somewhat limited. Mostly limited to fried catfish and hamburgers or a dinner invitation to Sue Hall’s house. Until recently, we had the wonderful Country Cupboard for the basics and Cafe Memories for the frills, but both restaurants closed almost simultaneously.
And in Iuka, unless you are in the mood for Tex-Mex, ethnic food is off the table.
So imagine the thrill we peasants felt upon discovering that an Indian restaurant — or two, actually — had opened in nearby Tupelo. Now, Tupelo is not “nearby” in a few miles sense, but lots closer than Memphis, where you used to have to drive to satisfy a curry craving.
One dark and stormy night after Christmas, a hungry group of us headed to the Shaan India Palace in a former service station near Tupelo. The wind and rain fought us, but eventually we arrived in a parking lot empty of all but mud puddles. We wondered aloud whether we’d made a mistake.
Because we were meeting more friends and still were operating in the penumbra of holiday hope, we bargained on a good time. But we never anticipated a floor show and a feast.
A friendly waitress named Teri met us and readily and cheerfully admitted she knew little about Indian food, only that she liked Raju, the man who cooked it.
It was true. She didn’t know naan from Shinola, but her willingness to please overcame any lapse of knowledge. If the waitressing thing and Raju don’t work out, Teri can become a stand-up comedian.
I’ve had lots of Indian food in my life. It’s the most affordable way to eat in London. And my oldest friend lives in Fall Church, Va., which boasts one of the best Indian restaurants in the area.
But I have never tasted any better than that night in the humble setting on the outskirts of Elvis’ birthplace. If the King had made a habit of mulligatawny soup, he might still be with us.
After a glass-smashing good meal, Teri brought the owner out to meet his rowdy but happy customers. Jagdish Chanel thanked us for braving the elements and swelling the crowd.
By then we were having our photos snapped with Teri and the gang, planning our next visit and wondering why on earth anyone would put up with the chaos of the city when you can drive two hours in sideways rain and get the same spicy thing.
(To find out more about Rheta Grimsley Johnson and her books, visit www.rhetagrimsleyjohnsonbooks.com.)
Opinion
City friends don’t understand
- Opinion
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Not your mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal
By Rheta Grimsely Johnson/Syndicated columnist
I haven’t seen the Ladies’ Home Journal in about a million years, except maybe in the dentist’s office when I was trying to avoid a television permanently set on Fox News.
Somebody’s grandchild was selling magazines for a school project, and Ladies’ Home Journal was the only one on the list I recognized. Now it comes to the house.
Let’s just say: It’s not my mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal. This month, right behind a feature called “A Country of People Who Never Stop Eating” is one called “Nice Girls Do Get Tattoos.” -
Health care market needs oversight
By Gene Lyons/Syndicated columnist
Sometimes the best journalism explains what’s right under our noses. In Steven Brill’s exhaustive Time magazine cover article, “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us,” it’s the staggeringly expensive, grotesquely inefficient and inhumane way Americans pay for medical care.
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VA’s appalling failures not recent
By Sid Salter/Syndicated columnist
While recent national press attention to ongoing problems at Mississippi’s G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery Veterans Administration Medical Center in Jackson is welcome and needed, the failures of the overall VA service apparatus in Mississippi are not recent problems.
In short, former U.S. Rep. Sonny Montgomery — Mississippi’s “Mr. Veteran” and author of the modern G.I. Bill that bears his name — must be spinning in his grave. There have been significant failures and poor service to veterans documented by state and local media since 2008. -
Dolley Madison politically savvy
By Cokie and Steven V. Roberts/Syndicated columnists
When Dolley Payne Madison became first lady in 1809, she instituted Wednesday evening gatherings at the White House where political rivals could meet and talk. They were called “squeezes” because so many people showed up and crowded the room. As Cokie wrote in her book “Ladies of Liberty": “All were welcome as long as they were appropriately dressed. And all went — skipping a Wednesday night might mean missing a vital piece of political information or being left out of a crucial deal.”
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Mississippi isn’t immune from national college tuition trends
By Sid Salter/Syndicated columnist
Higher education in Mississippi has not been immune from national trends cited in a recent Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report which concludes that over the last five years, the global economic downturn and a “no new taxes” political climate have increasingly shifted the burden of higher education finance to students and parents at a time when enrollment is increasing and the percentage of state support is decreasing. -
Right to vote not ‘racial entitlement
By Donna Brazile/Syndicated columnist
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Shelby County v. Holder — a challenge to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, specifically Section 5, which requires states and localities with a history of voting discrimination against racial and language minorities to get “pre-approved” by the federal government before changing how elections are conducted or voters are registered. -
1st day of spring brings memories
By Wyatt Emmerich/Southside Sun
The first day of spring! My favorite month, April, is just around the corner. Now we just need one big gullywasher to get rid of the pine pollen.
Normally, spring gives me a strong sense of rebirth and renewal, but this spring I seem surrounded by moments crystallizing the passage of time.
It was a year ago, I walked up the porch to my mother’s home to box up her possessions following her funeral. -
Soaking up in tiger paw-shaped hot tub
By Rheta Grimsely Johnson/Syndicated columnist
No springtime ritual was better at Auburn than sitting on hard rocks at a nearby state park to let cold water rush over your feet. You wore cut-off blue jeans and Dr. Scholl’s sandals, the unofficial uniform for coeds in the 1970s, and when you left, you felt ready to tackle tests, term papers and blind dates.
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Medicaid or not, costs will be paid
By Sid Salter/Syndicated columnist
While the battle continues between state Republicans and other fiscal conservatives intent on focusing on the long-terms costs of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act and Democrats, health care advocates and state hospitals intent on focusing on the short-term benefits, the fact remains that one way or another, the costs of providing health care for the poor, the blind, the aged and the disabled will be paid by the taxpayers one way or another.
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Multiculturalism is not rational
By Thomas Sowell/Syndicated columnist
Among the many irrational ideas about racial and ethnic groups that have polarized societies over the centuries and around the world, few have been more irrational and counterproductive than the current dogmas of multiculturalism.
Intellectuals who imagine that they are helping racial or ethnic groups that lag behind by redefining their lags out of existence with multicultural rhetoric are in fact leading them into a blind alley. - More Opinion Headlines
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