Walter Hall Jr. laughs when I probe for details about how catfish and other fresh seafood is fried at Ezell’s Fish Camp, his family’s decades-old restaurant by the Tombigbee River in Choctaw County’s Lavaca community. “Welllll,” says Hall, the third generation to run Ezell’s. “When I got those recipes passed down to me, it was like an act of Congress to get them. I was sworn to secrecy.”

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May 10, 2021
Legend has it that God came in a dream to Tuscaloosa brick mason John “Big Daddy” Bishop, telling him his destiny was to make barbecue for the masses. A hulking man who favored smoking a pipe, Big Daddy built a pit in his front yard on Jug Factory Road and started selling spareribs anointed in his special sauce to neighbors and others in the community.

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May 8, 2021