Gatlinburg is not a culinary destination. Ever. But there is some fun food here and a couple of restaurants worth a visit. One is called The Wild Plum Tea Room. It’s on the Crafts Trail several miles outside of Gatlinburg in a pretty old building where you can eat on a screened in porch by a creek. There are lots of salads and sandwiches on the menu and usually some terrific specials. One of the best things is that when you sit down they bring you a plate of warm plum muffins that are delicious. Ours lasted about 2 minutes and that’s probably a stretch. Sammy can be a competitive eater when any type of bread is involved. I have the recipe for those muffins and believe it or not the secret ingredient is plum baby food. I wonder how many patrons leave the restaurant with their newly purchased cookbooks in hand, and head down the road to Food City for plum baby food?
I had an interesting salad as part of the special. It was called A Collard Green Salad, and I was so intrigued I had to order it. The salad was pretty tasty, the dressing being the hit. When I asked about it, our server revealed that a chief ingredient was a product called Tennessee Sunshine. As it turns out, it’s a hot sauce, which was a relief since I had suspected it was some kind of strange East Tennessee home brew.
Off we went on a new adventure to find Tennessee Sunshine, which we did at our favorite, candy-jelly- syrup shop right behind the Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum. There it was along with Moonshine Jelly, Corn Cob Jam, Sweet Potato Butter and Deep Fried Cajun Peanuts. I bought several unique jellies and jams to try at home. Looks like biscuits will be on the menu soon.
When we got back to our cabin, I cooked for a cold rainy evening in the Smokey Mountains and that meant serious comfort food. Here’s a promise for a rainy night recipe tomorrow morning.
