The places I was eating in Memphis were for various reasons not very sophisticated. I was there to do some work on ice tea, so I was looking for the best places that served their home made ice tea. This led to me eating at lots of places that do what they call down there "Home Cooking".
What was interesting semiotically about these places, is that they used all the semiotic codes at their disposal to be homely and down to earth. Not really basic, just making it clear that this is all about motherly love. One place was called "The Cupboard". I love that idea of raiding the cupboard for food at night, which the name conjures up. Another was called "Soul Fish", evoking not only the idea of Southern soul food, but also the idea of simplicity.
My biggest surprise at the latter restaurant was to discover that it is not only the UK that does fish in batter. Catfish with fries is amazing. It is like fish and chips but better - and I find that hard to say as a Brit. The batter was crispier and the fish hotter and fresher. And of course I washed the whole thing down with some good ole ice tea. Just as Momma would have wanted.
