If you thought Ted’s Maya could only make amazing cocktails, you were very mistaken.  Their food is just as good, if not better.  Today I wanted to highlight their cornbread.  This is such a quintessential southern food, that most overlook its intricacies and are content with mediocre fare.

Maya pushes the cornbread envelope.  The “side” cornbread served a la carte and with their dinner entree items is literally the size of a slize of Christian’s Pizza…ok not AS big, but almost.  One look at this sexy number and you immediately noticethe crisp top, slightly burned bottom, and perfect moisture consistency inside the bread.

It is all too often cornbread comes out dry and makes you feel like a chicken, and somehow, Maya uses the best dam recipe ever.  While it isn’t overly oily, it sure is even tastier with a spread of butter.

I now dream of Maya…

Popularity: 9% [?]

If you are looking for the vegetarian deal of the century, then Eppie’s on the downtown mall is the place to be. Their menu offering is pretty meat heavy except for the side’s section, which allows you the choice of a veggie only platter in 3 or 4 choice combos with a generous piece of corn bread.

I opted for mac n’ cheese, collard greens and coleslaw. For around 6 bucks I received an impressive amount of food that I couldn’t even finish. Everything on the plate was good quality. Not to say there isn’t any room for improvement like making the collard greens in a more modern manner or using a different cheese on the mac n’cheese, but the value per vegetable was really good. They had a wide variety of sides on the menu which I will definitely go back for. For a southern food lunch, it was light and left me happy…happy to know even with western fare this vegetarian craze can be satiated!

I also noted one of the kitchen staff came outside to offer a bowl of water for one of the customers that had their dog with them. I found that to be a terrific gesture. Talk about southern hospitality!

Images most graciously linked from Flikr

Popularity: 33% [?]