Chicago to Mississippi weekend road trip. (long)

Drove down 57 from Chicago to Natchez leaving 6am on Saturday. We detoured to Arthur,IL-a small Amish community near Arcola, Il. We hit the Saturday market (very small this time of year) and bought some homemade fudge.
Country Cheese & More- 205 Vine St. 2157-543-3544. This fresh cheese and bakery shop is in downtown Arthur. OMG-best pecan rolls we have ever had. Still warm. They did not skimp on the nuts and the gooey goodness. We picked up some jalapeno chedder cheese bread-again still warm and a chocolate chip cookie and feasted on the road. They serve lunch for under $7-main and two sides -mostly to go- but there is one small table. The bakery is in the back of the store behind a big viewing window. The town is charming-lots of buggies on the street. We headed through town toward Arcola- a few amish-style resturants and noticed a butcher. We swung through on the return journey to pick up fresh meats (and pecan rolls).
Dutch Valley Meats-376 E. SR 133-217-543-3354. (easy 10 mile trip off of 57) Wow-this place is worth the trip to stock up on fresh and smoked meats. One side of the store is a wall of freezers/ fridges that store all of their smoked products (their bacon and sausages are best sellers) and some other items including cheeses and some prepared meals. On the other side is a fresh meats case. There is a deli meat case too with nothing special. They try to buy as much local meat but some of the meats are from elsewhere. They will tell you the source. They do all the smoking excepet for the large country hams which they contract to do off site -with the family recipe. Tempted to pick up a big ham ($50around) but picked up some bacon, pork sausage-links and loose), two NY Strips-nice marbling and trimming-$7.99/lb, ground chuck ($3.69/lb?). The baby backs were from elsewhere but the pork spareribs were local so I picked up some-we will see. {We ate some of the loose pork sausage and steak last night-sausage was mild and fatty but a fresh porky taste-and the steak was so tender and flavorfull-gonna try the pork links (smoked?) tonight.} Beautiful strips of bacon ready for home smoking. We picked up a huge smoked ham hock for about $5 and plan to make something beany with it. We will go back to try other things.
West Memphis, Ark-Hawkins BBQ- 510 N. Missouri west Memphis-Found this place by sheer dumb luck and what a find. Uber friendly owners-Tasha and Craig Hawkins openened this place up about 4 months ago. Incredibly juicy baby backs smothered in a sweet and slighly tangy sauce. Pure pink and tender. The find was the bbq egg rolls-bbq meats with coleslaw and a little heat deep fried in a egg roll wrapper. Sounds crazy but delicious. Tahsa was so proud of these that she comped us on a plate of two! Her inventiona and recipie. I wish I had picked up 12 for freezing. Sweet tea and other drinks-no alcohol. A stream of locals kept them busy during our visit. A quick exit off of 57 on Missouri street-about 2-3 mile up toward Broadway St.
Triple EEE BBQ-Ullin, Mt. Vernon and other Illinois locations. Ate at the Ullin and Mt. Sterling locations-worst BBQ ever. I mean ever!
Shemwell's BBQ- 1102 w. Washington Cairo Il. 618-734-0165 A bit of a ways off of 57 but worth the trip to see this once pretty river town. A few grand houses and public buildings surrounded by urban blight. We walk into the place and all eyes stared-no kidding. But the stack of wood outside made us know we came to the right place. Tender juicy pork with a very-I mean very subtle smoke served sliced on toasted bread. That's right-white toast. But somehow it worked. The sauce was amazing-I guess there is a 'strain' of BBQ sauce known as Cairo style-it is more vinager based but you can see the drops of heat suspended in the tanish-yellow-pinky emulsion. We picked up two bottles-one original and the other a sweeter apple version. The smoked ham was good and juicy and the sauce really made it. The sides were good and they only have ribs on Wednesdays.
Natchez, MS-Pig Out BBQ-this place is famous and is located in the historic downtown area. Typical BBQ-nothing special-we liked Hawkins better.
Sal & Phil's PoBoy & Seafood-6600 Old Canton Rd. Ridgeland MS (Just North Of Jackson) 601-957-1188. A 6 minute drive off of Countyline Road exit off 57 gets you to Sal and Phil's. A family friendly place serving fresh seafood-specializing in 'red royal' shrimp-the motto"Better than lobster" Allergies prevent trying the shrimp- but plenty of people were eating the 3/4 pound for $13 special. We had an oyster poboy-really good-deep fried oysters still juicy on the inside, a nice gumbo, two crab cakes ( a tad greasy) and chicken fingers kid plate. The fries were cold and were quicky replaced with a double portion. We were overcharged a buck for the poyboy but the place was open on a Sunday (rare in the South) so we did not care. Service friendly but slow. We would return.
The only thing that we desired was to try the Missisippi Tamales-but no place was open. Can't figure out what the heck these are!

thats one heck of a weekend road trip.

the places you stopped sound great, thanks for sharing.

Thanks much. Your stops bring back very old memories of my time in Carbondale down to Cairo. I stood up in a wedding where the rehersal dinner was at Shemwell's back in 1991. It was my first time in IL (and the midwest generally) and surreal for many reasons -- not the least of which is Cairo's essential ghost town vibe. (We ate BBQ'd T-bone steaks slathered in molasses; worked better than you'd think.) Now that's an obscure spot. Happy to see the place remains. Triple-E sounds about like I remember it too.

Here's a link to a good picture of Shemwell's on Fickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lawrenceso ... 086/page2/

Note the wood stacked in front. To quote myself, many of the best BBQ places look like abandoned buildings.

PS, You would help future readers and travelers if you put some hard returns and spaces between the places you note. (A suggestion from someone who's terrible about that myself.)

Triple E BBQ was in Mt. Vernon Il not Mt. Sterling-sorry.

Elfin wrote:Missisippi Tamales...Can't figure out what the heck these are!

Somewhat different than traditional Mexican tamales;
usually smaller, a little spicier, and often made with
corn meal rather than masa - giving a looser/grainier
texture. The filling tends to be ground beef (or
sometimes pork) and they're usually in a sauce/juice
that's very red and usually quite greasy. They're the
tastier version of the jarred variety you find in stores:

Thanks for this report, Elfin. Used to visit the Arthur/Arcola area a couple of times a year when I lived in Champaign (I wonder if they still have the twice-a-year quilt auction down there), but haven't ventured farther down I-57 for a long time, and you've given me some good ideas for doing so.

We didn't have such good luck at Shemwell's a few years ago though it certainly looks promising.







It was a Sunday afternoon and apparently they don't smoke on the Lord's Day. What we were served was almost certainly left over from the day before.



Beef and pork were both so dry they were nearly impossible to swallow. Ham was inoffensive, something that couldn't be said about the turkey loaf. Shemwell's sauce is distinctive but I can't say this butter-and-flour-based condiment is one of my favorites. If anyone is looking for some, it shouldn't be too hard to find in Chicago. These bottles were seen at Pete's Fresh Market.



Shemwell's Barbecue
1102 Washington Av
Cairo IL
618-734-0165

Cairo is certainly worth seeing. The city is devastated but some areas have a certain surreal beauty.

Elfin wrote:The only thing that we desired was to try the Missisippi Tamales-but no place was open. Can't figure out what the heck these are!

Have a look at this thread: Mississippi Delta Hot Tamale Road Trip.

Rene G wrote:We didn't have such good luck at Shemwell's a few years ago though it certainly looks promising...It was a Sunday afternoon and apparently they don't smoke on the Lord's Day.

What?!?!?!? that's sacrilegious and blasphemous, well in my good eating ways of life anyway. Seriously LTH has ghosts, what a coincidence! I'm taking a trip to STL in the middle of March and for two of the days I'm down there we are cruising Da Great River Road from St. Louis down to Memphis. As I looked up Shemwell's with thoughts of a BBQ tour thru Southern IL and Cape Girardeau, I saw how theres very little info about it on the WWW, especially before it's most recent report on LTH. A few nights ago I said to myself as I searched for pics of the famous Southern IL BBQ shack, "I bet Rene G has pics" because seriously, until his most recent post was made there wasnt much on Shemwell's except the coordinate info. I asked my buddy who I'll be visiting about it and he described it as "basically a pork paninni" but after the most recent report, I wonder if it's even worth it when I got so many other spots on my radar.

Rene G wrote:Cairo is certainly worth seeing. The city is devastated but some areas have a certain surreal beauty.

This is why I will still make the journey thru this historic IL town, the stories and pictures I have seen already, along with yours, say a million words. Thanks for the report, Ill be sure not to stop in on the day of lord Jesus Christ, my savior...although now you got me thinking maybe I should just hit up the tamale trail, something thats always been on my must do list. I might have to do that...

Also, they only do ribs on Wednesday. Guess we lucked out as our meats were moist and the bbq on toasted bread was a first for us. The photos above really captured our surreal experience with this strange town. Great pictures! Glad we can get the sauce here as my kids have used up half of the jar of the new kind made with apples(too sweet for ribs-best used on a pork roast or tenderloin).