Brussels sprouts for Thanksgiving? Tennessee says no

What the what?

The venerable New York Times put together a beautiful and interesting feature for their food section titled "The United States of Thanksgiving," offering recipes that "evoke each of the 50 states." Nice idea, and it's certainly fun to armchair travel across this great and varied country of ours and admire the regional specialties.

So, of course, I quickly scanned down to see what Southern classic would represent the Volunteer state, and it was ... Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Peanut Vinaigrette.

What the hell.

While I really like and admire chef Andrew Little of Josephine, who supplied the recipe for this dish, I have to wonder what the Times was thinking? Yes, they correctly report that variations of the bulbous sprouts are showing up in fine spots across our state, while they patronizingly stroke our poor food egos and tell us how fantastic it is that all three of our grand divisions have "burgeoning" food scenes.

Bless their hearts, but you don't use a food trend to represent a state's historical gustatory inclinations, and the comments section on Facebook are a post-fest of similar reactions. Most folks agree the recipe sounds good, but almost to a person they think that the choice was way off the mark.

Jennifer Lovett Blankenship summed it up pretty well in her posting, "I'm with the rest of the people commenting, there has never been a brussel sprout on any holiday table I've ever set. In my 40 years on Earth I've never even had a brussel sprout. What makes Thanksgiving in TN is casseroles and chess pie. My family's favorites are the infamous Green Bean casserole and a grits casserole (up north you could call it cheesy polenta to make it sound sexy.) But Chess pie ifs by far, hands down, the most Tennessee thing I can think of putting on my holiday table."

In fact I'm not sure they could have gotten it any further from true Tennessee reality, though many proud Minnesotans took a break from watching the lakes freeze to express their dismay and confusion of having a grape salad foisted upon them. At least that was apparently a community cookbook staple from the 1950s.

What do you think should be our rightful dish? Cornbread dressing? Chess pie? Mac and cheese? Stewed tomatoes? Pickled peaches? Bleu cheese-stuffed celery? I can think of all kinds of things, but there's one cruciferous vegetable that doesn't seem to be on any Tennessean's list.

Reach Jim Myers at 615-259-8367 and on Twitter @ReadJimMyers.