Music frequently moves me, both emotionally and geographically. Food and music compel me in similar ways. Food feeds your belly; Music feeds your soul. I have known for many years that good food leads to good music...at least when musicians are around.

Driftwood Soldier and I started collaborating together a couple of months ago. After becoming enchanted by their rhythms and lyrics, I started plotting Dinner & A Show. Then we got to talking about heading South and decided to team up for the ride. Atlanta quickly became an obvious destination. Since my first my first sunset in Atlanta, my time there has always been filled with unforgettable moments of food, music and community. When we talked to our friends in the city about coming down they generously decided to put together a house show and gave me free reign of their kitchen. Atlanta is a fiercely talented music city with deep roots in traditional American music. You won't want to miss it.

Rsvp for Secret Location

NEW YORK

King's County Saloon// Brooklyn, New York

Flying Pig Farms Half Hog// Brooklyn, New York

SweetWater IPA Braised BBQ PORK

RUB

2 pounds Bone In Pork Shoulder

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

3 tablespoons Salt

1 tablespoon crushed Red Pepper Flakes

Mix all ingredients and generously rub onto shoulder. Set aside.

BRAISE

3 bottles of SweetWater IPA Beer

1/2 head cabbage, chopped

2 onions, chopped

1 bulb fennel, chopped

olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Chop vegetables into large 1/2 inch chunks and set aside. In a Dutch oven or large cast iron, heat a heavy pour of olive oil and add prepared pork shoulder until golden. Add vegetables. Pour in beer. Place uncovered in oven. Cook for two hours or until tender.

BBQ SAUCE

1 cup reserved beer braising drippings

1-1/2 cup apple cider

1-2 cups ketchup

Juice of 1/2 Lemon

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1/4 cup Mustard

3 tablespoons Soy Sauce

3 cloves Garlic

Remove shoulder from braise. Drain vegetables and place remaining juice in a gravy separator. The jus and the fat will separate. Pour off as much fat as possible and reserve. In a medium sauce pan heat pork jus on medium heat. Add all ingredients while constantly tasting. Adjust flavors to your liking. Simmer until thick. Pour atop pulled pork. Serve immediately.

Private Tasting in the Kitchen at Kings County Saloon// Brooklyn, New York

Grits

2 cups good grits

8 cups water

2 bay leaf

1/2 stick butter

salt, to taste

For best results soak grits over night in a large pot for 8 hours. If you're in a rush, soak for at least at hour.

Add bay leaf. Retaining the water from soaking, bring to high heat. Stirring constantly, bring grits to a boil. Remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes covered. Bring back to heat and cook for an additional 45 minutes, tasting constantly, until grits reach desired consistency. Add butter and salt and serve with cheese, red pepper, and pepper.

Castle Valley Mill Yellow Grots with Bay Leaf

SweetWater Brewing's Hop Hash Beer Cookies

Spread cookie batter out on baking sheet for easy cutting

250 grams all-purpose flour

2 grams baking soda

3 grams salt

170 grams unsalted butter, melted

220 grams packed brown sugar

100 grams white sugar

15 ml vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

335 grams semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup SweetWater Hop Hash Beer

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Measure and combine flour, baking soda, salt in a medium sized mixing bowl. Cream butter and sugar until combine. Add vanilla and eggs. In thirds, slowly add dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips and beer. On a parchment lined baking sheet, spread out batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until golden. Cut cookies to desired size.

GEORGIA

Chef Angus Brown's Pulled Darby Chicken with Heirloom Beans, last of the season cherry tomatoes, fried Okra and okra flowers from Love is Love Farm// Decatur, Georgia

Dolly Bars

1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, cut into large pieces
1 1/2 cups graham crackers crumbs (about 8 graham crackers, crushed)
3 cups dark chocolate chips
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a small pan. Add to graham cracker crumbs. Mix and press evenly into the bottom of 8×8 baking pan. Layer coconut, pecans, and chocolate chips on top of graham crackers. Pour sweetened condensed milk over whole mixture. Bake in oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until the top is light brown. Once cooled, cut into small squares and put in mini cupcake wrappers.

Okra Flowers//  Decatur, Georgia — Okra Flowers// Decatur, Georgia

MISSISSIPPI

The Outstanding Chef Lineup// Oxford, Mississippi

Chef Ryan Prewitt's Gulf Snapper with Remoulade and Mint// Oxford, Mississippi

Zinnias + Butterflies// Oxford, Mississippi

LOUISIANA

Don Coyote at Siberia Club// New Orleans, Louisiana

St Roch Cemetery// New Orleans, Louisiana

Live Oak in City Park// New Orleans, Louisiana

Bald Cypress Trees at Chicot State Park// Ville Platte, Louisiana

Gators at Chicot State Park// Ville Platte, Louisiana

Chicot State Park// Ville Platte, Louisiana

Campsite Fixins', Black eyed Peas, Feta and Satsuma// Ville Platte, Louisiana

TEXAS

CHEF JUSTIN YU'S CARROT STEW

BY JUSTIN YU

The recipe was a little loose, but here's the gist of it, I scaled it down a bit:

Aromatics

1# ginger, skin and all, chopped

1# galangal, skin on, chopped

.5# lemongrass, hard tips cut off, chopped

1# shishito peppers, stemmed

3 ea large shallots, halved

1 head garlic, peeled

Spices

1 T ground cinnamon

2 t dill seed, ground

2 T paprika

1 T black pepper, fine ground

1 T coriander seed, ground

salt to taste

Grind all the spices and mix together. Set aside.

In a blender, blend all the aromatics together. Make sure the peppers are on the bottom of the blender so it doesn't break the blender trying to grind all the roots. You can use a little water to thin it out so it blends smoothly. Blend for about 1 minute per batch. It should look like a thick smoothie.

Heat up a large pot with a good amount of oil to cover the bottom of the pan, about half an inch up from the pan bottom so that you'll almost be shallow frying, Make sure the oil is past smoking point (I like grapeseed) and very wavy.

Add all the aromatics. The pan should be ripping hot and there should be a high pitched screeching sound when it goes in. Continually stir with a spatula until very aromatic, cooking on high heat. The idea is just to cook out all the water as quickly as possible. You can see this happening when little bubbles start to pop as opposed to big bubbles.

When the mixture gets aromatic, take the mixture off the heat. Add the untoasted spices and return to the heat for about 3-5 minutes. Pull off the heat again and steep aromatics and spices while cooling down the mixture.

This result is almost like a curry paste or base. You can keep this in the cooler and it'll hold for a while. When you cook with it, you can cook it with pretty much anything, Just thin it out with coconut milk and lime juice.

For the carrots to get that texture from the stew we did, you have to caramelize them in a convection oven at 325 for about 20 minutes then turn down the oven to 275 and cook them so they take on an almost hollow texture. You can cut it up them and rehydrate in the curry stew when you add the coconut. It's great with a lot of different things.

Regal Jumping Spider + Glassware// Fields Store, Texas

Abby's Mesquite and Top Texas Apple Butter Ice Cream Sandwiches// Austin, Texas

CALIFORNIA

Breakfast Burrito Land// Cayucos, California

Marta the Water Bearer// Cayucos, California — Marta the Water Bearer// Cayucos, California

Shadow Friends// Joshua Tree, California

Clara in Light// Joshua Tree, California

Marta on the Peak// Joshua Tree, California

Bartholomew The Barrel Cactus// Joshua Tree, California