Tailgating the Southern Way: Part III

Last week I talked about the rest of the South Easter Conference teams and their tailgating traditions, however, I left out two schools.

We are going on to College Station Texas, home of the 12^th man and hometown aggies. The Aggies have a really excellent menu. Their menu consists of: spicy queso dip, layered spicy black bean dip, guacamole, beef fajitas with Pico de Gallo, and oven-baked churros.

If you are wondering what a churro is, well here it is, a churro is a fried-dough pastry based snack. Churros are popular in Spain, France, the Philippines, Portugal, Ibero-America and then Southwestern United States. In Spain, churros can either be thin knotted or long and thick. They are normally eaten for breakfast dipped in champurrado or cafe con leche.

The origin of churros is unclear. One theory is that the Portuguese brought the churro to Europe. The Portuguese sailed for the Orient and, as they returned from Ming Dynasty China to Portugal, they brought along with them new culinary techniques, including modifying the dough for You Tiao also known as Youzagwei in Southern China, for Portugal. However, they modified it by introducing a star design because they did not learn the Chinese skill of "pulling" the dough (the Chinese Emperor made it a capital crime to share knowledge with foreigners). As a result, churros are not "pulled" but rather extruded out through a star-shaped die.

Another theory is that Spanish shepherds made the churro, to substitute for fresh bakery goods. Churro paste was easy to make and fry in an open fire in the mountains, where shepherds spend most of their time

The next campus is in Nashville Tennessee home of the Vanderbilt Commodores. The Commodores are not generally known for football but they know how to tailgate. Vanderbilt’s menu consists of: beer batter fried pickles, sweet hot baby back ribs, cranberry almond coleslaw, Mexican style grilled corn, and over then moon banana pudding.

This is what all the South Eastern Conference has to offer for tailgating. These menus prove that the south know how to tailgate and show off their culinary skills.