Florida Food

     

    On my first day of work I almost passed out. At sixteen, I'd just started working at the veterinarian's office of our close family friends. Dr. Dan, the owner and primary vet at Floral City Animal Clinic, asked me to look into a microscope at something he found interesting. Not usually queasy, I was surprised when dark spots clouded my vision and I began swaying. His wife, Mrs. Tess, held me up, then led me to a chair while asking if I'd eaten breakfast that morning. Thankfully, my rocky beginning didn't make them regret the hire.

   When Dr. Dan wasn't caring for the pets of our community, he could be found out in the gulf spearfishing from his beloved boat. He'd bring back his catch for fish fries where our families gathered around their cozy dining table overlooking the chain of Tsala Apopka Lakes. We feasted on blackened and fried grouper, hush puppies, and crystal light lemonade. Later, the kids would go outside and play basketball or watch the sunset over the lake.

    It was also in Dr. Dan and Mrs. Tess' living room that I first watched Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird and was forever be changed by its gothic beauty. 

    My book club is reading one of my favorites - A Land Remembered, by Patrick D. Smith, and we're each bringing a Florida-themed dish to share. As I perused Famous Florida Recipes by Lowis Carlton and Zora Neale Hurston on Florida Food by Fred Opie, I remembered back to those fish fry nights where we ate the food of our land and sea. That's about as Florida as it gets.