Pretty frequently I get a powerful taste for collards. I love ‘em. Now my grandma used to make good collards the old fashioned way: slow cooked in a big cast iron skillet with a streak o’lean and a streak o’fat. I should probably clarify that I assume they were good. When I was a snot nosed little kid I declared to her that “I didn’t eat grass.” Well now I do, and I wish I did then. I’m sure my grandma’s were good. If she were alive today I’d be all over them greens like a pack of wild dogs on a three legged cat.
My mama makes collards sometimes too. She used to cook them like grandma, but now she parboils them and then sautés them in olive oil. I like “nouveau” collards just fine too. The last time she made them was New Years day, as is the southern tradition, and they were spot on. Sometimes I make collards as well. Ok, sometimes is a stretch. Rarely. Rarely I’ll make some collards. I’m just too dang lazy. So there’s the rub. Where can a sluggard get a mess of good collards around here when the craving strikes?
Every once in a while I get lucky and some nice person at the office will bring me some leftover collards from their Sunday supper. For some time when the craving was just too great, I’d scratch the itch at Don Murray’s. I’d ignore the health rating, ignore that my feet stuck to the carpet, let it slide that the collards weren’t that great, and roll the hepatitis dice. What they lacked in quality they made up for in quantity. Well, ole Don Murray’s is no longer and option.
I’ve been to all the other BBQ joints, and I’m sad to say they just didn’t cut the mustard. I went to the Farmers Market Restaurant and they were salty and tasted a little burnt. Big Ed’s? Nope. The best collards I’ve had in my quest, surprisingly, were at the Underground. (Which by the way, if you’ve never been to the Underground, get yourself there with all due speed.) They were amazing! Tender, sweet, and flavorful with succulent little pieces of pork floating in an ethereal broth. I’m getting tingly all over just thinking about them. The only problem was it’s a tapas joint. It was a tease. I could have eaten a whole pot, and all I got was a tiny taste.
Other folks have made recommendations in all corners of our great state, but did I mention I’m lazy? I know there are great greens to be had, but I don’t want to drive to the Virginia line. I don’t want to go to Lumberton, Elizabethtown, Lexington, or Asheville. Heck, I don’t even want to drive to Durham or Chapel Hill. There’s got to be other collard lovers that can’t find a local fix, or some folks in the know. Where do y’all get great collards in Raleigh?
