Pot likker etiquette

I ate lunch Wednesday at Mary Mac’s Tea Room on Ponce de Leon Avenue in Atlanta. If you’ve never been to Mary Mac’s, it’s an institution in Atlanta. The walls are lined with photographs of all the famous people who have dined there.

The friend I was having lunch with is pretty much a celebrity himself. And he eats there so often all the waitresses know him by name. He ordered the meatloaf. I had the fried chicken. (Three drumsticks, of course.)

Without asking they started us off with some “pot likker.’’ It’s not an appetizer. I comes right off the “sides” menu with all the vegetables.

He asked me if I had ever had pot likker. Of course, I had. I grew up in the South, didn’t I?

For those of you who have never sipped this Southern delicacy, the “likker” has nothing to do with sidling up to the bar for happy hour.

It’s the broth that comes from either collards or turnip greens when they are cooked. Basically, you pile a bunch of greens in a big pot with water and add fatback (salt pork) and black pepper.

Don’t throw away that juice!!! It’s the nectar of the kitchen gods.

Even though I have had pot likker many times, the question I mulled over lunch was the correct way to eat/drink it. They brought it in a small bowl, with a spoon, and a piece of cornbread on the side. I had a few sips from the spoon, as if I was eating soup. But I noticed my friend was heaping it on his cornbread until it was completely saturated. I crumbled up some of my cornbread and dipped it in the bowl.

I was totally at a loss for correct pot likker etiquette.

I guess it doesn’t really matter. Like eating those chicken legs with your fingers.

Style isn’t that important. Just so you enjoy it.

And, of course, I did.