Mmmmmmmm…..red beans [JR makes Homer sound].

What about red beans? Did you have red beans in Mississippi?

WMS: Oh not—no, not too many—black-eyed peas was mostly you know—and butter beans, but red beans, that’s—that’s a Louisiana dish.

Miss White: It sure is. ‘Cause you can’t get it in Texas—not no red beans. They used to could. They used to go over there— getting them around Beaumont and Houston. I used to send red beans to my people in Beaumont. In fact if I go over there I’d bring six—seven packs. Well they wasn’t but 59-cents a pound then. [Laughs]

WMS: They don’t have red beans like we have them. Honey and I just love me some red beans. This is a read bean city here. That’s it. If you don’t have no red beans you just out. And I cooked red beans Monday—I cooked them every day, but I cook the big lima beans on Mondays and Wednesdays. And every occasion I cook black-eyed peas, but them red beans—if I don’t have—oh I know better than not put no pot on the stove not unless I have red beans. Every day. [Emphasis Added] That’s my big seller.

– Willie Mae Seaton of Willie Mae’s Scotch House with Miss Hazel White, Interview with the Southern Foodways Alliance, New Orleans, Louisiana, July 2006.