I’ll just give it to you straight: red beans ‘n’ rice is not a dish that one eats in California. I didn’t grow up with my mother stirring a large cast iron skillet of anything, much less andouille infused red beans. So upon moving to the South and beginning to date a man from Mississippi with the kind of redneck credibility that I’m keenly aware I’m lacking in, I was quickly challenged to reevaluate my preconception of “red beans ‘n’ rice” as a side dish that I’d never order myself (while disdaining to taste any that Reb ordered and greedily devoured) to a main event worthy of being cooked up in a large batch back in my own kitchen at home.
