Episode 3904

- [Announcer] "Tennessee Crossroads" is brought to you in part by...

- [Announcer] Some of our biggest checks have also made the biggest difference. The Tennessee Lottery, proud to have raised more than $7.5 billion for education. Now that's some game-changing, life-changing fun.

- [Announcer] Discover Tennessee Trails & Byways, where adventure, cuisine, and history come together. With 16 scenic driving trails, you can discover why Tennessee sounds perfect. Trips can be planned at TNTrailsAndByways.com.

- [Announcer] The Co-op system in Tennessee consists of independently-owned co-ops, driven to serve farmer owners, rural-lifestyle customers, and their communities throughout Tennessee and in five neighboring states. More at our ourcoop.com.

- [Announcer] Middle Tennessee State University College of Liberal Arts helps students explore the world, engage minds, enrich lives, and earn a living. More at mtsu.edu/cla.

- This week on "Tennessee Crossroads," we'll dig into some barbecue with an Asian twist, admire artwork that is transforming the lives of its creators, sink our teeth into some magnificent muffins, and explore the cutting edge of classic cars. Start your engines, viewers. I'm Miranda Cohen, and it's time for "Tennessee Crossroads." As a Crossroads viewer, you know we love good barbecue. And as you know, the Southern staple is often influenced by regions, whether near or far. In our first story, we'll sample some Eastern-inspired barbecue, and we don't mean East Tennessee.

- [Patron] It's a nice little rural community in Dixon County, and it's the last place I think you would expect a Korean restaurant.

- [Miranda] A very unique restaurant with a very unique name, right here in White Bluff, Tennessee. This culinary roadside destination is the Fat Tiger Korean Barbecue & More.

- The tiger actually signifies Korea in some ways. If you look at the map of Korea as a whole, it looks like a tiger. That is something that the Koreans have related to the geography and just the topography of Korea for a very long time, like thousands of years. So it was like, "Make the tiger fat." We're gonna feed you and make you fat.

- [Miranda] Starrlite DeCook was born in Seoul, Korea, and when she made the move to Tennessee, she brought along her favorite old family recipes.

- [Starrlite] I called my grandmother, and I was like, "Hey, you're gonna teach me how to make everything." So I went to her house for like two weeks, and I like stood over her, taking notes.

- [Miranda] With her cherished notes in hand, she met and married local chef, David Mullins. And deep in barbecue country, she convinced him that Dixon County needed something different: Korean barbecue.

- Bulgogi, fried.

- It's a lot of marinated things. And in Korean food, like, the meat is of, course, the highlight, but you have a lot of accompaniments that come with the meat. Like, the rice is there, you have the lettuce, the dipping sauces. You can try the same piece of meat with different flavor combinations. That's how Korean barbecue works. I feel like a lot of people come in not knowing Korean food at all, and those are actually some of my favorite customers. It's like playing 20 questions. It's like, "Do you like spicy? Do you not like spicy? Do you like beef? Do you like pork?" And then we just kind of narrow things down from what they're telling us, and we might lead them to something that is not Korean barbecue. It's still Korean food.

- [Miranda] Classic Korean barbecue is known for bold flavors and notes of exotic spices. One of the most popular dishes at Fat Tiger is delicately crispy and flavor-packed Korean fried chicken. Savory cuts of beef and pork are also served up in the house specialties. They may be tricky to pronounce, but oh so easy to eat.

- Bulgogi is very thinly-sliced beef that is marinated in like a soy, garlic, gingery marinade. And we saute that, and you serve it with rice. We have it on our loaded fries, which is really delicious. Bibimbap is a rice bowl. In Korean bibim literal translation is "to mix," and bap means rice. So bibimbap is mixed rice. I mean, it's not mixed when you get it, but it's rice on the bottom and various different vegetables, and then a fried egg on top, that can add a spicy sauce to, and just mix it all together. There are some mother sauces that's like the foundation of Korean food. Obviously, soy sauce is one of them. Gochujang, which is a hot pepper paste, that's also used very often. Doenjang, which is a fermented bean paste, similar to miso, that's also used a lot in marinades. Our spicy pork dish has 13 different ingredients in the marinade, and the bulgogi is about eight.

- [Miranda] Served up with very traditional Korean side dishes, like a sweet and savory fermented cabbage staple called kimchi, spicy pickled cucumbers, and even pineapple cole slaw.

- Thank you guys for coming today.

- Oh yeah, of course. We love it.

- [Starrlite] It's like Korean barbecue is an element of it, but that's why we have the "and more" at the end of our name. So we're not just Korean barbecue. We do Korean food, and then we do non-Korean food. You know, my husband, he's a chef, so I wanted him to still have his creative outlet.

- [Miranda] Chef David Mullins adds in the more by creating unique soups, shrimp burgers, and a signature sesame-roasted garlic, all made in-house and, of course, made from scratch. And Chef Mullins was the driving force behind creating the spacious eatery in this 100-year-old building.

- I knew that this was gonna be a cuisine that people weren't familiar with, so I created the ambiance inside of here to fit something that was a little more comfortable for people. This building is well over a hundred years old. It started off as a sorghum mill.

- [Miranda] It's a historic building where centuries-old recipes and ancient cooking methods are showcased, giving new visitors and locals the opportunity to experience family flavors from around the globe.

- Earlier, people were talking about Korean barbecue. "What's Korean barbecue?" I grew up in Memphis, so I'm a barbecue person, so I had no idea what to expect, but it is so different. But what I love is everything is made from scratch.

- [Miranda] So what's your favorite thing to get here?

- My overall favorite is what they're having over here, and that's the tonkatsu with curry, followed by the bulgogi fries, which is kind of an Americanized version of Korean bulgogi.

- [Starlight] It's everything that I grew up with, honestly. It's like all the menu items have some sort of significant connection to myself or my husband, but by us bringing the food to, you know, a rural area like this, it helps people see the world. It's almost like taking a trip without taking a trip.

- Art is far more than something you hang on the wall. It has the power to heal and change lives. Laura Faber takes us to a gallery in Chattanooga that offers amazing art with heart.

- [Courtney] It's an eclectic mix of creativity that happens on a daily basis.

- They're working artists. There are 74, I believe, artists right now who have art for sale.

- [Laura] In downtown Chattanooga, every Wednesday and Thursday, artists gather to work, artists like George Monds.

- I'm a mixed-media/celebrity artist, and I draw different art. I do pop culture art, I do scrap art, I do abstract art, all sorts of types of art, which are different patterns. Elvis, I've done Led Zeppelin, I did Rick Ross, Mel Gibson in "Braveheart," and Queen Elizabeth.

- [Laura] George started coming here 11 years ago when he was homeless and had nowhere to go. The ability to create art inside this safe space saved him.

- [George] It's helped me to ease my mind, occupy my time, and inspiration. It helps me in all different areas of my life.

- [Laura] He's here today, planning his upcoming exhibit, getting a free meal, visiting friends he considers family, and getting ready for payday. Have you sold any art from here?

- Yes, a lot.

- [Laura] The HART Gallery is a gallery with a mission, founded by Ellen Heavilon in 2009.

- It was to try to get people that don't have worth, or feel like they don't have worth, an opportunity to realize they do.

- This stone pillar was how it all started. This was Ellen's inspiration for the HART Gallery, a piece of public art made by Chattanooga's homeless. Ellen couldn't get the pillar out of her mind. What if she provided art supplies and allowed people to dabble and create? Art had helped her after the death of her mother, and then again after a bad breakup.

- [Ellen] I'm not an artist, but being able to create and let that darkness be filled with something of light, I think was the beginning of HART Gallery. Art helped me. I wonder if it could help somebody else. And so the gallery was born.

- [Laura] The HART Gallery started as a place for the homeless, but has grown, and its artists include domestic violence survivors, those with mental illness, veterans, people with disabilities. They are all working artists. The director of the HART Gallery, Courtney Chandler, says she and her staff help them submit work for shows, create portfolios, and offer ongoing classes so they can build their skills.

- Beyond that, it's a family for a lot of our artists. It's, you know, a space that they know questions can be asked and answers will be received, they might be connected to resources, there's a hot meal that happens, but also that their worth is on display. You know, I think when it's payday Friday, that's some of the, you know, most joy that we see is because individuals see that what they create is worth something.

- [Laura] What you see hanging on the walls of the gallery is just a sliver of the art that's available and for sale. They have an online catalog as well. Indeed, artists keep 60% of what they sell. 30% goes to the gallery's costs, and 10% go to the artist's charity of choice.

- [Courtney] The money that's coming in through our art sales, it can change lives for a lot of our artists. Sometimes it's, you know, it means they pay the rent this month, or it means there's a little extra for groceries.

- [Laura] The work is beautiful. The stories behind the work, even more so, like the tactile paintings of Erica Birch, a survivor of physical abuse and mental illness. She was just accepted to show her work at a for-profit festival. Or this jewelry artist, a survivor of abuse.

- Isela is one of our jewelry artists who has taught classes to other women, and who recently received a grant for $10,000 to write a children's book, which is just being published here in two different languages: "I Will Always Be Right Here," about her relationship with her dad.

- [Laura] The Miami Land Showcase is an exhibit for artist Bill Cera. And though he's been creating art on and off for 18 years, he struggles with trauma from past child abuse. The HART Gallery gave him a chance to keep focused, evolve, and grow.

- It helps me to deal with my life's problems, so I process things, you know, both good and bad. This is me sharing my life and my fiance, Susie, my childhood memories, childhood dreams of me being born and raised in Miami.

- [Laura] Sometimes a second chance is enough to change a life, an opportunity to be seen. Chattanooga's HART Gallery is doing just that and offering gorgeous artwork at the same time.

- [Courtney] The first time an artist sells something, and that first paycheck, you know, regardless of the amount, it's the fact that someone felt that their work was good enough to take home to their own home, I think is a huge, huge thing.

- We can't save every person that's homeless. We can't make a difference in every homeless person's life, but what we can do is offer an opportunity through art.

- Thanks, Laura. In our next story, Cindy Carter takes us to a popular little bakery and restaurant in Brentwood that is all about comfort food. But don't get too comfortable. Overindulging at the Puffy Muffin might lead to some unwanted muffin tops on its customers.

- [Cindy] In Brentwood, Tennessee, Kristi Stone makes it her business to greet her customers.

- Y'all, thanks for coming in today. It's good to see you.

- [Cindy] As if they were old friends, and many of them are.

- [Kristi] How are y'all today?

- Very good.

- Very good. How was lunch?

- [Cindy] Simply put, the Puffy Muffin Bakery & Restaurant is comfort food. Seriously, as soon as you walk through the door, you can literally smell the rich aromas that bring to mind home and family gatherings. And that, Kristi says, is exactly the point.

- Food is love, okay? Food is love. It's one way that I can show my family I love them. It's one way that I show my friends that I love them and enjoy them.

- [Cindy] Puffy Muffin has been bringing people together since 1986. Kristi's mother, Linda, started the bakery in their family kitchen, baking puffy muffins and other tasty delicacies for the guests she entertained at home.

- [Kristi] Her idea was to have a business where people felt like they were coming into our home, and so to build relationship, make connection with people, make people feel good and fill their bellies. And so, that's how it all started.

- [Cindy] Today, the Puffy Muffin, named for those delicious rolls that just puff up when you bake 'em, is a Brentwood staple, beloved by both locals and folks just passing through.

- I've been coming to the Puffy Muffin somewhere in the neighborhood about five years or more, off and on, and then a regular for the last five years.

- [Cindy] Puffy Muffin regular, Lloyd Potite, with cell phone in hand, often conducts business over breakfast or lunch, or sometimes both.

- [Lloyd] They don't try to rush you. The help here is very congenial, and the food is good, and it's reasonably priced. So everybody's real nice here.

- Hello!

- [Cindy] The workday begins pretty early at Puffy Muffin. The kitchen is teeming with activity as staff members mix, sprinkle, slice, grill, garnish, and, of course, bake their way through the day.

- [Kristi] Some of our specialties are chicken salad, quiche, ginger tea, which is a fruit tea with ginger ale in it that my mom, a recipe that she came up with. Also, we've got a wonderful bakery counter, as you can see behind me, where we've got made-from-scratch cookies, petit fours, cakes, quiche. We've got a Grab & Go counter where we do salads, and sandwiches, and cake in a cup, things that people can just pop in and grab for a quick lunch. There you go, you're going to 53. Thank you.

- [Cindy] There's absolutely nothing fast about this food. These dishes are meant to be savored over conversations with friends or loved ones. But at Puffy Muffin, you must remember to save room for dessert, and the dessert display case pretty much ensures you will.

- [Kristi] We want it to be like home-cooked food that you would make yourself at home.

- Now, this window inside the Puffy Muffin offers a delicious view of the bakery's cake department: wedding cakes, graduation cakes, everyday cakes. And if you're lucky, you just might spot a celebrity-inspired cake headed to the Grand Ole Opry. For more than a decade, the Puffy Muffin's cake baking and decorating artists have helped the Opry officially induct its new members with a customized cake, and assisted in sweetening a few other musical milestones as well.

- Typically, it's white or chocolate cake with buttercream icing, which is, how can you go wrong with that? Delicious. And they'll give us a picture or an idea about what they want. So for Keith Urban, we drew a guitar, and we made the strings out of fondant. Like, every single bit of that cake was edible. We've done Dolly Parton's birthday cakes, two of them in the last few years, Little Big Town, I mean, just all of them.

- [Cindy] Cake artist Elizabeth Starpoli is honored to have her work appreciated by so many in the country music industry.

- And these are our buttercream roses.

- [Cindy] But says she's equally thrilled to design cakes for Puffy Muffin's loyal customers. It's a job she's loved for more than 15 years.

- I think having a great work environment makes it amazing. And I also love the family feel. My mom has worked here for over 25 years, and there's a lot of people that have worked here for decades, so I love the family aspect of it.

- [Cindy] A family that invites everyone to sit down at a table and enjoy a taste of home.

- Just getting together with friends for lunch. I love it. Well, enjoy. Okay?

- Thank you.

- [Cindy] Because as delicious as the food is, it's the relationship between the Puffy Muffin and its customers that is the secret ingredient behind this restaurant's rise to the top.

- Thanks, Cindy. Great place. It's no secret that our friend, Joe Elmore, loved cars. A couple of years ago, he found a great place in Memphis that featured many of his favorites. Here is his story on the Edge Motor Museum.

- [Joe] It's the undisputed birthplace of rock and roll. Nowadays, Sun Records Studio is a museum devoted to the musical magic that defined an era.

- We're 600 feet from Sun Records. All right, if you're gonna go there, I'm gonna assume that you're interested in '50s and '60s culture. Well, these are the cars from the era that they're most famous for music.

- You meet people over the years, and, you know, you're sharing a lot of same interests. And I've worked on several of these cars for other people, and, you know, for some reason, they actually trust me with them.

- Now, in case you're wondering what a 1950 MG TD is doing here in the midst of all these American cars, there's a good reason. You see, back during World War II, when American soldiers were exposed to European sports cars, well, that started a craze of American cars that were fast and fun to drive.

- That MG, it serves as just an inspiration point for what you see over the next 30 years.

- Among American sports cars, the 1949 Crosley Hotshot is considered the first. It was a race-ready little ride with a meager 26-horsepower engine. They were raced around the country before production ceased in 1952. In 1951, Earl "Madman" Muntz, a self-taught engineer and off-the-wall salesman, began production of the Muntz Jet, an unmistakable beauty with big power and a big price. It was also a big flop, despite its popularity among movie stars, such as Doris Day, who was the former owner of this one. One of the rarest cars on the floor is this Kaiser Darrin. Now, it was an expensive car for 1954 and only in production for a year, that, despite having a beautiful design and some innovative features. The most outstanding thing about this car, to me, is the way the doors open.

- Yeah, there's nothing else, I don't think ever, has had doors like this. So they just slide into the front fenders.

- [Joe] And now it's locked.

- [Bob] And they're very, very easy to work. Very trouble-free. And it looks great, but it's really kinda awkward to get into.

- Wow. I don't think I can do it. I sure can't get out. Executive Director Richard Vining's favorite car is the one named after a powerful mythical creature: the Thunderbird.

- [Richard] You wouldn't have a Corvette today if it wasn't for the Thunderbird. Corvette came out first, but that car was terrible. And I think GM would've just given up on the Corvette experiment, except for, right down the street, Ford's pushing out Thunderbirds that were faster, better built, had more options.

- [Bob] A lot of the cars in here are national first-place winners. We're kind of picky.

- [Joe] Visitors can take self-guided tours while friendly, informed docents are always on hand to help. In this place, the story is the same, but the presentation will vary.

- We rotate in and out within this theme, okay? And so, cars will be here for three months, six months. Others will be here for up to a year, and we'll do whatever it is to keep 'em happy. If someone can come in here, and maybe they're not super excited about going through the American Speed Exhibit, we can make a car fan out of 'em, I feel really good about that.

- So many beautiful cars, and another great story by Joe. Well, that will do it for us this week, but check us out anytime at tennesseecrossroads.org or on the PBS App, and we'll see you again next time. Thanks for tuning in.

- [Announcer] "Tennessee Crossroads" is brought to you in part by...

- [Announcer] Students across Tennessee have benefited from over $7.5 billion dollars we've raised for education, providing more than 2 million scholarships and grants. The Tennessee Lottery: game changing, life changing fun.

- [Announcer] Discover Tennessee Trails & Byways, where adventure, cuisine, and history come together. With 16 scenic driving trails, you can discover why Tennessee sounds perfect. Trips can be planned at tn TNTrailsAndByways.com.

- [Announcer] The Co-op system in Tennessee consists of independently-owned co-ops, driven to serve farmer owners, rural-lifestyle customers, and their communities throughout Tennessee and in five neighboring states. More at our ourcoop.com.

- [Announcer] Middle Tennessee State University College of Liberal Arts helps students explore the world, engage minds, enrich lives, and earn a living. More at mtsu.edu/cla.