Bubba Joe's cousins Wal and Cooch are in town for a visit, and
Darla has cooked up a regular feast of fried okra, black-eyed peas, fried chicken, and collard greens. But dang it,
she hasn't set the table right. Nooo, this just isn't going to work.
Bubba Joe stares at the table and thinks for a bit. (Man, that fried okra smells good.) He always sits at the corner of the table where there's a big gravy
stain on the tablecloth, and his best bet is to position the plate of fried okra right in front of him so he can get plenty of okra while it's hot.
Now Bubba Joe is just a touch obsessive. He'll only move a plate if he can pick it up and jump it over
adjacent plates, landing on the next available space on the table. Trouble is, the bigger plates--the ones with the fried okra and fried
chicken--are too big to fit next to just anything, and in fact they'll only fit next to the small bowls
of black-eyed peas. (Fitting plates next to one another is only a problem if they are right next to one another. You can
stick anything next to anything diagonally.)
Doggone it, Bubba Joe is hungry and the okra is getting cold. Can you help him rearrange the plates and get
the orange plate of okra moved to the upper left corner of the table?
Instructions
Goal: Move the orange plate of fried okra to the space in the upper left corner, preferably while it's still hot.
Plates may move only by jumping left, right, up, or down over one or more adjacent plates, landing on the next vacant space on the tablecloth.
Large plates (orange or green) will only fit next to the small red bowls. (This limitation
is only for orthogonally adjacent plates. Anything will fit next to anything else diagonally.)
To move a plate, click on it and then click on the destination space on the tablecloth.
Cooking Fried Okra
There are different schools on how to cook fried okra. Southern culinary experts have long
discussed the relative merits of using cornmeal, flour, and/or egg in extensive intellectual debates, some of which have been
known to continue well into the pool hall parking lot.
However, in my opinion okra is best with just a nice thin crust of
cornmeal, served still piping hot from the skillet. It's good enough that it has been known to make people who thought they hated okra go
into a swoon.
You'll need:
A mess of okra (larger, tougher pods are okay, but avoid brown spots)
Corn meal
Vegetable oil
Salt
Wash and dry the okra pods. Cut off the caps and cut the pods into 3/8" (1 cm) thick rounds. Toss the okra in corn meal
until evenly coated. (The juice of the okra--slime some would say--will be enough for the cornmeal to adhere.) Shake off any
excess corn meal.
Meanwhile, add oil to a cast iron skillet until it is about 1/4" deep. Heat the skillet over medium heat until oil is hot
enough to ripple and for a test piece of okra to sizzle and bubble. Add okra to the skillet in batches, spreading out the okra so that it is in a
single layer in the skillet. Cook until brown on both side, turning the pieces halfway through. Remove from the skillet
and drain on paper towels.
