The first thing you might notice about Shacuria Jackson and Derron Clark is that they make great food.
That’s certainly what caught my attention a few weeks ago, when I was lucky enough to sample their dishes at Setting the Table. (That was an event about Nashville’s evolving foodways, and I was honored to be one of the guest speakers.) Jackson served a sweet chili ancho-sauced shrimp toast that tasted so fresh I thought Nashville had somehow become a coastal town. Clark offered a bowl of creamed corn with sour cream, chives, and a touch of shio koji, an umami-forward Japanese seasoning. It reminded me of both a classic Southern dish and a porridge I once bought from a street vendor in Tokyo. I had seconds.
