Sara Brennan
Save Room for
Sonker
And don’t forget the milk dip By Matt Lardie
Rockford General Store
If your first reaction is, “Well, what the heck is a sonker?” don’t worry, you aren’t alone. Sonker is a dessert that hails from western North Carolina, with a provenance centered around Surry County (home of Mount Airy, the setting for The Andy Griffith Show’s fictional town of Mayberry). The closest thing to a sonker would be a cobbler, but that’s where the agreement ends, and even then there are some who would chafe at that description. One family’s sonker might be made with peaches and have a pie-like crust floating atop the filling, while just down the road another household might make their sonker from sweet potatoes or apples with a batter-like topping that bakes into the filling. Many sonkers are
served with a “milk dip,” a creamy, sweet sauce meant to be poured over the top of the dessert. Sonker varies from hill to holler, from family to family, and the easiest way to learn more about sonker is to try some for yourself: Enter the Surry Sonker Trail, a journey to eight different locations across Surry County, all serving their own takes on this iconic dessert. You can try the sweet potato sonker at The Tilted Ladder in Pilot Mountain, served piping hot in a martini glass with milk dip alongside. Or venture up to Mount Airy for a stop at Miss Angel’s Heavenly Pies, where her ‘zonka (bring your own Long Island accent to match wits with Miss Angel) is made from fresh fruit grown on her own farm.
Sam Dean
Look, there on the table! Is it a pie? Is it a cobbler? No, no it’s...sonker!
Anchored Bakery
Shelton Vineyards serves an upscale version of sonker at their vineyard restaurant, a perfect way to end a meal, especially when washed down with a glass of dessert wine. Rockford General Store offers their sonkers to travelers exploring this tiny, historic corner of Dobson; a recent version was a spiced peach sonker with fresh vanilla ice cream.
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