Dishing on the go with Liz Smith: the legendary columnist spills the beans on her fave eats and eateries.

Atkins, shmatkins. Legendary gossip columnist Liz Smith grew up on grits and gravy and chicken-fried steak, and fortunately for us, she's not about to switch sides now. Smith's new book, Dishing, is stuffed with high-carb recipes plus delicious tales of the celebrities she's faced across dinner tables at her favorite restaurants around the world--all recorded with that breezy much that marks Smith as a superb storyteller. Speaking to The Out Traveler from her Manhattan office, the 82-year-old out Texan tornado sums up her down-to-earth viewpoint this way: "I've had a wonderful life--but I've managed to keep myself anchored to the low part of the hog, I think."

You write about food as being fun and joyful, and for so many people I know, food seems to be the enemy nowadays. Well, I guess food can become the enemy. But I love to eat.

You just know when to quit. [Laughs] Not really.

In your book you write about great restaurants in several corners of the world. Could we talk about some of the restaurants where you've had good food adventures? I'm telling you, there's a place in Fort Worth, Texas, called Joe T. Garcia's. It's on the north side of Fort Worth on the way to the meatpacking district, and it's been there forever and ever. And it is, I think, one of the greatest Tex-Mex restaurants in the world. You can eat outdoors. And you have to enter the restaurant through the kitchen, so when you go in you already see them cooking.

In your book you describe coming in through the kitchen and watching a woman make tamales by hand. That's another place--La Posta, which is right at the junction between New Mexico, old Mexico, and Arizona. It's where they shot Billy the Kid. That's where you can watch them make tamales, with headcheese mixed with masa.

I have to admit, I don't exactly know what headcheese is. They take the head of a cow and scrape all the hair off it and then boil it. It's like a jelly, the gelatin of the cheeks and the face and the head. Sounds revolting, but it isn't.

How about restaurants in your other hometown, New York City? In New York, I like to go to the Pink Tea Cup, in the heart of Greenwich Village, right near where Edna St. Vincent Millay used to live. It's another family restaurant, and they have wonderful fried chicken and collard greens and black-eyed peas and okra, corn, and tomatoes mixed together. They have the greatest bacon I've ever tasted. I think they double-fry it or something. They don't take reservations; you have to stand outside on the sidewalk and hope you'll get in. [Laughs] The sidewalk is all greasy. And one of my favorite restaurants in the world is Johnny Rockets in L.A.

OK, then: Let's head for the Continent. If I had to go to one place that was really glamorous, I would go back to La Grande Cascade, which is right in the heart of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. It's all glass. It's a typical French restaurant, but it's so famous that a lot of people don't go there because they think it's a tourist trap. If you were just going to go to one place in Paris, then I would say this would certainly give you the flavor of France, particularly of the art nouveau era or the time when Toulouse-Lautrec lived. It's very old-fashioned.

How about other cities in Europe? Every time I go to Rome I go to this place called Otello. It's right off the Spanish Steps, a few blocks from the Via Condotti, which as you know is the big shopping street, where Gucci and all of those shops are. But this is the most unpretentious little Italian restaurant, and it's all covered over with vines. They have the greatest tomato sauce and spaghetti in the world. Again, it's the kind of thing that Americans once imagined Italian restaurants were.

Sounds like a lot of fun was had in these places. I was taken to La Grande Cascade by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. All the times I'd ever been to Paris, I'd never gone there, because I thought it was a tourist trap. So they said, "Well, what do you care? It's one of the most beautiful restaurants in the world; the food is really good," and I said, "Of course I don't care. Let's go there."

Do you remember what you ate? I just remember we ate off each other's plates, and I had whatever the Buttons told me to order. [Laughs] I remember there was lots of uncorking of wine. At 4 o'clock Vincente Minnelli phoned the restaurant. He was the director of this movie Elizabeth was in. And he was crying and saying, "Please come back to the set, please come back to the set," which I thought was very funny. We were all quite drunk by then, so I don't know what he could have gotten out of her that afternoon.

In the book I was reading about Elvis's recipes with fascination. Well, that's like food porn. You have to read that with your tongue in your own cheek.

Have you ever tasted Elvis's favored dessert, the fried Snickers bar? Yes. I had one with Julie Chen on CBS Morning News. They had fried one when I was interviewed.

How was it? It was delicious! But I didn't eat the whole thing--I just tasted it. I figure you could fry a Snickers bar, cut it in four pieces, and every piece would only be about 200 calories, so it wouldn't kill you.

I was interested in your travels to Greece with ex-partner Iris Love at the end of the book. But, I mean, again, Greece has terrible food! Evidently, Crete has great food, but I don't remember. Again, I was just eating to survive.

In your travels do you recall any places where the gay party was especially fun? The one thing in the world I would never equate as being equal is being gay and finding a great gay place to eat. In places where single-sex, either men or women, gather, they're not open for food!

LIZ'S FAVORITE EATERIES AROUND THE WORLD

* Joe T. Garcia's, 2201 N. Commerce St., Fort Worth, Texas, 817-626-4356. Smith recommends: "Everything! Have the whole Mexican platter."

* La Posta de Mesilla, 2410 Calle de San Albino, Old Mesilla, N.M., 505-524-3524. "After you see tamales made by hand in La Posta's kitchen, you know why machine-made tamales are usually not worth eating."

* The Pink Tea Cup, 42 Grove St., Greenwich Village, New York City, 212-807-6755. "Fried chicken, black-eyed peas, collard greens, wonderful coconut cake. They even have grits."

* La Grande Cascade, Allee de Longchamp, Paris, 011-33-01-4527-3351. "All the food is divine. Really gives you the feeling of France."

* Otelle alla Concordia, Via della Croce 81, Rome, 011-39-06-6791-178. "The greatest tomato sauce in the world."