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his is the land of the towering coconut cake and the hot bubbly cobbler, iced tea that's
sweet and served with lemon, and boiled peanuts. Eat some and contemplate their wonder.
Soaked in brine, sometimes squishy, sometimes not, boiled peanuts are loved by
Carolinians, who know a 'new crop' when they see one. I eat a handful and realize, yet
again, that food is a celebration here. Even a lowly peanut has stature.
"Interested in some boiled peanuts?" my father asks, plunking a wrinkled brown
bag on the desk. Even though I'm not hungry, I don't decline. I can't. Boiled peanuts are
exalted. They're cause for excitement, just like watermelon in the summer, sliced on a
picnic table covered with newspaper, or peach ice cream. Round up the family; we're
cooking a hog. Call all the neighbors; we're frying some fish. Grate cabbage for slaw,
slice the tomatoes and don't forget the salt and pepper. You're having a party. The best
kind around.
There's probably some deep anthropological message here. After 'The Wah' Carolinians were
too poor to eat in high style, as some had. But slaves had brought their cooking skills
from Africa and the Caribbean; the French and Spanish had done the same earlier. Add the
seafood from the coast, wild game from the forests and abundant produce from the fields,
and the result is some fine eats. Witness duck perlo, a rice dish with French influences.
Many a political rally has centered around that, or a chicken stew (chicken and rice),
chicken bog (chicken, rice and sausage) or a Beaufort stew (shrimp, sausage, corn on the
cob and potatoes, sometimes cooked with beer). Catfish stew & the 'white kind,' made
with milk, or the 'red kind,' which has a tomato base Ð has been responsible for
countless new churches and marching band travel. Got a cause? Have a barbecue.
This writer spent many early years pouring very sweet tea from an aluminum pitcher into
Styrofoam cups at the annual church barbecue. While I did that (and snuck around looking
at Reader's Digest condensed books), ladies dished out heaving paper plates of chicken or
pork prepared the night before by a trio of slow-talking, slow-cooking, mustard-loving
Methodist men. Also on the plate were mighty helpings of slaw, rice and hash, and a slice
or two of Sunbeam (always white). The finale was the folded waxed paper envelope of cake.
The mountainous Lady Baltimore, thick with nuts and icing, made the biggest impression on
me. |
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"Boiled peanuts are exalted. They're cause for
excitement, just like watermelon in the summer, sliced on a picnic table covered with
newspaper, or peach ice cream." |
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Today, I realize food is more than nourishment. It
provides conversation material at the dinner table ("What did you have?"
"Was it good?") and a reminder of where we live. This is particularly true of
barbecue. If you're from the eastern part of the Carolinas, your barbecue is cooked with
vinegar and pepper, and you will defend it mightily against the milder mustard-based
barbecues of the Piedmont regions. In the mountains, barbecue is sweeter still, tinged
with ketchup. Barbecue fixings differ as well; look for hushpuppies and baked beans in
some places, rice and hash in others. Candied yams and hot curried fruit are frequent
accompaniments, but slaw is a constant. (This writer loves a barbecue sandwich with slaw
on it, a combination as tantalizing as boiled shrimp and melted butter, okra and tomatoes,
catfish and grits, black-eyed peas and rice with raw onion, but I digress...)
Charleston, the oldest city in South Carolina, is as well-loved for its cooking as it is
for its beauty. Chefs by the dozens leave bigger cities for this peninsula of gracious
living. They recognize a cooking playground when they see one: Fertile fields, salt water
and rivers make for so much fun in the kitchen. South Carolina, with its wealth of
marshes, inlets and bays, harvests more shrimp than North Carolina. Fresh seafood is
served year round. But it's hard to beat freshwater trout reeled in from the cold clear
rivers of North Carolina's mountains.
Though Carolinians love a casual outdoor feed, they're equally comfortable with white
linens and fine silver. You'll see the best of both at various sporting events. At the
Carolina Cup horse meet in Camden, SC, people in their new spring haberdashery gather
around picnic tables laden with their best china and polished candelabra. Polo matches on
Hilton Head Island and Aiken attract the same. These grand occasions remind natives of
'Big Thursday' in Columbia, SC, the October day when the University of South Carolina
Gamecocks met the Clemson University Tigers in football. |
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"At the Carolina Cup horse meet in Camden, SC,
people in their new spring haberdashery gather around picnic tables laden with their best
china and polished candelabra." |
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A good summer here means plenty of peaches and
tomatoes, with much brown bag interchange between friends and family. Carolinians are
resourceful: Not only do they 'put up' produce for the winter, they use it in myriad ways.
Try tomato pie, tomato bisque, stewed tomatoes over rice. Without tomatoes, vegetable
soups and gumbos wouldn't exist, people couldn't anticipate their first tomato sandwich of
the summer (salt, pepper, mayonnaise - and this is a must - white bread). Peach pie, peach
cobbler, peach jelly, peach shortcake, peach ice cream, pickled peaches.
Same for seafood: deviled crab, crab cakes, crab bisque, she-crab soup (a Charleston
specialty made with female crab and sherry), crab dip, crab salad, crab sandwiches. As for
shrimp, an 'everything old is new again' format is shrimp and grits. Or, watch Bubba in
Forrest Gump for a synopsis of the many ways shrimp can be done.
Sure we have Thai and Indian cuisine, Mexican and Chinese. In Newberry, SC, Egyptians are
serving Italian. Tiramisu is nothing new; bagels have been here for years. We also have
some European dishes that arrived here centuries ago. Sage-rich liver nips, a German
specialty that does not taste like liver, are still prepared in the South Carolina
Heartlands. Moravian sugar cookies and breads almost are fought over during the holidays
in Winston-Salem, NC.
But it's the indigenous foods of which we're most proud. Check out the festivals. They
salute catfish, chitlins, collards, grapes, grits, okra, peaches and watermelon. Tiny
Pelion in South Carolina has an annual Peanut Party during which a Peanut Princess is
crowned. Darlington celebrates the 'Yam Jam' close to the time of the Southern 500. At the
Grape Stomp in Rose Hill, NC, supposedly the largest frying pan in the world is brought
out for chicken, which is enjoyed with the town's scuppernong wine. |
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"It's the indigenous foods of which we're most
proud. Check out the festivals. They salute catfish, chitlins, collards, grapes, grits,
okra, peaches and watermelon." |
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Fayetteville writer Chick Jacobs theorizes that many
Carolina foods are soft -- banana pudding, for instance -- because Grandma prepared things
she could put on the stove and leave. That way she could sit and visit with others.
Carolinians have learned that like drink, food is always better when shared.
That said, come on down. We might not understand your accent, but we sure will feed you
good. |
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| Aida Rogers has
worked in newspapers, magazines, legal newsletters, and television. The USC graduate and
Lexington, SC native currently is managing editor of Sandlapper, The Magazine of South
Carolina, for which she writes a column about the most popular restaurants in The Palmetto
State. Call her with your favorites at 803-808-1664. |
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