One of my favorite songs is the old Al Jolson version of CAROLINA IN THE MORNING. “Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning”. This issue is all about iconic foods from the Carolinas. First, a little history lesson. Both North and South Carolina were once one colony started by eight English noblemen and named for King Charles II. The first settlers were of English descent from plantations in Barbados. They settled in Charleston and named the two rivers that form the Charleston peninsula for the head of the noblemen, Lord Ashley Cooper.
Foods from the Carolinas can be lumped into four groups:
- Seafood
- Barbecue
- Appalachian
- Unique Specialties
Firstly, there is seafood. The coastal Lowcountry of South Carolina featured lots of classic seafood dishes, usually created and prepared originally by enslaved African people. These include shrimp and grits (more about that later in the newsletter), She Crab soup, shrimp Perloo and Frogmore stew.
She Crab soup was invented by an African American chef named William Deas for a special dinner for President William Howard Taft at the home of Charleston’s mayor R, Goodwyn Rhett in the early 1900’s. It’s made with both the meat and the roe (crab eggs) from female crabs called Sookies in a cream, whole milk and rice-based soup. My favorite versions of She-Crab soup today are served at 88 Queen and Slightly North of Broad, both in Charleston.
Frogmore is a small shrimping and fishing community near Beaufort, SC and Frogmore stew is a one pot stew of red potatoes, pork sausage, fresh ears of corn and shrimp, all boiled in a large pot with spices and sometimes with onions. You can get it out at a lot of places but it’s best in my backyard with a side of steamed blue crabs caught off my dock.
Many seafood dishes are cooked with or paired with Carolina Gold Rice like perloos.
Then there is North Carolina Calabash style fried seafood. The tiny town of Calabash, North Carolina invented a lightly battered style of fried seafood including flounder, shrimp, oysters and scallops.
So, here are five of my favorite seafood places in the Carolinas.
- The Seafood Hut, Calabash, NC – started in 1961. Maybe the best fried shrimp in the world. A great place in a town full of great seafood restaurants.
- The Marina Variety Store in Charleston, SC – my favorite breakfast joint. Get the Mariner Seafood Omelet with crab and shrimp. Served with grits and a biscuit! Their fried seafood is also memorable.
- The Ace Basin Fish Camp, Jacksonboro, SC. On US 17 between Charleston and Savannah. Worth the drive. Wonderful and affordable seafood of every type. I love their fried oyster platter.
- El’s Drive-In, Moorehead, NC. Classic burger joint at the beach but you want the famous shrimp burger. Or two. But probably three, just to make sure.
- Provision Company, Southport, NC. Get the steamed fresh shrimp and a basket of conch fritters.
Secondly is Barbecue or BBQ. There are three main types in the Carolinas. Eastern NC style whole hog BBQ came directly from the first European settlers. This process involved cooking wild pigs (left by the Spanish explorers) and domesticated hogs that were cooked over hard woods, with the process probably learned from Native Americans. Eastern North Carolina whole hog BBQ is barbecue at its finest because they use the entire hog basted in apple cider vinegar with hot pepper spices. Western North Carolina BBQ (also known as Lexington style BBQ, named for Lexington, NC, home of numerous BBQ restaurants) uses only the pork shoulders (Boston Butts) plus adds tomatoes to their BBQ sauce. And South Carolina style BBQ uses a mustard base yellow sauce that probably came from German settlers in the Upstate. My favorite? The one I am eating at that time!
Here are five amazing BBQ places:
- Sam Jones BBQ, Winterville, NC. Sam Jones is the KING. Period. The best Eastern style BBQ in the nation. Trust me.
- Scott’s BBQ in Hemingway, SC. The hometown of Rodney Scott. Where he learned to cook. In the middle of nowhere. Pulled pork at its finest.
- Rodney Scott’s BBQ, Charleston, SC. For those who don’t want to drive to Hemingway and way better side dishes.
- Lexington BBQ #1, Lexington, NC. On US 64. An institution in a town full of amazing BBQ places.
- Lewis BBQ. Charleston, SC. A taste of Texas in the Carolinas. Amazing smoked beef brisket. Get the green chili corn pudding as a side dish.
Both seafood and BBQ fans enjoy hush puppies with both these meals. Supposedly, hush puppies (deep fried corn meal and chopped onion balls) were invented by southern plantation owners at their fish fries on Pawley’s Island, SC in the early 1700’s to keep their dogs from eating their fish. I don’t trust people who don’t like hush puppies.
Thirdly, mountain food is amazing food in the Carolinas. Grilled mountain trout, fried catfish, apple cider, chicken and dumplings, stone ground grits, spoonbread and sweet potato pie. Note: Most sweet potatoes are grown in the Carolinas. And then there’s cornbread.
I love salty cornbread. We call sweet cornbread CAKE. The best cornbread I’ve ever had is at Husk in Charleston. It’s served in your own small iron skillet. Order at least two.
Fourthly, there are lots of famous special foods from the Carolinas. Pepsi was invented here. So was Cheerwine.
We invented sweet tea and pimento cheese. Mount Olive Pickles. Krispy Kreme donuts. Moravian cookies and sugar cake.
Finally, I always like to recommend one NEW PLACE. In 2006 I was featured in an article in the Charleston newspaper, The Post & Courier. They asked me for my favorite restaurant, and I answered with a relatively new place on John’s Island called The Fat Hen. It’s gone now but it was an amazing restaurant while it lasted. My new favorite is in the big town of Hanahan, South Carolina near Charleston and is an Italian place called Cane Pazzo. It’s in a strip mall next to the Piggly Wiggly grocery store. Chef/owner Mark Bolchoz is cooking amazing food in a tiny kitchen. Ask to sit at the kitchen bar to watch the magic. You’re going to love this place.
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
One of my favorite “gone but not forgotten” places to eat was Jestine’s Kitchen in Charleston. The owner, Dana Berlin was from an old Jewish family and was raised by a black woman named Jestine. The food was from Jestine’s recipes, and it was amazing. Terrific soul food and memorable desserts like Coca-Cola Cake and the best coconut cream pie I have ever eaten. Maybe the best dessert of all time. Gone but not forgotten. But, definitely missed!
THE LAGNIAPPE
A lagniappe is a Louisiana French Creole word meaning “a little something extra”. It can be a small gift included with a purchase or a special little food treat at a meal in a restaurant. Each month I will give you my gift of a lagniappe or a little something you may not have expected ON THE ROAD WITH RICK.
One of the great Carolina dishes is SHRIMP & GRITS. This dish was originally poor peoples’ food. African enslaved peoples had long enjoyed shrimp and rice as a breakfast staple in the African Diaspora. Shrimp was available here to anyone with a cast net in the local creeks and waterways. But, although the enslaved people grew rice in the Carolinas, rice was the cash crop and not available in large quantities for those who had grown the crop. A cheap substitute was stone ground cornmeal converted into grits. And a legend was born.
There are many variations of this classic dish. One of the best cookbooks is from the late great chef and author Natalie Dupree with her Shrimp & Grits Cookbook. This terrific book contains dozens of recipes of all types of shrimp and grits.
But here is MY RECIPE.
Cook stone ground grits in chicken stock. Sautee Tasso ham in butter and then add sliced white button mushrooms and chopped pimentos and cook for two minutes. Add shelled and deveined shrimp and cook until just pink. Spoon all over the grits and add chopped scallions (white and green parts). Simple and very yummy!
We will spotlight BBQ Shrimp & Grits from 82 Queen in our March issue.
UNITED TASTES OF AMERICA
On January 7th we released both the first United Tastes of America vignette on You Tube (iHeart), along with our first podcast of the series on the iHeart app, Apple podcasts and wherever else you get your podcasts. This week’s episodes are the introduction to this special series of the cuisine of America as part of our 250th birthday in 2026. Next week we will release our profile on state number one, Delaware, followed by the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, also in January.
Here’s a little sneak peek of the iconic dishes from these three states.
We are featuring an American classic, ice cream in Delaware from the historic Woodside Farm Creamery in Hockessin, Delaware (near Newark). This amazing dairy farm and ice creamery has been in the same family, the Mitchell’s since – DRUMROLL – 1796! George Washington was still President when the Mitchell family bought this farm. You will enjoy hearing the story of this amazing family and amazing place. Truly an example of the American dream.
In Pennsylvania, we are featuring the great Philly Cheese Steaks sandwich rivalry between Pat’s King of Steaks and Geno’s in Philadelphia. Both are American institutions and great stories.
Finally, nothing says New Jersey like sub sandwiches. Italian immigrants brought their love of sandwiches to their adoptive state with delis and sandwich shops on many street corners. But only one sub shop has Jersey in its name – Jersy Mike’s – and we went to their original store in Point Pleasant, NJ for a wonderful discussion with founder Peter Cancro’s daughter Caroline Jones. And sampled their great original Italian sub prepared Mike’s Way with oil and vinegar.
We hope you enjoy the entire United Tastes of America series!
Next month’s edition of ON THE ROAD WITH RICK will feature another great American food – the hot dog! We’ll see you then!