This is a place to seek out excellent barbecue and authentic soul food
- Scott Daniels: We Ate Well and Cheaply
- August 25, 2018
- 1336
I write this from the road on a jaunt to get a little ocean swim time and sample as much low country cuisine as possible around Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Also, regular stops for breakfast at Waffle House.
One of my other great interests is our country’s rich history, and along with great food, the area offers plenty in the way of rich stories.
The sea islands around Charleston are dotted with beaches far less crowded than the highly commercialized Myrtle Beach variety with fewer people on the sand and plenty of aquatic life, alive and dead, to be found along the shore.
It isn’t unusual to spot a school of dolphins swimming close to the shore, and the seas are patrolled by large brown pelicans skimming the water in search of fish and sand pipers poking around for clams as the waves recede.
We’re warily stepping around jellyfish washed ashore along with the occasional alien-looking horseshoe crab.
I love to wade as far out to sea as I dare, turn and try to imagine the shore as it has changed through time, while my wife, who is clearly a mermaid, swims farther out into the choppy surf.
The Lowcountry of the South Carolina coast has seen its share of human drama over the past several centuries. It was once dotted with rice and indigo production, pumped out by plantation-held slaves.
The shore is now home to numerous large, expensive coastal homes sitting on some very pricey real estate. Home prices, to judge by postings in the windows of brokers, routinely reach into the millions of dollars.
What did it look like before the Civil War, I wonder. Visitors to the beach at the time came for the healthful air, not to swim, and were clothed in their regular, scratchy woolens.
The changes must have begun with the freedom brought by the automobile and the relaxing of dress codes. I keep thinking how shocked beachgoers from 1860 would be at all the modern bathing suits and people checking the local tides on the little computers they all carry.
All that change in just 150 years. It’s almost unfathomable.
Over time the area has become known for its rich history, deep cultural roots and strong tourism industry. August is a blazing hot and humid time to be in South Carolina, but the ocean breezes keep things comfortable. Those breezes become a strong, unceasing, skin-burning wind at the shoreline.
We’re finding and devouring plates of oysters on ice and on the cheap as well as biscuits and country ham snacks with one seaside restaurant or another offering all-you-can-eat crab legs most every evening.
This is a place to seek out excellent barbecue, authentic soul food, and fish cooked and served whole. With the ocean in the backyard, there’s no shortage of fresh catches of every variety. One sees numerous sunbathers with a fishing pole in hand to up the freshness for themselves.
Once we get back home, we’re going to depart from the Maryland crab cake recipe and try to recreate the thinner, crisper low country versions we’ve seen here. Once we get that nailed down, I’ll be sure to share it with you.
I’m remembering vacations with my parents as a kid. We always sought out Howard Johnson’s or other familiar places to eat, being wary of the small local joints.
So much opportunity missed, though I doubt any of our palates were ready for gamey country ham or vinegar barbecue sauce. Thankfully sampling local food is the norm now. We should eat what the locals eat, where they eat it, whenever we possibly can.
Off to find some good collard greens.