CAROLINA COOKING

The Culinary Cuisine of any area is dependent on what is readily available and on the background or heritage of the people who live there. Along the Carolina coast, naturally seafood is the most plentiful food. Shrimp and Grits is famous in South Carolina's Low country. The Carolina colony was an English settlement. Charleston was settled by French Huguenots that either fled France and went to England because of Religious prosecution or came from Barbados. The French ran rice plantations that used African slaves for labor. The French introduced French recipes and food The African's introduced food from Africa. Native Americans who lived in the area prior to European colonization also contributed their food to the area's cuisine. This is all called the Columbian Exchange in which new foods were introduced to the Americas and Europe.

In the low country, Rice grew extremely well. It became their cash crop and was referred to as Carolina Gold. So, naturally you have lots of rice dishes from the area.

Carolina is famous for barbeque and everywhere someone has their own special recipe.

Here is a list of foods that are from the Carolina Coastal region:

• Shrimp and grits
• She Crab Soup
• seafood pot - containing shrimp, scallops, fish, mussels, clams in a tomato saffron broth.
• Atlantic salmon
• catfish stew
• lobster
• Okra (African)
• Grouper
• crab cakes
• oysters
• Beaufort stew - combination of shrimp, corn and sausage
• crab imperial
• deviled crab
• shrimp Creole
• tuna
• sea bass
• venison
• quail
• molasses
• cheese grits
• scallions
• barbeque and slaw
• gravy and biscuits
• Cornbread and buttermilk
• collard greens
• Black-eyed peas and rice (hoppin john)
• pecan pie
• sweet potato cassarole
• peanut soup
• gumbo