From Azaleas to Zydeco: My 4,600-Mile Journey through the South

Carolina Gold

Carolina Gold Charleston would be a great place to end my ten-state Journey of the South. Confident and bustling, Charleston seems to be the dynamic city of the modern South. No doubt the arrival of the Boeing plant has given Charleston a boomtown atmosphere. Boeing’s decision to build its new Boeing 787 aircraft in North Charleston required a 600,000square -foot factory and created an estimated 3,800 jobs for the area. This is no small thing. Charleston has echoes of a lot of places I had seen. Billy Reid from Florence, Alabama, has a shop on King Street. He has a lot of competition : High-end men’s stores such as Ben Silver, Grady Erwin & Company, Berlins for Men, and M. Dumas and Sons are located within a few blocks of Billy’s store. He’s the new guy here, while Ben, Grady, the Berlins, and the Dumases have been on King Street for years. But I’m sure Billy’s holding his own. The downtown area often is called the Peninsula. Downtown Charleston is the strip of land between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. It ends where those two rivers meet. Charleston’s an old port town, and the port hints of Mobile and New Orleans, especially New Orleans’ Garden District. But no one would confuse Charleston with New Orleans. Too many people have told me stories about the time they lived in Charleston and were asked about their families. Those connections still weigh in Charleston, especially if you trace your 395 lineage to one who fought against the Yankee invaders. Your grandmother ’s identity still matters here. The old South vibe from the fine houses south of Broad also brings back memories of that fine lunch with Buzz Harper in Natchez. And remember the vibrancy of Greenville, South Carolina’s downtown? Charleston’s peninsula has got that in spades. Walking down King Street or its tributaries after dark is not frightening because so many other people are around. The students from the College of Charleston give a walk around Charleston the same funky flavor that the Savannah College of Art and Design gives Charleston’s little brother, Savannah’s Broughton Street. And there’s the food. Charleston prides itself on food. Locals win James Beard awards each year. In early March they hold a highly regarded Food and Wine Festival. If you are a foodie, Charleston’s a great destination. In Charleston, the term Creole, last seen in Louisiana, reappears in Mt. Pleasant, a Charleston suburb, where a Gullah restaurant offers a dish of Gullah Rice. In Opelousas this dish would be called jambalaya. But I have to say that I don’t get the emphasis on shrimp and grits. Every place offers shrimp and grits and wants to tell you that theirs is the best. I don’t like grits—never have. And I feel strongly that putting a boiled crustacean on grits is a waste. A minority view perhaps, but I feel strongly about it. Grits are coarsely ground corn which has been cooked with a hot liquid. In Charleston, they add hot milk to milled corn for their grits. They’re generally served as a side dish for breakfast, but many places offer shrimp and grits at lunch or dinner. Here’s my advice, gleaned from decades of experience: When someone touts their grits, tell them you don’t like grits. They’ll invariably agree that grits by themselves aren’t very good, but then they’ll say, “You should try them with cheese. I’m sure you’ll like my cheese grits.” Sometimes you hear that grits with red eye gravy, butter, or ham are good. Don’t believe it. Adding substances is simply a subterfuge to hide the taste because GRITS JUST DON’T TASTE GOOD. Charleston can lay claim to something much better—“Carolina gold” rice. Carolina gold is a heritage strand of rice which hearkens back to the old days when South Carolina was the center of rice culture. It’s 396 amazing the stuff is still around since the last commercial Carolina gold operation ceased about a hundred years ago. Fifty years ago, Carolina gold rice was almost extinct. In 1985, a Savannah doctor received a sample of the old seed from the USDA gene bank. From that initial shipment , Carolina gold rice has rebounded. It’s a long-grain rice with sweet and tender...