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Welcome to the Southern Foodways Alliance -- an institute
of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture with headquarters at the
University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi.
The Southern Foodways Alliance documents and celebrates
the diverse food cultures of the American South. We set a common table
where black and white, rich and poor -- all who gather-- may consider
our history and our future in a spirit of reconciliation.
2006 The Gulf South – Tracing
the Arc of Eats from Texas to Florida
2005 The Sweet Life - Sugar and the
South
2004 Southern Food in Black &
White
2003
Appalachia: Exploring the Land and the Larder
2002
Barbecue: Smoke, Sauce and History
2001
From the Farm to the Table
2000
Travelin' On: Southern Food En Route
1999
The Creolization of Southern Cuisine
1998
The Evolution of Southern Cuisine
2006 Florida's Forgotten
Coast (Apalachicola FL)
2005 Sweet Home New Orleans
(New Orleans LA)
2004 Alabama in Black and
White (Birmingham AL)
2003 A Taste of Appalachia
2002 A Taste of Texas Barbecue
2001 A Taste of the Carolina
Piedmont
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Charleston: Citadel of the Lowcountry
Seventh Southern Foodways Alliance Field Trip
June 22-24, 2007
• Download PDF
of REGISTRATION FORM in a print-friendly format.
• Download
PDF of the FULL BROCHURE (including registration form.)
Click here to download an easy-to-print registration form.
Join the Southern Foodways Alliance as we travel to the port city of Charleston,
South Carolina, citadel of Lowcountry culture and cookery. We will taste
she crab soup, shrimp and hominy, stewed okra, and Carolina Gold rice.
We will sip Charleston-style Madeira and sparkling wine from Carolina.
We will sup at fabled and funky haunts and dine at swell restaurants.
The region’s best scholars will show us the way, providing context
and amplification, sketching the intertwined histories of people and place.
Smart talking and great eating, that’s what we promise.
Thursday
Middleton Place and More
If you arrive early, we recommend a self-guided excursion to Middleton
Place Plantation, home of America’s oldest landscaped gardens. It’s
located on Ashley River Road, less than a 30 minute drive from downtown.
At Middleton, they grow, among other crops, Carolina Gold rice. And their
restaurant, which debuted in 1928 as the Junior League of Charleston’s
Tea Room, serves weekday lunch from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Edna Lewis
was the resident chef in the late 1980’s; they still use many of
her recipes. Doug Beard of Middleton Place will host a special luncheon
and design a custom foodways tour of the plantation. Nominal charges apply.
Call him at 843-556-6025 ext. 114 to reserve. For more information: www.Middletonplace.org
At 4:00, a few lucky registrants will gather at Charleston Cooks for a
rice cookery class, led by Sallie Ann Robinson, author of Gullah Home
Cooking the Daufuskie Way:
Smokin’ Joe Butter Beans, Ol’ ‘Fuskie Fried Crab Rice,
Sticky-Bush Blackberry Dumpling, and Other Sea Island Favorites. There
is no additional charge for the class, but space is limited.
For dinner, at 7 o’clock in the evening, we will match you with
a restaurant and a few dining companions and you’re on your own.
Well, almost. Although you’ll pay your own way, we’ll assign
hosts to each restaurant and clue the chefs to our interests and tastes.
Among the ten restaurant choices will be the Boathouse, Hominy Grill,
and Slightly North of Broad. Individual requests for particular restaurants
will be sorted and assigned based upon a series of mathematical formulas
as complex as Fermat's Last Theorem.
Friday
Celebrating Vernacular Cooks
We claim the College of Charleston’s Avery Research Center for African
American History and Culture as home this morning. Among our speakers
will be Bernard Powers, author of Black Charleston: A Social History
1822-1885, Dale Rosengarten, author of Row Upon Row: Sea Grass
Baskets of the South Carolina Lowcountry, and basket maker Henrietta
Snype. Later in the day, John Martin Taylor, author of Hoppin’
John’s Lowcountry Cooking, will pay homage to the vernacular
cooks of the region, from caterer Lucille Grant to the Hickman family,
who fried seafood at the Edisto Hotel for five decades.
Lunch, curated by Matt Lee and Ted Lee of Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook
fame, highlights Lowcountry soul and Gullah cooks, expert in back of the
stove dishes, including Martha Lou Gadsden of Martha Lou’s Kitchen,
Charlotte Jenkins of Gullah Cuisine, and Bertha Grant of Bertha’s
Kitchen. Jimmy Hagood of Tidewater Foods will play air traffic controller.
In the afternoon, we travel to Bowen’s Island, the fish camp run
by Robert Barber and Jack London. Generations of Charlestonians have made
the pilgrimage to sit at tables covered with yesterday’s newspaper
and piled high with today’s catch. They come for seafood, pulled
from local waters by the likes of Victor “Goat” Lafayette,
and served without pretense. Over the course of the past few months, SFA
oral historian Amy Evans has been working to document the people who call
this place home. Now, by way of a panel discussion and a generous dinner,
we celebrate her work and their lives, while eating our fill of crab and
shrimp and toasting with Biltmore sparkling wine.
Saturday
An Alimentary Education
On Friday, buses were the mode of transport. Today, we rely upon our feet
(and, in a pinch, pedicabs.) We start with concurrent walking tours, devised
by Amanda Dew Manning, of Carolina Food Pros, and Kristoff Kohlhagen,
an African American history interpreter. Furthering our education, later
in the day, will be Nathalie Dupree and Marion Sullivan, coauthors of
Nathalie Dupree’s Shrimp and Grits Cookbook; Damon Lee Fowler,
author of Classical Southern Cooking, who will talk pilau; and
Mike Coker of the South Carolina Historical Society, who will relate the
story of William Deas, the man behind she crab soup.
Lunch is at McCrady’s Restaurant, set in a 1788 vintage building
where, during his Southern tour of 1791, George Washington supped. At
the helm today is Sean Brock, a native of Virginia, who got his professional
start with Bob Carter at the Peninsula Grill. Brock is a student of Southern
traditions, but he’s not saddled by them. Among the treats to emerge
from his kitchen is country ham cotton candy.
Late in the afternoon, we gather at a lovely Charleston home for a Madeira
tasting and talk, featuring Mannie Berk of the Rare Wine Company. Paired
hors d’ oeuvres come courtesy of Mike Lata of FIG. Dinner is served
at the Old City Jail, a beautiful gothic structure maintained by the American
College of Building Arts. Lowcountry cuisine pioneer Louis Osteen, chef
and co-proprietor of Louis’s at Pawley’s will be the lead
chef, inviting a band of compatriots to cook dishes from the Carolina
Rice Kitchen repertoire.
Sunday
Get Wrecked
Our last meal of the trip is hosted by Fred and Patricia
Scott of the Wreck of the Richard and Charlene, a restaurant built around
the wreckage of a shrimp trawler, marooned by Hurricane Hugo. Set in the
Old Village of Mount Pleasant, the Wreck overlooks the docks of Shem Creek
and the surrounding marshland. It’s a dinner-only operation, packed
to the gills every night. But the Scott’s have kindly agreed to
open their doors to us on Sunday morning for a feast of, among other delights,
fried shrimp, deviled crabs, and banana pudding. Providing support are
Robert Stehling of Hominy Grill and Ben Berryhill of Red Drum Gastropub.
We won’t have access to communal transportation this morning. (Translation:
no bus.) But don’t fret. If you have a flight to catch, you should
be in a car or cab by noon.
Anson
Mills of Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina, produces artisan
mill goods from organic heirloom grains. In 2007, they signed on as sponsor
of the Charleston Field Trip. Going forward, they will be our partner
in future Field Trips, no matter the location.
Lodging is not included in Field Trip registration. After
the SFA confirms your registration for the weekend, we will give you a
pass code. You must have that code before calling the following hotels.
Cancellation and other policies vary. All lodging is within walking distance
of most historic downtown sites.
*The Charming Inns of Charleston, grouped below and distinguished by asterisks,
will serve as our event headquarters. Their website is www.charminginns.com.
The rate for all Charming Inns locations is $150/night.
*KINGS COURTYARD INN
198 King Street
1-800-845-6119
*FULTON LANE INN
202 King Street
1-800-720-2688
*VICTORIA HOUSE INN
208 King Street
1-800-933-5464
DOUBLETREE HOTEL
www.doubletree.com
181 Church Street
$170/night plus tax
877-408-TREE
HOTEL INDIGO
www.indigoinn.com
1 Maiden Lane
$119/Thurs and $175/Fri-Sat
800-845-7639
MEETING STREET INN
www.meetingstreetinn.com
173 Meeting Street
$129/night
800-842-8022
Registration is $415 for non-members and $375 for members.
(We did our best to keep costs down, but Charleston appeals to many and
the rates reflect as much.) Applications for registration will be accepted
beginning April 5 and may be submitted by mail or fax only. Registrations
will be confirmed by e-mail or fax, beginning April 30. Questions regarding
registration should be directed to Mary Beth Lasseter at sfamail@olemiss.edu.
Secondary contact may be made by way of telephone at 662-915-5993.
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PDF of the FULL BROCHURE (including registration form.)
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