The Surprise Origin of Fried Green Tomatoes

Savannah's Pink House serves the Holy Grail of fried green tomatoes in the form of a BLT salad

Gardens are now filled with green tomatoes and I've got just the dish for you.  Like many of us, my first introduction to fried green tomatoes was its namesake book published in 1988 and the popular movie that followed.  For the last 30 years I’ve ordered these southern culinary morsels in Atlanta, New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston, Williamsburg, and all points in between… including Appalachia.  If they were on the menu (and even if they weren’t), they were my go-to dish.  Few times have I been disappointed.

Fried green tomatoes scream quintessential Old South….or so I thought.  My recent trip to rural Georgia piqued my curiosity on exactly how this scrumptious Southern signature dish originated.  After some research, I was shocked at what I found.  I think you will be, too. 

                  Unripe tomatoes are used because they haven't developed juice or sweetness

According to noted food historian Richard Moss, fried green tomatoes are Yankee imposters.  In his book, The Fried Green Tomato Swindle & Other Southern Culinary Adventures, Moss discloses that they may have been introduced to the US by Jewish immigrants in the Northeast or Midwest (recipes began appearing in American Jewish cookbooks as early as 1919).  But, wait a minute as there’s another theory on the origin of fried green tomatoes.  The LA Times published a recipe for them in 1908.   Indeed, Californians were eating them eight decades before the movie!  This makes total sense as California is the largest tomato producer.

   Fried green tomatoes are versatile:  this version is topped with burrata & fig with a balsamic drizzle

Surprisingly, the seemingly Southern classic fried green tomatoes didn’t make it to the South until after the movie.  There’s not a trace of them in Southern cookbooks before the 1980’s.   That being said, the South has fervently adopted this dish like no other region of the country.  On my recent Georgia trip, they were represented in some form on every single menu.  There was a standout rendition, however, heads and toes above all of the others.

Savannah’s Pink House, one of the South’s bastions for gastronomy, has long been a favorite of mine, and their rendition of fried green tomatoes is one of Georgia’s culinary masterpieces!   Food TV star, Aaron Sanchez, lists among the “best things I ever ate” a Fried Green Tomato BLT Salad from the Pink House.   I have dreamt of this salad and the stunning setting in which it is served since I first had it ten years ago.  (The beautifully coiffed building, which served as the headquarters for General Sherman, is a National Landmark offering all the glitz and glamour of pre-war Gone with the Wind). 

South City Kitchen (Atlanta) knocked it out of the park with goat cheese, fresh tomato coulis & basil oil

If you’re one of the Boswell Scholarship recipients coming on the private Scholar’s trip to Georgia, you can be assured fried green tomatoes will be on most of our menus.  And, the Pink House’s BLT salad interpretation will surely convince you that even though the South didn’t invent fried green tomatoes, Southerners have drawn it into their culture like a bee to honey.  

Bon appetit!

A Special Valentine’s Dessert

                                                              This cake is Southern Living’s most requested recipe

If you’re looking for a scrumptious way to celebrate Valentines, I’ve got just the recipe for you.  I had my first bite of this ethereal cake in Charleston two years ago when I took a group of Wine-Knows to Savannah and Charleston.  One of my clients ordered it at dinner and made the mistake of giving me a taste.  It was love at first bite.  I tracked down the next day the bakery , bought a huge piece (which I devoured on the spot), and have been a fan of the “Hummingbird Cake” ever since.

If you like homemade carrot cake (the moist version with pineapple and coconut), you’ll love this dessert.  Think carrot cake meets a great rendition of banana bread.  Published in Southern Living in 1978, Hummingbird Cake is the most requested recipe in the magazine’s <50 year history.  Over the years the cake has garnered a plethora of awards, including First Place at the Kentucky State Fair.  Just about every women’s Community Cookbook in the South has at least one recipe for this famous sweet.  Google currently offers nearly a million recipes---including one by the Queen of Southern cooking, Paula Deen.  There are even Hummingbird Cake videos on U-tube.

In spite of this cake being so strongly associated with the South, Hummingbird Cake actually originated on the island of Jamaica.  It appears the recipe was part of a marketing ploy in 1968 when Jamaica Airlines was launched.  The airline’s press package included various items about the island’s culture in hopes of enticing tourists to come to Jamaica.  Part of that press kit was the Hummingbird Cake, named after the island’s national bird.

Here’s the original recipe published in Southern Living: 

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/hummingbird-cake-0

Have a sweet Valentine’s!

Getting High on Low Country Cuisine

Shrimp & Grits is one of the Low Country's signature dishes

I have been in the East Coast’s “Low Country” for the last week with a Wine-Knows tour.  There’s a whole world of flavor packed into the nearly 100 mile area (known as Low Country) between the cities of Charleston and Savannah.  While I had visited both destinations recently, this time I hired local foodie experts and chefs to lead us through a tasting of the best of these two delectable cities.  Here are some fascinating details our group learned about the effect Africa has had on their intriguing regional cuisine.

African slaves had a profound influence on today’s Low Country gastronomy.  Charleston was ground zero for America’s slave industry---40% of enslaved Africans brought into this country came through the Charleston Harbor.  While these slaves were sold around the entire South to supply the plantation industry with cheap labor, many remained in South Carolina and adjacent Georgia. 

Slaves were the cooks on plantations and in private well-to-do homes.  They also tended their master’s gardens.  As the African climate was similar to that of the Southern colonies, slaves were well versed in what types of foods grew best in the heat and humidity.  Furthermore, slaves brought some food items with them that were unknown to the colonists.  Peanuts, for example, were brought on slave ships and became an important staple for slaves.  Americans had never seen them and the legumes weren’t well received.  Used as food for the slaves, the poor and for animals, peanuts were only used by the general public after the Civil War. 

 

Below are other foods, synonymous with today’s Southern cuisine, that have slave roots:

~ Black-eyed peas:   widely used in Africa, these legumes were brought on ships with slaves.  Thriving in intense heat and requiring little water, they adapted beautifully to the South’s climate.

                       Black-eyed pea salad made during our cooking class at the Forsyth Mansion

~ Greens:  A variety of wild greens were prevalent in Africa where they were cooked with meat.  American slaves had meager rations of food and often had to make the most of discards…or turn to wild greens (e.g. collards).  Beets and turnips were grown in most gardens but their greens were thrown away.  Thus, the invention of one of the South’s greatest dishes.

~ Grits:  While grits are pure American (made from dried corn), it is very similar to an African dish that is dried and ground.

~ Gumbo:  Gumbo is a slave word for “okra” (which is native to Africa). 

~ Rice:   Evidence indicates that Africans have grown rice since 1500 BC.  Slaves were often stolen from African rice fields to be sold in America where their skills of water management, soil and milling techniques were invaluable to the colonists.  The Low Country’s tidal flow with islands and inlets were perfect of rice growing.  So perfect, in fact, that South Carolina’s economy was second only to Massachusetts prior to the Civil War.

                               An ethereal pudding made from “Carolina Gold” rice

~ Yams:  These important vegetables were used on slave ships to provide sustenance for the arduous voyage at sea. 

~ Watermelon:  Ancient Egyptian tomb paintings show that this fruit has been cultivated since prehistoric times.  Native to Africa, watermelon was used as a source of water in the dessert.  Slaves planted them in the New World to survive the South’s intense heat during summers.

~ BBQ:  Last but not least, tantamount to modern day “soul food” is BBQ.  Slaves brought with them the African tradition of roasting a variety of meats over wood, and then serving them with a thick dipping sauce.

Charleston: A Food Lover’s Paradise

Charleston is not only the cradle of South Carolina’s farm-to-table renaissance, but it has become the epicenter for sophisticated Southern cuisine.  Low-country cooking has now been elevated to an art form…succulent local shrimps are being served with the city’s artisan-milled grits; swanky cocktails are being made with Charleston’s hand-crafted Jack Rudy tonic.  It’s difficult to walk down the street without passing a restaurant of a James Beard Award-nominated chef.  The city’s food scene pulse is palpable.

Antebellum cooking has morphed into something that is exhilarating and exciting. This innovative culinary landscape has created a tsunami of new foodie shops.  A former furniture factory has been turned into a ground-breaking grocery store where Southern staples such as jars of homemade pickles or pimento cheese sauce appear along with freshly made Moroccan tagines and Italian salsa verde.  A few blocks away, a cutting-edge diner/foodie store offers an eclectic menu with dishes from Korea and Mexico, to Taiwan and also the South.  Its shelves are stocked with local roasted coffee, straight-from-the-farm eggs, and the area’s maple syrup.  Locavore at its best.

The Southern cuisine revival has also created a synergism for ethnic restaurants with an out-of-the box syntheses of the South with far away places.  One of the stars was opened by a chef who was raised in the South, but born in Israel to a mother from Shreveport, Louisiana and a father from Iraq.  His cooking, an interesting blend of his Iraqi-Israeli heritage through a South Carolina prism, includes items such as a Peach Salad, along with a Lamb Pita served on local artisanal bread.   There’s even a South-Asian fusion where Southerners are served “Asian soul food”…fried chicken is on the menu but its “black bean fried chicken over rice and spicy papaya salad.” 

In addition to its electrifying food-centric offerings, there are several other compelling reasons to visit Charleston.  Travel + Leisure just voted Charleston as the #1 city in the U.S.   While its “acclaimed cuisine” was cited in this significant award, so were its “charming boutique hotels, coastal setting, friendliness, garden ambiance and historic vibe.”   Wine-Knows will be taking its first-ever group to Charleston next March…perfectly timed for the city’s best weather and for its annual Home and Garden Show.   At the moment there are two spots remaining.  For more details, check out the trip at www.WineKnowsTravel.com.  

USA’s Newest Foodie Mecca

The 100 mile stretch of the Southeastern shore from Charleston to Savannah has become the heart of the South in culinary terms, and center for some of this country’s great chefs and restaurants. (It’s no accident that three recent consecutive James Beard award-winning chefs hail from these cities).  Both Savannah and Charleston are surrounded by verdant farm lands with abundant fresh produce.  Farmers markets, once a rarity, are popping up in many neighborhoods.  Both coastal towns also offer a wealth of just-plucked from the Atlantic seafood.

Wine-Knows Travel is conducting its first trip to Savannah and Charleston next Spring, March 2015.   In addition to dining at the best of these two town’s restaurants, there will be a cooking class with one of the South’s leading chefs, as well as culinary walking tours of both cities featuring stops at the premier bakeries, top gastro-pubs, and finest gourmet shops. 

The 2015 Spring trip is strategically timed for the area’s best weather (65-70 degrees and no humidity).  It also coincides with both city’s annual Home and Garden Tours---one of the recognized highlights of the South.  These  once-a-year renowned events, focusing on architecture, history, garden and culture, provide a rare opportunity to go inside the private houses and gardens of some of America’s most beautiful residences, a few dating from the 18^th century.

For more information about this culinary tour, check out details of the trip at http://www.wineknowstravel.com.

Opposites Attract---Dining in Charleston

                               Glorious Wentworth Mansion, home of Circa 1886 Restaurant

These two restaurants couldn’t be any more different…one is a “joint” located in a former gas station (cleverly, it’s been named “Fuel,”); the other, situated in one of the city's finest grand dame mansions, offers fine dining.  Both, however, offer superbly cooked food by chefs boasting culinary degrees.

In researching the restaurant scene prior to leaving for South Carolina, I discovered the chef/owner is a graduate of the well regarded Johnson & Wells Culinary Academy.  My interest was further peaked when I learned that Guy Fieri had showcased the unconventional Fuel on his hit show, Diners Drive-ins and Dives.   Having grown up on Mexican food, it was an “I’m already there” place when I learned that pulled pork tacos had been one of Guy’s faves.   

We lunched at Fuel on an 85 degree Saturday afternoon with high humidity.  The parking lot of the “station” was packed and as I suspected, there was a wait.  Thirty minutes later we were seated outside in the covered back patio area.  In spite of the sweltering heat, there were enough fans and shade to make it quite tolerable. 

The two melt-in-your-mouth tacos were really open face sandwiches (with four tortillas substituting for the bread.)  Lettuce and tomatoes had been replaced with a tangy coleslaw which paired wonderfully with for the killer slowly roasted pork.  Green chile aioli and a fresh salsa completed the package. For $11, this more-than- I-could-almost-eat meal was a flavor-bomb.

Fuel has a “happening” vibe.  The place was jammed full of young professional types.  There were plenty of places to lounge and mingle, along with a bocce ball court.  The only negative that I noticed was their simplistic wine list---this may not be an issue as there’s a full bar and local beers are only 2 bucks. 

Signs were posted indicating the restaurant was closed that night for a private event.  Turns out that a wedding rehearsal party had rented out the entire place.  Can’t think of a more hip place in which to say bid adieu to the single life than Fuel.

The polar opposite of Fuel has to be Circa 1886.  Located in the carriage house of the 24,000 foot beloved Wentworth Mansion (voted one of the “Top 50 Hotels in the U.S.” by Conde Nast Magazine) the restaurant wreaks of old-world charm.  Small and intimate, but with beautifully set tables placed amply away from one another, the historic venue seats only 50. 

Our dinner began with a stunning clam bisque topped with white truffle oil  The clams in this  amuse bouche were from the nearby Foley River.  My husband couldn’t pass up the “chicken fried foie gras” appetizer.  Served with a pecan waffle drizzled with maple syrup, it was a sensational Southern rendition of a French classic. His pulled pork with a peach nectar BBQ sauce and local “dilly beans” was excellent.  My dish was a local bass that reminded me of Chilean seabass.  It was served with house-made udon noodles in a miso broth that was flavored with pieces of apple-wood smoked pork belly and local wild mushrooms.  A Carolina blue crab spring-roll completed the well executed dish.    

Dinner was accompanied by one of the restaurant's long-standing favorites, rice rolls served with a fabulous whipped olive oil (apparently whipping the olive oil is a laborious process that takes a couple of weeks with multiple whippings and resting sessions.),  According to the chef, “the best way to do it is to hire 2-3 line staff.”

Circa 1886 was called “one of America’s most romantic restaurants,” by Travel & Leisure, so it’s no wonder that all the other diners were couples.  That being said, this special occasion place could easily be the perfect venue for a business dinner.  An award-winning wine list (Wine Enthusiast’s Top 100) offers 250 bottles to tempt you.  We chose a Reilsing from North Carolina to accompany our above dinner---it worked well with all of the courses.

Coming with us to Charleston on our 2013 or 2014 tour?  We’ll be staying at the Wentworth Mansion which means that daily breakfast and one dinner will be included at Circa 1886.  Oh, yes, and Fuel will be definitely be on our list of places to “fill ‘er up.”

Savannah’s Great Southern Restaurants

BLT salad with fried green tomatoes

While I have traveled the world over many times, I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve visited only twenty-something states in the USA.  To add a few more states, I’m currently on a three week journey to Georgia and the Carolinas. My best meals thus far have been in Savannah.  Both restaurants are on my do-not-miss list for foodies.

Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room has been on the cover of Time magazine with articles in Gourmet, Esquire, the New York Times and countless other venues.  David Brinkley featured it on his evening news broadcast.  Celebrity visitors have been innumerable.  With all of this hoopla, my expectations of this 65 year old bastion of southern cooking were high…and Mrs. Wilkes delivered.

            

The restaurant is only open for three hours at lunch.  The line starts forming well before the doors open and snakes down and around the block---this continues until the restaurant closes.  I don’t like lines but I have to admit this one was actually fun…we were surrounded by locals, as well as folks from all over the country, who make regular pilgrimages to eat this “old-time-family-style food”.  Their rich stories of prior meals at the restaurant served as the appetizer course.

Formerly a boarding house, Mrs. Wilkes pays homage to its roots and offers only community tables.  Awaiting us on our table was >20 side dishes which were all passed among the eight diners.  My favorites included the rutabagas, squash, succotash, collard greens and the freshly made yeast rolls.  Large platters of delicious, non-greasy fried chicken were presented, along with beef stew and pork covered with an excellent BBQ sauce.  Those who possibly had room for dessert were served either banana pudding or cherry cobbler.  

The 4^th generation of Wilkes are now running the restaurant---they are armed with MBA’s from the South’s finest universities.  Let’s hope that they don’t change a thing.

I came to The Pink House by accident.  I had read several of its reviews and comments were hot and cold.  I wasn’t sure if it was a candidate until, by chance, I walked by the mansion.  A compelling building, this National Landmark (which had served as headquarters for Sherman during the Civil War) drew me inside like a bee to honey.  Once in the interior I knew I couldn’t resist its charms.  Beautifully coiffed, this southern belle had all the glitz and glam of pre-war Gone with the Wind. 

Although it was early afternoon, all dinner reservations were taken for the next two nights.  I remembered that there was a tavern downstairs where diners were accommodated on a first-come first served basis (and it offered the exact menu as the main dining room).  We checked it out---while not the elegant antebellum allure of the upstairs, it was nonetheless romantic in a different way---dark, candlelit, with wooden beamed ceilings….a place where Rhett Butler would have courted a lady.

Fortunately, we were able to snag the last table in the secluded downstairs that evening.  The wine list was comprehensive and very well chosen…even wines by the glass were a huge cut above the usual ones offered.  I highly recommend the fried green tomato BLT—this one, however, is not a sandwich but an ethereal salad.  One of the Pink House’s signature dishes, this salad should not be missed.  The she-crab soup, made from Atlantic blue crab, was one of the best seafood bisques I’ve tasted.  My husband’s bourbon molasses grilled pork tenderloin (accompanied by sweet potatoes with pecan vanilla butter and collard greens) was absolutely flawless---according to him “the best pork tenderloin I’ve ever had.”  That’s saying something as if it’s on a menu, there’s a 90% chance he’ll order it.  To complete a perfect package, the service was sublime.

There are no accidents in life…I was destined to dine at the Pink House.  Furthermore, I was so impressed with the southern style food of Savannah that I have decided that Wine-Knows must bring a group here.  Put it on your calendars….Savannah and Charleston in the spring of 2014!   And, stay tuned for the Charleston reviews…