'X' Marks the Spot - Lowcountry

"It's not low, country food, it's all one word – lowcountry. It doesn't have anything to do with class structure - it's purely geographic," barks Nathalie Dupree as soon as she starts discussing her home turf's cuisine. Dupree should know: she's the author of a dozen or so books on the food of the region, the latest of which is "Nathalie Dupree's Shrimp and Grits". Gridding its reach on a map, she sketches from the Pee Dee River southwards, finishing with Savannah.

Another expert, Joe Dabney, quibbles slightly. "Savannah counts, but it came along a little later." Dabney is a longtime newspaperman with his own local cookbook, "The Food, Folklore and Art of Lowcountry Cooking," due in spring. "The heart of lowcountry cooking is in Charleston."

Certainly, it's thanks to Charleston and its history that lowcountry food has such eclectic, exotic roots. Firstly, that now-tony and toned-down city was the original colonial New York, a cosmopolitan metropolis seething with newcomers and defined by its tolerance. Charleston was one of the first colonial outposts to allow Jews to worship without persecution and the congregation is still one of the oldest in the USA. That openness encouraged unusual settlers.

"Everything came through Charleston – it was an elite community for so long. It had an extraordinary variety of people: there was an Italian bakery in town in the early 1600s that fed everyone. And they also planted olive trees there," Dupree explains. British techniques like roasting and stewing became staples, too – a nostalgic nod to the motherland with which Charleston, named after a British king as Charles town, felt such strong links.
Then, of course, came the slaves. "In the 1700s, the slave population was greater than the white population here," Dabney says before noting the reason that the slaves had such impact on the food here. "The wealthy people had them in the kitchen, and they were quite regimented to start with. But eventually, the women found these cooks were quite adept. The Gullahs came from West Africa, and were the dominant cooks in the regions, particularly the plantations and the wealthy homes in Charleston." Left in charge of the family meals, these African chefs tweaked European recipes – adding their own staples, such as okra or the sesame-like benne seeds.

Some people had been transported from Africa via British sugar plantations in the Bahamas or elsewhere in the Caribbean, which made their cooking methods and ingredients even more diverse. Nathalie Dupree points out how complicated it is to untangle the commingled traditions. "White women had their English cookbooks, so they certainly had to teach the cooks because slaves were not allowed to read or write." From there, slave chefs would experiment and riff on British traditions, often for lack of the stated ingredients. "But then we get back to the question: if you cook makes a caramel cake, is that her recipe or is it just your recipe that she then followed?"

Often, those embellishments would include seafood -- clinging to the coast, lowcountry cuisine is far more fish -- and shellfish-heavy than elsewhere in the South. Citrus, which grows freely in most of the lowcountry's microclimates, also got tossed into many of the dishes. "I have a kaffir lime in my front yard, and the only herb that doesn't grow year-round is basil," says Dupree.

Lowcountry land, under sea level, was of course ideal for rice paddies. "It was really tailor-made for rice, and they called the local variety Carolina Gold," Dabney adds, noting that the rice trade left several Charlestonian families rich and many menus heavy on pilaus (or purloos, as they're called here).

All of these factors came together to produce a unique food tradition unlike anywhere else in the world. So the next time you tuck into a bowl of shrimp and grits, realize it's now just southern, more specifically it's lowcountry.

Check back tomorrow for a complete list of the foods that comprise the lowcountry menu.