Alabama's Hot Summer Food by Ruth Paget

Alabama’s Hot Summer Food by Ruth Paget 

A meal of fried chicken, corn on the cob, cornbread, stewed collard greens with ham hock pieces, and iced tea is always welcome in Alabama, but cooks in summer there tend to do barbecue and cold foods to deal with the sweltering heat. 

As the world grows hotter, some of Alabama’s traditional ways of dealing with extreme heat and humidity might be appealing to chefs in other parts of the country and world. 

I thought the following recipes in Alabama Hometown Cookbook by Sheila Simmons and Kent Whitaker give a good picture of Alabama’s cool cuisine for beating summer heat: 

-Crawfish cornbread – the sweet, cooked tails of the “crayfish” are chopped and added to the batter in this recipe. Jalapeño peppers, cream style corn, and cheddar cheese also go in this dish. This recipe qualifies as a simple man’s hidden luxury. 

-Crawfish hushpuppies – “crayfish” hushpuppies made with chopped crawfish tails, onion, and buttermilk that are deep-fried balls of crunchy delight 

-peach preserves – made simply with chopped peaches, sugar, and water by boiling and storing in hot jars. These are perfect on pancakes, French toast, waffles, and ice cream 

-Creole eggs – a sauce made with onion, Andouille sausage, and Ro-tel tomatoes is poured over raw eggs in ramekins and baked. 

 -marinated slaw – this is just the thing to go with BBQ. It is made with shredded cabbage and chopped green bell pepper, onion, and celery with a vinegar and oil dressing. It is refrigerated overnight and served cold with BBQ. 

-cranberry salad – set in cherry Jell-O with cranberries, celery, pecans, and chopped oranges 

-orange gelatin salad – made with orange Jell-O, orange juice, cheddar cheese, crushed pineapple, mayonnaise, and evaporated milk 

-grape salad – made with green and purple seedless grapes, cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, vanilla, and chopped pecans 

-stewed collard greens with ham hocks – stew made with ham hocks and collard greens 

-muffeletta sandwiches – Louisiana’s heat beater is a favorite in Alabama, too. It is made with a black and green olive salad, pickled Italian vegetables, ham slices, salami, Swiss cheese, and provolone cheese on deli rolls. 

People who are looking for heat beater recipes can find many in the Alabama Hometown Cookbook by Sheila Simmons and Kent Whitaker. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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South Carolina's Sunshine Food by Ruth Paget

South Carolina’s Sunshine Food by Ruth Paget 

I always liked going to South Carolina as a child, because I could go swimming every day. My sister lived outside the resort town of Myrtle Beach in a small town called Murrells Inlet. 

Après my daily nage, I would check the crab trap that hung off the dock to see if we would get some fresh crab for lunch to go in salad from the garden. If I was unlucky and did not get a crab, I still did not worry about lunch, because my sister had a freezer full of bass, grouper, red snapper, and shrimp. She also had cupboards full of canned crab. 

K. fried fish and made fritters from the shrimp and crab. I would run over to Pittypat’s Porch Restaurant next door and get a bag full onion-flavored, deep-fried batter balls called hushpuppies. K.’s garden provided us with salad and green beans. 

I was a happy kid who loved swimming and eating. I thought South Carolina was the greatest place for a vacation without even counting amusement park trips to Myrtle Beach. 

Now that I am an adult, I think South Carolina’s culinary heritage has dishes that the entire United States might be interested in trying, especially in summer when you do not want to heat up the house for too long. South Carolina is famous for delicious food that is not too hard to prepare. 

I thought the following dishes from South Carolina Hometown Cookbook by Sheila Simmons and Kent Whitaker capture the spirit of the state:  

-grilled figs topped with goat cheese and wrapped in prosciutto. Figs grow well in South Carolina’s hot, humid climate. 

-seafood cheese ball made with cream cheese, crabmeat, and seasoning. It is chilled and rolled in chopped pecans to coat the ball. Pecans also grow well in this region. 

-coastal shrimp fritters – The batter for these is like a lumpy pancake mix that is made with shrimp, chopped red pepper, and chopped onion before pan frying them into fritters. 

-South Carolina crab dip – so easy to make with vegetable seasoning mix, sour cream, and crabmeat and then chilled. 

-Warm Tomato Pie Dip – a baked dip made with diced tomatoes, chopped and cooked bacon, ricotta cheese, Palmetto cheese, and basil. 

 -Plantation rice muffins – cooked rice is used in place of flour in these recipes. Rice used to be grown in South Carolina before other areas could do it more profitably like Louisiana. 

-Peach bread made with peaches and almonds 

-easy Lowcountry soup made with cooked shrimp or crab, chopped red bell peppers, chopped onions, and cream of mushroom soup. Lowcountry refers to southern South Carolina where the land is below sea level like the Netherlands. 

-Inlet shrimp salad – made with steamed shrimp, celery, and onion in mayonnaise. Served chilled. 

-Peach and shrimp salad – Fried shrimp combined with arugula, avocado, peaches, and onion. 

Peaches abound in South Carolina and show up in many recipes. I ate tons of ripe ones as a child and did have proverbial peach juice run down my arms. No worries! I just went back swimming to clean up. 

To evoke summer memories like these, readers might be interested in purchasing South Carolina Hometown Cookbook by Sheila Simmons and Kent Whitaker.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Crashing the Engineers' Breakfast Club in Seaside (CA) by Ruth Paget

Crashing the Engineers’ Breakfast Club in Seaside (CA) by Ruth Paget 

Every time I go to the Breakfast Club in Seaside (California), I see someone in an engineering school sweatshirt. Even when it is hot outside, these people do not wear T-Shirts. 

I ignore them and enjoy looking over the breakfast items on the menu. I like the eggs Benedict options and the omelet choices on the menu. 

My favorite is a real locals choice: the Chile Verde, Pork, and Jack Omelet topped with Avocado and Sour Cream. It costs $20.75 and is built for an engineer. I cut mine in half and take one half home to warm up for dinner. 

Two meals for $10.375 is a good deal for pork stewed with spicy green peppers (lots of Vitamin C here) and melted Monterey Jack cheese. This salty dish is especially good in summer heat. 

The movers and shakers of Seaside and Monterey County eat at the Breakfast Club with the engineers. 

I have an idea for raising $1,000 a day for this great restaurant that I would like to share with the owners and happy customers: 

To raise the $1,000 sell 50 chile verde omelets each day to 10 corporate clients who buy 5 omelets or sell chile verde omelets to 5 corporate clients who buy 10 omelets.

(50 omelets x $20 = $1,000) 

This is not an original idea. This is Cuban micro-capitalism. Little bakeries in Cuba are supposed to raise this kind of money this way on a daily basis thanks to locals and tourists.

Cuba’s problem is that they have very little money to spend and they no longer receive cash subsidies from Russia. Micro-capitalism has not been a huge success there. 

The U.S. has more money and a tradition of buying lunch out. Micro-capitalism might work here. 

$20 is expensive, but the same method works with $10 items as well to give you a daily cash flow of $500.  

Good daily cash flow pays rent and employees. 

Micro-capitalism might work in Monterey County and is a topic worthy of discussion at the Breakfast Club agora I think.  Other restaurants might be interested in this method as well.

 By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Sichuanese Food in Marina, California by Ruth Paget

Sichuanese Food in Marina, California by Ruth Paget

The Chinese say that food is medicine. They also think their medicine should be delicious, which is why I like Chinese food. 

My favorite Chinese food comes from the central-western province of Sichuan in China. Sichuanese food iis known to be very spicy due to the presence of many spicy red chili peppers used to stir-fry it. 

Both of the Chinese restaurants in my neighborhood of Marina (California) serve one of my favorite Sichuanese dishes – Kung Pao Chicken. Kung Pao Chicken honors an honest public servant who served in the not-so-reputable Qing Dynasty about two hundred years ago. 

Kung Pao Chicken is usually a reasonably priced item on restaurant menus and boosts your immune system with stir-fried vegetables and tonic spices and aromatics. The spice combination that flavors the pounded flat pieces of chicken breast includes:

-garlic 

-fresh ginger 

-light and dark soy sauces 

-rice vinegar 

-sugar 

-several spicy hot red chili peppers 

At Marina’s Lee’s Garden Restaurant, they serve Kung Pao Chicken made with green pepper squares, onions, carrots, and zucchini cubes for fresh flavor. Lee’s Garden puts 9 red hot chili peppers into its Kung Pao Chicken for kicky flavor. I like it this way, but also like the milder Kung Pao Chicken made with 3 to 4 red hot chili peppers that Marina’s Ho-Wah Restaurant does as well. 

Ho-Wah uses celery, zucchini, carrots, and onions for freshen its Kung Pao chicken. Ho-Wah is easy to spot with red lanterns dangling from its roof. It is famous for serving Marina’s mayor and has made the newspapers for serving Chinese vegetarian food. 

Both restaurants offer extensive meal options, but during pandemic times I like to think the Vitamin C in the vegetables and spicy peppers and the iron in the chicken help boost the immune system. 

For more information on Sichuanese food, see Fuscia Dunlop’s book The Food of Sichuan. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Marina Poké House in California by Ruth Paget

Marina’s Poké House in California by Ruth Paget 

Marina Poké House is a neighborhood restaurant that locals enjoy for the zesty ingredients and reasonable prices. Tourists might enjoy Marina Poké House for the Hawaiian fare at mainland prices, too. 

I have eaten the poke beginner’s California Bowl ($10.50) on several occasions. The California Bowl has three scoops of imitation crab (made from fish and delish) sushi and a scoop of chopped avocado on top of a generous base of rice. I usually have spicy aioli as my sauce. 

The bowls besides this are made to order and come in three sizes – small, medium, and large. When you order a custom bowl, specify the bowl size first and the number of fish you would like that determine the price you pay. 

To create a poké bowl, you have to choose four types of ingredients in a specific order. Marina Poké House makes this easy by listing steps in order on its menu as follows: 

1-Pick your base – rice, brown rice, or mixed local greens 

2-Pick your various fish, seafood, and/or tofu 

3-Pick your sauce from ponzu to wasabi mayonnaise 

4-Pick your topping – from avocado to kimchi to seaweed salad  

Marina’s Poké House serves Strawberry-Guava and Guava Nectar in cans among its beverage offerings for a nice counterpoint to the spicy sauces. 

For a discussion of poké’s history within the wider spectrum of Hawaiian cuisine, see Rachel Laudan’s The Food of Paradise: Exploring Hawaii’s Culinary Heritage (pages 37 – 38). 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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North Carolina's Crab Cuisine by Ruth Paget

North Carolina’s Crab Cuisine by Ruth Paget 

I felt part of North Carolina’s Outer Banks beach culture every time my family went to oceanfront restaurants about one mile from the North Carolina border in Virginia Beach (Virginia) for boiled crab and buttery, seared scallops and shrimp. 

Some of these restaurants even had boat drive-up windows for take-out orders. 

Laurent and Florence always ordered buckets of boiled crab while I would get seafood platters of buttery, seared scallops and shrimp. Laurent and I always drank a California chardonnay with our meal like reliably good Kendall-Jackson. 

My mom job was to crack crab claws for Florence, so she could dunk them still warm in melted butter. She would say her crab were getting cold when I took breaks to eat my scallops and shrimp. 

We chair danced to the tunes of Jimmy Buffet and Hootie and the Blowfish and ate key lime pie for dessert for me, ice cream for Florence, and coffee for trim sailor Laurent. 

Seafood and crab, in particular, define the cuisine of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. You could buy freshly cooked lump crabmeat in supermarkets in Virginia Beach to use in omelets and appetizers as well as ready-made deli dishes using seafood at Harris-Teeter and Hanaford supermarkets. 

I made many dishes at home to save money. It was easy to do, because I had access to relatively inexpensive ingredients and recipes in the Virginian-Pilot newspaper. Many of the recipes I used are similar to the ones in Outer Banks Cookbook: Recipes and Traditions from North Carolina’s Barrier Islands by Elizabeth Wiegand. Some of my favorite recipes in this cookbook include: 

-spicy toasted pecans – Pecans grow in North Carolina’s sandy soil. They are a favorite with libations like Hurricane cocktails and margaritas. 

-Figs with Gorgonzola cheese and walnuts – Figs also grow in North Carolina. You place a walnut in the center of a fig half in this recipe and top it with Gorgonzola cheese before running it under it under the broiler for a few minutes.

-figs with country ham and green salad 

-artichoke and crab dip 

-crabmeat pâté 

-shrimp bisque 

-crabmeat omelet 

-seared scallops 

-scallops and scallions on polenta medallions 

-shrimp boiled in beer 

-warm shrimp pasta salad with goat cheese 

-chilled pickled shrimp 

-creamy she crab soup – there are canned versions of this soup that are also very good like Chincoteague She Crab Soup

-French Market Flounder (Marseilles-style) – dredge flounder in seasoned flour and then egg. Brown the fish. Add white wine to the pan and top fish with a tomato slice and cheese and run the pan under the broiler for several minutes. Serve with white rice that you mix with pan juices. Super easy and delicious recipe. 

Seafood lovers will find many reasons to love Outer Banks Cookbook: Recipes and Traditions from North Carolina’s Barrier Islands by Elizabeth Wiegand. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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French Wine Place Name Game - Reds by Ruth Paget

French Wine Place Name Game – Reds by Ruth Paget 

French wines are known by their place names, which give no information about the varietals (grapes) used to make it. A distinguished wine drinker in France in supposed to know from the place name what larger region the wine comes from and the varietals used to make the grapes. 

In this game for French red wines, you will make index cards with the following information for each wine below and quiz yourself to do the following: 

-Learn to pronounce the wine in French. 

 -Learn to spell the wine name 

-Learn the larger region where the wine is produced

-Learn the varietals used to make the wine 

Use The Oxford Companion to Wine by Jancis Robinson to look up information.  

--Bordeaux 

-Graves 

-Saint-Julien 

-Saint-Estèphe 

-Pauillac 

-Moulis 

-Sainte-Foy-Bordeaux 

-Saint-Emilion 

-Pomerol 

-Fronsac  

--Burgundy-La Côte de Nuits 

-Gevery-Chambertin 

-Morey-Saint Denis 

-Chambolle-Musigny 

-Vougeot 

-Flagey-Echézeaux 

-Vosne-Romanée 

-Nuits-Saint Georges 

--Burgundy – Côte de Beaune 

-Aloxe-Corton 

-Beaune 

-Pommard 

-Volnay 

-Givry 

-Mercurey 

 --Burgundy – Beaujolais 

-Saint-Amour 

-Juliénas 

-Fleurie 

-Chiroubles 

-Morgan 

-Moulin-à-Vent 

-Côte de Brouilly 

 --Côtes du Rhône 

-Châteauneuf-du-pape 

-L’Hermitage 

-Côtes-Rôties 

 --Jura 

-Arbois 

 --Southwest 

-Bergerac 

Making your own index cards and doing your own research will make the information in this game stick. 

This is just the game to play before a visit to the Total Wine store in Seaside, California.

Happy Gaming! 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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