Bowens Island

Oh, Lord, what to say about this. First: Joe York is my hero. Between this and his fantastic documentary on Scott's Barbecue in Hemingway, York has mastered the genre of South Carolina food film.

Bowens Island is a Charleston-area institution going back several decades. Here they'll walk you through the whole process, picking, rinsing, roasting and shucking and finally eating the local oysters. And yes, we can go there.

BOWENS ISLAND from Southern Foodways on Vimeo.

More on Scott's Barbecue

"Rodney Scott so personifies everything people admire about barbecue that he almost seems like some food writer dreamed him up. He cooked his first whole hog at the age of 11. He cuts all the wood for Scott's Bar-B-Que himself, with a chain saw. He cooks only one thing, whole hogs, and he cooks them superlatively well."

Read Time magazine's feature on Rodney Scott, pitmaster of Scott's barbecue in Hemingway, SC. Better yet, watch this slideshow narrated by Rodney Scott himself.

Oh! And there's also a feature in the NY Times written by John T. Edge, one of the best Southern food writers out there. Have a look.

Hite's Barbecue, Batesburg-Leesville, SC

The Hite of BBQ from Mark Dolan on Vimeo.

Chicago Trib Visits the Piggie Park

"Maurice Bessinger’s restaurant is a paean to Southern Baptist conservatism. Walk in and you see a portrait of the man standing proudly with a Confederate flag. Next to the mustard sauces and dry rubs are books on sale — Mitt Romney, Pat Buchanan, The Bible. There’s Bessinger’s autobiography, 'Defending My Heritage.'”

A Chicago Tribune columnist struggles with his conscience and visits Maurice's Piggy Park.

Brown's Barbecue and the Confederate Yankee

The Confederate Yankee

I'm told that Brown's Barbecue in Kingstree, SC, is another must-try.  I can't say I've tried it myself, but it comes highly recommended by my brother, who once had it at a funeral down there. 

Interestingly, Kingstree is also home to the Confederate Yankee Soldier.  It appears that about a hundred years ago,  Civil War monuments were erected at about the same time in Kingstree and in York, Maine.  Close observers have since noticed that the Kingstree monument seems to bear a few key markers for a Union soldier, while the Maine soldier looks suspiciously Confederate.  Suspicion has persisted ever since that the two were monuments were switched by mistake.

Piedmont Blues: Rev. Gary Davis and Pink Anderson

Most people have heard of Delta and Chicago blues, but there's another form specific to the Carolinas and Virginia, known as the Piedmont style. Rev. Gary Davis and Pink Anderson, both coincidentally from Laurens, SC, great examples of this ragtime-like style of finger picking. Davis sang mostly religious songs, and was a huge influence on the folk revival of the 1960s. You'll still hear that style from guitarists like Taj Mahal. Pink Anderson did a lot of bawdy, medicine show-type stuff, and is probably best known for inspiring the name for Pink Floyd (the band took the names of Pink Anderson and Floyd Council).

The Mustard Belt

Serious Eats reviews three SC barbecue establishments:  Shealy's, Hite's and Sweatman's

SC Barbecue Sauce Map

Here, courtesy of Strange Maps, is a map of regions of South Carolina according to barbecue style. The blogger seems genuinely bemused that anyone would actually go to the trouble to map this out, but John Shelton Reed sets him straight, explaining that these distinctions also tell you a little something about the history of each region -- most notably the uniquely South Carolinian mustard-based sauce of the midlands, which dates back to German migration to the area in the 18th century.

Cut/Chop/Cook

Rodney Scott of Scott's Barbecue, Hemingway, SC, walks you through the whole process, from cutting down the tree to serving the meat.

CUT/CHOP/COOK from UM Media Documentary Projects on Vimeo.

More Sweatman's

Anthony Bourdain visits Sweatman's

Carolina Hash

Southern barbeque is the closet thing we have in the U.S. to Europe's wines and cheeses; drive a hundred miles and the barbeque changes.
John Shelton Reed 

Hash is a side dish typically served in certain South Carolina barbecue restaurants.  North Carolinians claim it is for toothless people who can't chew their pork.  This film covers the history, and shows you the (rather unappealing) way the dish is traditionally made.  Still, don't be turned away by the sight of hog's heads in giant cast iron cauldrons; it is damn fine, and if you don't believe me, you'll need to try it at Sweatman's.

View the entire film here, or check out this clip

Colbert Interviews Maurice Bessinger

From 2002: SC native Stephen Colbert interviews Maurice Bessinger, owner of Maurice's Piggy Park, and SC State Senator Glenn McConnell about the Confederate flag and mustard barbecue.

Starting off

Ok, with the trip only two months away, I thought I'd start posting some background reading.  Let's begin with this terrific 2001 piece by Jack Hitt, a Charlestonian, on the Bessinger family, mustard barbecue, and the Confederate flag:

". . . But my nephew warned me that lately there had been a feud. Barbecue had somehow gotten mixed up with issues of race and heritage. Ugly fighting words had been exchanged, leaving a residue of aggrieved feelings. The quarrel had finally touched the third rail of contemporary Carolina anger, the only topic more sensitive than sauce recipes, Strom Thurmond jokes and Charleston genealogy combined: the meaning of the Civil War. And once again, the war had re-enacted its old bitterness, setting brother against brother. Only not at Gettysburg this time, but in a hickory pit redolent with crackling."

Read the rest here.