midweek gems #8
pimento cheese, tofu fried chicken sandwiches, Charleston and Raleigh tips, and cookbook criticism
Hello! Hello! Hello!
We arrived home from the South on Tuesday night and it was chilly. No biggie. We climbed into bed and the next morning, realized that our thermostat decided to stop working. In between the stages of installing a replacement, I warmed up with excitement when I opened a package to find my James Beard Award finalist certificate for Ever-Green Vietnamese. Hell yes, I’m framing this!
💎 Visit: Charleston, p. 2
Thanks to a tip from Theresa, we lunched at Leon’s Fine Chicken and Oyster Shop in Charleston. It’s a super popular good-times place so a 2pm-ish lunch is how I (and you) can get in without a reservation. We splurged with grilled oysters with butter, parmesan and parsley; a fried shrimp roll with coleslaw; and 2-pieces of fried chicken. They have Pabst Blue Ribbon on tap, which I adore because it reminds me of refreshing Vietnamese beers. At $4 a glass, I’m a cheap date!
We went to Leon’s after visiting the Aiken-Rhett House, an urban plantation preserved in its aged state of decay. The museum is a good place for understanding the troubled history of slavery in the American South. Imagine husking rice here or cooking multi-course meals on the stove below (second row, left). Or, making soap and tending to boiling cauldrons of laundry during the hot, humid Carolina summers. The audio tour is excellent, though there are live tours too.
Bonus reccomendations: Hanna Raskin, the former food critic and now publisher of The Food Section (subscribe for stories and tips), joined us for Neapolitan pizzas at Renzo. She also recommended Nigel’s Good Food for soul food, The Wreck for fried seafood, and The Ordinary for fancy seafood.
Extra Charleston tips are in Midweek Gem #7.
💎 Eats: Raleigh, NC
We skipped raw oysters in Charleston because we knew they were waiting for us in Raleigh at St. Roch, where you feel like you’re at a party whether it’s 5pm or 10pm. Expect pop music, professional friendly service, solid drinks, and super fresh seafood. The menu is New Orleans-ish. Daily happy hour oysters are a deal but you’ll want to linger for longer.
A new project by Beard Award finalist chef Cheetie Kumar and her husband Paul Siler — Ajja is an inviting restaurant and event space. Cheetie’s roots are i the Punjab and she’s fascinated by how South Asian foodways dovetail with those in the Mediterranean and Middle East. That explains why Ajja’s hummus is interpreted as chana masala with corn flake-ish crunchies, and boondi (fried chickpea flour pearls) top her coconut sorbet and charred brassicas. The couple own the building and have lots in the works. I look forward to returning.
💎 Recipes: Pimento cheese magic
When I’m in the American South, I eat pimento cheese — a versatile spread of cheddar, roasted red pepper and mayonnaise. Markets sell it by the tub, right alongside the hummus and guacamole.
Pimento cheese is at home on a Ritz, Triscuit, pretzel or rice cracker. Add it in a sandwich as a combo of rich mayo and cheese! For a great open face sandwich, melt pimento cheese on bread, top with slightly bitter sauteed greens, and add a drizzle of vinegar (or make a grilled pimento cheese and collards sandwich). I couldn’t leave the pimento cheese in our Raleigh Airbnb so I packed it with baguette toasts for our inflight lunch.
I wish the Raleigh store-bought pimento cheese had more punch. No problem. The southern spread is easy to make!
Two recipes for you to create your own pimento cheese magic:
Sriracha pimento cheese (keeps and travels well)
Chicken-Fried Tofu and Sriracha Pimento Cheese Sandwich (an Asian veg take on southern chicken fried sandwiches)
💎 Listens: How cookbooks are reviewed
Curious about how cookbooks get reviewed? It can seem like a fuzzy process.
, the former Los Angeles Times food section editor who now publishes the Cooks without Borders newsletter, spills the beans on Everything Cookbooks, a podcast I co-founded a couple years ago. Leslie chats with my buddies, Kate Leahy and Molly Stevens.For this Sunday’s Special, let’s spend time with a farmer in Vietnam. More then!
When I lived in Raleigh I found pimento cheese with jalapeños as well as pimento. We preferred it.
I’m glad you had pictures of the slaves kitchen quarters. I took video of a slave living quarters on a plantation in Franklin, TN. My voice broke as I described as best I knew the life of a slave and that many lived in this small building. Franklin Plantations were not single crops like cotton, sugar cane or rice. They were often more of a mixed crop ranging from wheat and corn to cattle and dairy. OK.