by Evan Hatch I always wanted to be a part of Pepper’s Pizza in Chapel Hill. Pepper’s hid in plain sight on Franklin Street, two doors down from the Varsity Theater, a narrow squeeze of a restaurant with checkerboard floors, whacked art hanging and a cast of incredible characters working the kitchen. It was Chapel… Read More →
Lenten Fish Fries in 2015
by Joy Salyers North Carolina historian David Cecelski helped start NC Food, delighting readers for the blog’s first five years with his explorations of state foodways and his musings about food’s connections to place, family, and all that is good in life. In 2011, he noted in a food blog post that “It’s one of… Read More →
Enjoying Barbecue Prepared Like When You Were a Kid
By Ray Linville Have you ever passed a restaurant, wondered how good its food is, but didn’t stop because you were saving money by not eating out? That’s my story about North Carolina barbecue when I was growing up. I grew up in the Piedmont in a stable but modest neighborhood of Winston-Salem. In the… Read More →
Old Havana Sandwich Shop
by Evan Hatch The Old Havana Sandwich Shop faces Main Street in downtown Durham, North Carolina. Business and life partners Elizabeth Turnbull and Roberto Copa Matos surely pinched themselves when they first saw the limestone edifice that became their restaurant. Arched porticoes, vaulted windows and polished wood floors lend this space a warm and historic… Read More →
Cabbage
by Sally Parlier Every few months or so when I was young, my parents would get a craving for some fried cabbage, served with pinto beans, cornbread, and a tall, cold glass of milk. This was the food of their youth in Watauga County – filling, homegrown, and low cost – and still staples of… Read More →
A Food Sisterhood Flourishes in North Carolina, and then some
Just in case you weren’t paying attention, North Carolina got some seriously good props this week from the New York Times. The North Carolina Food Sisterhood, to be exact, and it’s a nice change from all the athletic and political press we’ve grown used to. We’ve always been an agricultural state and women have long… Read More →
North Carolina’s Official State Symbols That Taste Good, Part 1
by Deborah Miller Every state has its official list of chosen symbols. We all know, or should know, that our State Bird is the Cardinal and State Tree is the Dogwood. But why, and how, do such random things like dog, reptile, and even dance become official? In case you just moved to the Tar… Read More →
Recipe for Belonging
by Malinda Fillingim Back in 1972, when I first moved to my step-father’s hometown of Walnut Cove, I was a lonely 13 year old surrounded by people who had grown up together and whose families had lived in the same community for generations. I had to find my own path and create my own sense… Read More →
Collards a lo Cubano
by Sarah Bryan Verlie Helsabeck Freeman was a vivid woman. She had a cat named Mr. Cat, a set of dentures that she took out of her mouth and clacked at frightened great-grandchildren, and—as she warned overly curious visitors who might snoop around the house—a booger in her basement. (To readers who aren’t from North… Read More →
Happy Thanksgiving!
by Deborah Miller The holidays seem to turn the nostalgia dial up to eleven for many of us, especially when it comes to food. We find comfort in the familiarity of the menu and we want them prepared the exact same way we had them at our table. I certainly wouldn’t put my mother’s green… Read More →