NCFOOD is the North Carolina Folklife Institute’s blog exploring our state’s traditional cooking and foodways.

by David Cecelski A little west of Conetoe, in Edgecombe County, there’s a fabulous little country-cooking café called Blackbeards BBQ & C-Food. You can get some of the state’s best wood-cooked barbecue there and a wonderful array of country-style vegetable side dishes. And as good as the ‘cue is, I think I like the daily specials even… Read More →

by David Cecelski I’m sad to report that Tom Robinson died of the H1N1 (swine) flu on Friday night. He will be missed something terrible. Tom was a graceful, caring soul, with a light heart and an incandescent spirit. He was also a great fishmonger. For four decades, his Carrboro seafood market has been the… Read More →

by David Cecelski I’m writing this on OcracokeIsland. A gale-force wind is blowing with gusts as high as 60 miles an hour. I came here to visit the N.C.Center for the Advancement of Teaching, which I did, but now I can’t leave. The ferries have all shut down because of the gale. You can barely walk outside: coming… Read More →

by David Cecelski Last week, on her 81st birthday, Mrs. Wanda Willis made a big pot of her famous stew beef and rutabagas with cornmeal dumplings. She lives on HarkersIsland and she made it for a lunch gathering at the island’s CoreSoundWaterfowlMuseum andHeritageCenter. She’s part of a hardworking crew of the museum’s volunteers who can whip up a few hundred… Read More →

by David Cecelski When I was driving through eastern North Carolina today, I had a come-to-the-altar experience at a little barbecue shack inGreeneCounty. It’s called Jason Grill & BBQ and it’s in the tiny community of Jason on a very rural stretch of NC 903 between Snow Hill and La Grange. The Jason Grill doesn’t look like much…. Read More →

by David Cecelski This is a recipe for a kind of venison stew that is popular in hunting camps from the Roanoke River bottomlands to the Great Smoky Mountains.   Ingredients   2 lb. venison 1/2 lb. kielbasa, sliced 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil ½ cup chopped onion ¾ cup chopped celery 2 cloves garlic, minced 1… Read More →

by David Cecelski Today Mexican and Central American immigrants here in Durham have been celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany. In Christian tradition, Epiphany, or Día de Reyes (Day of Kings), is the day that the three Magi, or Wise Men, reached Bethlehem and first paid homage to the infant Jesus. Epiphany is one of the most important days… Read More →

by David Cecelski I was driving on a very rural stretch of NC 181 when I came to a little Mennonite settlement between Vanceboro and Grifton. As I understand it, approximately 40 Mennonite families have made their homes in that part of CravenCounty. They have established a church, a school, and a general store that carries… Read More →

by David Cecelski This is a photograph of what’s left of the state’s last menhaden factory. It’s on Lennoxville Road in Beaufort and it closed five years ago. The demise of Beaufort Fisheries has left a lot of people inCarteretCounty, including me, with a Christmastime craving that we can’t satisfy any longer. Elsewhere, people probably don’t miss… Read More →