Every highway and byway in the state is a potential jumping off point for a food adventure, whether discovering the Restaurante Rosa de Saron in Sampson County or the Pakse Café in Greensboro.
by David Cecelski Cooks everywhere are overwhelmed with pears just now. Me, too. The other day, my brother left us 4 or 5 grocery bags full of Kiefer pears from his tree. They’re a good, hard pear that has a long shelf life for eating fresh. A cross between a Chinese sand pear and a… Read More →
Beatrice Mason’s Pickled Green Tomatoes
Core Creek United Methodist Church by David Cecelski I recently took my mother back to Core Creek, the little community where her mother grew up. We went by the long dirt road that goes by her first cousin Glenn Hardesty’s farm, and along salt marshes and oyster bays far off the beaten path. There’s… Read More →
Miss Jenny’s Fig Preserves
by David Cecelski On Sunday afternoon I drove to Sonny and Jenny Williamson’s home in Marshallberg to pick up a few fig tree cuttings. Jenny had rooted them in pots for me earlier in the summer from a fig tree that has been at her family’s homeplace since she was a child. Her old… Read More →
MORAVIAN CHICKEN PIE
by David Cecelski A few days ago, I took my son and a friend tubing on the Dan River. We got on the river 6 or 7 miles upstream of Hanging Rock State Park and got off the river at the Laurel Springs Campground, on the park’s border, where an elegant hotel, now long gone,… Read More →
DAVIDSON’S SODA SHOP
by David Cecelski At Davidson College, the prestigious liberal arts school founded by Presbyterians in Davidson, in Mecklenburg County, in 1837, the Soda Shop has been a cherished part of student life for more than half a century. I was there earlier today and I can see why the students are so fond of the… Read More →
Lumbee Homecoming and the Collard Sandwich
by Jefferson Currie II You see, David Cecelski was supposed to go down to Lumbee Homecoming with me, because I over-researched my final paper in his class last fall. The paper showed up little late and now I owe him a trip to Robeson County. Since David, in his words, “punked out” on this trip, you’re… Read More →
Fayetteville Street Soul Food
by David Cecelski I don’t know why, but that heat wave last week made me want soul food something terrible. So one of those 100 degree afternoons I went looking for a plate of ribs or barbecued chicken, greens and cornbread. You can find good soul food all over Durham, but I went toward Fayetteville… Read More →
Ocracoke Blackberry Dumplings
by David Cecelski Tonight at our beaver pond my mother and I picked our first wild blackberries of the summer. We had been waiting for the berries to ripen for weeks. We were afraid that, once they finally turned black, the birds might get them all before we could eat any, but we needn’t have… Read More →
New Bern/What Your Mama Needs Today
by David Cecelski One of my favorite fish markets is Tryon Palace Seafood Market in New Bern. I was there just yesterday. This little fish market is located in the shadows of Tryon Palace, the restored residence of one of our colonial governors, and just across an empty lot on the Trent River that used… Read More →
Hills of Snow
by David Cecelski My mother and I were driving home from the farm this past Sunday. It was really hot, almost 90 degrees, and we were tired from the highway driving and all the beach traffic. We needed a break and something cold. As we drove through US 70 in Smithfield, the seat of Johnston… Read More →