Cheese balls may not immediately come to mind when considering holiday food traditions, but the creamy spheres covered with nuts and served with crackers are a longtime favorite on the North Carolina coast.
food
Our Coast’s Food: Odd Pairings
Peanuts in Pepsi, Ritz crackers as a lemon pie crust, fried spot and grits — some food combinations enjoyed on the North Carolina coast may seem a bit weird to outsiders.
Our Coast’s Food: Stuffed Shrimp
Brown shrimp and blue crabs reach their maximum size this time of year. Put them together as a fitting homage to the end of summer.
Our Coast’s Food: The Perfect Crabcake
When it comes to preparing the perfect crab cake, less is more – unless you’re talking about the crab meat.
Coastal Cookbooks You Must Have
Our food writer Liz Biro picks the books that help tell the story of Eastern North Carolina cooking. They are essential reading for anyone who loves our coast, she writes.
Our Coast’s Food: Potato Salad
The Memorial Day weekend is the symbolic start of summer. Liz Biro, our food writer, kicks off the season with a story about a staple of backyard barbecues, church reunions and fish fries.
Our Coast’s Food: Strawberry Shortcake
Strawberry shortcake means different things to different people. A tender, split biscuit layered with sugar-macerated berries and fluffy whipped cream is recognized as the traditional version. But they come in many varieties.
Our Coast’s Food: Southern Workhorse
Our food writer Liz Biro takes a loving, personal look at the cast-iron frying pan, a mainstay of any Southern kitchen.
Our Coast’s Food: Cornmeal Dumplings
Cooks on the N.C. coast traditionally add cornmeal dumplings to collard greens but the tasty dollops can also be used to stretch seafood soups, stews and chowders, even when pinching pennies isn’t necessary.
Our Coast’s Food: Lightning Rolls
Christmas is about five weeks away, but our food writer, Liz Biro, can already smell the yeast rolls, called “Loitin’ Rolls” along the Core Sound and the Outer Banks, baking in the oven.
Our Coast’s Food: Candied Yams
Candied yams is a favorite Southern dish but this noble, historically significant root deserves a more fitting crown than the familiar marshmallow goo.
Our Coast’s Food: Cornbread
Introduced to colonists by native Americans, cornbread, a simple staple that varies in preparation from region to region, continues to endure as it evolves.
Our Coast’s Food: Brunswick Stew
Recipes for this traditional, Southern coastal stew are sure to cause an argument. Is it chicken or pork, opossum or squirrel? Should it be thick or soupy?
Our Coast’s Food: Seafood Fritters
Various versions of Carolina seafood fritter recipes exist but the basic idea is an ages-old, delicious way to stretch portions and lure friends and family.
Our Coast’s Food: Layer Cakes
Our food writer Liz Biro pays homage to Linda Johnson, her culinary mentor, and to Miss Johnson’s signature dish: That delicious mound of gooey goodness known as the layer cake.
Our Coast’s Food: Collards
Snooty food encyclopedias may consider this Southern staple to be similar to kale. But Tar Heels know better. Stewed slowly with hamhocks and a dash or two of Tobasco…. well, “mmm, mmm, mmm,” as Bob Garner might say.
