The Art of the Plate: 36 Hours in Charleston: Easy strolling and fine eating in a city of moss-laden oaks.

Monday, March 12, 2007

New York Times Travel
By CHRIS DIXON
Published: March 11, 2007

Good food is a big deal in Charleston, and East Bay Street has a glut of exceptional restaurants. Grill 225, Cypress, High Cotton and Magnolias have all garnered accolades, but the spotlight this year is on......
http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/travel/11hours.1.html?ex=1331182800&en=be6fbd4ce329f0b1&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Photo by Kate Crosby for The New York Times

What We're Reading

“Eating from the Ground Up”

Out just in time for the vegetables appearing at our farmers markets, Alana Chernila’s cookbook focuses on creatively using every root and leaf. While some of the recipes may be familiar concepts – think stuffed tomatoes – hers are packed with millet, basil, and parsley. Fried rice stars salmon, fennel, and Swiss chard stems. Roasted asparagus are sauced with a combo of butter, garlic, nutritional yeast, and tamari. Stone fruit, raw corn kernels, scallions, basil, and jalapeño make a cool salad for hot weather. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC.

"Soul: A Chef's Culinary Evolution in 150 Recipes"

“This book is my homage to the cuisine of my family,” Chef Todd Richards writes in his autobiographical collection of essays and recipes. “These are the ingredients of my people. This is my sermon about my Soul food.”

Bringing accolades for his stints at Atlanta’s Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons, James Beard nominations, and, of course, his prowess at Southern cooking, Richards seasons the pot with a powerful bouquet of flavors as he pays his heritage forward. Collards cooked with ham hocks are accented with piquant pickled collard stems. Blueberries are found in fried pies; strawberries are plated with champagne aspic, whipped cream, and honey. Grilled peaches pair with radishes on toast spread with pimiento cheese. Sweet potatoes are layered with cauliflower and crab in a lush gratin.

"Soul food," Richards tells us, "is the original cuisine of the South, born from an involuntary collision of cultures."
Published by Southern Living. $35.

Monday, March 12, 2007

36 Hours in Charleston: Easy strolling and fine eating in a city of moss-laden oaks.

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