Southern Mashup

"Its that southerplayalisticcaddilac funky music
Now Players if you choose it
You better make sure you don't abuse it
We gonna get you high, high..."

The 'Kast was blasting loud as the Belle and I rode down to Charleston this past weekend for a wedding. We took a trip down memory lane listening to "old school music"... yeah, it's been 20 years since Southernplayalisticcaddilacfunkymusic. Let's let that sink in for a second. I was still in the islands when that track hit the charts; right after the LaFace Christmas album and Playa's Ball. I remember when Elevators dropped with that sick beat. I was like everyone else wondering, man, who are these guys?! Good times; good tunes. 

So, on to our weekend getaway to the Palmetto state, and the cultural destination that is Charleston. After I got over the hesitation of going to a wedding in an old AME church in 2015, I relaxed a bit to enjoy the festivities, then something strange happened. My wife forewarned me not to ask my usual question of "where are you from" when I meet people, because I'm going to be surprised. Indeed, I was. People at the wedding started talking, and I thought I was home! Their accents were so thick and rich, but they had never set food on island soil. Of course I was confused for a second. She told me about the Gullah Geechee people of South Carolina. 

These black people who called themselves Gullah in South Carolina, and Geechee in Georgia, have lived in the low country islands of this area since the days of slavery, when they were brought there by the slave traders, and left alone since the Civil War. The whites didn’t make much contact with the people in all those centuries, mainly because they believed that the land was bad and infested with disease. So the people were able to maintain much of their culture, which is an amalgam of elements of the cultures of the many ethnicities of their West Africans ancestors who were enslaved and brought there back in those times. The one thing that stands out is the Gullah language, which is a version of the West African pidgin English, American English and some French. 

Here, in this city of 128,000, founded in 1670 and disturbed by tourism traffic, is a group of people, unique and pure in culture and tongue! I was quite amazed, to be honest, as just another hour in any other direction, and the accents and dialects change. What was more amazing was how similar it sounded to various West Indian accents.  I guess Charleston was simply the next stop on the TransAtlantic Expressway. 

So, on to the food (of course). 

We stopped for brunch at Low Country Bistro down on market street; right next to the Market. Although they sell various touristy trinkets and souvenirs now, we all know what was really sold there some 400 years ago. 

We got there 6 minutes after opening, and it was already beginning to fill up. Unlike Georgia, we didn't have to wait until midday for Sunday alcohol, so, we happily obliged with bottomless mimosas. After a basket of house-made biscuits and jams, our orders came. 

Wifey's dish was their Frogmore stew, which was basically a low country boil. While I don't know their recipe, I know it was a saffron infused fish broth with boiled B-Red potatoes, corn from the cob, smoked pork sausage and grilled 20/25 shrimp, accompanied with buttered grilled toast. It was very tasty!

My dish was their jambalaya eggs benedict, which was composed of poached eggs atop sautéed peppers and onions on a red rice cake, then topped with a creole hollandaise sauce. I'd asked our waitress to make it spicy, and she gave me a look like, "Oh, you have no idea what you're asking for!" My mouth was on fire!!! But, it was an enjoyable burn! 


So, here's what I enjoyed; the similarities of our cuisines, and the fusion of other cuisines. New Orleans' red beans & rice is our rice and peas, and is West Africa's jollof rice! Stews and Gumbos have African origins as well. 

Now, I really wanted to end the weekend with a shot of 15 year aged Trinidad & Tobago Zaya rum and a Dominican Republic Cohiba cigar, but, she wouldn't let me :-D

More to come!