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OT: SC's Most "Iconic" Dish

jroller

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Jan 12, 2003
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Recently, a food blogger reached out and asked which was the most iconic dish from each state. After much thought, I went with a BBQ answer for SC, though there are several great non-BBQ choices. What would you have picked?

That lead me on another deep dive; this time into mustard-based BBQ sauce. Obviously, I have written about it regularly over the years but always somewhat superficially. 2600 words later, I think I could have written much more.

Anyway, the blogger published her list yesterday, and while there are some obvious choices (lobster in Maine, mint juleps in Kentucky), there are several dishes I had never heard of. Not sure, if that makes them "Iconic" or not.
 
Shrimp and grits for sure. Tons of states have BBQ, so don't see how that would be 'iconic' for our state. Frogmore Stew would be another one.
My thoughts exactly. And while mustard based BBQ is semi-unique, it’s not a dish. I’m not sure why so many love mustard base anyhow. It’s good, but nothing better than Eastern NC on pulled pork and Dreamland on ribs unless of course you have Rendevouz dry rub ribs.
 
Collard greens and cornbread
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Y
Chicken Bog...It's definitely one-of-a-kind & different
and have never seen anywhere else in the world.
You go to a DNR function in any corner of the state and you get chicken bog. I think Frogmore Stew or shrimp and grits (what my Charleston-born dad called creek shrimp in brown gravy) in the lowcountry but I don't think they are iconic statewide. Shrimp and grits maybe recently. But chicken bog is a universal truth and has been for decades. My Jersey Italian bride makes a shockingly good bog. And you won't find a better hot sauce for your bog than this stuff:https://shop.creativecajuncooking.com/cajun-garlic-sauce/
 
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Eastern South Carolina pepper and vinegar is the best bbq, and also the original. Definitely most iconic. The spanish hogs that escaped from Spanish settlements along the coast at Beaufort and Georgetown, during the early 1500's led to our iconic pork BBQ.

The pepper and vinegar bbq of Scott's BBQ is generally considered the best in South Carolina. In Hemingway, it is just a few miles from the Great Pee Dee River that drains into Georgetown.

Also, many places serve Perlo, and call it chicken bog. I prefer chicken bog.
 
Frogmore Stew or Lowcountry Perlou. Chicken Bog is simple a version of Perlou as perlou can be made with shrimp, oysters, chicken, sausage, etc. or a combination thereof.

Both are essentially and solely SCs.
 
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I never heard of this chicken bog. I would say shrimp and grits, every restaurant has it on the menu now as a low country dish. With Charleston being the most famous city in the state it has to come from there.
Chicken bog is most common in Horry County. In Georgetown County they call it perlo.
 
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Lots of good choices in SC. Maybe not the most iconic, but I’d eat Charleston red rice with anything, usually shrimp and sausage.
Like a low country boil if you tossed the dang corn and potatoes that people always make too much of and add something good in its own right.
 
Gotta say shrimp n grits . I get in argument all the time with my Louisiana crew about who can claim Shrimp n Grits . They swear up and down they do it better but you just can’t beat Charleston shrimp and grits . Peach cobbler is another one . My grandma made some peach cobbler you would mug somebody for . Peach cobbler with some Vanilla Ice cream …. C’mon on now
 
Gotta say shrimp n grits . I get in argument all the time with my Louisiana crew about who can claim Shrimp n Grits . They swear up and down they do it better but you just can’t beat Charleston shrimp and grits . Peach cobbler is another one . My grandma made some peach cobbler you would mug somebody for . Peach cobbler with some Vanilla Ice cream …. C’mon on now've
If my Gullah friends are correct, shrimp and grits is an old Gullah/Geechee meal.....not a Cajun/Creole one. I've always seen it in old Gullah cookbooks.
 
If my Gullah friends are correct, shrimp and grits is an old Gullah/Geechee meal.....not a Cajun/Creole one. I've always seen it in old Gullah cookbooks.

Yeah I thought the same . I tell ya I have had some darn good shrimp and grits in New Orleans . They do it right . Still think we got a slight edge on them . I love me some Cajun cooking . My neighbor is from Bayou labatre and when they throw down it’s something else . Those folks can cook and drink with the best of them . That barbecue shrimp will make you slap your momma .
 
I’m guessing Frogmore Stew and Low Country Boil are the same as Beaufort Stew (shrimp, sausage, potatoes and corn— tossed out on a picnic table for picking through). Right?
 
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Lots of good choices in SC. Maybe not the most iconic, but I’d eat Charleston red rice with anything, usually shrimp and sausage.
Like a low country boil if you tossed the dang corn and potatoes that people always make too much of and add something good in its own right.
I made it with lobster tail once.
 
DNR? What's that? And I grew up in upstate SC to a very country family that's been in the state for 300 years. Never seen someone actually serve chicken bog. Had Frogmore Stew many times (though we call it low country boil). I will fight someone who says shrimp and grits are iconic. I never heard of them until I was visiting Charleston in college. I feel like they only blew up fairly recently, primarily when all the northerners started moving to the beach.

I feel like mustard BBQ, hash, or pimento cheese are much more South Carolina than these other dishes. Boiled peanuts are up there too. I think they're more distributed now, but nowhere are they as prevalent.
DNR is the Department of Natural Resources. And there is nothing truly iconic about Frogmore Stew other than its name. Every coastal region of the country has a version of a seafood boil.
 
DNR is the Department of Natural Resources. And there is nothing truly iconic about Frogmore Stew other than its name. Every coastal region of the country has a version of a seafood boil.
Then there is nothing iconic about chicken bog/perlou either. Most every cuisine has a one pot rice/pasta and meat dish. Louisina has jambalaya. Italy has Frutti del Mare. India has several as does Mexico and West Africa.
 
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