Soul Food

Somewhere along the line I read a column about Hong Kong being a foodie Utopia. At the time, I can remember thinking to myself, hmm. I didn’t have any earthly idea that Hong Kong was critically acclaimed as a foodie destination, but the article was intriguing. The piece even referred to Hong Kong as being the food lovers equivalent to Hajj and that all foodies should make the trip there once in their lifetime. I think of Charleston much the same way, and where else would you find a restaurant that showcases locally grown and harvested fish, all-natural poultry and vegetables producing a classic lowcountry cuisine inspired by Southern roots obtained by growing up in Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana, with a name inspired by The Beatles White Album? Charleston, but of course and The Glass Onion never fails to satisfy.

I have been a fan of The Glass Onion since Thanksgiving 2008 when my wife happened across an article in the local newspaper featuring a classic cornbread and oyster stuffing from, you guessed it, The Glass Onion. On a visit there over the Christmas Holiday with my sister and her family visiting from West Virginia we stopped by The Glass Onion on a Tuesday night on our way to see the Holiday Lights at James Island County Park. I had bragged about the restaurant to my sister and niece and had spoke of all of the culinary accolades heaped upon the joint, even being mentioned recently as deserving of a James Beard Award. One of the appetizers that the group decided upon was macaroni and cheese, and once we had all sampled the cheesy casserole it was a unanimous decision, “that be some good stuff. So good in fact, we all decided that the Glass Onion Classics Cookbook would be worth the purchase price just in order to get the recipe; that is until our server told us that the recipe isn’t within the cookbook. After thinking about it for a few moments my sister spoke up and said, “You know, I bet it’s just made with Velveeta cheese, that’s what it tastes like.” Well, I was almost offended by her comment, and I quickly scoffed, “I hardly think that a possible James Beard Foundation winner is going to serve a macaroni and cheese made with Velveeta.” When the chef came by our table to ask us how we liked our supper, my sister spoke up and asked him why the mac-n-cheese recipe is not in the book, to which he smiled and replied, “oh, that? It’s too simple; it's just made with Velveeta cheese.” You could have heard a pin drop at our table, except for the loud thump as my chin hit the floor…


But honestly, if you know anything about the Glass Onion, you will know that it is not their style to throw together dishes by using a bunch of esoteric and exotic ingredients presented on a menu with names you can’t confidently pronounce when placing your order. The finished product is very exotic, in its own right, try it I am sure you won’t be disappointed. Once you do you will understand why Monday evening after attending our son’s high school baseball game in James Island we detoured on to the Savannah Highway to stop and have dinner at The Glass Onion. And of course, it was awesome.


If you missed their recent appearance on The Food Network's, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives I thought I would put together a little photo expose of our visit last night to the Glass Onion.

All-natural chicken and pork is a trademark of The Glass Onion, and you can taste the difference.

The menu board changes everyday.

A classic "out of the garden" salad, topped with pickled okra and pickled green beans.

Housemade Pickles, page 96 in the Glass Onion Classics cookbook, buy it here.

My entree this evening, SC Triggerfish over Mashed Potatoes and Creamed Turnip Greens. Yummy!!! Can't say enough about fresh Triggerfish out of the local water.

Three owner-chefs with resumes that include Emeril's Delmonico in New Orleans, FIG in Charleston, Johnson and Wales University, SNOB in Charleston and a philosophy to offer a meal that satisfies the soul, as in "Soul Food." The Glass Onion, nice.

The Ultimate Comfort Food

I love to cook and I enjoy blogging about my food experiments from time to time. After all, the snippets fit well into a lifestyles blog, right? I haven’t done a cooking post for a while so Friday evening when my wife requested home baked pizza it provided an opportunity to not only honor her request but to also snap some photos of the process for a blog post. After all, is there anything better than pizza on a Friday night? OK, I admit, this is a rhetorical question, of course I know that you may be able to identify scores of things that are better than pizza on a Friday night, but I think you get the point.

When I was preparing to write about the experience, I considered the various angles that I could take with the piece to make it entertaining as well as informative. The thought that kept percolating to the top of my head was, “pizza, the ultimate comfort food.” That’s it, I thought, I can publish a post on the merits of pizza as the ultimate comfort food, after all, isn’t it? So, as I frequently do, I decided to do a little research on my chosen topic before I started writing, that’s what all the professionals do, huh? So I went to my favorite search engine and typed in “history of pizza.” Of course, I perused the information and didn’t really learn much that I didn’t already know, and certainly nothing that really grabbed me as information that I must pass along in the form of a blog post. Then I thought I would check my catch phrase, “pizza the ultimate comfort food.” Yep, you guessed it, 150 gazillion million references came up, so much for originality.

Consequently I decided, why should I try and write something profound about a topic as well known as pizza, I mean after all, what hasn’t already been said about PIZZA? For crying out loud, it’s the ultimate comfort food, everybody knows that. Ha, there you have it, although lobster macaroni and cheese is a close second.


So, instead of writing some award winning expose on pizza, I think I will just give you what you really need, want and will appreciate; an idea for an easy, yet exceptional homemade pizza. I must say, I use several different methods for pizza made at home. I have, from time to time, done the “from scratch” routine. I also frequently do pizzas outdoors on the grill; those are particularly fun to do. I have a pizza stone that I use in the oven and it is perfect, but for this night, I wanted to make a large rectangular thick crusty pizza so I used a cookie sheet. Once again, and I stress, this is an EASY way to do a home baked pizza that doesn’t taste like EASY.

This pizza starts with store bought dough. Publix Supermarket sells fresh pizza dough in single pizza size balls in the bakery department. I find that two of those provide the perfect amount of dough for a large rectangular pan. I combine the two dough balls into one giant glob of dough and let it rise for a couple of hours. While the dough rises I gather my other ingredients, including a can of pizza sauce, a pound of provolone cheese (I like provolone occasionally as an alternative to mozzarella), a can of mushrooms, a stick of pepperoni (cut your own slices from the stick, allows you to use thicker slices), and if you are lucky enough to have them, some peppers canned in tomato sauce (see Oliverio’s Peppers). I also go ahead and shred my provolone at this point as well.

Once the dough has rested and grown in size I put about a tablespoon of olive oil on the cookie sheet and plop the dough into the puddle of oil, and begin flattening the dough by hand in an attempt to cover the cookie sheet. After a while of working the dough, I flip it over so that the oiled side is now up, and I begin using a small roller to roll the dough into the rectangle shape required to fill up the cookie sheet. As soon as you have the dough conforming to the pan, it’s time for the sauce. Use the sauce sparingly, you can use too much and if you do, the crust will not bake as evenly and your pizza will be sloppy and runny. For a large rectangle, I usually use about half of the 15 ounce can of pizza sauce and I spread it over the crust leaving roughly a 1 inch margin on all four sides of the rectangular pizza crust.

Next, it’s time for the toppings. I usually try to be uniform with the placement of the pepperoni and random with the peppers and mushrooms. And last but not least, I top the pizza with the shredded provolone before popping the pan into a pre-heated oven at 500 degrees.

The baking time is going to vary depending upon your cookie sheet, so here is where you just have to watch the pizza. The goal is a well done crust but you definitely don’t want the bottom to begin to burn or the cheese to begin to brown. After you remove the pizza from the oven, it is very important to let the pizza rest on the counter for about 10 minutes, to allow the provolone to begin to harden back up a bit before you slice the pizza into squares.

I think you will agree, this is a good pizza and it’s pretty easy to do. If you try it, leave me a comment with what you thought. Thanks for stopping by From The Land of Palm Trees.

Sure Signs of Spring In The Lowcountry

This has surely been an odd winter season; in fact, it's almost strange to talk about signs of spring when most of the East Coast has experienced spring all winter long. But, sure enough, there are lots of signs of spring abound in the Lowcountry.

While a huge portion of the country looks to a groundhog named Phil to predict the arrival of spring, in the Hammond House, there are signs a little closer to home to look for. You know, like Michelle scrubbing red dirt out of baseball pants and a bat bag constantly residing in the floor of the front foyer. If the baseball equipment doesn't provide enough of a hint that spring has sprung, perhaps a drive down Central Avenue in Summerville, SC will serve as a reminder. Prior to moving to the Low country seeing the televised images of azaleas in full bloom at Augusta National Golf Club during the Masters formed an iconic identity of spring in Dixie for me. But I now believe that some of the most vibrant pink flowers reside right here in Summerville during the spring when azalea bushes the size of a house burst into bloom as the sun warms the air.

Of course, along with the explosion of color comes the telltale layer of yellow pollen that settles on cars, outdoor furniture, porch railings and sidewalks. It reminds me of the chalk dust accumulating on the chalk rail under the chalkboards in my elementary school back in the day. But the reminders of the coming of spring and summer are not all provided by Mother Nature. Even though Charleston is a year-round tourist destination, the South Eastern Wildlife Exposition followed by the Charleston Food and Wine Festival leading up to the Cooper River Bridge Run ushers in the high-season for tourism in the Land of Palm Trees.

But even though all of those things SCREAM spring has arrived, there is a single clue that serves as the one undeniably "Chawlston" reminder that beach season is just around the corner. Yep, you guessed it, the Seersucker Suit advertisements from M. Dumas & Sons on King Street are back in the Post & Courier each day. I never owned a Seersucker Jacket until I came to the Lowcountry, but it is a staple for every Southern Gentleman's closet and as "Chawlston" as Shrimp-n-Grits and Bawled Peanuts.