Monster Hash
We’ve never met a cooked potato we didn’t like. Baked with butter, salt-boiled, fire-roasted, puréed with cream, au gratin, dauphinois, frittered, and french fried—all are surefire transformations of the homely...
A land of majestic barbecue and fascinating diverse sauces, including a unique mustard-powered sauce in the center of the state, South Carolina also boasts shrimp, flounder, and oysters that are second to none (shrimp and grits really should be the official state dish). Oyster roasts are big all along the coast, as is the festive sausage-shrimp-corn-potato gallimaufry known as Frogmore stew or Low Country boil. Here in the Low Country, rice is the important starch, and authentic dining experiences range from roadside Gullah cafes to temples of fine Dixie dining in Charleston. South Carolina produces more peaches than nearby Georgia, so its peach cobbler, peach ice cream, peach ham glaze, and peach pie all are noteworthy. The South’s beloved pimento cheese is big in every county; the state capital, Columbia, is where the pimento cheeseburger was invented (and where the best one is served).
We’ve never met a cooked potato we didn’t like. Baked with butter, salt-boiled, fire-roasted, puréed with cream, au gratin, dauphinois, frittered, and french fried—all are surefire transformations of the homely...
For two-lane travelers, pulling into a parking lot perfumed by hamburgers and hot onion rings is as satisfying as any four-star dining experience. At a true classic drive-in, you...
ONE OF THE MOST EUPHORIC moments of our eating career was the first time our eyes adjusted to the darkness inside Sgt. White's Diner and the buffet came into...
There aren’t many places left like Edisto,” says Charlie White, proprietor of the Edisto Beach Cafe & Grille, which is across the street from the ocean and next to the...
No introduction is necessary. These are America's ten best hot dog joints By JANE and MICHAEL STERN 1 Walter's is a pagoda-shaped roadside stand that has been serving incomparable hot...
Before Ralph Nader, cars were fun. For generations of joyriders, a purring V-8 was a vehicle for play and pleasure. "Companion of carefree days" is how Chevy advertised itself...
Seafood is a delicacy that has been enjoyed since the beginning of time. Its flavors are unique and diverse, and it can be cooked in many ways. That is...
The Annual HOT ROD Power Tour This is a seven-day, seven-city journey expected to bring together more than 6,000 vehicles and 100,000-plus spectators making it the largest traveling car-show in...
The 2014 Roadfood.com eating tour of Charlotte, North Carolina, featured four-star fried chicken, barbecue, pimento cheese, and banana pudding.
Aiken has long been a vacation destination for the horsey set – back in the 1950s, weekly non-stop train service direct from New York served wintering horses, horse owners,...
Unique Regional Dishes After 40 years and 5 million miles spent on the road looking for America's best regional food, we've assembled a list of the quintessential, must-eat food in...
Road Trip Overview A road trip over the Cascades through Snoqualmie Pass leads not only to a bucolic, big-sky Washington State and some of the most wonderful fruit stands (apples...
Is there another dish as diverse as pizza? It can be an utterly simple tomato pie – nothing but sauce on crust – or it can be a multi-meat...
A favorite vacation destination for southerners eager to escape summer heat and enjoy the cooler climate of the Blue Ridge Mountain foothills, the area around Landrum, South Carolina, and...
Hash on Rice is the star side-dish at barbecue parlors throughout the South Carolina Midlands and Upstate. A byproduct of whole-hog cookery, but frequently also made with beef, it...
There is no shortage of places to eat in the bustling beach town of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. For an authentic, unique taste, forget the big, tourist-oriented dining halls....
The South Carolina Upcountry boom town of Greenville is an eater's delight of high-end restaurants, franchised food both high and low, and a handful of one-of-a-kind Roadfood treasures. Our...
Savannah Low Country flavors are a profoundly colorful swirl of old-time Dixie, of African-American soul, and of the modern South. This itinerary of Roadfood favorites offers a taste of...
What Is Meat & Three? A term used through much of the South, “meat and three” quite simply refers to a menu template that lists two to five entrees and...
The Best Mexican Food Augusta, GA Everyone knows that the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) around Augusta, Georgia, is rich with BBQ, peach pie, fried chicken, Coastal seafood, and meat...
Great Soft Serve There is so much inferior soft-serve ice cream (aerated, chemically-flavored), that soft-serve in general has a bad reputation among ice cream lovers. But there are exceptions, soft-serve...
Burgers in the Open Air Hamburgers are good year-round, but there’s special pleasure in having one en plein air on a summer day. Check out these baker’s-dozen Roadfood favorite restaurants serving the...
Fill Your Gas Tank and Your Stomach "Eat Here. Get Gas": It's a roadside jest as old as gas stations themselves. (Before gas stations, pioneering motorists bought gas in pharmacies.)...
Taco Take Over When we started hunting Roadfood many years ago, good tacos were hard to find anywhere other than the southwest borderlands and southern California. Today, great tacos are...
Grilled Cheese From pressed-flat, wafer-thin, white-bread-and-Velveeta cooked on a lunch-counter flattop to effulgent bouquets of imported cheese melted between halves of an artisan bun, the best grilled cheese sandwiches have...
Worlds Greatest Cheat Day One day and a lot of appetite are the requirements for this eat-fest in Columbia, South Carolina. The city's signature dish is a pimento cheeseburger, nowhere...
The Best Hash Around Hash (on rice) is the star side-dish at barbecue parlors throughout South Carolina. A byproduct of whole-hog cookery, it is made mostly from viscera and can...
Hangover BeGone Other than drinking more or not drinking at all, the way to banish hangovers is to spoon up some menudo. Made from tripe with a large charge of...
Airport Food Food in airports is better than it used to be, but when we arrive by plane, we can't get out of the terminal fast enough. By rental car,...
Sweet Enough for Birds Southern cuisine includes many famously sweet things, from tea to pralines to sorghum syrup and fried pie. Sweetest of them all is hummingbird cake, a spice...
What is Frogmore Stew Frogmore Stew is a good-time meal served at picnics, parties, and political rallies throughout South Carolina, especially in the Low Country. The hearty jumble of shrimp,...
In the states where they are popular, Dixie dogs are not known as Dixie dogs. They are called slaw dogs or simply hot dogs. But because they originated in...
Augusta, Georgia, is a destination city for anyone who loves Deep South barbecue. In the city and around it, that means pork, hereabouts served with hash on rice and...
Both Savannah and Charleston are culinary Meccas; between them is a paradise of good eats. Meandering up the coast, have breakfast at Blackstone's Cafe (shrimp & grits, please!) and...
Did you know that South Carolina produces more peaches than Georgia? Route 23 through Aiken and Saluda Counties takes you alongside endless orchards where the sunshine-sweet fruit thrives and...
Why is brunch so wonderful? One, it almost always includes adult beverages. Two, it's far more bountiful than either breakfast or lunch. Three, there's no hurry to eat it:...
There are few pleasures in life more sensuously delicious than sinking teeth into a perfectly ripe peach to let its juicy, sugared sunshine flood over taste buds. Because their...
The only possible happy exclamation incited by corned beef hash spooned from a can is "Arf!" But freshly chopped and sizzled to a crisp, crowned with poached eggs eager...
It would be crazy to travel through the South and eat only banana pudding, but every place that serves it at its best precedes it with an excellent well-rounded...
"Drive-in" has come to mean just about any cheap-eats restaurant with car-friendly parking. A genuine drive-in is a place where customers park and are waited on and eat in...
Of the hundred five-star barbecue parlors around the U.S.A. this dozen is the crème de la crème. .
We Americans love our hamburgers, at home and on the road. From mischievous fried sliders to majestic beef pillows oozing juice over coals, burgers are a birthright coast to...
Grits can be a watery white side dish to fill out a plate of eggs, or they can be the creamiest, earthiest, most delicious corn cereal imaginable. The addition...
Key lime pie is the official state pie of Florida. Once unique to the coral islands at the southernmost end of Route One, the sweet-tart, pale yellow dessert is...
Bologna sandwiches are common. Great bologna sandwiches are rare. The very best of them, in particular the one served at the legendary G&R Tavern of Waldo, Ohio, are worthy...
Crumb-topped, lattice-topped, or layered with caramel and welcoming a scoop of ice cream on top, apple pie is everywhere from coast to coast. For your pleasure, a baker's dozen...
Many restaurants serve steak, but some places are dedicated to it. Although no great steak house is cheap, some of the best are extremely informal (like Doe's Eat Place...
Columbia, South Carolina gave birth to the pimento cheeseburger in the 1960s. It happened at a long-gone restaurant called the dairy bar, run by J.C. Reynolds. (In fact, some...
South Carolina is a magnificent barbecue state with diverse regional styles. Heading north by northwest from the coast, you'll eat red-sauced, mustard-sauced, and minimally-sauced pork. Hash on rice accompanies...
Fried chicken is popular all across America and so different everywhere that it is not possible to say what city, state, or region does it best. While the process...
Lima beans are known everywhere, loved mostly in the South, and a signature dish of Charleston, South Carolina. Soul food cooks simmer the khaki-colored pods with plenty of pork,...
You can dine high on the hog in the sophisticated downtown restaurants of Charleston, South Carolina; you also can feast low, on pig tails and neck bones larded into...