Grocery celebrates all things Southern
The national love affair with Southern foods and foodways remains as sweet and sticky as a pineapple-glazed honey ham.
For several years now, the rest of the country has been enamored of the cuisine Southerners have enjoyed for generations, from pimento cheese to Hoppin’ John to shrimp and grits to pecan pie.
Within that delicious context, on Wednesday Central Market kicks off Taste of the South, a two-week tribute to Southern foods. The supermarket is bringing in hundreds of items — including Southern wines — for its celebration of the larder from states such as Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama.
Taste of the South this year replaces Central Market’s popular Passport event —
Classes from page D1 immersions into the food and wine of various countries — as well as marks the completion of the store’s expansion and renovation project.
Among the Southern goods available for purchase, including prepared foods: biscuits, tomato pie, blue crab, green tomatoes, okra and collards, Mississippi mud pie, Lane Cake, cheese-grits cakes, Carolina Gold pecan rice, benne wafers, bourbonglazed chicken, bread pudding and plenty of ham.
Tastings and recipe cards to make Southern dishes at home will be available throughout the store, along with samplings: Doux South Pickles 1-7 p.m. Friday; Goat Lady Dairy 11 a.m.6 p.m. Sunday; Verdant Kitchen (ginger, turmeric and chutney) noon-7 p.m. May 25; and Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheese noon-7 p.m. May 29.
Taste of the South opens 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday with a Store Stroll. Free and open to the public, the stroll offers a chance to graze on samples at 20 different stations while taking in Central Market’s new postrenovation features.