For the Slow Food Dish dining guide, City Paper explored all facets of Slow Food, from slow wines to slow preparations. But not all of my photos made the print issue. So here’s what got left out.
Root Baking Co.’s Chris Wilkins provides beautiful breads to area restaurants using slow grains sourced from heirloom purveyors such as M.C. Cannon Farms. Pictured here is Chef R.J. Dye’s Crab Tartar tine at Henrietta’s Brasserie in the Dewberry Hotel. Chef Dye couples blue crab with trout roe on Root Company’s semolina bread.
Stems and Skin’s main man Matt Tunstall not only knows his wine, but knows his ferments. Pictured here is Tunstall’s fermented garlic and honey ricotta. Truth is, I didn’t hear the explanation of the dish when it arrived. I just began to think on composition and styling. At the end of the shoot I took a quick swipe with the provided toast point. This was no ordinary ricotta. The umami of the garlic and the sweetness of the honey had me at hello.
Pawpaw’s Southern-inspired menu has a delicate touch to classic regional cuisine, all the while adding some creativity and Chef Jared Rodgers’ personal touch. Here Chef Rodgers takes a long time favorite of crab stuffed flounder and executes it out of boredom. The flounder roulade is wrapped around beautiful fresh blue crab basted in butter and seared on top in bottom. This method offers up a lovely crust to a light texture in the center. Well done, chef.
Upon meeting Justin Cannon of M.C. Cannon Farms, I knew he was a man passionate about the family business. You could hear in his tone of voice the love and the struggle of being a small scale farmer in the twenty first century. I think writer Chris Wilkins says it best in his essay in the Dish dining guide, “Justin Cannon, a third generation grain grower in Monck’s Corner is one of these people. Tall and well-sunned from countless hours of farm labor, the 30-year-old’s dry wit and honest, easy demeanor seem perfectly in line with how we imagine our farmers to be: humble and practical, with a deep commitment to the land in spite of the harsh economic realities plaguing family farms all over the country.”
Goat Sheep Cow North is a little slice of Europe in the converted edge of past industrial Meeting Street. Half Mile North has now spread another quarter mile to Goat Sheep Cow. Here the daily grilled cheese invention deemed the “Cheese Monger’s Grilled Cheese” is a grown up’s dream of a childhood classic.
The Short Rib Gnocchi at The Obstinate Daughter was shot for its paring of Ampeleia wine for the Dish feature on Slow Wines. I had finished the shoot as Chef Will Fincher offered up the plate of fresh gnocchi to me. Two bites in I had to snap a picture to put the viewer in my eyes. You should visit the OD to put this gnocchi in your belly.
Help keep the City Paper free.
No paywalls.
No newspaper subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations from downtown to North Charleston to Johns Island to Summerville to Mount Pleasant.
Help support independent journalism by donating today.