On New Year’s Day, you’re supposed to eat 365 black-eyed peas in order to ensure that you’ll have good luck throughout the year (or 366 for a leap year). Collards can be a symbol of financial success. And there’s pork, which signifies progress. Now that you know the appetizing ways to get good luck in 2011, the question is: Where can you find this stuff?
Well, since we are in Charleston, after all, seeing collards and pork on menus isn’t all that uncommon. Like at the Glass Onion, for example, which is featuring Sea Island Red Peas and braised local collards during lunch today and brunch tomorrow. “The Sea Island Red Pea is an heirloom variety of field pea that Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills has helped to bring back in recent years. It is similar to a black eyed pea, which is what my partner Chris Stewart and I remember eating on New Year’s day in our home states of Georgia (me) and Alabama (Chris),” co-owner Sarah O’Kelley says. “We also remember eating collard greens, so we are serving up some delicious local ones.”
The Glass Onion will also have a special New Year’s Day brunch dish: crispy braised pork belly with grits, peas, and greens, which O’Kelley says “enables you to knock out all the good luck food at once.” They’re doing takeout if you want to bring some peas and greens luck home with you. The Glass Onion will be closed on Saturday night.
Husk is closed on New Year’s Day, but they’ll have Tennessee Caviar, a recipe which traditionally uses black-eyed peas, on Friday.
17 North’s New Year’s Eve dinner menu features a hoppin’ john soup, and on New Year’s Day, Cru Cafe will be featuring Hoppin’ John, braised collard greens, and roasted pork loin in addition to their regular menu.
You can also get the good-luck dishes at Southern restaurants like Hominy Grill, Virginia’s, and Bertha’s. These places tend to have the dishes on their regular menus, and we hear from Bertha’s that they typically get orders for large servings of the sides at this time of year.
So if you’ve ever needed incentive to order that side of collard greens, New Year’s is the perfect time.
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