On Menus

The closing chapter pulls together the many strands of foodways that continue to define the Eastern Shore of Virginia as a distinct and distinctive terroir. The chapter begins with an African American church menu and turns to a group of award-winning contemporary chefs for their reactions to the listed fare. Every menu is much more than the itemized listing it provides. Menus are invitations to invention through pairings and juxtapositions. They are a literature where individual items speak to the expertise of the cook and the expectations of the diner. Menus are the most optimistic of all literary forms. They are about art and gratification.

Mr. Hayman

This chapter explores the idea of terroir through the sweet potato, in particular the heirloom cultivar of the Hayman sweet potato. Terroir is about much more than the taste of place as an expression of soil, climate, varietal, and process. Terroir, as an idea, encapsulates particular forms of memory and knowledge. It's a connoisseur's word that speaks to the passion and possession of knowledge as a means of understanding the essence of a place and its people through historical narratives, recipes, and oral histories.

A Freezer Full of Marsh Hens

Marsh hens (mud hens, sage hens, clapper rails, rail birds) are the emblem of marshland worlds of men hunting vast wetland meadows and marshlands of salt grass, cooking together in clam houses and garage kitchens. This chapter examines the natural history of marsh hens, hunting lore, storytelling, terroir, foodways and regional identity through historical narratives, recipes, and oral histories.

Panfish

Panfish on the Eastern Shore of Virginia simply refers to a host of small fish that include spot, croaker, sand mullet, jumping mullet, hogfish, swelling toads, and more. The idea of the panfish relies on four characteristics: size (they fit whole into a skillet), status (they tend to be associated with less desirable fish—often linked to qualities of oiliness or boniness), procurement (although netted, seined, or trapped commercially, panfish are commonly associated with amateur angling), and preparation (largely fried). In essence, panfish, spot in particular, are notable for their everydayness, remarkable only in the moments of their absence. The spot's culinary associations are tightly knit into the history of place. This chapter explores that connection through documentary evidence, oral history, local foodways, and the Chesapeake Bay fishery.

A Taste for Toads

The is chapter explores the natural and culinary history of toads (the fish, not the amphibian) as well as a specialized fishery and invention around a seasonal catch. The toads rise from a “trash” by-catch to a delicacy speaks to evolving sensibilities around cuisine and terroir. A toad is a complicated creature. It tests the boundaries of Leviticus and chart the dangers of gastronomy. The chapter makes extensive use of oral history, natural history, and local foodways.

Busted Sooks, Rank Peelers, and White-Belly Jimmies

The trade in blue crabs remains an important part of the Eastern Shore economy, and it traces its origins back to the arrival of the railroad and advances in food processing and preservation in the late 1800s. This chapter begins with the regional vernacular nomenclature for blue crabs related to the fishery, marketing, and shedding for soft shell crabs. It includes details on crabbing and recipes. The chapter speaks to the creation of terroir and cuisine through language.

Mengue de Cangrejo de Guisante

Some things are better witnessed than read. In the translation from actions to words, from Spanish into English, a mengue recipe retains the liveliness and flexibility of cooking in the moment, of what is witnessed and consumed as common knowledge in a family kitchen. The recipe for one family's mengue is an emblem of an evolving Eastern Shore terroir and the reconciliation and synthesis of two culinary worlds in the creation of something familiar yet new. This chapter explores affective, tradition, and invention through oral histories and recipes.

Drum Head Soup

This chapter examines drum head soup, a variation on fish chowder prepared from the bones and head – and favoured in many African American households. Cuisine is experience and emotion, embodiment and immediacy, custom and invention, destiny and storytelling. It manifests itself in a constantly evolving style and synthesis of ingredients, recipes, preparations, and eating, from fancy holiday meals to workday lunches. When people speak about cuisine, they speak about themselves and the pleasures of the table and the company they keep. Cuisine not only entails the distinct flavors of place (terroir) but also evokes how place “flavors” people, speech, foodways, and the multitude of objects and actions that constitute the local.

The Wachapreague Fireman’s Carnival Cake Wheel

The Wachapreague Fireman's Carnival is unique only in its details in a place where homecomings of all varieties are occasions for long-standing celebrations. Throughout the Eastern Shore, favorite foods afford communions of remembrance and reminiscence. Where we eat speaks to the idea of terroir grounded in the places where folks share meals and conversation. Where we eat goes beyond experiences of breaking bread and maps and into how we know our place in the world, not just through what we eat, but also how we remember and speak of locale. The literal consumption of place nourishes our understandings of who we are. The power of taste is immersive, a deep plunge into a river of memory and flavor.

Clam Fritters and the Quest for Perfection

Griddle- and pan-fried across generations in the crucible of the everyday cuisine of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, the clam fritter's origins emerge from a coming together of African and European cooking traditions. When it comes to the simplicity and perfection of clam fritters, everybody has an opinion. A lot of mischief lurks in simple things. This chapter explores the complex histories of ordinary things through storytelling, natural history, documentary history, and Eastern Shore of Virginia cuisine and terroir.