Before Ted Lee and his brother, Matt, became the ambassadors of Southern cooking known as the Lee Bros., they were just those Yankees who moved from New York to Charleston, S.C., as children. Their status as outsiders gave them "a sense of wonder as it relates to the food of Charleston," Ted said recently.
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Peter Frank Edwards for The New York Times
Martha Lou Gadsden serving at Martha Lou's Kitchen.
He still recalls the taste of his first boiled peanut at age 9. "You shell it, and it dribbles down your fingers," he said. "It was revelatory."
The new book that he wrote with his brother, "The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen," conveys that wonder through recipes for conch fritters, fried shrimp and deviled crab, inspired by some of the city's most beloved restaurants and shops.
Below are edited excerpts from a conversation with Mr. Lee on how visitors can sample Charleston's home-cooked cuisine.
Q. What's the one meal visitors must have when they go to Charleston?
A. A Lowcountry oyster roast. Charleston is a port city, so you had all of these influences coming together: Scots-Irish, Spanish, English, Portuguese, German. The oyster roast is the culinary through line, from the Native Americans to present day. An oyster roast — it's a community thing you do in your backyard when there's a chill in the air — but you can get a great approximation of it year-round at Bowens Island. The current owner is Robert Barber, and it was started by his grandparents. Real characters. They collected vintage TVs; some of them were on, some not.
Now it's a pavilion on stilts over the marsh. On the ground floor oysters are steamed open on a metal sheet over a brick pit. Wood smoke is essential. These cluster oysters come straight from the marsh; they are bracingly salty. Sometimes I throw a little lemon on them, a shake of Tabasco. And as part of Mr. Barber's modernization program, now you can drink a delicious Palmetto Pale Ale with them.
Q. Any food traditions particular to spring?
A. Tearooms in churches around town. It's a misnomer because actually they serve lunch; parishioners cook as a fund-raiser for the church. Every spring The Post and Courier publishes the dates and times the tearooms are open on its site. This is a classic way to experience that midcentury home cooking you find in "Charleston Receipts," one of the first Junior League cookbooks. It's Charleston okra soup; she-crab soup, a bisque with crab meat, roe and sherry; a pimento cheese sandwich; a Huguenot torte, with apples and pecans, for dessert. They'll also sell homemade jams and preserves, and that's a great way to get a souvenir like a hot pepper jelly.
Q. Where else can you find home-style classics?
A. The place to start is Martha Lou's Kitchen, a very unassuming place on Morrison Drive. It's fried whiting over grits for breakfast. It's smothered pork chops with long-cooked green beans or lima beans. This is an institution owned 30 years by Martha Lou Gadsden, who cooks there every day, and if she isn't, her daughters do. Dave's Carry-Out on Morris Street is another workaday place that does fried food brilliantly. Whole-fried flounder with hoppin' Johns. This is food that everyone eats in Charleston.
Q. Say you're renting a house or apartment in Charleston.
A. A great idea. So many great places on Airbnb or VRBO, and reasonable. I once rented a wonderful house on St. Philips Street and this really cool loft on Broad Street. Then you could try your hand at Lowcountry cooking.
Q. Where do you get ingredients?
A. The Vegetable Bin for produce. Harris Teeter for groceries. Backman Seafood, outside of the city, sells fish from the region's waters. It's blackfish, sheepshead, crabs, oysters. The sort of freshness only like what we saw when we traveled to Japan.
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