Join us on an epic journey as we embark on the East Coast Seafood tour in the US, exploring the rich history and flavors of the Gullah culture in South Carolina. In this video, we venture to St. Helena Island, a place steeped in tradition and history, to learn about the art of shrimping with 72-year-old Mr. Atkins, who shares his family’s techniques passed down through generations.
We witness the preparation of a traditional breakfast of shrimp and grits by Chef BJ Dennis, who infuses the dish with old-school heirloom grits and a savory shrimp roux. The flavors are deeply rooted in Gullah culture, showcasing the simplicity and resourcefulness of their cuisine.
Next, we visit Gullah Express food truck, owned by Sherry Johnson, where she serves up a unique shrimp and crab burger and introduces us to the tradition of using every part of the animal in Gullah cooking. We delve into the history of the Gullah people, their journey from slavery to freedom, and the importance of preserving their culinary traditions for future generations.
Finally, we partake in a classic Gullah feast at Penn Center, featuring Frogmore stew and oxtail soup. These one-pot dishes showcase the flavors and techniques that have been passed down through generations, highlighting the resilience and self-sufficiency of the Gullah community.
Through food, we learn about the history, culture, and legacy of the Gullah people, whose traditions continue to shape the culinary landscape of the East Coast. Join us on this culinary adventure as we celebrate the flavors and stories of the Gullah culture.
Watch the video by Best Ever Food Review Show
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Sandwiches for lunch and I was ashamed to have that why are you ashamed of eating crab in this video you’ll see how old school fishing techniques and some Timeless traditional cooking oh my God this looks amazing make for some of the best SE food experiences on the East
Coast I understand that when you are cooking this you’re actually tasting it raw why do you do that but first let’s back up as our journey continues our East Coast Seafood tour is taking us from the oyster farms of Virginia these get pretty dang big all the way down to
South Carolina here you’ll find the USA’s most valuable most popular seafood I didn’t realize that the way you catch it actually affects the texture and the flavor our day begins on St Helena Island a place is perhaps best known for its connection to gulla culture we are different kind of people
We tend to show up stand up and speak up language good morning good morning I got say day clean and of course G Fu how would you convince somebody that they should try the tail of an ox but who are the gulla and how has their history
Shaped food in the USA the answers all start on the waterers oysters and blue crabs in South Carolina are any Chef’s dream yet the creek shrimp steals the show using the craft passed down by his father and grandfather 72-year-old Mr Atkins has been shrimping for the better part of his
Life my dad used to make a net hand thrown net when you’re dealing with the kindor something I deal with you have to try to keep it alive when you pull a troll net you stresses the swimp out it die a lot faster when the DI this will
Get mushy the brown and white shrimp harvested from the Region’s shallow brackish waters are among the world’s finest has anything changed over time when it comes to shrimping one time I could take this net right here and I go for 3 or 4 hours and I’ll have this
Thing here full now I lucky if I get it up what a p on that so what are the regulations surrounding shrimp so that 10 years from now there are still shrimp remaining they have a certain season that they allow you to sometime like an an EO T about November mid November they
Only allow you to cat today Mr Atkins Harvest is set to create a hearty breakfast I’ve had grits before but not like this some alluring street food I don’t think that I’ve ever had shark meat in the USA and a grand Feast that will feed eight this is something I’ve
Been missing in my life it all kicks off with BJ in his combat kitchen BJ yes sir good morning good morning good morning good I I say day clean oh is that part of gulla language this was one of the phrases the culture new day Sunrise meet
BJ a personal chef caterer and torch bearer of gulla Heritage he actively works to bring his culture and traditions to the Forefront through his social media and culinary skills including the Mastery of crafting the perfect shrimp and grits our shrimp has a distinct flavor you know like they’re nice they’re tender they’re sweet
They’re succulent I’ve tasted shrimp from the Gulf up to Florida Keys but these are special after cleaning the shrimp BJ throws them into a skillet with some fat and lets them Sizzle until the meat is firm when I was with Mr Atkins I learned a couple things about
Shrimp he said if you stress it out too much it’s going to be mushy it’s going to be bad well right now they seem very calm he adds onion pinch of salt even more fat and two generous scoops of root N I just use water because coming up my
Family grandparents anybody I knew was just water the shrimp kind of gives you that body that you looking for like the old people say he make your own gravy he make your own gravy oh it makes its own gravy hey I’m getting better at this I didn’t know there was a whole different
Language here that’s wild he reunites the shrimp with the gravy and garnishes the dish with scallions next to the skillet a bubbling pot of grits is seasoned with salt and butter well you in the Low Country this is the region where shrimp and grits we say originated
So for me the grits that you see here they got to be old school heirloom grits the way my parents my grandparents would eat grits you know the corn they would gry corn they would have took it to the mill and stone ground they can’t be the
Stuff out the store that takes 15 to 20 minutes these took literally an hour but when you taste them man they’re like fluffy they’re heirloom old school amazing gentlemen this looks amazing what do you think of this beautiful well hold on before we started rolling you
Said a little bit too dark this G work for the shmp but it be better for what for an A okay it looks great to me I ain’t going to fuss with them M that’s good B that’s nice oh it’s steaming hot too just right out of the pan the texture of the Grits is really incredible yeah it’s fluffy the shrimp are outstanding great texture and then this just beautiful thick Savory gravy on top this is so addictive but is so
Heavy you know this is one of those meals that back in the days probably before my time when people were still living off the land this your Fu it’s your heavy meal for the morning right just to get your day going this is probably your heaviest meal in those
Days I don’t know if I would make it away from The Breakfast Table after eating this it’s like either I’m going to have enough energy energy for a whole day or I’m just going to fall asleep with my face on my plate with this breakfast I’m just beginning to scratch
The surface of gulla culture but by Days End BJ plans to immerse me in the essence of gulla food this speaks gulla when you see this right here in order to fully embrace it my first step is to learn more about the story of this community this area was one of the first
Areas where one of the first slave revolts happened and many of our ancestors were sought after in the sen Gambia region you know Sagal Gambia s Leon Congo Mali in the 1700s West Africans were brought to the sea Islands for Plantation labor yet harsh conditions and prevalent diseases LED
Land owners to Desert the islands in summer and when they left all the enslaved here they were able to kind of hold on to a lot of the africanisms some of the language and some of the food ways you also have influence of the Native Americans you also too and you
Also have the European influence to and that just kind of made it into the gulla culture the vibrant gulla culture still pulses today in this tight-knit South Carolina community of 200,000 St Helena is the heart of the century old culture cradling a landmark iconic to gulla history Pen Center and the community
Goes hand in hand without Pen Center you w have the community there I’ll soon join Community leaders for an old-fashioned shrimp boil you eating history where it started right here with this dish but first I have more to learn about gulla food and there’s no better place to be educated than the gulla
Express Sherry I brought you some shrimp thank You Cherry is the proud owner and operator of gulla Express a food truck bringing authentic the flavors to the people of St Helena with these freshly caught shrimp she’ll whip up her besteller this Patty looks gorgeous but first Sher teases my appetite with a surprise right here we have shark
Shark I don’t think that I’ve ever had shark meat in the USA what is the history behind this you know we live on the coast so we get a lot of fresh seafood and I grew up eating shark ever since I’ve been a little girl you would
Fry it you would put it in gravy on grits however here the shark meat is simply coated with flour then deep fried what do you like about shark in particular The Taste the texture it’s just meat I don’t have to pick any bones I’m used to that now now cuz I live in
Asia right here you can see this is kind of the midsection of the shark and it was hacked into kind of a shark steak I’m going to rip that in half there’s like the bone in the middle there still but everything around it is this beautiful
Meat M oh man that’s to die for it’s juicy flaky you got a little bit of crust on the outside and then just a little hit of seasoning salt sometimes shark can be mushy if you overdo it this is perfect it has to be cut right if
It’s not cut right then it’s going to be tough with over 25 years of culinary experience Sherry embarked on a new Venture in 2019 by launching gulla Express here she’s infused the menu with gulla Classics that have been given a little bit of a Twist her bestseller the
Shrimp burger after cleaning the shrimp Cherry places them in a processor minting the meat down for a shrimp Patty I’m going to add some crab I don’t need a whole lot we were always doing a shrimp burger so I want to do something different that’s when I said well let me
Try the shrimp and crab burger and that would be something different you know people never had before so I tried it out and it was a big hit and I just went with that going to need some seasoning I’m going to also add a little bit of
Breadcrumb and I’m going to mix that up some more now I have to taste it I taste it raw because you have to know that it’s seasoned you don’t want to buy something and it has no taste and after that I just make it into a bowl
I’m going to put it in the batter in the flow batter and I’m going to roll it around in there and then I’m going to mash it out about 3 to 4 minutes and it’ll be ready this Patty looks gorgeous that’s why I don’t want to put any lettuce or tomato
Or it takes away from The Taste if you want a salad get a salad this is not that this is like a beautiful lovely Patty it’s crusty on the outside I can feel the heat radiating off it it’s making the Buns more soft and warm on the outside let’s go for It m m that’s very nice I don’t think that I’ve ever had a shrimp burger in the US the only time I’ve had it is in McDonald’s in Korea and Japan they have a shrimp burger it wishes it was this that’s like a very basic industrial it’s probably pressed
By some kind of meat printing machine this has this incredible homemade feel to it and it has it’s like those little imperfections that make it perfect some parts are a little thicker some are a little thin and more crunchy and there’s a certain springiness that you get from
A shrimp Patty that you won’t get from any other type of you’re not going to get it from chicken or beef it’s really unique to what you’re doing here it’s my number one seller M I can see why that’s awesome I want to back up a little bit
And ask you more about gulla food for you what is gulla food well to me gulla food is anything you get you can’t waste it period like we would cook with neckbone pigtail anything from hog anything from chicken that’s what we would use or called our gulla food
Sounds like a tenant of gulla cooking is resourcefulness exactly with the Atlantic Ocean nearby gulla cuisine signic ific L relies on Seafood complemented by staple ingredients like rice and grits rooted in historical cultivation practices it’s just simple cooking you don’t have to put a spin on
Like you got shrimp and grits most of the time the restaurant they’re a little fancy they put a these parmesan seasoning and onions and bacon no shrimp and grits is just shrimping grits I think I had that this morning that’s it over time DOA flavors and techniques
Have made their Mark in kitchens Across America with one pot dishes and CTI cookware being prominent example you’ll soon witness some one pot cooking in her final meal I’ve never seen ox tail with shrimp for us That’s a classic heing the first in our two course Feast is a gulla
One pot classic Frogmore stew BJ prepares a soup base in a giant pot with water garlic powder old based seasoning salt hot crab seasoning fresh onion and chilies once the seasoned water is boiling he tosses in chunks of corn and potatoes then sausage joints the pot and finally the Shrimp while BJ is busy in his outdoor kitchen I’m heading inside Pen Center School where Marie walks me through the history of this Landmark Pen Center and the community goes hand in hand without pen send you would have the community and they started out as the Port Royal
Experiment the outbreak of Civil War in 1860 placed St Helena Island under Union control leading to the initiation of the Port Royal experiment in in 1861 this experiment aiming to transition the region from a slave dependent Society to one rooted in Freedom brought emancipation to St Helen in 1863 Abraham
Lincoln signed Emancipation Proclamation fore and all other enslaved people as you can see we were already emancipated before the document was signed we are different kind of people we tend to show up stand up and speak up in 1862 the Port Royal experiment entitled the newly emancipated people here with the right
To buy former Plantation land at low prices and with land ownership com great power there was never ever a share CER system established on S helness Island furthermore the experiment led to the establishment of hospitals and schools pen School opened in 1862 as one of the nation’s earliest institutions for the
Formerly enslaved this school was the Beacon of Hope in educating the black people in the Low Country this was the only School a black person living in the state of South Carolina could earn the high school diploma today Pen Center is a cultural Center and a Museum of africanamerican History where Marie and
Her colleagues tirelessly uphold and showcase the richness of gulla culture culture that can be seen and even tasted before we begin I do want to say thank you to everyone for being here today it’s quite an honor for me to kind of eat a piece of history today and I’ve
Learned a lot already about the G of people and food and my favorite way to learn is through eating so this is a low country boil some people call the Frog Mo stew actually this originated here on this I’m going to go for this corn first
You said that the corn is kind of soaked up yeah it’s soaked a little too much than what I like but it’s flavorful mhm M it got a little cake it’s delicious it’s super salty it has a lot of cake a load of cayenne this is like Cayenne corn all right we got
Potatoes oh my God everything has soaked up those amazing flavors oh even that sausage is spicy it’s slow burn that creeps up on you I think the flavor is just a beautiful mix a blend between what the shrimp is offering and this powerful sausage it’s salty and smoky
It’s like a homemade sausage to me we to make back then we Butch a pig we to make our own sausages old time sausage so I want to ask about the shrimp are you eating the shell or you peeling that yourself peeling it okay they taste amazing I’m curious for this dish why
Cook it with the shells on Traditions always how been I think it also helps preserve Flav people boil shells for shrimp stock you know what else it helps it helps people to pump their brakes a little bit when they’re eating take time right it turns like a 5 minute meal into
A 30-minute meal our second one pot dish and final gulla Taste of the day oxtail soup first BJ brings his pre-made broth to a boiler ioke up then he drops his oxtails with various beans and the broth and lets them simmer how did the cuisine or the food of the people transform from
The time the goet came here to what we see today we basically cook the same thing that we did back then the inlay people always had the leftovers from the pig the feet the tail and the neckbones those that we cook now and the okra is our main dish anything here whatever you
Had for dinner that was breakfast at lunch I was taking crab sandwiches for lunch and I was ashamed to have that you yeah when you were younger because that wasn’t the norm back then every was having their peanut butter and jelly I had crab that’s a pretty good doll yeah
But being here you didn’t think that because that was pled for you ate that so much you know and then you had to take the lunch too so you know that was you know I’m tired of this I wanted something else you know once the oxtail hits the desired softness BJ loads the
Pot with chopped okra he stirs until the broth becomes thick and finishes with a handful of shrimp well watching the street would not lay me down as sleep all right I got some of that gravy I got a shrimp some rice it’s so heartwarming hit it with some of that
Oxtail oh the oxtail amazing super soft tender delicious Savory and just such a cool texture to that Stew cuz it’s thick but it’s also it’s a little bit slimy from the oak Ro but in the best way possible you see with oxtail here these were the leftover from the slavery time
Where the insay people ate but now oxtail has crossed over it was only that the black folks ate that I went to store man his white L had about six packs of walk sale in the basket you know long time ago that was $2 a pound now was
Like $8 n $10 a pound and these were the things that were you thought of as trash but culturally even before I Robot they ate every part of animal and to this day that’s still a thing this is like culture like this speaks gulla when you
See this right here for both of you i’ be happy to hear your answer too why is it so important to continue teaching people about the gull traditions and perpetuating these traditions because a legacy that we want to pass on to our children it may be come a time that you
Won’t have anything thing in the stores you can always go back and learn how to survive of the land and that’s how we’ we’ve learned to we were isolated out here so we had to learn to survive of the land so what happened on the other
Side didn’t matter to us because we were independent self-sufficient people living over here you have to understand like it’s not this one culture that built this country yeah absolutely you know the way we talk the language you know these things that we have to embrace or you lose part of History not
Only you lose part of your culture you L part of American History it’s a very important part of American History how do you reconcile America’s dark history dark past with slavery with still having pride in your community and your country now the history of this country is a movement toward freedom and
African-Americans have been big movers in trying to bring freedom to everybody so this whole idea about when we benefit the whole country benefits every Community can benefit from our movement forward in this continuing journey of Freedom when people freed themselves on this island in 1861 they didn’t look
Back and say wow we’ve been through something really terrible they looked forward and said what can we be you know how can we project ourselves and be big against the backdrop of life and every Community everybody of every race needs to take that off you know how can we be
Big not be small but be Big if you love Indian food then you’re going to love our new channel best ever food India subscribe now for weekly videos showcasing the most unique street food from around the country your stomach still biting you cool know what did you say your stomach still biting you you know got worms in
Our stomach and when they get real close to one another and each one they get hungry they be biting each other yeah they be fussing boy I got to get some of those worms in my stomach I heard they’re good for weight loss it’s the
Sauce I made myself but what is in the sauce secret I yeah I don’t want to reveal that secret I got to tell you I a food expert and you’ve left me no choice but to taste it and dissect it mayonnaise yeah you have mayonnaise ketchup mhm but what else sugar nope
That’s the secret is there any part of the cow or pig that you wouldn’t eat you’re saying you use everything everything I mean if you don’t tell me I’m going eat it boom guys that is the end of video number five here on our East Coast Seafood tour in the US of I
Hope you enjoyed this video I learned a lot and man shrimp fantastic especially when CAU with a net today was fantastic but this is not the end of our journey no we are going from Maine all the way down to Miami coming up next a seafood in Florida that’s illegal if you bring
It to land put the pressure right there on the knuckle if I do it wrong am I going to rip it in half you could yeah it all makes sense in the next video otherwise guys that is it for this one thank you so much for watching will see
You next time peace all right it’s like a 12-hour drive to Florida surely there’s something in between that we should have seen but oh well uh I think I went the wrong way
Video “Catching 10,000 Shrimp for Shrimp & Grits!!” was uploaded on 03/10/2024. Watch all the latest Videos by Best Ever Food Review Show on Gretopia