A bounty of mouthwatering, fresh-catch seafood figures prominently almost everywhere you dine along North Carolina's southern coast. These coastal waters yield consistently high-quality seafood, and just about every restaurant offers fresh daily seafood specialties that may include tuna, grouper, mahi-mahi, mackerel, triggerfish and shellfish, to name only a few. Talented local and transplanted chefs vie to create visually appealing entrees and bring innovative flair to seafood preparation. Fresh-catch entrees and specials are often available grilled, baked, broiled, blackened or fried.
The region's restaurants, particularly in the Port City of Wilmington, reflect a rich international community in the choices of cuisine available, including Thai, Indian, Chinese (including Szechuan), Greek, Italian, German, Japanese, Mexican, Jamaican, Caribbean and French. Health-food enthusiasts are pleased by exciting vegetarian and organic dishes and products offered at numerous island restaurants and markets, including Lovey's Natural Foods and Cafe and Tidal Creek Foods Co-op. Also represented throughout our area are a number of major restaurant chains, both national and regional, as well as the usual fast food options. Well-known pizza franchises offer delivery, and several area restaurants feature gourmet pizzas for the connoisseur.
Favorite Local Food
Naturally, the traditional regional specialties make up the heart and soul of Southern coastal dining. The famous Calabash-style seafood is ever-present. It gets its name from the Brunswick County town to the south once heralded as the seafood capital of the world for having nearly 30 seafood restaurants within a square mile. Calabash style calls for seasoned cornmeal batter and deep frying and has become synonymous with all-you-can-eat. Calabash restaurants typically serve a huge variety of piping-hot seafood in massive quantities accompanied by creamy cole slaw and uniquely shaped, deep-fried dollops of corn bread called hush puppies.
Low-country steam-offs are buckets filled with a variety of shellfish, potatoes, corn and Old Bay seasoning. When fresh oysters are in season in the fall, oyster roasts abound. Crab meat is popular, and competition is stiff among restaurants boasting the best crab dip. Seafood chowder and chili are two other popular dishes put to the test in local competitions and cook-offs.
New Year's Day dinners may include collards and black-eyed peas, symbolic of paper money and small change, to ensure prosperity in the year to come. Okra, sweet potatoes, grits, turnip greens, mustard greens and kale are also regional favorites. Hoppin' John, based on black-eyed peas and rice, is a hearty dish seen in many variations. Shrimp and grits is another favorite dish appearing in various incarnations from restaurant to restaurant. Boiled peanuts are popular snacks, frequently available at roadside stands, and nowhere does pecan pie taste better. Iced tea flows freely, in most places by the pitcher-full, and locals prefer it sweet.
Many North Carolinians enjoy good barbecue in all its variations — pork or beef, chopped or shredded, sweet or tangy — and the coastal regions are no exception. Many beach communities boast at least one barbecue restaurant hidden among the seafood restaurants, touting the best recipe, of course.
