Food

Dining culture at Wrightsville Beach wasn’t always flip flops and ice-cold white wine. Our food columnist tells how it’s changed over the last 100 years.

A good crab boil starts with a chicken-necker. That’s someone who uses a dip net, a piece of string, a fishing weight and a chicken neck to catch blue crabs. We tell you how.

Dust with flour or dip in the lightest batter and then sautée the crabs until their lacy crusts turn honey brown. Now, bite into heaven.

A warm biscuit, golden buttery around a soft center, shaped by a loving cook’s hand, remains a much-desired serving of tenderhearted Southern hospitality.

We like our oysters any way we can get them — steamed, fried, baked, in soups and stews or just pried open and dotted with Tabasco. But we were surprised to learn that an ice-cream maker in Wilmington turns our favorite bivalve into a creamy concoction. With sprinkles, we hope.

Coastal N.C. natives will put up with jalapenos in their pimento cheese and bourbon in their pecan pie, but don’t mess with their steaming bowls of oyster stew.

For more than 30 years, Joyce Taylor taught North Carolinians how to buy, cook and store N.C. seafood. Her book remains as indispensable to seafood cooks as a shrimp peeler.

The rich, spicy treat these days may pop up most often at the end of holiday meals, but in years past sweet potato pie was the start of a hard-working fisherman’s day.

Fall’s first chilly nips trigger a smoky scent along North Carolina’s coastal back roads where embers in barbecue pits and grills coax the savory smell of an old-fashioned dish locals lovingly call “charcoal mullet.”

The simple clam chowder, the basic drum stew with cornmeal dumplings or broiled mullet paired with fresh watermelon are the sorts of recipes that might have been lost had it not been for “Coastal Carolina Cooking.”

Catch restaurant in Wilmington prides itself on its fresh seafood. Diners may even eat fish that the chef and his wait staff caught that day.

Fried shrimp is perhaps the most beloved seafood dish on the N.C. coast, but making it at home can be a bit of a messy chore. Follow these simple suggestions for perfect fried shrimp.