Emily Wallace
Bio: Emily Wallace is a freelance writer and illustrator living in Durham.Link: http://emilyewallace.tumblr.comTwitter: http://twitter.com/emily__wallace
Posted inFood & Drink
Neighbors chip in to restore a beloved bovine
We meet in a gravel parking lot and flip through papers spread among the otherwise near-empty trunk of Charles Poe’s blue Honda Accord. Poe’s salt-and-pepper hair peaks from beneath his brown cap, and though the sky is overcast, he never removes his sunglasses. When we arranged our appointment days earlier by phone, Poe feigned surprise […]
Posted inFood & Drink
The annual fruitcake pilgrimage to Southern Supreme in Chatham County
Where can I get these fruitcakes? Southern Supreme Gourmet Specialties 1699 Hoyt Scott Road Bear Creek Showroom hours through December: Monday–Friday 9 a.m.–7 p.m. Saturday 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Sunday 1–5 p.m. 336-581-3141 877-815-0922EmailWebsiteFacebook If fruitcake has an arena, this is it: a narrow walkway that winds around the industrial kitchen at Southern Supreme and is […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Alley Twenty Six: cocktails for grown-ups
Alley Twenty Six 320 E. Chapel Hill St. Durham 919-213-1267 Monday–Saturday 4 p.m.–2 a.m. Website Facebook Twitter The bar’s new, but the face is familiar. Shannon Healy of Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill has opened his own spot, Alley Twenty Six, in downtown Durham. There are obvious carryovers from the old restaurant to the new […]
Posted inGuides
A twist on apple pie
On several occasions when folks have learned that I write about food, they’ve exclaimed, “You’re the pie girl!” Oh, how I wish I had a knack for baking. But that’s my counterpart: the other curly-brown-haired UNC folklore graduate named Emily Elizabeth. Emily Elizabeth Hilliard undoubtedly deserves the title “pie girl.” In 2005, well before food […]
Posted inGuides
Sweet potato pie: better than pumpkin
In Vardaman, Miss., you had to wear heels to compete for the title of Sweet Potato Queen. My friend April McGreger, known in Carrboro and beyond as the Farmer’s Daughter, wobbled in such shoes. “I always felt bad I couldn’t walk in heels,” she says. “I knew very early I wouldn’t be a Sweet Potato […]
Posted inGuides
Open w-i-i-i-de for blueberry-banana p-i-i-i-e
For Horace Johnson it isn’t pie, but “piiie.” “With three i’s,” he tells me. Johnson has hawked pastries for the Apex Lion’s Club at the N.C. State Fair for almost 30 years, and his drawl is as much a part of the annual event’s sound as the frequent “Guess Your Age” cries that echo through […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Ham and yams and the quirks of Johnston County
Perched above racks of hand-sewn sweaters and silkscreened T-shirts at a clothing store in Wilmington, I recently came across the story of my life. It was The Sweet Patootie Doll, written by Mary Calhoun, illustrated by Roger Duvoisin and deconstructed in the form of a journal. Published in 1957 by William Morrow & Co., the […]
Posted inFood & Drink
UNC folklorist Bernie Herman rebuilds a key Eastern Shore oyster habitat
Where craggy mounds of shells once sneaked up on ships like icebergs, it is now mainly mud. Oyster reefs in the Chesapeake Bay have diminished by an estimated 64 percent during the last century, with much of that decline occurring over the last few decades. Bernie Herman chairs the Department of American Studies at UNC-Chapel […]