Changing Places Blog

Fish camp...what's that? Gaston County folks know.

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 10:24:00 -0400

Ask folks along the Catawba River in Gaston County how to spend an old-time weekend, and pretty quickly the talk will turn to fish camps.

Luther Lineberger started the first of these down-home restaurants back in 1948. According to a small, delightful exhibit at the Belmont Historical Society, "He began cooking up a mess of fish on Friday and/or Saturday nights for his friends and fellow mill workers of Cramerton Mills."

Pretty soon he slapped up an eating house out of rough-sawn lumber, recalls Historical Society volunteer Max Robinson. "Burned off the splinters with a blowtorch," says another volunteer, Jack Cannon.

By the 1960s half a dozen "fish camps" had folks lined out the door on weekend evenings. Catfish, carp and crappies caught right out of the Catawba gave way to shrimp, flounder and other fish from distant waters, battered and deep fried. Lineberger's burned in 1998 but many of the rest remain, clustered near the textile town of Belmont off Interstate 85 across the Catawba from Charlotte.

Don't try going for lunch, though. Most places don't open til evening. That's a tradition held over from the textile era - even though the mills are mostly long gone. "It was so families could get together," explains Beverly Lineberger. "Daytimes, people were working in the mill. Your evening meal on the weekend, that was family times."

Belmont Historical Society
40 Catawba Street
Belmont NC 28012
(704) 825 - 4848
HOURS:
Friday - Sunday 1pm - 5pm

Two fish camps within a 10 minute drive of the Historical Society:

Catfish Cove (founded by former Lineberger cook Raymond Stowe)
1401 Armstrong Ford Rd
Belmont, NC 28012
(704) 825-3332
HOURS:
Tuesday - Thursday 4pm - 9pm
Friday 4pm - 10pm
Saturday 3pm - 10pm
Sunday buffet 11am - 3pm

Dotson's Fish Fry ("since 1960")
600 E. Henry Street, off Highway 273
Mt. Holly, NC 28120
(704) 827 - 3291
HOURS:
Wednesday - Thursday 4pm - 9pm
Friday - Saturday 4pm - 10pm

Hash & RIce, a South Carolina BBQ Tradition

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:46:00 -0500

You know you're in South Carolina when the barbecue restaurants serve hash.

What's hash? Well, about the closest place to Charlotte to find out is Burk's BBQ in Rock Hill.

Barbecue hash is not to be confused with corned beef hash, that reddish potato-flecked food that Northerners sometimes serve for breakfast.

South Carolina hash is a noontime or evening thing. And it's always accompanied by rice, a tradition dating back to the nineteenthcentury when coastal Carolina ranked among the great rice-growing regions of the world.

At Burk's BBQ, Jean Marie Burkhamer makes hash just the way her grandmother did in Newberry, South Carolina:

"Take beef brisket, Boston butt pork, sweet red pepper, onion, cook them in a pot for five hours, maybe more, til the meat's just falling apart. Remove any fat. Then add back some of the broth, a little mustard, a dash of vinegar."

Jean Marie put hash on Burk's menu of chopped pork and ribs about three months ago. She smiles when customers line up for it, especially Sundays after church, but she says that family is her real motivation. "My daddy kept asking for it, ‘I wish you would make me some hash like I grew up with.'"

Burk's BBQ
Tuesday - Saturday 11am - 9pm
Sunday 11am - 2pm

2012 North Cherry Road (Interstate 77 exit 82B)
Rock Hill, SC 29732
(803) 980-4444

For more on hash history, consult South Carolina's Digital Traditions folklife website: http://digitaltraditions.pbworks.com/Hash

Found a food that reminds you of where you grew up? Contact thanchett@museumofthenewsouth.org

Jamaican Black Cake -- Christmas all year round

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:52:00 -0500

I'd passed the little strip shopping center where Central Avenue meets Albemarle Road hundreds of times before I noticed the small sign "Island Grocery." Walking in, I immediately felt transported to Jamaica.

Close-packed shelves overflow with Caribbean delicacies - ginger beer and other soft drinks, canned vegetables, coconut milk, hot sauces including the delightfully named Pickapeppa. Freezers hold ox tail, plantain snacks, guava jelly and dozens of ingredients for Caribbean cooking. I'm not much of a cook myself, but the possibilities sent me home to look up Caribbean recipes on the internet.

No sense in Googling on an empty stomach, though. The grocery offers take-out portions of hot codfish fritters, meat pies, plus curry dishes accompanied by thin roti bread. I was craving something sweet, however. That's when I saw the black cake.

Black cake is the Jamaican version of the English plum pudding. In England, plums and raisin and other fruits are marinated in brandy and brown sugar, then combined into a cake-like loaf.Jamaica, part of the British empire until 1935, put its own twist on the tradition, adding island-made rum and molasses, and also finely chopping the fruit. The result looks deceptively like chocolate cake. But taste is way different - imagine a rich, dense spice cake with lots of fruity raisin bits.

"Come Christmas, this is what everyone in the islands loves. It's tradition," says Velma Baker behind the counter. Black cake is a favorite in the New York - New Jersey area as well, which is where Island Grocery's Jamaican-born owners Williford and Carolina Coke lived before moving to North Carolina.

Here in Charlotte, black cake has proved so popular that is now available year round.

I still haven't cooked up any Caribbean recipes. But I keep going back to Island Grocery for more of that Google-helping black cake.

Island Grocery and Caribbean Restaurant
5861 Albemarle Road
Charlotte, NC 28212
(704) 532 - 0322

HOURS:
Monday - Friday 10am - 8pm
Saturday 9am - 8pm
Closed Sunday.

The hillbilly is back!

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 09:03:00 -0500

Yesterday at Reid's Grocery next to Levine Museum, I saw an old feller I hadn't seen since I was a kid. The Mountain Dew hillbilly is back in the soft drink case.

Mountain Dew is a great instance of people taking a negative regional stereotype and turning it into a point of pride. When bottlers in the Tennesee mountains around Knoxville and Johnson City developed a citrus soda spiked with caffeine and orange juice back in the 1950s, they named it after a slang term for moonshine. The soft drink didn't have illegal alcohol in it, but the caffeine did give it a right good kick.

Bottle logos played to the national fascination with moonshining. Willy the Hillbilly hugged his clay jug of 'shine, while lower on the bottle a barefooted moonshiner with a rifle chased a rival up a mountain into an outhouse (that's an outdoor bathroom, young people). A happy pig looked on in surprise.

There's an old principle that only Polish people are allowed to tell Polish jokes, and the same thing held for those Southern mountain bottlers playing the country hick. Customers across Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas LOVED Mountain Dew -- its taste and its image. And in 1964, the Pepsi Cola company bought the brand from its originators and took Mountain Dew to an adoring nation.

Somewhere along the way, Pepsi's New York marketers got cold feet about Willy the Hillbilly. In the 1970s he disappeared, and in recent years Mountain Dew marketing has featured hyper-caffeinated skateboarders and the like. The formula changed quietly at about the same time. High fructose corn syrup replaced more expensive sugar in Mountain Dew, and in every other U.S. soft drink as well.

Fast forward to 2009. Imported soft drinks from Mexico, still using sugar, are catching on with soft drink connoisseurs (yes, there are such people). A couple of rogue bottlers in West Jefferson, NC and Charlottesville, VA, are finding success with sugar-formula Dew in glass bottles. So Pepsi rolls out two limited-time-only specialty drinks with sugar, Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback. The only problem is that for some inexplicable reason they tinker with the Dew formula, leaving out the orange juice and one or two other things. It tastes BLEAH!

December 28, 2009 they try again. This time they get the taste right. And they ditch the subtle (characterless) 1970s logo from the first roll-out and instead put Willy the Hillbilly proudly on the bottle.

It seems to be working. When I went back to Reid's less than 24 hours later, all the Mountain Dew Throwback had already flown off the shelves. I'm looking for more -- let me know if you have any leads. Pepsi says they'll only be making it for eight weeks.

Nice as it is to feel the smooth taste of sugar (less "angular" than high fructose corn syrup) and to see old friend Willy, all is not yet completely right with the world. The new labels leave off the outhouse and the pair of hillbillies and the mountain chase. And that happy pig is nowhere to be seen.

Video Talkback Booth Update

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:20:00 -0500

The Changing Places video talkback booth has generated a great amount of visitor reaction since the exhibit opened last February. As with every project, we've learned what works and what doesn't throughout the course of 2009.

As a result, we've made changes to the booth for a couple of reasons. The first, and most significant, alteration we made was to change up the questions the booth asks visitors. Staff historian Tom Hanchett and I brainstormed and decided to replace two of the booth's original questions. We felt these two questions were not generating the kind of responses we were looking for. Changing the questions turned out to be a great idea. The new inquiries have forced museum visitors to grapple with questions about Charlotte's changing culture that make them uneasy. This uneasiness tends to elicit more powerful reactions, which is beneficial to the Changing Places project.

The other changes were made for both aesthetic and practical reasons. The booth was originally a simple, gray room. We soon realized that the shape and lack of backdrop in the booth caused a major headache in the sound department. The sound bounced around the angular room and produced an echo. We decided to hang a thick, red backdrop to absorb sound and to make the people in the booth stand out from the gray wall. This addition was definitely needed and has been a big success. The sound and image quality in the booth are greatly increased. We have since updated the backdrop more recently to a bright blue color.

Now that the Changing Places exhibit has been extended, Tom Hanchett and I will continue to update the questions in the video booth to produce thoughtful responses from first-time visitors and guests who revisit the exhibit. The footage from the booth will continue to be added to the impressive archive of responses the Changing Places exhibit continues to amass every day. And, you can find new clips posted online - www.youtube.com/TheLevineMuseum. Check it out:

Find more like this at Levine Museum's YouTube Channel

Cuba in the Queen City

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:45:00 -0500

When my friend Sammy Gatewood at Sharon Towers asked recently where to get a Cuban sandwich in Charlotte, it sparked the realization that we are suddenly rich in Cuban eateries.

Cuban immigrants have been a presence in the Queen City since the 1960s when families fleeing Castro became Charlotte's first small Latino community. But it's been hard to find a Cuban sandwich here, or much other Cuban food for that matter.

What's a Cuban sandwich? Thin-sliced roasted pork, plus thin-sliced ham, plus swiss cheese, plus mustard and a pickle slice are layered onto special light, feathery bread. Then the whole thing is pressed in a special gizmo that flattens it and heats the cheese almost to melting. It seems to have originated as a workingman's meal, maybe in the cigar factories. But now it is a favorite quick lunch or snack enjoyed by everybody.

In Charlotte, for many years the only place to get Cuban food was a spot out Albemarle Road. It's gone though a couple of locations and several names, but it's still one of our family's regular haunts, and alongside the fancier dinners you'll find Cuban sandwiches on the menu.

Conga's Cuban Cafe
5534 Albemarle Rd, Charlotte
(704) 535-0223
http://www.congascubancafe.com

Long-time Charlotteans will recall when Conga's was called Taste of Havana. The woman who ran that incarnation just opened Havana Cuban Cuisine in uptown Charlotte. I visited last week and enjoyed a sandwich in the languid, high-ceiling space that encourages diners to linger over coffee in the true Cuban manner.

Havana Cuban Cuisine
129 W Trade St, Charlotte
(704) 376-2122

Way out suburban South Tryon Street perhaps a mile past I485 is A Piece of Havana, big and bustling with Cuban families enjoying food and fellowship. On weekend evenings there are often Sinatra-smooth vocalists singing along to recorded music tracks.

A Piece of Havana
11126 S Tryon St, Charlotte
(704) 588-7883
www.apieceofhavana.com

My favorite place of all is Las Palmas, which a couple of months ago took over a Colombian spot in an anonymous South Boulevard strip mall. It's small and happily crowded with families and groups of young people. Alongside a variety of entrees is not only a regular Cuban sandwich, but also the intriguingly named "Midnite Sandwich." Quick research on Google indicates that it's a smaller, lighter version of the traditional sandwich and is often served as a late-night snack in Cuba and in Cuban parts of Florida. I've gotta try one next time I'm there...

Las Palmas
5033 South Blvd, Charlotte
(704) 527-5553

P.S. A fifth Cuban eatery is about to open. Go to www.CubanPetesCafe.com and you'll get updates on this new location in Plaza Midwood. I've peeked through the windows and can report that a fabulous mural painter is hard at work creating exuberant island atmosphere.

Back to BBQ Beginnings?

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:11:00 -0500

Our New South BBQ bus tour this weekend features not one but two restaurants that give a taste of BBQ's beginnings.

Some scholars trace barbecue back to Mexican barbacoa. In this traditional cooking method, coals are placed in a pit, then damp cactus leaves are layered on, then meat, then more cactus leaves. Everything is covered, and the meat steams in the warm damp, creating a very tender dish.

At Cocina Latina, 5135 Albemarle Road in Charlotte, we'll meet Fausta Salvatierra and her sons who began cooking barbacoa on weekends about four years ago. They use lamb, the favorite in their home state of Hidalgo. It's become so popular that barbacoa now graces the menu seven days a week.

A different explanation of BBQ's origins traces it to the Taino Indians in the Caribbean, first described by Christopher Columbus in 1492. The Taino cooked their meat on raised platforms of sticks made of pimenta wood.

We'll visit Leanda Pereira at Taste of the Caribbean, 3117 N. Sharon- Amity. Recently arrived from Trinidad, she makes jerk BBQ with a rub that she blends by hand. The key ingredient? Pimenta seeds.

Which is the true origin of barbecue? Come along on the tour, and put the evidence to your own taste-test.

Tricia Childress, food writer for Creative Loafing and Johnson & Wales professor, joins me to help lead 2 bus tours: one scheduled for 6pm Friday and the other at 11am on Saturday. We'll travel Charlotte's new ethnic suburbs and further explore how in the last two decades, the once-isolated South has become a magnet for newcomers - many bringing their own wonderful ways of cooking 'cue.

This is the fourth year for this popular event, and in addition to those mentioned above, we'll try Vietnamese BBQ at Ben Thanh, and Salvadoran papusas at El Pulgarcito.

Cost is $30 for Museum members and $35 for non members; includes meal, transportation and program. Seating is limited - for reservations call 704-333-1887 ext. 501 or email us at rsvp@museumofthenewsouth.org.

Day of the Dead

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:00:00 -0400

On November 1st, Levine Museum will host our 4th annual Day of the Dead Festival, one of our signature free community days. A traditional holiday celebrated in Mexico, the Day of the Dead (El Día de los Muertos) focuses on remembering and honoring friends and family members who have died. While death is a topic associated with sadness and often avoided in the United States, celebrating the remembrance of deceased ancestors and loved ones is traditional among diverse cultures around the globe

The Day of the Dead holiday occurs each year on November 1st and 2nd, and has its roots in All Saints Day (Nov. 1), and All Souls Day (Nov. 2). The customs vary across different regions of Mexico, but most include colorful decorations, building altars honoring the deceased, gatherings of family and friends, sugar skulls (often inscribed with the names of the deceased), "dead bread" and other special foods.

The Museum's Day of the Dead Festival, presented in partnership with Latin American Coalition, has become known for its personal and celebratory feel. Each year staff members from both our organizations get together to brainstorm and discuss the previous year's festival. We plan out the logistics of the day, contact storytellers, consider dance troupes to invite, get the word out to the public, and most importantly, dream about the food that will be offered by the taquería parked in our alley!

With our Changing Places exhibit currently on display, we realized the festival would have a slightly different feel than previous years. Just as Changing Places looks at the blend of different cultures in our community, this year's festival will not only focus on the Mexican holiday, but also very intentionally highlight other cultural traditions that celebrate the lives of loved ones who have passed away.

So, as we string papel picado over the atrium and sell pan de muerto in the lobby, we invite everyone to be a part of the celebration and share your own traditions with us. We host Alejandro Galvez as he discusses traditions of the Aztec people, plus altar making contests, sugar skull workshops, calavera crafts for kids, storytelling, and dancing every 45 minutes in the atrium. Admission is free all day, with festivities taking place between 12-4 pm.

Do you have a unique way of remembering your loved ones? Please share it with us!

Curator's Pick: Gastonia Cotton Ginning Days

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:37:00 -0400

This weekend October 9 - 11 it's time for the annual Gastonia Cotton Ginning Days Festival (featured in the Changing Places exhibit).

"Cotton Ginning Days can best be described as three wonderful days where old men gather with old machines and young people come to learn about both," says self-described Gaston County good ol' boy Bill Melton.

Clayton Ballard oils vintage farm machinery at Cotton Ginning Days, 2006.

Give yourself at least a couple of hours to stroll the large fairgrounds, admire the working cotton gin, check out the antique cars and trucks and farm machinery, and much more. Wonderful bluegrass from the sweet-singing Cockman Family among others. Plus they've got everything from blacksmith, spinning and chair caning demonstrations to a "Pole Top Rescue" demonstration by the electric linemen of Gastonia, Kings Mountain and Dallas, NC.

Get more info, directions and a map of the festival grounds at Gaston County Parks and Rec.

Salad-bowl suburbs

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:15:00 -0400

As we researched Changing Places, we began to realize that immigrant areas in Charlotte look much different than the type of "Little Italy" or "Chinatown" seen in older cities. For one thing, Charlotte's immigrant shops and restaurants are in suburbia, not in the inner city. And second, everything is intermingled -- Vietnamese sandwich shops next to Latino taquerias next to Bosnian groceries.

This new cultural landscape looks nothing like a "melting pot," where everything is becoming the same. Rather, it might be likened to a "salad bowl" -- in which individual flavors come together to make a tasty mix.

In Charlotte, these "salad-bowl suburbs" are found on the East Side along Central, Eastway and nearby roads, and also extending south from downtown along the South Boulevard corridor.

Recently I was in Greensboro for a day-long meeting of the North Carolina Humanities Council, and I took the opportinity to see if Greensboro has any salad-bowl suburbs. And it does!

I headed out High Point Road, an old suburban strip that passes the big arena where ACC Basketball tournaments are played. The aging hodge-podge of business buildings provides the ideal "incubator" for small entrepreneurs of every kind.

I stopped first at an old fast-food joint lovingly re-made into Best Bagels in Town, a family-run bagelry (is there one in Charlotte, I wonder?) where the husband arrives at 3:30am each morning to begin shaping and baking bagels by hand, and the wife runs the sales counter all day long. Next door was Cafe Cabana (in an old Pizza Hut), advertising Salvadorean papusas in Spanish. Across the street a new Thai restaurant announced its grand opening and an Asian grocery stood just two doors down.

Greensboro's ethnic entrepreneurs are so strong that they seem to be building new shopping centers further out High Point Road. Here's a sign for one such project, where I saw Latino women making tortillas in one shop, while in another shop an Asian man prepared thick, steamed coffee.

Where are similar corridors in other cities? I've been to amazing Buford Highway in suburban Atlanta, and I hear that Capital Boulevard is the place to explore in Raleigh.

Do you know of others?

Restaurant supply paradise at Asian Corner Mall

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:50:00 -0400

Looking for a wok? a stainless steel cooking pot almost big enough to climb into? to-go containers? napkins and plastic cups? chairs and tables?

For anything you might need to start a restaurant, or just to cook for yourself at home, check out Dai-Sing restaurant supply in the Asian Corner Mall just off North Tryon Street at Sugar Creek Road. It's great fun even for folks like me, who like looking more than cooking.

This Sunday I ran into super-friendly Gina Adame Galan, who is general manager. She's African American and has a flair not just for business and food, but also for languages. Her boss Davis Ngo is of Vietnamese-Chinese background; many customers are Latino restauranteurs speaking Spanish; and it's not unusual to hear other tongues. Just last week a customer from Africa bought nearly $900 worth of pots and pans to ship to a restaurant back on the Mother Continent.

Gina told me that the Ngo family has a broad involvement in Charlotte food, including ownership of the mammoth Century International Grocery located two doors down from Dai-Sing. "What does Dai-Sing mean?" I asked. "Big money," says Gina. "That's what we want to help our customers make -- and us, too."

Dai-Sing is open 7 days a week - (704) 921 - 8312. Ask for Gina.

Asian Corner Mall is featured in the Changing Places exhibit, along with other local entrepreneurs and businesses.

Car Cultures

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:59:00 -0400

In sprawling Charlotte, folks spend a lot of time in their automobiles. So it's not surprising the some people show off their cultural heritage on their cars.

Can you add more examples?

Maw-maw or Meemaw (spelled various ways) was what the kids I grew up with in the Virginia mountains called their grandmothers. Is it also found outside the South, I wonder?

My banjo-playing buddy Rob Daves used it for his grandma in Kannapolis - and he also lovingly calls little kids "yard apes." Looks like this grandma (in a mall parking lot in Pineville) does, too.

Here's a couple of musicians carrying on the Southern traditions of bluegrass and fiddle music (photographed at the Mt. Airy fiddlers convention):

A non-southerner, and proud of it! (Seen in uptown Charlotte)

From Haiti, perhaps? Refers to a rap group popular in Haiti and also in Florida. The SUV was parked in Charlotte's Belmont-Villa Heights neighborhood:

Airbrush artists turn up often at Latino flea markets, making custom license plates. Cesar had already made this one with symbols of US/Mexican unity; I asked him to add his signature, and its now in the Changing Places exhibit tienda:

At Cocina Latina on Albemarle Road, Changing Places graphic designer Irene Morris and I talked with this guy about his fire-dragon car. It looks fierce, but the license plate reads CUICATL: "flower and song" in the ancient Aztec language.

Latino pick-up truck owners seem especially proud to display cultural symbols - those big tailgates are natural billboards.

I can pick out some items in these photos: the Virgin of Guadalupe, Jesus, Michoacan (the state in Mexico where the driver was born, probably). Lots of the scenes seem to have bridges, water, animals, references to home and family. I’d love someone to explain the whole artwork.

Red truck from Michoacan, Sweet Union Flea Market, US 74 near Monroe.

"Alex Auto Accesorios," Sweet Union Flea Market, US 74 near Monroe.

Check back for more tailgate art in an upcoming post...

Southern English: Have You Been Asked "The Question?"

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:32:00 -0400

Coming from a different part of the Carolinas, I was brought up to look on Charlotte with trepidation. It was "yankeefied," people told me: that is, you might have to specify "iced" and "sweet" when you order tea, people leave work in a bad mood and honk at each other in traffic, and nobody knows your mama. Just how incorrect those assumptions were, though, became obvious to me when I began doing research for Changing Places. New Charlotteans arriving from the Northeast find this city very Southern indeed, and they have a difficult row to hoe as they learn how to navigate Southern manners and communication.

In my research for Changing Places, I spent a great deal of time reading online message boards for Charlotte newcomers. Northerners really band together on these sites-they offer each other emotional support when they feel alienated, they make plans to watch Giants or Red Sox games together, and they argue passionately about where the best pizza is to be found. They also compare notes about the aspects of Southern manners that are most bewildering to them. Again and again, Northern newcomers complain of Southern nosiness; as an example, they are very likely to cite the fact that, when they first moved to town, their neighbors asked whether they had found a home church yet. "Where I come from, that's nobody's business," they write. Or, "Why do they assume that I go to church, or even that I'm a Christian?"

As a Southerner who has been guilty of this transgression herself, allow me to explain. There is the basic assumption underlying "The Question," as some newcomers refer to it, that you have some form of religious life. Charlotteans are Southern enough that the holy Southern trinity of faith-family-and-food is a given. However, those who ask The Question are not assuming that the newcomer is a Protestant Christian, a holy roller eager to sign up for Bible study with the neighbors. We ask the question expecting that the answer may perfectly well be, "Yes, I've joined the X- Synagogue/Wat/Mosque/Ashram," or, even more likely, "No, I'm not much of a churchgoer." The person asking the question probably doesn't go to church either. He or she just wants to know if you're settling in comfortably to life in your new home, and figures that if your religious faith is an active part of your life, you'll be looking for a place to practice. "Church" in this example of Southern English translates not to "Christian place of worship" but "any place of worship."

As a Carolinian married to a Connecticuter, I'm often tickled by my husband's process of assimilation to Southernness. We've found that we have totally different definitions for certain words. For example, to me, a "jerk" is a person who's nasty and unkind; to him, a "jerk" is someone who acts goofy or looks foolish. To me, a "carton" is what milk comes in; to him, it's a brown cardboard box like you use when you move. (I thought he was bizarre when he suggested using cartons to move our books and records.) On the other hand, he has adapted admirably to calling strangers "Sir" or "Ma'am"-the titles roll off his tongue as easily as if he had been brought up sirring and ma'amming his parents.

To old-time Carolinians, Cousin Charlotte's behavior has always been inexplicable. She's the type who would wear natty white shoes after Labor Day, or sit in church on Sunday with her legs crossed at the knee instead of the ankle. But if you look close, her roots are showing. More than the weather gives this city a Southern ambience. You won't find Berlitz guides to Southern English, but if you spend enough time in Charlotte, you'll be speaking it like a native.

Curator's Pick -- Taste of the World

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:45:00 -0400

East Charlotte is this region's most ethnically diverse place to eat. This fall, neighbors on the east side join togther again for TASTE OF THE WORLD on October 8.

Board buses for samplings at different restaurents along Central Avenue and nearby, then finish with dessert at the historic Van Landingham Estate on The Plaza. It's featured in our Changing Places exhibit -- and now you can taste it yourself! Ticket go on sale August 24

Your Link

Curator's pick: Uruguay Festival!

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:44:00 -0400

Culture, music and food of Uruguay will be celebrated at Plaza Fiesta on Sunday afternoon, August 23 at the "Celebración de la Independencia de Uruguay." The food should be especially wonderful -- Italian immigrants brought their baking traditions to Uruguay generations ago, and mouthwatering sweets have become a favorite part of the national cuisine. It's no coincidence that the Uruguay bakery at Plaza Fiesta is one of the sponsors of this festival. And of course all of the other eateries -- Mexican, Colombian, Peruvian, Greek and more -- will be open as usual that Sunday for your strolling and sampling pleasure.

Plaza Fiesta is next to Carowinds at exit 90 of I77 just south of Charlotte. Website is www.plazafiestacarolinas.com

Loganberry is Here!

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:00:00 -0400

Our family stopped by Taste of Buffalo Pizzeria recently for wings and pizza -- and found a new soft drink.

The restaurant, near the north branch Public Library at I77 exit 25, is a perfect piece of upstate New York, set down intact in North Carolina. Owners Donna Battaglia and husband Brad are featured in the CHANGING PLACES documentary that's being shown throughout this year on WTVI, and they are also pictured in the exhibit at Levine Museum. http://www.changingplacesproject.org/taste-of-buffalo/

But seeing is one thing -- tasting is another. We ordered a white garlic & tomato pizza, plus medium-hot wings "from the pit" with some of Brad's homemade blue cheese dressing for dunking. Then we noticed the sign "Loganberry is here!" What's that?

Donna pointed to electric-yellow cans in the beverage cooler: "It's a soda pop everybody drinks around Buffalo."

Gotta try that! So I opened one up and admired its bright red color -- brighter even than the can's yellow exterior. I looked at the ingredients, and real loganberry juice is high on the list. Now to give it a taste.

I can report it's pretty good, sorta a cross between cherry and strawberry. Very sweet.

It won't replace our local Cheerwine on my list of favorites. But when I next crave a taste-visit to upstate New York, there'll be Aunt Rosie's Loganberry next to my pizza and wings.

(By the way, for a cool map of what areas of the US say "pop," which say "soda," etc, check out http://popvssoda.com:2998/countystats/total-county.html)

Almost like Mayberry ... with hot rods

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:13:00 -0400

Tonight is the fourth Friday of the month -- time for a road trip to Oakboro, NC. That's the monthly cruise-in, when vintage cars and hot rods take over Main Street in this pretty little country town about 45 minutes east of Charlotte out Albemarle Road.

Even if you don't like cars, go to soak up an evening of small-town Carolina atmosphere -- stroll, people-watch, and munch on hot dogs. Don't miss the fresh-fruit Mexican popsicles at Patricia Castillo's Paleteria La Potosina, 223 N. Main Street (her story is featured in the CHANGING PLACES exhibit). www.changingplacesproject.org/mexican-favorite-comes-to-carolina/

Here's the website for the Cruise-In: www.oakborocruisein.blogspot.com/

Curator's picks: Colombian Independence

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:11:00 -0400

Saturday July 18 LOS PAISAS RESTAURANT hosts a DJ and rumba dance competition with prizes for dancing and costumes. 8318 Pineville Matthews Road (704) 542 - 5477

Sunday July 19 PLAZA FIESTA MALL hosts a FESTIVAL with musical groups, rumba dancers, food, crafts and kids activities. FREE! 10am to 6pm at Plaza Fiesta Mall adjacent to Carowinds. Interstate 77 exit 90. http://www.plazafiestacarolinas.com/

Oh No, Not on Latino Radio Too!

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:40:00 -0400

I'm having fun exploring Charlotte's Spanish-language radio. There's a number of spots on the AM and FM dial, each with a different mix of musical styles.

One favorite is 106.1 LaRaza. The music is programmed out of Los Angeles, led by a hugely popular morning man nicknamed Piolin. He's at once wacky and respected coast-to-coast, sort of like Tom Joyner on African American stations. His name means "Tweety Bird," partly because he's small in size but also because he's skilled at stirring things up, just like the old Warner Bros. cartoon character. The May 1 immigration rallies nationwide a couple of years ago happened partly due to Piolin's stirring-up.

LaRaza is good for someone like me who's trying to pick up some Spanish words here and there. They play only the top 20 hits of the day, so songs get repeated enough to work their way into my brain. I know about five words so far -- corazon (heart), amor (love), loco (crazy), te kiero (I want you).

Unfortunately for me, LaRaza has been quite successful in the Charlotte community. Local announcers are replacing the old stream of music that used to flow off the satellite. In the rising tide of talk, my five words don't get me very far.

So I'm exploring Poder 105.3. That provided a new word right off the bat: "Poder" means "power." 105.3 seems to play a wide range of music, not just top-20 hits. At any rate, I seldom hear the same tune twice. Fortunately my anchor-words show up in just about any pop song, so there's still hope for my continuing education.

Which brings me to the song I heard the other day. Fuzzed out guitar intro. A simple, terribly catchy melody. Corazon in nearly every line. "Yes!! That means 'heart.' Now what's the rest of it?" If you don't know the language, its tough to catch a song title or band name, but in this case, I happened to be leaving my car and walking into a restaurant -- where the song was still playing! "What is that, what is that?" I asked desperately. The waitress gave me the strangest look, pity perhaps? But she wrote down the band's name, "Caballo Dorado." When I got home I looked them up on YouTube.

Turns out they had a hit back in the 90s covering a terrible -- but terribly catchy -- U.S. country song. See how long it takes you to figure out what it was: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yy66dZU-CQ

Curator's Pick: Juneteenth Festival of the Carolinas

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:07:00 -0400

http://www.juneteenthofthecarolinas.com/

From June 19-21, 2009, check out the Juneteenth Festival of the Carolinas, which takes place at Independence Park on 7th Street just a mile from Levine Museum. Lots of vendors, interesting food, music and a great place to hang out! House of Africa's Pape Ndiaye, who is in the Changing Places exhibit, has hosted the annual Juneteenth celebration here in Charlotte since 1997. The festival attracts visitors from far and near. Will you be there?

Pape Ndiaye, founder of the Juneteenth Festival