TableScape

When someone new to this country arrives, they somehow learn that this is the dish you bring to a gathering. It’s the dish that shows a desire to understand this place, and they seem to have heard that this bowl of lubricated tubers is the way to go. Depending on who you heard that from and where you come from, you might add some cured pork, a scoop of gochujang, or a jar of capers.

That’s your contribution to the complexity of this dish, representing your culture’s part in ours, and yourself contributing to the promise of this place. This offering can say both “welcome” and “we are.”

Every culture in America appears to have some version of potato salad. Jewish deli. Japanese. German. Calabrian. Nepali. Bodega. A dear friend of mine is Peruvian and knows about potatoes. She told me that in Peru it’s ensalada rusa, and in Spain it's ensaladilla rusa: potatoes, carrots, peas, and sometimes cubed beets, with mayonnaise.

Potato salad isn’t a main meal. It’s an accompaniment, support for whatever else surrounds it. It unites a plate and soothes the palate. It complements hot foods and cools cold ones. It’s reliable. It’s expected.

But it can also go a little wild. Take a chance. Innovate. No matter what, your contribution will be questioned, talked about, and appreciated. 🥄

www.tablescapemag.com

With a saltine cracker crust, a tart lemon-lime curd filling, and a mountain of fluffy whipped cream on top, this Atlantic Beach Pie is salty, sweet, tart, and the perfectly balanced dessert for any summer meal.

Bill Smith's Atlantic Beach Pie first broke onto the culinary scene in 2011 to wide acclaim. Bill Smith's Atlantic Beach Pie recipe begins with a sweet-and-savory combo of crushed Saltine crackers, butter, and sugar. Bound with egg white, the crust is the perfect vessel for the rich, creamy filling, made with lemon and lime juices, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks.

"When we were growing up, we were told that you shouldn’t have desserts after seafood because you’d be sick," Smith told Tom Maxwell in |an in-depth interview with Tom Maxwell for The Bitter Southerner. "You just believed it because your grandmother told you. We were Catholic, so we had seafood every Friday, so we never had any dessert. The one exception was citrus. You could have lemon, so all the restaurants—this was like a folkloric thing all along eastern North Carolina—all the seafood restaurants along the coast had these lemon pies because that was okay to eat. They varied from place to place, but they had a cracker crust."🥄

www.tablescapemag.com