south carolina because everybody moved into mill villages and immediately started eating processed food because they weren t growing their food anymore. the second thing that happened is there was a massive amount of expertise that was lost during the civil war. anthony: a lot of the southern revival, the whole turnaround started with this guy, glenn roberts. a man who asked a simple question how come grits aren t as good as they used to be? and by starting the heirloom grain company anson mills, decided to do something about it. so why do this? why does something as unwanted, meaning nobody was particularly crying out, you know what we need? we need rice that used to taste like it did in 1837. we need grits, better grits. what called to you that you felt compelled to answer? glenn: i m a cuisine whore, you know? i think that culture is interactive with cuisine, as soon as you look at cuisine,
stuff around. anthony: oh yeah. the rice is amazing. bill: it s amazing, man. anthony: yeah. you see bubba gump, you get angry? sean: i get very angry. anthony: for me, it s chili s, because you see chili s along the mexican border. it s like what the ? i m sorry, do we have a shortage of mexicans in this country. is there a shortage of good food? you re eating at chili s? i really want to pull up the car, get a tire iron and walk in and just straighten some people out. sean: clean house. road house style. anthony: road house. vastly underrated film.
tons of product. and guess what? they went crazy. anthony: slow baked black bass, anson mills farrow, ramps in season, and lettuces. and this ode to all things glenn is responsible for bringing back. heirloom rice and peas, suckling ossabaw pig and chicken confit with carolina ld rice. oh, that s good. glenn: isn t that great? this is phenomenal. these peas are killer. anthony: i m hitting the rice next. glenn: that s got the entire history of southern agriculture in it. anthony: right here? glenn: right there in that little bowl. this whole idea of having a century in a dish, none of this stuff was here 20 years ago. anthony: near the end of the civil war during general
anthony: wow, what s going on here? this is an onslaught of awesomeness here. bill: we didn t order this. sean: so hoppin john, so pit beans that have been cooking over the fire all day. these are the red peas that came from west africa. this is the original carolina gold rice, hand-harvested. grilled whiting, which is what nobody eats in charleston in restaurants. it s what everybody eats in homes with some spring vegetables. and then this is suckling pig. that s the same breed, ossabaw, as we had earlier with the ham, mixed with a mule foot cooked on a spit. some creamed corn and cornbread. anthony: wow. bill: well, this is going to be my first mule foot. sean: this is like my favorite way to eat, you know? just family style, just pass
you re looking at politics. you re looking at medicine. you re looking at the advanced thinking. anthony: i ll agree with you that there is nothing more political than food. glenn: you got it. anthony: chef mike lata s restaurant fig was one of the first and most important on the charleston scene. determined to source the kind of local products that you used to find everywhere in the low country. as much as i d like to illustrate that solid grounding and traditional ingredients and preparations with my order, i could not resist the soft shell crabs, which are just in season. with a pasta and shaved bottarga, which frankly, i d slit my best friend s throat for. glenn: wow, that looks great. anthony: yeah. glenn: that s beautiful. anthony: it s sweet. when you had your first forkful of proper rice is there an instinct to go out and sort of bludgeon the rest of the world into understanding what you have just come to understand. glenn: i did not run up and down the streets