Travelers Seek Vacations Flavored with Regional Foods

(ARA) – Travel and food go together like sun and sand. In fact, dining on regional specialties is fast becoming the heart and soul of a vacation. On vacation, travelers can sample delicious local dishes that are normally not prepared at home, and they needn’t even venture abroad for these memorable culinary experiences.

Perhaps one of the most exciting places to experience regional cuisine is in the coastal areas of the Southeast U.S., where "low-country cooking" has become a time-honored tradition. “Low-country” is a style of cooking that utilizes local ingredients such as Carolina rice, stone-ground grits, shrimp, blue crab, grouper and country ham, in traditional recipes found on breakfast, lunch and dinner menus.

Today, young professional chefs in the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area are taking this culinary genre to a new level with innovative interpretations of those traditional dishes. Chefs have developed a modern version of low-country cooking known as Carolina Coastal Cuisine, somewhat unique to the 60-mile coastline that stretches from Little River to Pawley's Island.

"The cuisine of the coastal Carolinas region is replete with rice, fresh produce and a bounty of local seafood. With our experienced chefs bringing fresh, innovative and delicious ideas to regional favorites, we have a healthy culinary renaissance taking place," comments Becky Billingsley, a culinary expert in Myrtle Beach who publishes the daily MyrtleBeachRestaurantNews.com, and has written about local restaurants for more than a decade.

As testament to this culinary renaissance, many more restaurants in the Myrtle Beach area are using locally sourced ingredients, sustainable meat, fish and seafood, as well as regionally grown produce -- the culinary interpretation of the “green” trend -- to enhance the taste and quality of cuisine. In turn, menus are becoming more representative of the region’s distinct culinary traditions, styles and flavors, and travelers are taking notice.

The area is attracting vacationers from near and far who come to taste something new, often returning home with a recipe book to cook their favorite Carolina Coastal meals for family and friends. Visitors to the Myrtle Beach area, also known as the Grand Strand, can now sample these unique dishes at a myriad of restaurants, both casual and formal. Some savory examples include:

* Pulled pork with baby mustard greens
* Carolina shrimp with country ham and sweet potato hash
* Cornmeal-crusted Carolina oysters with piccalilli relish
* Lump crab, sweet yellow corn, applewood smoked bacon and avocado with citrus vinaigrette
* Fried green tomatoes
* Tupelo honey-glazed chicken with low country pilau, a type of rice

After spending a day on the beach, playing a round of golf or shopping and strolling in any of the Myrtle Beach area’s quaint communities, a great meal awaits insatiable travelers at one of the area’s delightful dining establishments. It's a culinary treat that will be remembered long after the trip has come to an end.

When planning your next vacation, consider the flavors of the area you'll be visiting and try something new to make your trip unique and memorable. If low-country cooking paired with a plethora of activities and temperate climate sounds appealing, stop by www.visitmyrtlebeach.com or call (888) Myrtle1 (888-697-8531).

Courtesy of ARAcontent