Hoppin John appears as a signature dish in 1 United States cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Hoppin' John · Charleston
Carolina Gold rice cooked with field peas (or black-eyed peas), bacon and onion. The New Year's Day dish for luck, eaten year-round in Charleston.
Hoppin' John is a Gullah-Geechee staple of West African origin, brought to the Sea Islands and Carolina rice plantations through the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The earliest printed recipe appears in Sarah Rutledge's 1847 Charleston cookbook The Carolina Housewife. Traditional versions use Sea Island red peas or field peas with Carolina Gold rice, slow-cooked with smoked ham hock. The plate is eaten on New Year's Day across the South for prosperity, paired with collards (for money) and cornbread. Glenn Roberts at Anson Mills in Columbia has spent thirty years restoring heirloom Carolina Gold rice; that rice now anchors versions at Husk and FIG.
Where to eat in Charleston:
- Husk
- Bertha's Kitchen
- Hannibal's Kitchen
- Slightly North of Broad