The Lowcountry

THE LOW LYING COASTAL PLAIN along the South Carolina-Georgia coast is protected on the ocean side by the Sea Islands, one hundred natural harriers surrounded by salt marsh. The shoreline of sandy beaches is sprinkled with sea oats, palmettos, and ancient live oaks. To leeward, creeks and estuaries meander through one of the most complicated systems of wetlands in the world. The marsh envelops the land, and into its grasses come the shrimp, crab, oysters, clams, and fishes that have characterized the local cooking since long before the English settled Charleston in the late seventeenth century.