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Carteret County Bureau of Crushes

@bureauofcrushes

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Reporting on Carteret County crushes:
people, places, flavours & local devotions.
Fresh crushes served🍋💘

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

The Bureau has a particular affection for the long, slightly irregular hush puppies of Eastern North Carolina. While much of the South favours a round little ball, ours are more like irregular batons of fried cornmeal. The Bureau considers this indisputably the ultimate hush puppy shape: more surface for frying, an excellent crust-to-middle ratio and, critically, perfectly engineered for dipping.

While the ideal shape can safely remain undisputed, the history is wonderfully contested. One enduring origin story claims cooks at coastal fish fries tossed bits of fried cornmeal batter to barking dogs to keep them quiet. No one has quite managed to prove this, and the dogs have remained resolutely mute during Bureau interviews.

What we do know, however, is that by the 1940s, hush puppies were fixtures of Carolina coastal fish houses. From there, they travelled inland, finding a second home in Piedmont barbecue restaurants….if you’ve ever used a hush puppy to sop up barbecue, you know exactly why.

The Bureau finds it rather wonderful that something as humble as a hush puppy has accumulated so much folklore and such a rich history.

Pictured above are the well-loved El’s hush puppies. Since 1959, El’s has been doing more than its part to keep the tradition alive, serving generations of Morehead City families from that much-loved little drive-in on Arendell Street.

We are curious, though. Who else in Carteret County is still making a truly great hush puppy?

📸 @elsdrivein elsdrivein

#MoreheadCityNC #MyCrystalCoast #HushPuppies #SouthernFood #ncfood taken in Morehead City, North Carolina by @bureauofcrushes

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3 days ago

Dee Gee’s has been on the Morehead City waterfront since 1934, which means it has dedicated almost a century to perfecting the art of gift giving. This is well evidenced by one of the loveliest curated gift selections in Carteret County: coastal keepsakes, great books, beautiful tableware, children’s gifts, fab bags — the Lilley line is obsession-worthy — and, perhaps most adorably, they still stock all the best flavours of the old-fashioned stick candy people remember buying there when they were small.

Current Bureau finding: of course Dee Gee’s has the coolest Halloween decoration in Carteret County: the Jellycat Vampop Drink.

This little Transylvanian treat is appropriately silly, beautifully made, and a must-have conversation piece for a properly styled Halloween season.

Crush status: Frightfully Necessary

#deegeesfinds #downtownmoreheadcitync #mycrystalcoast #Jellycat #halloweendécor taken in Morehead City, North Carolina by @bureauofcrushes

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5 days ago

It is a stormy weekend, which means the Bureau has turned its attention to the serious autumn work of canning, drying, salting and saving summer’s bounty for cooler days. So yes, we are drying rosemary along the stairwell. For roast potatoes, certainly. For winter beans, focaccia, chicken, soups and glorious Sunday roasts.

Rosemary’s old botanical name is read as “dew of the sea”, fitting for a plant native to coastal Mediterranean landscapes, where it thrives in dry, bright, exposed conditions. It makes rosemary feel strangely at home in coastal North Carolina, even though it is not native here.

It also carries a long symbolic history as the herb of remembrance. NC Cooperative Extension lists rosemary in the old “language of flowers” as meaning remembrance and fidelity, while broader herb histories connect it to weddings, funerals, memory and household keeping.

There is something deeply steadying about this work, and the Bureau is happy to file it under useful acts of devotion.

The Bureau is curious: what else are Carteret County people cooking, baking or canning on this rainy weekend?

#BureauOfCrushes #MyCrystalCoast #VisitNC #Rosemary #herbgarden taken in Carteret County by @bureauofcrushes

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8 days ago

The old beach cottages in Carteret County are stop-the-car glorious in their simplicity and The Bureau should disclose that it is slightly obsessed with their weathered clapboard and somewhat intentional disregard for perfection. But there is something about the spell of a pink house that will always stop The Bureau.

The Bureau suspects living in one might alter a person’s disposition. A greater tolerance for whimsy, perhaps? An unusual relationship with the passing of time. Might someone dwelling in a pink house develop a curious immunity to the disappointments of an ordinary Thursday or have an increased tendency to make rather wonderful decisions for reasons that are difficult to explain?

Given the possible implications for everyday happiness, The Bureau will continue to investigate the known and as-yet-undocumented effects of pink house living.

#CrystalCoast #CarteretCounty #MyCrystalCoast #CoastalCottage #SouthernLiving taken in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina by @bureauofcrushes

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10 days ago

There is something about sunset in Carteret County that the Bureau has not yet been able to explain. Early findings suggest the sky here may be larger than regulation sky. We understand this raises scientific concerns. Still, between the sea, the sound, the harbours and all that reflected light, it appears that the sunset does seem to take up more room here than it does elsewhere.

Now the curious bit. The sun sets in the west. The Bureau knows this. We respect the science. And still, if you can pull yourself away from the blessedly overdramatic western sky and turn back toward Down East, there is almost always another version waiting: pink, heavy with fine-art clouds, wide open, quieter. Not ablaze like the west, but a quieter close to the day.

These moments remind the Bureau of places where the sunset has become ceremony: Menemsha, the little up-island fishing village on Martha’s Vineyard, where people clap when the sun goes down; Oia, Santorini, where the town gathers along the caldera; Cala Benirràs in Ibiza, where there is applause and drumming.

Carteret County does not seem to have one formal sunset ritual. It has something more scattered and constant: the photo from the dock, a shot of the ships going out, the last pink light over the marsh, the harbour going gold for five minutes on a Tuesday. It is more than a few posts, it is a phenomenon. Carteret County social media is full of sunrise and sunset, day after day, and the Bureau is now happily complicit.

The Bureau has taken more sunset photos than any serious organisation should admit, and still, somewhere around 7:30, there we are again, whipping down to the shore as if this might be the one that finally explains it.

It never does. Thank Goodness!

The Bureau cannot prove Carteret County gets two sunsets. But some nights, if you remember to turn around, it comes very close.

BUREAU OF CRUSHES: INVESTIGATION NO. 011
Subject: Sunset Culture
Status: Two Sunsets Suspected

#MyCrystalCoast #CarteretCountyNC #VisitNC #NCsunsets #SunsetPhotography taken in Sugarloaf Island by @bureauofcrushes

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11 days ago

There is something pleasantly unruly about apple history in America. English and European settlers brought apples with them, but the really interesting part is what happened next. Apples do not grow true from seed: plant one seed and you do not get the same apple back. Every new tree held the possibility of something different — sharper, sweeter, stranger — eventually producing a riot of varieties with deeply evocative and overly dramatic names: Bread and Cheese Apple, Rusty Coat, Pig’s Nose and our all-time favourite, Seek No Further.

By the mid-19th century, North America had roughly 17,000 named apples. In North Carolina, apples more than earned their keep: dried, stored, fried, stewed, turned into butter, vinegar, cider, winter pies, cakes, cobblers and whole fried apple pies, be still, my beating heart, cooked in a pan of hot lard.

North Carolina’s ongoing heritage apple work honours its rich cultivation history. At Horne Creek Farm, the Southern Heritage Apple Orchard holds more than 400 old Southern varieties, many preserved through the devoted foraging and collecting of Lee and Edith Calhoun.

We would be remiss not to mention Apple Stack Cake, a Southern Appalachian mountain tradition made with thin cake layers and dried apple filling, apple butter or apple preserves tucked between them, then quite rightly left to infuse overnight. The North Carolina Folklife Institute calls it the dessert that most says Appalachia, and we cannot wait to make one.

Apple stories from North Carolina are not fancy.

They are much better than fancy.

BUREAU OF CRUSHES: INVESTIGATION NO. 010
Subject: NC Apple Season
Status: Fried Pie Evidence Mounting

Photos
1. Country Fair Market Scale
2. Apple & Pear Hand Pies | Ras el hanout Icing
3. A Frosty Apple Morning

#NCApples #NationalAppleMonth #GotToBeNC #MyCrystalCoast
#appleseason taken in Carteret County by @bureauofcrushes

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12 days ago

The Bureau was walking along Bridges Street when it encountered a raccoon sitting in a magnolia tree with the composure of a small Southern gentleman who had taken a room upstairs.

Just one very handsome little bandit tucked into the leaves, looking down with the swagger of a tiny masked celebrity who knew the whole neighbourhood was about to LOSE ITS MIND.

Naturally, we took photos for the pending investigation.

Then we made the mistake of showing family.

Within minutes, a small delegation had been formed. Affection was immediate and disproportionate. People were crossing over the street, pointing, photographing, cooing, admiring, and generally behaving as though Bridges Street had been briefly blessed by woodland royalty.

The Bureau can confirm that the raccoon, obviously, remained composed throughout.

There is something deeply pleasing about an ordinary wild thing briefly becoming the most important person on the block. A little masked citizen in a magnolia tree, minding his business while everyone else abandoned theirs. It’s not rare, exactly, just suddenly dear.

The Bureau can confirm this crush is highly credible.

Please admire all raccoons from a respectful distance.

#MyCrystalCoast #CarteretCountyNC #Raccoon #NCWildlife #wildlifephotography taken in Morehead City, North Carolina by @bureauofcrushes

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13 days ago

Marée is such a classic coastal French shop in all the best ways.

Firstly, the curation is intentional, precise and balanced. The layout is minimalist, giving products space to breathe and speak to you. Materials are not an afterthought but integral to the design. And frankly, everything is lovely and it lasts.

From timeless, quality Danish raincoats by RAINS to the very British Haws, who have been crafting the perfect watering can since Victorian England. Nestled amongst these finds, and many more, are tins of fish, and that’s where we find our thoughts heading today….

It is simply a perfect day to flâner around Beaufort. If ever there was a day for a raincoat, some tinned fish and a deck of cards, today is the day.

PS Do not leave without a coffee!

#BeaufortNC #MyCrystalCoast #SOBX #NorthCarolinaCoast #coastalliving taken in Beaufort, North Carolina by @bureauofcrushes

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14 days ago

You know you’re nearly home when these two appear.

The Morehead City Channel range lights have been guiding sailors into port since the mid-1800s. Today’s steel towers are only the latest in a long succession of range markers that have illuminated the way home. The harbour has evolved and changed immeasurably but their purpose remains wonderfully simple: find one light, find the other, bring them into line and follow the channel home.

They are not beautiful in the conventional sense. They are industrial and utilitarian structures built to do one job in what is know the world over as “Hurricane Alley.” But for those of us who live in Carteret County, when they appear on the horizon, they are more than navigational markers, they are markers of home as surely as the shoreline itself.

Line them up and they’ll guide you back from ‘off’.

#ncseafoodfestival #MoreheadCityNC #carteretcounty #MyCrystalCoast #maritimehistory taken in Morehead City, North Carolina by @bureauofcrushes

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15 days ago

There are mornings when the Bureau wakes up thinking about the Friendly Market Cinnamon Rolls before it has had the decency to think about anything else.

This is not ideal from a governance perspective, but it does suggest a fairly serious crush.

There is simply no denying that in Carteret County, the Friendly Market Cinnamon Rolls are busy doing the Lord’s work. The thing we like best about it? It is not precious. None of those polished, braided, Swedish kardemummabullar vibes here. This is a proper cinnamon roll: humble and smug at the same time, sitting there just flirting, fully aware you are not leaving the store without its buttery, cinnamony goodness.

It is not homemade, technically. But it has the dangerous confidence of something that could turn up at a family breakfast and get away with it.

DO NOT tell your mama we said that.

The Bureau can confirm this crush is highly credible, heavily frosted, and spiritually persuasive.

BUREAU OF CRUSHES: INVESTIGATION NO. 009
Subject: Cinnamon Rolls at Friendly Market
Status: Frosting Restraint Not Observed

#FriendlyMarketNC #MyCrystalCoast #CarteretCountyNC #SouthernFood #cinnamonrolls taken in Morehead City, North Carolina by @bureauofcrushes

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16 days ago

The Bureau does not usually investigate settled law.
And yet here we are.

Duke’s Mayonnaise is less a condiment than a tiny Southern municipality. Keep the wrong jar in your refrigerator and someone will notice, reassess your character, and begin the quiet civic process of attaching “bless her heart” to your name.

There is simply no denying that in Carteret County, Duke’s occupies a particularly lofty station, and you would not want to be caught pretending otherwise. We are not saying people would go to blows over mayonnaise, however the September 2022 church supper incident remains, for good reason, largely undiscussed, and we understand public confidence has never been fully restored.

Tomato pie depends on it. German Johnson tomato sandwiches tend to demand it. Chicken salad without Duke’s is not technically a violation of any known local ordinance. But as we all know, local custom is not enforced by fines, it is enforced by mothers, aunts, Gigis and disappointed looks.

Across the Bureau’s highly informal interviews, the same truth surfaced: there is something deeply comforting about a jar of Duke’s. Partner in crime to so many well-loved, no-recipe dishes, Duke’s plays an undeniable role in the culinary history of the American South.

In a moment when so many people are longing for time that feels less complicated and food that feels familiar and generous, we are particularly grateful for the glorious chicken salad renaissance, the continued rise of the humble, near-holy Southern tomato sandwich, and the comforting continuity of Duke’s.

Bless the yellow lid, the twang, the spoon in the jar, and every person who knows there are places where mayonnaise is not a preference, it is an article of faith.

The Bureau can confirm this crush is highly credible and twangy.

Note: Unofficial Duke’s appreciation post. Founded in Greenville by Eugenia Duke, Duke’s has spent more than a century becoming the only thing certain people mean when they say mayonnaise.

The Bureau claims no ownership of Duke’s, only devotion.

#southernfood #chickensalad
#mycrystalcoast #dukesmayo #dukesmayonaise taken in Carteret County by @bureauofcrushes

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17 days ago

INVESTIGATION 007
SUBJECT: Gray Triggerfish
STATUS: Not According To Plan

This gray triggerfish has somehow retained the expression of a man who has just realised that a series of small administrative errors has culminated in his untimely demise.

A chunky, glorious little character with an oval body, high-set eyes and a small mouth equipped with an unusually expressive pair of lips, TBF the gray triggerfish was perhaps always destined for character work.

The Bureau is now seeking the support of the general public. What is he thinking? The Bureau welcomes speculation, hearsay and responsibly sourced gossip, with extra credit for puns or anything that makes us snort-laugh.

Carteret County leaves us gloriously spoiled for places to buy seafood, and the Bureau is not in the business of choosing favourites. But we do have a considerable crush on Blue Ocean Market.

For more than twenty years, Blue Ocean has been buying fish from boats working our sounds, rivers and coastal waters, sending some of that catch to restaurants across the country and keeping plenty right here for us. Walk into the Morehead City market and its local catch piled high on ice with proper fishmongers on hand to filet with precision.

#MyCrystalCoast #MoreheadCityNC #CarteretCounty #NCSeafood #visitnc taken in Blue Ocean Market by @bureauofcrushes

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a month ago