Georgia Food & Traditional Cuisine

Georgia's food is Southern cooking with a distinct coastal branch, and its roots are West African as much as English — most of the techniques and several of the staple ingredients arrived with enslaved people.

The coast cooks Lowcountry food: shrimp, crab, oysters and rice, heavily influenced by Gullah Geechee cooking. Inland it is pork, chicken, corn and greens, with a vinegar-and-tomato barbecue.

Three crops carry the state's reputation — peaches, pecans, of which Georgia is the largest US producer, and the sweet onions that may legally be grown only in a defined group of counties.

Shrimp and grits

Coarse stone-ground grits under shrimp in a gravy of bacon and stock. A Lowcountry dish and the coast's best.

Boiled peanuts

Green peanuts boiled in heavy brine until soft, sold hot from roadside cookers. Soft and salty rather than crunchy, and an acquired taste worth acquiring.

Brunswick stew

A thick tomato-based stew of pork or chicken with corn and butterbeans, served alongside barbecue. Its origin is disputed with Virginia, and not politely.

Meat-and-three

A lunch counter format: one meat and three vegetable sides, with cornbread. The most reliably good cheap eating in the state.

Peach cobbler

Baked in season from June to August. Georgia is not actually the largest peach producer, but it is the one that matters.

Vidalia onions

So mild they can be eaten raw, in season from April to September, and legally grown only in a defined area of the coastal plain.

Roadside stands across the coastal plain sell peaches, pecans, boiled peanuts and produce through the season, and are the most characteristic food experience in the state.

Farmers' markets run in the cities year-round and in the towns seasonally.

Barbecue is a distinct institution, usually a modest building with limited hours that closes when the meat runs out. Going early is not optional.

Church suppers, oyster roasts on the coast in autumn and low-country boils are community events and the best food most visitors never find.

North Georgia has a real and growing wine industry. The Dahlonega Plateau in the mountains is a recognised growing area, high enough and cool enough at night to work, and it does well with Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay and Viognier.

Most of the wineries are within about ninety minutes of Atlanta, which makes the region an easy day or weekend trip, and several have serious restaurants attached.

The state also has a substantial craft brewing scene, concentrated in Atlanta and Savannah, and a legal moonshine tradition in the mountains with genuine history behind it.