This weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

It is no secret that I love books, especially cookbooks.  If  someone started a twelve step program for Bookaholics Anonymous, I could be a charter member.  The siren song of a stack of old books is more tempting to me than the smell and sight of homemade chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven.

 When I come across one book which combines great storytelling from a favorite author, along with recipes, it’s a grand slam.  I have always loved the way Pat Conroy weaves a tale.  His prowess with the English language is amazing.  He has the gift to make written words actually speak from the page.  His cookbook, The Pat Conroy Cookbook, Recipes of  My Life, has a perfect score from me.  He combines tales, thoughts about cooking and cookbooks and some really fine recipes.

 Best known for his works about South Carolina, such as The Prince of Tides and Beach Music, Conroy has many food references in his books.  After getting The Pat Conroy Cookbook, I re-read his works with a new eye.

 In his own words, taken from the cover of his cookbook:

 “This book is the story of my life as it relates to the subject of  food.  It is my autobiography in food and meals and restaurants and countries far and near.  Let  me take you to a restaurant on the Left Bank of Paris that I found when writing The Lords of Discipline. There are meals I ate in Rome while writing The Prince of Tides that ache in my memory when I resurrect them.

           There is a shrimp dish I ate in an elegant English restaurant, where Cuban cigars were passed out to all the gentlemen in the room after dinner, that I can taste on my palate as I write this.  There is barbecue and its variations in the South, and the subject is a holy one to me.  I write of truffles in the Dordogne Valley in France, cilantro in Bangkok, catfish in Alabama, scuppernong in South Carolina, Chinese food from my years in San Francisco, and white asparagus from the first meal my agent took me to in New York City.  Let me tell you about the fabulous things I have eaten in my life, the story  of the food I have encountered along the way…..”

 James Beard, one of the pioneers in the food world in America after World War II, said that any great cook has “taste memory”.  He explains that to be the ability after many years have passed to recall the exact flavor, aroma and presentation of a dish.  Pat Conroy certainly possesses this gift.

 The stories and recipes in the book  run the gamut from classic Italian to deep Southern.  Trying to isolate just one recipe to share in this article was difficult.  Since Mr. Conroy claims Beaufort, South Carolina, as his hometown, it seems appropriate to include his rendition of the Shrimp and Grits, a food combination which originated in the marshy Low Country of South Carolina.

 Taken from The Pat Conroy Cookbook

Serves 4

1 cup  coarse white grits

2 thick slices country bacon, cut into matchsticks (about ½ cup)

1 small shallot, finel minced

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 teaspoon strained fresh lemon juice

Coarse or kosher salt

 2 to 3 drops Tabasco Sauce

• Slow-cook the grits according to the package directions. (This will take about 60 minutes.) Set aside.
• Place a medium, heavy skillet over moderate heat.  When the pan is hot, add the bacon and cook until the fat is rendered and bacon is crisp, 5 – 8 minutes.  Using a slotted spoon, remove the bacon and reserve in a small bowl, keeping the pan as is, fat and all.  (This can be done in advance.  Do not cook the shrimp until the grits are ready and resting.)
• In a low oven, warm four heatproof serving plates.
• Return the skillet with the bacon fat to moderate heat.  Add the shallot and cook until soft but not colored.  Add butter a nd when it’s melted, add shrimp, cooking until just pink, about 3 minutes.  Add lemon juice and a pinch of salt and toss to coat.
• Spoon about ½ cup steaming grits into the middle of each waqrm plate.  Using a slotted spoon, place shrimp on top of the grits.  Add reserved bacon and Tabasco to the pan juices, swirling the skillet for a few seconds to create a thin sauce.  Pour over the shrimp and grits. Even if you never prepare a recipe from this book, just reading it will delight you.  Which is better in this book, the prose or the recipes?   Difficult to say – perhaps I need to settle down with a  cup of coffee and read it again, and again, and again.