Fred Fabian
Google
Clearly Hamby’s (2.0) Market is not what an old Charlestonian expects from one of its city’s iconic culinary delights. The Cliff note version: Best success is handled by a customer’s advance planning and ordering, and avoid the shrimp salad 2.0 sandwiches.
In fairness to the Hamby’s organization, Mrs. Candice Hudnall was incredibly polite and gracious, and swift to respond to my complaint about the rigid structure of the “market’s” product availability, cold service, and absence of customer accommodation. She was also very adamant about their having “remained true to the original iteration from Mrs. Hamby” qualifying that some elements have changes citing the bread from Piggly Wiggly.
Confidently knowing that my taste buds had not betrayed me, I pulled out Mrs. Hamby’s book, Catering to Charleston, and prepared the recipe for the shrimp tea sandwiches nestled within its pages. I dare not share the recipe (copyright infringement) and encourage you to seek out the recipe within its pages. Some words of caution – the recipes portrayed on the Internet are not the same as in Mrs. Hamby’s book. When directly ask if the book recipe was the recipe to which they “remained true,” Mrs. Hudnall offered no response.
Taste testing results. A few friends and family compared the sandwiches; the ones I prepared to that which I purchased at Hamby’s market in a blind test. We could only assume that Mrs. Hudnall had been misinformed by her staff – or the original recipe was modified from that of Mrs. Patrick’s Shrimp Paste fearing they would have to expend royalties to others.
In short, my suggestions for ordering… most everything (except the shrimp) is awesome. Order “double stuffed,” but order (>24 hours) in advance because this is NOT offered in the Market when making an impromptu purchase. In the “Market” be prepared for the structured corporate responses; uncharacteristic of Southern hospitality and accommodation.
