Category Archives: North America

Posts about countries in North America

TGIFTF

Posted on by

June’s Food Truck Friday

It was my time of the month, that third Friday when the food wagons circle around the fountain and feed the crowds. This month was one of the best attended I’ve been to so crowds indeed.

My regular parking lot was closed and I had to find a spot further away. That gave me the chance to put in some additional walking time which worked out well in the end. As protocol dictates I grabbed my beer on the way in, a nice cream ale from local favorite Legal Remedy Brewing.

I had my eye on three trucks and after writing off the heavy Italian menu of one and another not convincing me the fancy chicken slider was going to be worth what they were charging I strolled down to the Herban Legend truck and there menu board had more than one item I would have been happy with.

I was just about to order the Filipino Friday Pork Sisig but swerved at the last minute and chose the Caribbean quesadilla hoping it wouldn’t be as heavy on a 90 degree evening.

This was just about right quantity wise and it was delicious. In case you didn’t read the board it was Jamaican Jerk beef (ground), mango salsa, cheddar and jack cheeses topped with an island remoulade sauce and grilled in a tortilla, as you do with quesadillas. As much as I enjoyed it I have to say the Jamaican Jerk spices were less like a jerk and more like a tug. On the other end of the scale the mango chunks were huge. Just what was called for.

So one thing that annoyed me was all the skinny people walking around showing off by not sweating in spite of all the heat. Fortunately I was sharing a table with a good sized bald guy and his kids and he was eating spicy food and having my back as a fellow sweater. Solidarity.

After eating I strolled a bit and listened to the band, whose name I don’t recall but they were good. I did crack up at this older couple who was checking out the menu on the expensive truck and the lady says,”The cheeseburger is $12.00!” in an tone of total incredulity. Her husband turns to her with a disbelieving look on his face and says, “But it’s coming off a truck!” While I don’t disagree the price was high I’m guessing they aren’t big into the food truck scene if they were that scandalized by the pricing.

Well after being smart and eating lightish plus walking around instead of sitting like a lump I thought I deserved desert and found myself standing at the window of The Art of Baking truck. The desert I went for is probably something my southern ancestors would consider blasphemous but it was called The Golden One and was banana pudding (ok so far) with sliced strawberries (what?) and golden Oreos (well now you’ve gone too far) in addition to the traditional Nilla wafers.

I wasn’t visited by ghosts of disappointed relatives so I guess it was alright. I know one thing it was delicious. The strawberries tasted fresh like they’d been added just before I ordered and the Oreos were used sparingly so they were like a little treat added to the banana pudding experience. I ate it sitting in front of the fountain waiting for the shifting wind to send a little mist my way.

I had one more beverage ticket in hand and nowhere else to be so I got a Funky Buddha Coconut Porter. I mean come on who doesn’t love a good porter and coconut is great so how could this not be a winner.

It was a winner too but not without consequences. The porter was smooth and with moderate bitterness. The coconut aroma is the first thing that hits you as you go in for a sip. Then the flavor hits after the initial porter taste rolls past your tongue. The thing is porters aren’t really light even if they add tropical flavors and on top of the desert I felt like I was filled up like a big bellied Buddha. I’m surprised no one rubbed it for luck. This is where that longer walk back to the car came in handy.

Food Truck Friday never disappoints.

Arlington/DC edition

Posted on by

OK this is multi-day blog so it’s longer than the average entry.

A couple of weekends ago a number of family members went to Arlington, VA to have my Father’s urn placed in Arlington National Cemetery with the accompanying military honors. The service was on Monday so my sisters, their husbands and my two youngest nephews met up the Friday before and started our dining experiences at Ireland’s Four Courts pub just a couple of blocks from our hotel. My sisters both went with the Chicken Boxty and my brothers-in-law both got the Shepherds Pie. Both dishes got high marks. My choice was the traditional Irish Breakfast.

If this is a normal breakfast I don’t understand how all of Ireland isn’t a bunch round people just rolling off the island based on the quantity of food. There were eggs, sausage (kind of bland), beans, fried potatoes, roasted tomatoes, toast, black and white pudding and hiding in the picture are two rashers of bacon. I’ll tell you right now this did not all get consumed but damage was done. The white pudding was the only new item for me and for taste was just a bit milder version of the black pudding. I guess the blood does make a difference. Since I had low expectations of the sausage links I was not disappointed and overall I enjoyed the breakfast for dinner alongside a Magner’s Irish Cider, which was just OK.

Our next group meal was in DC at a place just off the Mall, b DC Penn Quarter. Their sub-title is burgers. beer. bourbon. I can vouch for 2 out of 3. We’d been to one of the Smithsonian museums and had built up a thirst and appetite. Many burgers were ordered and water consumed in large quantities. My choice of burger was the 3 Shrooms.

Now I’ll admit the picture doesn’t look appetizing but let me tell you it was fantastic. The burger was a 7 oz patty of in-house ground beef with sauteed mushrooms, a mushroom spread, truffle mayo and lots of melted Swiss cheese on a soft bun. If you’re a shroom fan I don’t need to say much more and if you’re not I’d be wasting my breath so I’ll just leave you with the fact that I left an absolutely clean plate. To partner with the burger I selected a local beer, Devil’s Backbone Vienna Lager. It was a light easy drinking beer that went well with the very flavorful burger. Oh and there were crispy tots involved too.

The evening meal was Italian with local friends not seen in person for 40 or so years. We knew them from Geneva, Switzerland and the wonderful years we lived there. This was automatically going to elevate the meal. The place picked for us by our VA friends was Pazzo Pomodoro. Now the expectation got ratcheted up quickly as on the way in a gentleman I was holding the door open for to exit stopped to tell me this was the best Italian food in the area and I’d love it. Since I had no local frame of reference for Italian food I’d have to take his word for the first part but the second I’d decide for myself. I elected to try one of the Chef’s signature dishes.

The Involtini di Vitello was veal stuffed with prosciutto, fontina cheese, and wild mushrooms in a marsala sauce with vegetables on the side. I just realized the mushroom theme of the day. The veal was tender and the stuffing was savory and delicious. I had some local beer that I didn’t bother to keep track of because I was honestly more interested in catching up and enjoying the company of friends. I don’t know if this is the best Italian food in Vienna, VA but the dish I had was well worth the going for.

The next day we decided to get our cheese on and headed to The Swiss Bakery in Springfield, VA. This is a great little place that is a bakery with a side of Swiss market and oh yeah a restaurant. The cheese several of us got was raclette over potatoes. I went to the drink case to pick a beer but saw the Sinalco and had to get that instead. It is a citrus soda that was the first Swiss drink we had at my dad’s bosses house the night we arrived in Geneva so I had to get that. It was just like I remembered.

As mentioned I got the raclette cheese over potatoes which also came with bread, dried beef slices, pickled onions and baby dills. I also got a side bratwurst.

If you’ve never had raclette before I’ll say up front it smells like feet, after a long walk, but it is good. The pungent cheese and the plainness of the potatoes go well together. The salty dried beef and tangy pickled vegetables are perfect pals to have with this. The bread clears your palate so you can load it up with flavors all over again. The brat was good but really I could have done without it and been just fine. Since this was also a market we may have purchased some Swiss chocolate and there’s a possibility some pastries were procured.

The next day the international theme of meals continued when we walked the short distance from our hotel to MeJana Lebanese restaurant. It was just a little too warm for outside dining so we got a booth by the window so we could still have a good view of the street. We started with some hummus and warm flat bread and then right into various kebabs. I got the mixed grill.

The mixed grill had one chicken, one lamb and one kafta kebab plus rice and some vegetable matter on the side. The kafta was the most flavorful but a bit chewy. The chicken was probably the best overall as it was spiced just right and very tender. It was a ton of food and under other circumstances I might have carried some leftovers home but instead I plowed through. Thank goodness for the walk back to the hotel.

My final day in DC found me at the National Archives and the Smithsonian castle working up a lunch appetite. Checking out Yelp for stuff in walking distance I did a double take on the USDA Cafeteria and the high ratings it had so I needed to check this out for myself. After going through security and getting a visitor’s sticker I followed the stream of people to the cafeteria.

Wow this was one bad-a$$ cafeteria. It had a salad bar and hot bar that you pay by the pound plus deserts including cold and frozen options. Around the perimeter of the cafeteria are specialty stations like Korean BBQ, Italian, Deli, Mexican, and at least one more I’m forgetting but the choices were quite varied and the food all looked fresh and delicious. I decided to go for the Korean bowl, specifically the regular bowl. The small would have been sufficient.

The way this worked is you picked your carb, I got brown rice, then 4-6 vegetables, your meat or tofu then sauce. For vegetables I got some kimchi, something else spicy and pickled, some broccoli and sprouts. I got the beef and house sauce that was tangy and spicy. It was very good but I only got about 2/3 of it eaten before I had to tap out. The beef was good and the sauce was just spicy enough to make me sweat just a bit.

That pretty much wrapped up the culinary experience for my northen Virginia / Washington DC trip. I do want to say thank my family and friends who shared various meals with me; Lynn, Keith, Dee, Chris, Alex, Haley, Lauren, Jesse, Jay, (we missed you Paige), Ellie, Jackie, Shelley, Stephanie, Kallianna, Kyle & Julie. The meals were all enhanced by your presence.

New Jersey Nosh

Posted on by

US – Northeast

As on most Saturday mornings I was preparing to go grab breakfast at one of my usual haunts when I remembered a new spot I’d seen on my way to the Doctor earlier in the week. It was in a spot that has been at least two other restaurants that I’d visited so I thought let’s see what #3 might have going for it.

I checked them out online and when I saw this on the menu I knew I had to check them out.

I figured if they had crayons on the salad I needed to see if they were cooking with E-Z Bake ovens and using a Lite Brite for the menu board. (Spoiler Alert – they didn’t and aren’t).

When I got to Momma’s Place I was the only patron in the restaurant. I was greeted and seated quickly and set up with coffee and a menu. When I got the menu the guy waiting on me let me know the whole menu was open so order anything I wanted. As tempting as a crayone salad might have been or more seriously an empanada for breakfast I decided to stick with “regular” breakfast fare.

In this case a bagel with eggs, pork roll & provolone cheese.

Now getting to that required navigating a lot of options. The stock breakfast sandwich is two eggs (fried, scrambled or omelet style) on a roll or bagel (plain, everything or cinnamon raisin). You can add meat (bacon, Italian sausage, pork roll or ham) or cheese (American, Swiss, provolone, cheddar, pepper jack, muenster, or Monterrey jack) for little extra.

Never having had pork roll and after some discussion about how pork roll was like the unofficial official breakfast meat of New Jersey & New York I had to try it out. It’s also called Taylor ham in some quarters for reasons you can find out on Wikipedia after Googling it.

Looking at the photo you may have had the same reaction I did, “that’s just fried bologna man.” It was in fact fried but it was definitely more hammy tasting that bologna. It was fried to the point where it was a little bit crispy and paired well with the rest of the sandwich.

The staff of this place was really great, friendly and more than willing to converse with the customers and answer any questions. I’ll definitely go back and try some of their other offerings, although I’m still not that keen to try the crayons.

Gulf Shore Grub

Posted on by

Mississippi

I spent a few days this week vacationing on the Mississippi gulf shore and managed to have some good meals.  Notice that was plural so this will cover several places I enjoyed while there.

The evening of my arrival I wanted something close to the hotel I was staying at in D’Iberville and some searching turned up Quickly Asian Fusion Cafe just around the corner.  It’s a spot where you order at the counter and they bring it to your table.  They had a wide variety of Asian foods and as the name says fusions of cultures.  I almost went for the spam and egg bento but instead chose the bulgogi bento box.

This was a fantastic meal.  The egg roll and chile oil dipping sauce was a great start.  The bulgogi beef and kimchi were sweet and mildly spicy respectively.  The rice had some sesame seeds and even the lettuce in the salad was fresh and crisp with a nice ginger dressing.  I got a white peach oolong hot tea to drink with and sip after the meal.  The restaurant is a bit of a hangout for some and has a barlike counter that had a couple of guys playing Fortnite or something similar and a group of high school kids were clustered around a couple of tables drinking hot tea and milk tea.  It was a cool place with lots of options to drink and eat.  Definitely a good find on day 1.

The morning started with a quest for a breakfast place that wasn’t a chain.  Following a little Yelp and Google action I settled on The Grind Coffee & Nosh in Biloxi.  This little coffee shop is in an interesting building at the front of some other shopping areas.  The interior has a counter to order and about a dozen 2 and 4 seat tables and in the center are 4 big overstuffed chairs in front of a fireplace.  The smell of coffee was a like a bit of heaven as I walked through the door.  The menu isn’t complex and it took me only a minute or so to settle on the sausage, egg & cheese panini.

Before talking about the food let me just say the size of that coffee cup was magnificent.  It held about twice a normal cup so I was kind of in love.  Then I got the panini with the side of sliced apple.  I went with sourdough bread to sandwich the scrambled egg, cheddar and extra large sausage patty.  The sausage was not bad and had a little bit of spiciness that they could have ramped up a bit for me but it was a tasty start to the day.

After riding around checking the area I wound up at the IP Casino in Biloxi in time to catch lunch and some football at one of their restaurants, Highlights Sports Lounge.  As an aside I was planning to make my very first casino sports bet and put a few bucks on Carolina.  Well I grabbed the betting sheet and was quickly baffled by all the nonsense on the form.  I wanted to circle or check a box give them a $20 and be done not have to take a course on how to fill out a betting form.  Of course glancing at Homeless Hector over there filling out his form with the attitude of an experienced pro I probably could have figured it out except for one thing.  I didn’t want to.  It worked out alright though as Carolina lost.

Back to the food.  This is a sports bar with a ton of TVs in the dining and bar areas and where there aren’t TVs sports memorabilia covering the walls.  Each booth had it’s own TV that you could tune to one of the games being played.  The nice young lady taking care of me hooked me up with a good beer to go along with my lunch selection.

I got their Smothered Mushroom Burger.  The burger was a half pound of angus beef, with roasted “wildforaged” mushrooms and fried button mushrooms and cheese curds plus onions, bacon and mushroom sauce on a artisan bun.  Along side this was a loaded potato salad.  It was every bit as good as it sounds.  The bacon was crispy the mushrooms had a good texture and the burger was very beefy.  Even the potato salad was some of the best restaurant potato salad I’ve had.  It had sour cream and bacon bits in it like a loaded baked potato and those were both welcome additions.  I waddled out to the casino with a full belly and dollar signs on my mind.

After dropping some bucks on video poker, circling the $5 blackjack tables like a shark waiting for someone to vacate a seat, which never happened, and then more than making up the losses at the roulette table it was time for dinner.  After my losing streak on the video poker machines I got a newbie comp of a free buffet at the casino’s Back Bay Buffet restaurant.  

The buffet seating area was quite large and the buffet area was laid out in themed areas like Southern, Italian, Asian, Carvery, Backyard BBQ, etc.  There were a lot of choices and I strolled around and grabbed one or two items until the plate got full so it was an interesting mix.  The food was all adequate but nothing was great.  Coming off the big burger at lunch I only got one plate so I was happy it was comped and I hadn’t paid the $26 regular price.  In spite of the so so nature of the food I had I wouldn’t hesitate to try this again to try a number of the other foods to see if so so was the norm or I just picked some poor samples.  What it missed in tastiness it made up for in options.  From here I rolled out of the casino to the car.

The next morning breakfast was at the Fried Green Tomato in D’Iberville close to the hotel.  This was a place that had lots of locals enjoying breakfast with friends and coworkers which I took as a good sign.

I kept it simple and hard to mess up.  Interestingly they exceeded my expectations by having some of the best grits I’ve had in a long time.  They were about the perfect consistency and had a great corn taste that made them seem like they were fresh ground from quality hominy.  The sausage was pretty good as well and I liked the little melon ball scoop of whipped butter rather than the individual pats or tubs you often get.  Made me think they were being cost conscious to keep the prices reasonable, which they were.  The service was good too even though there was only one lady covering the place for most of the time I was there.  Good start to the day.

After a morning visiting the shore front and some historical spots I wanted some seafood for lunch since I’d really not had any and that seemed like a crime being where I was.  I decided to try Gallotts Fresh Catch restaurant.  I chose them because I’d seen the large Gallott’s seafood processing location the first day when I was driving around and I figured the restaurant should have an edge in the seafood area.  Turns out they knew what they were doing.

  

The restaurant is a large building up on stilts right next to the water and had a nice view.  It wasn’t busy and I got a nice seat near a window.  I was initially disappointed when I was handed the lunch menu because the seafood options were very limited but then the server lady hit me with the daily special, seafood etouffee.  She informed me it had crawfish, shrimp, crab and sausage in the etouffee and the whole thing was topped with a strip of fried catfish.  Well heck yeah I wanted that and OMG it was delicious.  Every bite had at least two of the ingredients in the spicy roux and you could tell the flavors of the seafood and sausage through the roux.  That was quite possibly the best etouffee I’ve ever had.

I spent the day wandering around Biloxi and the surroundings working of lunch.  After managing to walk it off by the time supper rolled around I figured I was still in the mood for seafood and there was an interesting looking little place right next to the Fried Green Tomato called, Cafe New Orleans.

  

I was greeted first by the gator and next by two young ladies who were in the midst of decorating for Christmas.  One offered me a cookie and the other offered me a seat.  They were off to a good start.  The main dining area walls are covered with murals of bayou scenes and the walls hung with memorabilia setting a nice atmosphere.  I decided to get the most bang for my buck with their sampler.  Goodness gracious that turned out to be both a good and bad decision.  The sampler came with shrimp, oysters, fish and a stuffed crab all fried of course plus a choice of potatoes done one of three ways and a salad.  I figured based on the price it would be a little bit of all of that.  Turns out it was a lot of all of that.  I hate to reuse text lingo but OMG that was trawler full of food and all of it good.  There must have been a couple of dozen shrimp, a dozen or so oysters, the two pieces of fish and that stuffed crab was as big as my hand.  Even the potatoes were great, diced up redskins cooked in butter on the grill and sprinkled with cajun seasoning.  I could only eat about half of what was there and if the hotel room had had a microwave I might have taken it back to the room for breakfast but as it was I had to leave it and depart with a tear in my eye.

The final meal I had was at the airport.  I had time to kill before my flight and it was getting on to lunch time so rolled over to the bar / restaurant that served the pre-security area.  The served Arby’s food and had a small menu of their own as well and I initially figured I’d be eating Arby’s but they had a local sampler as well.

This sampler consisted of small cups of a crawfish etouffee, red beans and rice and one of chicken and sausage gumbo.  As hard as this is to believe even the airport food was good.  The etouffee had some generous portions of crawfish and was reasonably spicy and the gumbo was slightly spicy with dime size medallions of sausage plus ground chicken.  The red beans and rice wasn’t the mild dish that was good and filling.  I had a couple of localish beers to wash these down.  One a rye IPA and the other was the picture Biloxi Blonde which came recommended by a couple of the other patrons.  That final meal put me in a spot where the flight was a nice place to nap after that meal.

The culinary phase of my trip to the Mississippi gulf shore was certainly successful and a tick mark in the Pro column if I think about going back.

 

 








What a Jerk

Posted on by

Caribbean Food Truck

The evening for the October Food Truck Friday in Rock Hill was just about as good as you could ask for.  The weather was clear and cool, 64 degrees or 18 for the Celsius crowd.  The attire varied from shorts and t-shirt like myself to people wearing honest to God coats and beanies, not jackets mind you but full on coats.  To each their own but I thought it was great.

As per usual I grabbed a beverage, in this case a NoDa Brewing Premium Roasted Breakfast Coffee stout.  It was smooth and like a lot of breakfast blends a hint of coffee flavor.  I walked the area enjoying the weather and band looking for something that called to me.  I thought about the vegan burrito food truck because this is about trying new things but these folks always get started late so I passed them by without a tear.

After strolling and perusing I chose to go with Marlie Q’s caribbean food truck.  They had some decent looking options and while the stewed ox tail was tempting the jerk chicken with some beans & rice sounded like the way to go.

I’ll say up front the sign clearly said this was spicy and they were not lying.  It had a great jerked spice flavor and it was.  The rice and beans were scalp tingling, nose running, brow sweat producing hot as well.  One thing though was you could taste the pepper flavor and not just the heat so it was well done.  The chicken breast was good sized and cooked tender enough it came off the bone easily.

As this was not a meal that lent itself mobile dining I shared a table with a couple dining on something from another truck.  I didn’t pay much attention until the lady said, “Wow you left me a lot of mac & cheese” and the guy said “that’s because I’m a great boyfriend”.  I chuckled and they both took notice and the guy said, “I have to get points where I can since I’m usually called an a-hole” and the lady straight faced said “It’s true”.  We all laughed and I finished up before they wanted to be friends.

I swung by the beverage tent and since everyone else was doing it I got a Dogfish Head Punkin Ale to enjoy while I listened to the band.  Pumpkin ales I’ve tried in the past have been hit or miss and often cloying with the amount of pumpkin spice.  This one did it well.  There was enough pumpkin and pumpkin spice to make you reminiscent for that last slice of pumpkin pie you had rather than hitting you in the face with the pie.

The band was quite good, Chunky Daddy played a varied set list that included, rock, soul, country and ranged from 70s to more recent stuff like Wagon Wheel.  I also saw a guy who I think was unintentionally cosplaying David Tennant’s Dr Who.  Dude looked just like him from clothes to haircut to glasses.

Overall it was a good second to the last FTF of the year and the fountain was looking great in the evening light.

 








Rock the Grill

Posted on by

BBQ Cook-off

The week found me heading back downtown in Rock Hill for the Rock the Grill event.  Now that fall is here and the temperatures are less hellish the second festival / outdoor event season has arrived as well.  This one had all the makings for a great afternoon; classic car show, live music, kids area, wood carving display, a theoretical moonshine tasting, food trucks and the star of the show a KCBS cooking competition with public tasting.  I mean seriously that’s a great day.

I went early for a couple of reasons.  First I was afraid this might be popular enough the tasting tickets would run out and also there was a football game on at 3:30 I had to be home for.  They had this in the same area where the Food Truck Fridays are but they closed off a few more streets so I got to come in along one of the car show areas and there were some nice ones.

I knew the public tasting was $10 but I wasn’t sure how it was going to work until I got there.  Turns out they give you 10 tickets and two tokens and I also later learned the BBQ butt samples were 1 ticket each and the ribs were 2 tickets and the tokens were for you to vote for your two favorites.  Now you could certainly purchase more bundles at $10 a shot but I figured this would do me and I was right.  Now that I had the important part down I headed for what you may have noticed I called a theoretical moonshine tasting.  The tasting was supposed to be held at the historic White Home.

I got there and didn’t see any activity which I’ll grant I hadn’t expected a lot since it was 11:00 am.  Now I know some of you may be saying “Moonshine before noon, is he a lush?”  No, my thought was to give that a try early so by the time I needed to leave and drive home all traces of the moonshine would be gone.  So I head into the house that is a museum to focused on a prominent family in the area.  I was greeted by a really nice lady who apologized that the moonshiners hadn’t shown up yet even though she didn’t have anything to do with the event.  Since I was there I decided to pop for the $5 and tour the house which is a really great old house with displays and infographics in each room.  After killing about an hour there and still no sign of the shine I headed over to the beer tent since it was noon and getting warmer.

I wouldn’t otherwise mention the beer tent visit because I just got a Windy Hill Gala Peach cider and I’ve mentioned them before but while I was there I did get a good laugh.  As I’m getting my cider a guy comes around the tent with a container of pickles (they had a specialty dill pickle dealer on site) offering to share.  One lady at the beer tent waved them away with a shiver but another said “Oh, I love dill pickles I’ll take one”.  She grabbed one and was just crunching down on it as the guy says “Yeah, they’re the spicy horseradish ones”.  Her face was priceless. Four out of five people there had a little chuckle as she gamely finished the pickle slice.  I still had an hour or so to kill before the tasting started and that sounded like some time to spend enjoying the live music.

Based on the two acts I heard; the Maggie Valley Band, and The Drovers Old Time Medicine Show, they could have called it Country the Grill although neither would classify themselves as country I’m sure.  In fact according to their respective websites they are dark Appalachian & moonshine fueled bluegrass.  Anyway they were talented even if there weren’t a dozen people watching either one while I was there.  The bubble guy was busy though.

At last the time had come and the tasting was starting.  As I mentioned earlier you were sold tickets and tokens and each contestant was given a number and a table where their entries were served but you had no idea which belonged to a particular team.  There were 27 entries although I don’t think they all got their meat delivered on time as there were some empty spots.  As a taster you went up to one of the tables that struck your fancy and exchanged one ticket for a sample of butt and / or 2 tickets for ribs.  The teams were required to cook chicken and brisket as well but that was not part of the public tasting.  I guess those were judged by the KCBS (Kansas City Barbecue Society for anyone wondering) judges.  As it happens I am a butt guy and got just one token rib.  In any case there were plenty of ribs and butts and not a vegetable in sight.

It was interesting as the table volunteers varied in how full they fill the sample cup.  I’ll admit when I first saw the little sample I was thinking “That’s all?” but when you pile 8 of them and a rib on a plate I got my money’s worth.  For the most part the little cups provided two or three bites of each, enough to give you a good idea of the flavor and the texture.  One contestant though did chop theirs a bit coarse and you can see the one at the top of the plate has a huge hunk of meat in the cup.

Also depending on the volunteer you might get to pick the rib you wanted or they’d just reach in and grab one at random.  For my one rib I happened to get a young lady who let you pick so I got a nice meaty one.  None of the meat was heavily sauced but most did have some type of sauce or rub.  Those ranged from sweet to savory and some had a mild spiciness.  My two favorites were one that had no sauce but a great smokey flavor that permeated the meat throughout and not just on the surface and another that was a bit like a Carolina vinegar but not quite as tangy and with some other flavor I couldn’t quite identify but it was very good.  Those two got my votes but I was happy with all the entries.

Now lest you think this was a carnivore only event at least two of the food trucks had vegan options as well as normal food.

In closing I also want to mention this is held to benefit Miracle Park Rock Hill which is really cool and worth a click on the link.

Overall I’d say this was a successful culinary outing and I can’t wait to see what next year brings.








Just Graft No Corruption

Posted on by

Another DragonCon Edition

The Labor Day weekend and a few days before found me in Atlanta for DragonCon and visiting friends.  While at the con I stuck pretty much to known quantities and hit restaurants I’ve mentioned before in previous posts.  In some cases lunch is just a respite from the multitudes and the food is the same old, same old but I do want to mention two before I jump into the new place I visited.

Truva is a Turkish restaurant that I have been going to for years and I really enjoy the calm relaxing atmosphere, service and food.  I do try to sample something new each time and this time I had the Adana Kebab with an Efes beer.

 

I have to start by mentioning the warm bread that’s delivered with some olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette dipping sauce.  I love this bread and they are not stingy with it.  That and planning the rest of my days con schedule kept me busy until the adana kebab arrived.  As you can see from the photo it was a traditional ground meat, in this case lamb, formed and skewered kebab.  It was nicely spiced with red bell peppers, onions, a bit of red and black pepper plus other spices.  The salad was essentially shredded lettuce and no big deal but the grilled tomato and rice went nicely with the kebab.  The yogurt sauce also added a nice touch.  The Efes beer was a pilsner that didn’t have any special characteristics but was refreshing on the warm day.

The next place I wanted to mention again was the Pacific Rim Bistro where I got some nice sushi.

This is a busy joint during the con and they have seats around the sushi making station so you can see the chefs crafting it while you wait and it’s easy for a singleton to get seated.  You also get to meet new people who strike up random conversations about their trip from Michigan to Georgia and what their particular brands of geekdom are.  So what I’m saying is it’s a good place to get some lunch, R&R and make new friends.  I decided to let the professionals work for me and selected the Sushi Lunch Combo A.  This came with soup or cucumber salad, 5 pieces of nigiri sushi, 3 pieces of tuna roll, 4 pieces of California roll and Inari tofu (that’s the weird looking brown thing at the front of the sushi plate).  The cucumber salad was delivered first and I only got a few bites before the sushi was delivered so speed was something they did well.  The cucumbers were good and a nice change from the usual green salad offerings.  The sushi was fresh tasting and delicious and while it wasn’t spectacular it was a great variety and value in my opinion.  The Inari tofu was totally new to me and I didn’t have any idea what it was.  I lifted up the brown envelope looking thing and saw there was only rice under it so I figured it couldn’t be too dangerous.  The texture was a little odd, kind of rubbery, but the taste was ok.  It was a little sweet so it was appropriate I saved it until last and decided to dub it dessert.  Overall another good visit.

The last place I’m going to mention was actually the first restaurant I visited on my trip south.  As part of my DragonCon tradition I have the opportunity to share a great meal with my friend Sharon and she had scoped this place out ahead of time.  Graft Restaurant is a farm to table place in Grayson, GA.  It’s located in an old home and is loaded with heavy dark wood and a warm welcoming atmosphere.  The night we went was also a live music evening so we got a bit of a show as well.  Our server Kai (I’m guessing on that, I know it started with a K and rhymed with eye) was more than willing to go over the menu and explain what the evenings dishes were based on that days ingredients.  In the end I went with a couple of appetizers and Sharon got a salad with grilled chicken and I had a waiting beer and a meal beer.

The apps I opted for were the venison sliders and the twice cooked fries with cider vinegar aioli dipping sauce.  The venison sliders were cooked medium well and had some braised collards and a light tangy sauce all between a slightly sweet slider bun.  Very tasty.  It didn’t mention the sliders came with fries so I’d ordered the additional fries so there were a lot of taters on the table.  The aioli dipping sauce was very good bringing to mind a mash up of the vinegar the UK folks like with their chips and the mayo that the Dutch like with theirs.  Sharon reported the salad was good and the baby kale wasn’t bitter at all and the grilled chicken was great.  The beers I had were both from Akedemia Brewing in Athens, GA.  The dark one was the Hades’ Hounds Hunker Down Brown (any UGA fans will know why I had to have that one) and the other was Lemon Drop Blanc saison.  The brown ale was decent and had a nice malty taste with a bit of extra sweetness and the saison had a tart citrus flavor that was easy to sip as we chatted and listened to music (once they got the volume right and we could converse without yelling).

As I mentioned at the start Graft was a welcoming place and not only was Kai great but there was another woman walking around making sure everything was good and doing the needful.  And I don’t know if it was just us and the table next to us but when items got delivered it was a shared experience of “ooh what’s that?” & “that looks good” so there was a sense of camaraderie going on.  If you find yourself in the metropolitan Grayson area you should give them a try.

 








Beach Week pt 2

Posted on by

More Surf City Cuisine

This week we continue with the restaurants visited during family vacation week and since it covers five places it’s longer that normal.  The first was breakfast at Batson’s Galley with my nephew.  I selected this place because they have country links sausage which are harder to find than they should be.

The place looks to have been around for awhile and has the appearance of a typical diner when you go in except it has a huge beach mural on one wall and a copy of the 10 commandments hanging behind the register.  We got seated as soon as we walked in and drinks provided in a jiffy.  I went with a simple breakfast seen in the picture and my nephew went for the chocolate chip pancakes.  They were definitely on beach time and it took longer than I thought it should have based on the number of customers and the lack of complexity in our orders.  Fortunately the food made up for the wait.  The eggs were scrambled firm and not overcooked.  The sausage was mildly spicy with a good amount of sage.  The potatoes were a surprise hit, lightly crisp outside, evenly distributed seasoning generously applied made them a great accompaniment to the sausage and eggs.  Per my nephew the chocolate chip pancakes were outstanding and the chocolate chip quantity and distribution were spot on.

Next up was lunch at Daddy Mac’s Beach Grille with my sister, brother-in-law and niece.  Daddy Mac’s is a second floor restaurant so you’re climbing stairs or waiting on an elevator that is slower than taking the stairs from what we observed since we took the stairs and beat the elevator.  They have a nice ocean view from inside as well as seating outside on a deck.  We decided to sit inside as it was a bit warm even with the breeze.

I got their shrimp and grits which were different from any of the myriad of others I’ve had over the years.  As a side note shrimp and grits is one of those dishes that no two places or people seem to make the same and has more variation from place to place than just about any dish I’ve seen.  As long as it has the two titular ingredients anything else is fair game and these folks threw me a curve ball with theirs.

 

When the server placed the bowl in front of me my first thought was, “These are some thin ass grits and what’s with the toast in the middle.”  Turns out that wasn’t toast but a grit cake fried or toasted brown with a plentiful helping of shrimp and mushrooms in a savory gravy that was delicious if unexpected.  I had a Mother Earth Brewing Endless River Kolsch style ale to wash it down.  It was light and paired well with the meal.  The other’s enjoyed their meals as well see below for the bonus pics.  This was another place on beach time when it came to time between ordering and receiving food.

The following day saw a trip to Surf City BBQ which had great reviews from the nieces & future nephew-in-law.  This was one of the rare spots that wasn’t within easy walking distance but still very close to the house so a sister & two brothers-in-law jumped in the car and off we went.  The restaurant is in a little strip center and doesn’t look that much like a good BBQ place from the outside but inside the atmosphere is BBQ joint.  I got a combo plate with pulled pork and chicken.

One thing to mention is they bring a basket of hush puppies to keep you going until the food arrives and are quality hush puppies.  The chicken was tender and tasty but no thrill ride.  The pulled pork was eastern NC style vinegar & pepper lightly sauced with more at hand on the table if you needed more.  Very enjoyable.  The fried cornbread square was different but good.  The Brunswick stew was good but Georgia hash is better and the green beans were cooked to perfection, tender but not mushy, with just the right amount of salt.  There was a lot of food and no room for the banana pudding the server was pushing hard.

Last breakfast outing was not the best.  I was walking to Spudee’s when I passed Beach Bunny Subs and Grill and saw they were serving breakfast and since I hadn’t been there I figured I might as well.  I should have kept walking.  Not that the food was bad but no busier than they were it took way too long to get my food.  I got seated right away but it took a while before the server came over to get my order for coffee.  When that got to me I decided to try the Tidal Wave Scrambler.

Then started the epic wait for my breakfast.  I don’t know what they were doing besides cooking back there but they must have been squeezing the eggs out of the chickens and milling the wheat for the gravy flour.  Anyway I finally got my scrambler which I’ll tell you about since you can’t see much beyond the gravy.  Two eggs, sausage, onions, peppers, hashbrowns, corned beef hash, cheese, stray tomato, smothered in sausage gravy.  That sounds like a ton of food and it was plenty but the hashbrowns weren’t well represented and in spite of the overly long wait the onions and peppers were essentially raw.  This was the worst experience of the week and I couldn’t recommend them at all.

On a happier note lunch was a family event to a restaurant recommended by the owner of the house we rented.  The Riverview Cafe in Snead’s Ferry has been around for a bunch of years and is locally known for their fresh seafood and pies.  They have a changing roster of specials each day as well as the menu to order from.  Just about everyone ordered something from the specials board.  I got the tilapia, shrimp & deviled crab and a Dogfish SeaQuench Ale.

 

The ale came first and it was quite the experience.  It is a combination of styles but the prevailing flavors are the lime and sea salt.  It’s light and refreshing and a great summer beer to enjoy with your seafood.  We also got a couple of baskets of hush puppies here to keep us from getting surly while waiting for the food.  When it came the tilapia was lightly breaded, fried and tasty.  The deviled crab was on par with those you’d get at a chain.  The shrimp though was the star of the trio.  It had a light batter that you could see the orange stripes of the perfectly cooked shrimp through.  The seasoning in the batter was outstanding and made for the best fried shrimp I’ve had in a long time and maybe ever.  The sides of mac & cheese and green limas were both above average.  I traded a shrimp for a scallop from another family member and it was a toss up which was better so suffice to say you couldn’t lose with either.  I was told the ribs were well worth considering too.

We ordered pies to take home for later; a chocolate, a coconut cream, and a lemon.  I don’t have pics because they didn’t travel well and the meringue stuck to the box top on two of them which was ok with me because I find meringue on a pie to be just an obstacle to overcome to get to the good stuff.  All three pies were quality, not as good as mama’s pies but pretty good.

Overall the week’s dining experiences were positive and most were enjoyed with various family members so that just made them a bit better.  Already looking forward to next year.








Beach Week pt 1

Posted on by

Surf City Cuisine

I did a lot of dining out during the family week at the beach so I’m splitting the blog into two parts rather than turning it into picture laden novella.  Our tradition is breakfasts and lunches are “on your own” events and we tend to split up into loners or small groups.  Suppers are everyone at the table family events where we take turns cooking for the whole group.  This year we added the grown kids to the rotation and it was a joy watching them working together, playing music and having a great time cooking for all of us.

Sentiment out of the way let’s talk about the food scene in Surf City.  The house we rented was located such that over half the places I visited were within walking distance including the first place I hit with my sister and brother-in-law for breakfast, Fractured Prune.  This is a doughnut shop where they make the doughnuts to order and you pick a glaze flavor, a drizzle & topping.  They have some pre-named combo like the Peach Pie which has peach glaze, powdered sugar & pastry crumbles.  There are hundreds of combos.  The kids they had working here were all really friendly and willing, nay eager, to explain how it worked and help you pick the flavor combo that fit your want.  So many calories, so little time.

For lunch we walked to the end of the road to the Hot Diggity Dogz stand.  The weather was pleasant and there was a nice breeze blowing so dining outdoors was not a problem.  At first I couldn’t tell if the young guy working the order window was fake enthusiastic or really that dang happy with his job.  Turns out he was that dang happy.  After we got served and no one else was at the window he came out to check out how liked the dogs and chat for a bit.  Nice kid.  For my part I got a Beach Dog & a Surfer Dog.

The dogs are all beef and served on a potato bun.  The Beach Dog is further dressed with chili, mustard, onion & slaw and quite tasty.  The Surfer Dog was decked out with mustard, melted cheese and bacon and as you no doubt assumed it was worth the walk.

The next morning after a cup of coffee and wave watching therapy on the deck I strolled down to the New York Corner Deli for some breakfast.  It has the New York deli at the beach feel I’m sure they were going for.  They have a deli set up where you can get meats, cheeses, salads, etc that you’d expect and they have a simple but something for everyone breakfast menu.  I didn’t spend much time looking at it though because I knew what I wanted; a toasted sesame bagel acting as a delivery vehicle for sausage, egg & cheese.

The bagel was nice and chewy with toasted sesame seeds on the exterior.  I very much like toasted sesame seeds and when you throw in the breakfast ingredients it was delicious.  I was surprised to find the sausage was sliced up links rather than a patty.  I just assumed they’d use patties since they are roundish like the bagel but the substitution did not hurt the overall experience at all.  The coffee was nothing special but it was coffee so it served its purpose.  I did get a dozen bagels to take back for the others and discovered at that point the bagels are not necessarily made on site since a couple of the types I selected were still frozen.  In fairness they did let me know up front that was the case in case I wanted to change my mind.  I didn’t and when toasted back at the house and smeared with cream cheese they did the job.

After some beach time and reading lunch was courtesy of Spudees a few blocks away.  Another outside dining experience but the tables & picnic tables had umbrellas to provide some shade from the sun so it was pleasing.  I checked them out online before heading there and they had me at poutine.

This was likely the most Canadian poutine of the several I’ve had.  It consisted of french fries topped with a generous serving of cheese curd and both of those covered with hot beef gravy.  The fries were well cooked but not crispy.  The cheese curd initially had the consistency of mozzarella but softened and melted under the heat of the beef gravy which also had a hearty flavor profile.  I got the medium size and brothers & sisters let me tell you I needed the walk back to the house because it was a boatload of food and good enough I ate every single bite.  They had several other types of poutine as well but I had to try the original.

The next day after another grueling regimen of wave watching and a stroll to the beach some of us headed to The Shuckin Shack for some shuckin seafood.

It would have been wrong to go to a place called the Shuckin Shack without trying the oysters so I had a half dozen steamed.  They were ok if you baptized them in butter and added some of the provided horseradish.  I’ve honestly had better served up by my grandfather & cousin but as I said they weren’t bad.  For my real food I got the crab cake sliders.  They had good crab flavor and held together reasonably well considering they got a bit squeezed being a sandwich and all.  The tartar sauce they brought was tasty as well and unlike most was laced with horseradish.  There was no hurry up in the game of our waiter but about half way through we picked up a second server who was helping things along and she was great.  She had some pep in her step, a smile on her face and a pleasantly professional demeanor.  It didn’t change the flavor of the food but I liked the metal serving trays they used and of course there was a bucket recessed into the table to toss your various shells and detritus into.  Overall it was a better than average lunch.

That’s a wrap on part 1.  In summary the first half of the trip was loaded with great to good service and delicious food.








Fry Fry Again

Posted on by

USA

This weekend I took the culinary-passport on the road to enjoy lunch with friends in West Columbia, SC.  The McGehees have been with me for several blog lunches and this time we were going to try a Jamaican place they’d not been to before.  Wait, you say, the title clearly says USA.  And so it does.  Our plans got derailed when we got to the Jamaican restaurant and it was closed.  When we saw the neighborhood I don’t think any of us was that sad it was closed.  I don’t feel like I’m being elitist or anything when I say this was a sketchy neighborhood because there were bars on all the windows and not the decorative wrought iron kind.

So we regrouped and decided since Jamaican wasn’t in the works and we were hungry, Jackson’s Southern Kitchen would provide the comfort food we’d need to console ourselves.  I was also promised they had some of the best fried chicken ever and what decent Southerner would turn down great fried chicken.

Aside from the assurances of my friends this was a good place to eat the number of cars in the parking lot was another give away that the place was popular.  Jackson’s is a buffet style restaurant with a salad bar (I saw maybe half a dozen people get something from it), a hot bar (where the good stuff is), and a dessert and bread bar (where more good stuff is).  The restaurant is broken up into several large rooms with plenty of seating but Saturday afternoon at the buffet is a busy time which meant tables were at a premium.  We got one in the room with the buffet bars so it was convenient but on the other hand there were so many people and it was loud.  But when the eating started it didn’t really matter.

Most of the containers here are not the huge square ones that seem to be standard at most buffets but about half that size.  The line goes down both sides so this along with the tray sizes means they are constantly bringing out fresh food and the popular items are always hot from the kitchen.  For my first trip I decided the hyped fried chicken would be the primary meat item.

In addition to the chicken I got some BBQ, hash and rice, mashed potatoes and green beans.  If you aren’t familiar with this part of South Carolina let me tell you they are a mustard based bar-b-cue sauce people and they also put mustard in their hash.  It’s not my favorite of the regional sauces so I enjoyed the smoked meat plain just fine.  The hash and rice was meh and the green beans we good.  The two best items on this plate were the mashed potatoes and chicken.  The mashed potatoes were made with red skin potatoes and were some of the best plain old mashed potatoes I’ve had at a restaurant.  They had a good potato taste with just the right amount of salt and butter that you didn’t need to add anything.  The chicken was as promised some of the best I’ve eaten from a restaurant.  We had some discussion about whether your Mama’s or Grandmama’s chicken counted when judging the best chicken ever as they were likely default winners.  We ended up with me stipulating that as purchased fried chicken went this was probably top two.  What they have going for them is the chicken is always hot and cooked just right down to the bone.  Not overcooked or undercooked but just like the baby bear’s porridge, it’s just right.  The coating is fairly light and the seasoning is simple but very tasty.  Plate 1 was a winner overall.

One reason I tend to avoid buffets nowadays is the almost mandatory second trip and I succumbed to that peer pressure from the hundreds of not skinny people around me.  I did get only ribs plus a couple of sides to help calibrate Jackson’s against other buffets and oh yeah more potatoes.  The baby limas were good and the mac & cheese was also very competently done but nothing to stretch a blog out over.  The ribs though do deserve a line of appreciation.  They weren’t fall off the bone tender like you get some places but what they were was meaty and smokey with a good sauce.  The smoked flavor went beyond just the surface and permeated the meat entirely.  The meat was tender and was easy to cut or tear from the bone depending on your caveperson proclivities.  The sauce was a little sweeter than I would make it but still very good and as I said there was plenty of meat on each rib.  Plate 2 was a winner as well.

The dessert bar was loaded down with staples of the southern buffet and each of us got something different.  I went with the banana pudding and it was ok but I’d probably have been happier with something like the strawberry shortcake or some peach cobbler.

Final verdict is Jackson’s is a great place to go with friends and family to enjoy a mess of comfort food that on the whole is made by people who know what’s what in the kitchen.  So while it’s too bad we didn’t get a chance to try something new we finished lunch more than satisfied with the backup plan.  Thanks to the McGehees for sharing the meal and their company.