Vacation Recap

We're already into the second week of January, so I fell like I've missed the window to do a Christmas vacation recap, but, heck, I'm just going to do it anyway. I'm just not ready to write any serious post about a restaurant or recipe.

I had fun going home over the holidays, visited family and friends in two states and four cities, ate some great food, and drank way, way too much.

After twelve hours on the road, we pulled into my Dad's house in South Carolina the day before Christmas Eve, where two kinds of pimento cheese are kept in the fridge. Pimento cheese sandwiches all around!Our Christmas Eve tradition is to eat an assortment of cheese, cured meats, and crackers with chutneys, jams, and honey, and other bits and bobs like marinated Brussels sprouts. We also drink lots of champagne.
My favorite gift I gave was an original drawing from Philly's own Hawk Krall. I've been admiring his artwork on sites like Serious Eats and Hawk's own site for some time, and wanted to get his print of a pimento cheese hot dog from Sandy's, a small chain from my hometown.

Well, Hawk's a super nice dude, and after a few back and forths over email I ended up getting two original Sandy's drawings. Hawk's also so super nice that he agreed to do a custom drawing for me to give my Dad for Christmas, and he did it with only a short notice. I couldn't be happier with his artwork, and my Dad was just thrilled with it, as well.

The story behind the Banana Dog is this: the Banana Dog is similar to the popular (well, it's not unheard of) mayo, peanut butter and banana sandwich, but my Dad claims to have invented the Banana Dog one day when there was no sandwich bread in the house, and he ingeniously improvised with a hot dog bun. His claim to fame is now memorialized thanks to Hawk.
After all the gifts were opened we did a moonshine tasting. What, that's not what every family does for Christmas?

I've tasted some pretty bad moonshine (usually brought to the party by that guy no one really knows), but these two bottles that my Dad got from a friend were absolutely the best I've ever had. The one called Favorite Child was aged in an oak barrel, making it essentially bourbon. The other was called Apple Pie, and it tasted exactly like fresh apple cider with nary a hint of alcohol taste. Apple Pie is dangerous!
Then it's the divorced kid shuffle off to my Mom's house for Christmas Day where the champagne flowed, as well.
Anson Mills is not the only story in South Carolina when it comes to milled grains. It seems that everyone is growing heirloom corn and milling nowadays. We packed our car with grits to bring back home from those who've been milling for over a century (Adluh), and grits from a new kid on the block (Keisler's Mill).
Anyone from Columbia remember back in the late 90's when Ital Island, this crazy, African art-filled, soul food and Caribbean vegan restaurant popped up for about a year or so, then disappeared to leave all us vegans and vegetarians crying? Well, after more than a decade it has reappeared at a new location, and with a new name. Lamb's Bread Vegan Cafe is Ital Island. Same African masks, same incense, same owners, same cook, same food. So glad to have you back!
With all the truly good food I ate, I'm ashamed to say the most memorable and delicious thing I ate was this can of Hapi Spicy Sriracha Peas. Ate the whole can! The combo of sweet, spicy, salty, garlic-y, and crunchy is unstoppable.
This sweet old dog lives at a house near a mountain trail in Hot Springs, NC. She was our guide for the day, expertly walking us to the overlook, then back down. I imagine she does this many times a day, every day, with all the mountain visitors. Not a bad life!Then it was time for a wine and cheese picnic in the hot spring-fed hot tubs in Hot Springs. These outdoor tubs seated at the edge of a river are stupidly cheap. Your skin is so soft afterwards. I was upset that I didn't get any banana pudding from Glass Onion in Charleston (sold out one day, and didn't make the next day), but I did get a pimento cheese omelet and creamed greens for New Year's Eve brunch.
This gorgeous live oak and treehouse is in my brother's Charleston backyard! That picture is pretty much my childhood fantasy.
After an explosive New Year's Eve celebration in Charleston, we awoke a few hours later to get in the car for a long and miserable, hungover car ride back to Philly. I actually thought ahead and bought black eyed peas and collards down South to save myself a trip to the grocery store in Philly when we got back. Ignoring the reveling Mummer's outside my door (remind me to never come back to Philly on New Year's Day), and in a weird hungover/long-car-ride haze, I somehow managed to make collards and hoppin' John for a late dinner before crashing into bed.

Good to be back!

Coastal SC Eats

To go to the beaches of South Carolina for an entire week is to lose all sense of time, as well as good internet connection. After the initial night of exuberant partying and excessive drinking in celebration of the commencement of vacation, time slows down, days of the week are forgotten, and the day's agenda involves nothing more serious than taking a shower — at some point.Everyone brings essential provisions, as well as summer's last hoorah from their gardens to stock the kitchen. Trips to the Piggly Wiggly for restocking Blenheims ginger ale and beer, stops at the roadside vegetable stand for peaches, and visits to the seafood store down the road for fresh local shrimp complete the kitchen.



Not a single meal was eaten at a restaurant the entire week. Why? Because it doesn't get any better than homemade coastal Carolina cuisine.

This roadside farm stand sign just about sums up what you'll be eating at the beach in South Carolina come late August.

As well as pimento cheese. Lots of it! These are pimento cheese sandwiches I made in Philly to take along on our ten hour road trip to the coast.

The first night, M. rocked her pimento cheese on toast set under the oven broiler. The house has canners, too! Two kinds of pickled okra, dilly beans, and pickled Jerusalem artichoke accompany fresh veggies for the evening happy hour of snacks and drinks. Deep into puzzle mania (three puzzles were completed before week's end), C. busted out her version of pimento cheese presented on celery sticks.

Everyone makes pimento cheese a little bit different. K. likes to add a little hot pepper to her pimento cheese. Sorry, but SC peaches really are better. There's both a little bit of bias and truth in that statement.You know you're at a beach in SC, when the realty company dishes out boiled peanuts as a welcoming gift. These huge cans of boiled peanuts displayed under the boiled peanut hot bar (yep!) at Piggly Wiggly are actually not bad, especially the spicy ones.But you'd do better getting them from the side of the road, though. This is a lowcountry boil, which is a traditional one-pot coastal dish. Shrimp, sausage, corn, and potatoes are all boiled in a big pot with seasonings, then put in the middle of the table to be ravaged. Blue crabs were caught right off our marsh deck one evening. Crabbing involves tying a chicken neck to a trap, casting the trap, sitting back drinking a beer, and checking on the trap whenever the mood strikes. Might be even lazier than fishing. The collaborative cooking of fried okra, grits, and gravy. Gravy here is not red sauce or a flour-based sauce, but diced tomatoes, corn and onions.



The coarse-ground grits we used are actually from Bradley's Country Store near Tallahassee, FL, and they are exceptional! Bradley's is a tiny county store known for their homemade smoked sausage and grits. They ship 'em, if you're interested.



If you want exceptional SC grits, there's always Anson Mills. They ship, too.Shrimp and grits with gravy. Shrimp salad. Hush puppies fried up in a cast iron skillet as an afterthought to frying fish. Did you know that black eyed peas are green when they're fresh?Homegrown speckled butterbeans with tomatoes, slaw, and a slice of soft white bread. 'Nanner puddin'.

And a plate of some of SC's best whole hog barbecue from Scott's Bar-B-Q in Hemingway, SC. Pit master Rodney Scott stopped by our house to chat a bit on his way to Myrtle Beach. We talked about his uncomfortable new-found fame from being featured in The NY Times, as well as the documentary Cut/Chop/Cook produced by the Southern Foodways Alliance; felling trees; and how he comes to Philly for Eagles games. Turns out he was born in Philly!

Oh, how I'll miss the pimento cheese and boiled peanut snacks, happy hour every hour, warm ocean waters, and marsh dock sunsets. Til next year!

Food Blog-less Vacation

Hi, ya! I'm back in Philly after my Christmas vacation. I visited my parents in South Carolina, then headed to the South Carolina coast for a little chill time.

We stayed on the coast at a friend's house (that house in the top picture). Yes, it does look like a shack, but that's because it pretty much is a shack. The house is a Freedman's cottage, which is a two-room home built after the Civil War and rented to newly freed slaves.Our friends are restoring the house, and have actually removed an addition to the house to bring the house back to it's original footprint, and have also gotten the house on the National Register of Historic Places. Pretty cool, since lots of these houses are under threat of being torn down (or have already been torn down) due to development.In the kitchen there is an antique electric stove. She's pretty darn cute, but, trust me, you do not want this as your every-day stove. It's basically a two-burner hot plate, and the oven part is identical to the round electric coil burner on the top of the stove, except there is a metal box surrounding it — kind of like an Easy Bake Oven.

Oh, I ate while I was away, but, other than a few food tweets, my vacation was also a vacation from blogging and making mental notes of every meal I ate. So nice, I should do it more often.We went to the beach, and also enjoyed the spectacular vistas of the marshes which are everywhere you look when you're hopping from island to island.
I climbed the lighthouse on Hunting Island, which is kinda cool, because most lighthouses aren't open to the public.
Walked through the streets filled with grand Southern mansions and Live Oaks. The houses are nice, but it's the Live Oaks that really strike my fancy. More priceless than the houses, in my opinion.We spent New Year's Eve and Day in Charleston visiting my sister and friends — and drinking a bit too much champagne and punch. We tried to take a tour of Charleston Tea Plantation, the only tea farm in the United States, but despite their lovely website listing their operation hours and holiday closures, they decided to tack on December 31 as a holiday, but not mention it online. Ugh. So, after driving out to the island where the farm is located (along with a bunch of other people who had to turn around and go back from whence they came), we decided to hop the fence and at least take a few pictures of the tea plants, which are a species of Camellias if you didn't already know that tidbit.I also spent a couple of days in Savannah visiting my best friend from high school. Ate a sub from a South African restaurant in Savannah, which was interesting, but the experience solidified my belief that Philly and the surrounding area really does reign on the hoagie / sub front. But I'm not going to talk about food on this post, even though, I guess I just did.

I haven't eaten out at any place new in Philly in almost a month (those last few posts were written a while ago), but I am ready to tackle the city again. Just give me a bit, because while I'm ready to go out and devour, I just don't get out as much in the winter, because, well, it's freakin' cold up here, and I am a whiny winter wienie!

Glad to be back, Philly! (Just wish it were summer. Sigh.)

My Favorite Eats...Ever!

OK, so I've told you on this blog that I'm originally from South Carolina, but I've never mentioned what town. I was born, raised, and spent the better part of almost three decades in Columbia, the capital of South Carolina. With the seat of government, the main campus of the University of South Carolina, and the Army's basic training facility, Fort Jackson, Columbia is filled with mostly government workers, students, and army families.

Columbia is not at the white sand beaches, nor is it in the rolling foothills of the mountains, but smack dab in the middle of the state, and, I might add, the hottest most humid city with nary a breeze you will ever set foot in. (People from other Southern towns and Southeast Asian countries never believe that statement...until they've spent a summer there)

Really, there's no reason for you to go to or be in Columbia (I'm not dissing Columbia; all of my childhood and young adult memories are there, and I love them all), but if you ever do find yourself there, the following are my three favorite restaurants of all time, and, really, the only reason (besides family) that I return. I dream of these restaurants and their food -- all ethnic and all hole-in-the-wall/casual. Old location.

My absolute number one favorite restaurant in Columbia is Touch of India (link for address purposes only; ignore the poor reviews by people that have only been there once), a restaurant run by Devi, the sweetest woman ever. Devi and her family only serve Southern Indian dishes, and I have never eaten at an Indian restaurant that serves food as good as hers. Fresh and with love. I kick myself for not taking cooking classes with her, but I took all her food for granted. We would line up before she opened her doors at 11 (show up late, and it's gone) almost every Sunday for their small, but quality lunch buffet.

My favorites from the menu: mysore masala dosa, dahi puri, and cabbage (not on the menu, but cabbage will pop up occasionally as the veggie of the day).Sadly, I didn't make it to Touch of India this last go round, but that picture above is from a trip to her buffet the last time I was in town (buffet plates are never pretty). Since the last trip, she has moved her operation out of the most run-down, dismal, dead strip mall behind a dead strip mall you've ever seen to a brand new building. Yay! She worked for it. Next up is Bangkok, one of Columbia's first Thai restaurants that still sits in the same strip mall near Fort Jackson Army Base and does a bangin' take-out and sit-down lunch and dinner business. Same cooks, same servers (now with more gray hair!), same stains on the walls and carpet. Massaman curry...mmm.

There's nothing fancy about this place, but they dish out some good food. Is it better than your favorite Thai restaurant? Probably not. But it was my first, and I judge all Pad Thai and Massaman curry (my favorites) by their versions. Still, many people in Columbia love their dishes and proclaim them the best Thai, and that many people can't be wrong. I know I'm never wrong.Blue Cactus is probably the quirkiest restaurant in town, but is a must. You'd never know from the name or the outside of the restaurant that Blue Cactus serves Korean, Cuban, and Southwestern food. This restaurant is run by Lloyd (loves spicy food), who is a one-man show at the stove in their open kitchen; his wife (so quiet and cute, I've never caught her name) who brings her Korean expertise; and their daughter, Julie, who has been single-handedly waiting on your sorry ass since Blue Cactus opened in 1994. It's a family serving food they know and love, and doing it well.
Lloyd in his kitchen.

A few things to know before your first visit to Blue Cactus:

• Blue Cactus has a motto and its: Good food takes time...and we're real good! Lloyd is the only guy cooking, and his wife does the non-cooked dishes like kimbap and bibimbap, so if you go in at prime lunch time, you may be there for one and a half hours...or more! If you're in a hurry, go late in the afternoon, or just go when you have time. Oh, and so you don't waste more time, go to the register when you're done, and tell them what you ate; they don't bring you a check.
  

• Lloyd loves spicy food. Ask for it hot and it'll burn. There's a whole shelf of hot sauces if you'd like to try them...and bring him a bottle, too.

• Blue Cactus is not a traditional Korean restaurant. Don't go in expecting twenty complimentary banchan dishes. Kimchi is on the menu, if you want it.

• The Reese family is super nice (Julie even remembers my name and order after being gone for so long), but are not your bitches. Julie waits on you like she's a normal person (and like I would to if I were a server), so will roll her eyes if you ask her a stupid question. Remember Blue Cactus' motto? If you call the restaurant on your cell phone from your table to ask where your food is (true story), Lloyd will escort your ass out of his restaurant. It's sort of like Shopsin's in there, except I think Kenny Shopsin is missing a few screws and is unnecessarily harsh, and the Reeses have all of their mental faculties and you've got to be a real ass-wipe to get the Reese family smack down.

My favorites:
Bibimbap with tofu and without the fried egg, Kimbap just made by Mom so the rice is still warm, and Japchea with tofu.