I’m cruising somewhere in the caribbean right now, lounging under the sun, stuffing my face with free food. No new review or recipe on Friday, but here’s a quote to tide you over until my return.
“Ever eat so much you feel sick? Isn’t that the best?”
–Jim Gaffigan
This pipe is filled with bacon.
So, you may have noticed there wasn’t a quote last week. #whoops I didn’t intend to not publish one, but I just couldn’t seem to find the time to get a quote out on Monday. Then I kept saying “Oh, I’ll do that tomorrow,” and then all of a sudden it was Sunday night again, and I realized that I was going to have to give up on August 13th. Maybe I’ll get around to it eventually, but I’d rather focus on the number of recipes and restaurant reviews I’ve had stock piled on my computer for the past few weeks.
This weekend, my parents moved my brother in at USC and popped down to Charleston afterward to visit for the weekend. It was great, we had Mellow Mushroom for dinner Friday night, and watched the new Jim Gaffigan special (Mr. Universe) before bed.
Saturday morning, we went to breakfast at Dixie Supply Cafe & Bakery, because my mom saw it on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and thought the food there looked delicious. They say the camera adds 10 pounds, and apparently it also makes food look better than it actually is, because our breakfast was sub-par at best. I got their signature breakfast–scrambled eggs, sausage, homefries, and a biscuit with a side of sausage gravy. The eggs were burnt and had this weird gray stuff on them (I assume somebody burnt the non-stick cooking spray before cooking the eggs), so they weren’t very appetizing. The home fries were dried out and looked like they’d been sitting out under the heat lamp for hours before being reheated. The sausage patty was greasy and tasteless. The biscuit and gravy was the only redeemable part of the meal, and that wasn’t even near the top of the list of best biscuits and gravy I’ve ever had. In fact, it probably wouldn’t even make the top 20. Dad got the Wadmalaw Shrimp sandwich, with bacon and a fried green tomato on wheatberry bread, which was what was featured on DDD. This sandwich looks like something I could make at home, and none of it was outstanding. I find it hard to believe that something as mediocre as this could make it on Food Network, but to each his own, I guess.
Saturday night we went to Beaufort to see the Expendables 2 and Total Recall at the Drive In, and had dinner beforehand at 11th Street Dockside restaurant in Port Royal. Dinner was awesome. We had a great view overlooking the shrimping docks and boats and the Port Royal Sound right before sunset. It was beautiful. We ordered these jalapeno and cream cheese-stuffed fried shrimp served with a salsa ranch sauce as an appetizer, and they were amazing. Like a jalapeno popper inside a jumbo shrimp. Delish. Ben and mom split an order of fried mushrooms, since he’s allergic to shellfish. Instead of being little mushrooms that they battered and fried, they were like mushroom poppers, pieces of a big mushroom that were chunked up and battered and fried and served with a horseradish sauce. They really liked it.
For entrees, Mom and I split a pound of steamed shrimp with french fries and a crab cake. The shrimp were perfectly cooked and not overly fishy tasting, which I really liked. The crab cake was awesome, as well. Big chunks of crab, not a lot of bread or anything, served with this creamy pepper sauce. It was great. Ben got potato-crusted grouper with vegetables, which he really, really liked. I thought it was quite tasty, as well. Dad got Buttermilk fried flounder and fried oysters with a baked potato. He liked it, I think, since he ate it all. Expendables 2 was great, albeit pretty predictable, but I mean it’s not like I was expecting much. Explosions, gratuitous violence, corny jokes. It was freaking awesome. Total Recall was ok, but I thought it went on kind of long. Tina loved the drive in, though. She couldn’t remember the last time she was at a drive in, it’d been so long. She thought it was sooooo cool. And she said those three sentences about 15 times that night, at least.
On Sunday, we went to The Lost Dog Cafe out on Folly for breakfast, so I could show my parents what good biscuits and gravy tastes like. We got a full order and devoured it within a minute of the waitress delivering it to our table. I probably could’ve eaten like 5 more, but I showed some restraint. I actually went with the intention of reviewing it, so I’ll save the story of what we ordered for that post.
This week’s quote comes from Ron Swanson (aka Nick Offerman) and pretty much sums up my life.
“I’m starving. I’ve only had one breakfast today.”
–Ron Swanson
“I’m a simple man. I like pretty, dark-haired women and breakfast food”
This weekend, I drove to Atlanta to see Sean and Christine…. you know, because I haven’t done enough traveling this summer. July is going to be a month of sitting on my couch in Charleston. I’m so looking forward to it. This weekend was really fun, although I wasn’t crazy about the drive (5 hours by yourself is a lot). I just need for all of my friends to live closer to me, thankyouverymuch.
I didn’t get to Atlanta til almost 9 Friday night, thanks to crazy traffic and a couple accidents. Sean made tacos for dinner with homemade tortillas, grilled chicken, steak, and chorizo. I wasn’t a huge fan of the chorizo, but everything else was delicious. Christine passed out early so Sean and I watched the season 2 finale of Game of Thrones and he spoiled a bunch of stuff for me since he’s ahead in the books (to be fair, I asked).
On Saturday we went to this cool brewery in Marietta called Red Hare. I liked their beer ok, but it kind of bugged me that you got 6 drink tickets and they only had 4 beers on tap. Plus one of them was an IPA, and I don’t drink IPAs, so that was a bummer. The cool thing was they had this local ice cream shop, High Road Craft Ice Cream & Sorbet come by and serve two of their flavors which are actually made with Red Hare beers, “Watership Brown Butter Caramel” and “Ginger-Lime IPA Sorbet.” The brown butter caramel ice cream was some of the best ice cream I’ve ever eaten. So delicious.
Saturday night, Sean & Christine’s upstairs neighbors threw a party down in the clubhouse area, which was really fun. There was a bunch of Russian food which was cool. I really wanted it to be more delicious than it was. The one thing all the Russian people told me to try was this salad with chunks of ham, eggs, potato, mayonnaise, dill, and currants. Definitely not my favorite. But it was a fun time nonetheless.
On Sunday, we had a Greek feast that Sean prepared. Greek rotisserie chicken, crustless spinach pie, and spanikopita. We then saw Brave with Christine’s mom, which I really liked. I did get about 6 text messages/comments from people being like “I just saw a movie about you!” or “You were really good in that Pixar movie!” haha, I’m a great actress, what can I say.
This week’s quote is in honor of Independence Day. And what’s more patriotic than eating a bunch of meat and then setting off bombs in the sky? I really can’t think of a single thing.
“I usually don’t have a burger, a brat, and a steak…but, it is 4th of July. And I need the energy if I’m gonna start blowin crap up. It’s what the founding fathers would want.”
–Jim Gaffigan
Also, alcohol.