Weekend in the Low Country

Sunday June 22, 2009 cont.

After doing some sightseeing, including the Charleston Museum, I headed for my last meal of the trip, SeeWee Restaurant in Awendaw. As I passed Gullah Cuisine on my right, I noticed a parking lot full of cars, so I swung on in. I had called Gullah Cuisine a couple of times during my trip and always got a recording. I even stopped in on Saturday, but they had no hours posted. I had all but given up on the place. Now, I had the chance to eat here and I wasn't going to pass it up.

I was asked if I wanted the buffet

or order off the menu. Since I knew what I came here to eat and it wasn't available on the buffet, it was an easy choice.

I started with the okra gumbo. Powerfully flavored, what an excellent way to begin the meal. I snapped many, many photos of it and the best I could come up with was this.

CajunKing, I would have been interested in what you would have thought of this gumbo.

For my main course, I got the fried shrimp, with a side of the Gullah rice.



The shrimp tasted very fresh, with a different seasoning on it. The Gullah rice was strong flavored too and tasted like nothing I have had before. I wish I had the ability to describe these dishes better, but all three were wonderful!

A corn muffin came with dinner and it came out so hot, I had to eat it with a fork.


The iced tea here was also especially good. After rereading the review from the Sterns, I realized it was because they flavored it with honey and not sugar. Delicious!

Gullah Cuisine gets the nod for best meal of the trip.

http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Writeup.aspx?ReviewID=1425&RefID=1421

From there, I headed to the airport. Because of thunderstorms in the Charlotte area, my flight home was delayed so much, I didn't get home until 1:00AM.

Buttermilk pie or the triple layer chocolate cake






Well was I right??

I think something happened to me at Gullah Cuisine which I have never experienced before. When I first sat down, the service was efficient, but the waiter was cooly detached. After he saw me snapping a bunch of photos, he became my best buddy in the world. He never asked why I was taking the photos and I felt no need to tell him. But, I do think he must of thought I was a food writer or something. I never, never, never pretend to be someone important or someone that I'm not, but if they want to take away my iced tea that I had only taken one sip of and replace it with tea that had just been freshly brewed, I didn't mind.

Maybe, I am reading too much into it.....

Hey BB

did you get the email i sent you about your coming to cincy and the microbrewery and the architecture??

I realize this is bringing up an old thread, however, I hope he ordered the Buttermilk Pie, even though that's an Upcountry, SC favorite.

Sorry, CajunKing and MotherNature, I didn't get the buttermilk pie. Seeing homemade chocolate pudding on the menu is just too difficult to pass up. That is something I would never seen on a menu near home.

Okay, I did it again. I made a trip without my camera and boy am I sorry now.

We spent the last 24 hours or so in Edisto Island visiting our buddy who has a weekend place down there, and we went four for four. Four excellent meals and I couldn't remember exactly where Cliff had visited on Edisto so I had to look this up. Cliff, I'm trusting you don't mind a piggybacker (or a hop-on, for you Arrested Development fans).

Friday dinner we were wanting shrimp, as you do near the ocean, so our friend took us to a place called the Waterfront Restaurant on Jungle Ave. in Edisto. I got a pecan-coated whole fried flounder, Julie the fried shrimp and our friend the shrimp and flounder fillet combo. Fries, baked potatoes, salads and steamed broccoli were the accompaniments, and the sides were just meh, but all the seafood was excellent; in fact I think this is the best whole flounder I've ever had. Super crispy on the outside and still moist and fleshy on the inside, with an excellent sweet chili sauce on the side. I was scraping those bones clean of meat. And the fried shrimp (I stole) were terrific.

This morning we walked over to the Plantation Grille on the property of the Windham resort. Now I don't typically expect much from on-the-resort places, but their prices looked good and they were very close. I got an oven roasted tomato topped with two poached eggs, hollandaise, on top of what they said was a potato pancake but was really just a bed of hash browns. The tomato was still hot and blistered from the oven, the eggs were warm and soft and perfect, and this was soooo good. Julie got a side of their homemade corned beef hash and although she said she was still burping the bell pepper in it a couple hours later, it was delicious. Their service was just a tiny bit slow--the server waiting on us gave an unforgettable explanation: "Rosie had a bad night." Which we promptly made the title of the album our fake band would record next.

So it was pretty rainy this afternoon and that dutched all our beach-related plans, but we had gone to check out a small exhibit of photographs of Phillip Simmons gates http://www.philipsimmons.us/ at the Edisto Museum and stumbled upon the annual Edisto Island Historical Preservation Society tour of buildings, plus a craft show. Lovely afternoon.

Then our friend suggested we try a place that had recently been written up, I believe, in Southern Living for having some great shrimp and grits. So we hit Whaley's, which is in an old gas station on Edisto Beach near the marina. Sadly they only serve the shrimp and grits for dinner so we had to make do with some plain old fried shrimp. On their menu they brag that all their shrimp comes straight off the Sarah Jane and boy, they were practically still alive. Not kidding folks. The best shrimp I've ever had. And not stingy at all--fifteen of these little beauties, at least large size shrimp. Now a basket is like $13.95 so it's not super cheap but I'd have gladly paid more, they were that good. And they keep it simple--some raw fries, a pickle, a big cup of cocktail sauce. Julie also added a cup (gigantic) of shrimp and crab soup and pronounced that the best she's ever had. She was still murmuring pleasantly two hours later about it.

On the way home we blindly picked Dimitrios', a pizza/pasta/but-really-Greek joint in Walterboro and split a pie and a Greek salad and they were both excellent. We'll try that spot again.

"Rosie had a bad night". I'm assuming that Rosie is the cook, but who knows?

Thanks for the piggyback, Nancy! After reading your description of Whaley's, I'm really, really wishing you had brought your camera. Isn't it amazing how many good restaurants are in former gas stations? Pardon my ignorance, but what is the Sarah Jane?

I think Rosie was the cook; she did some good work despite her bad night, I can attest to that.

The Sarah Jane is a shrimp boat docked nearby; on the menu they said 'go ask your server at other restaurants what boat their shrimp comes from'--I thought, that's a good point sir. :) Whaley's is the place you gotta check out the next time you visit. Give a yell and we'll meet you there.

Thanks for always being classy, Cliff.

quote:

Originally posted by Nancypalooza

Give a yell and we'll meet you there.

You got a deal! And that is a very clever way to make it known just how fresh your shrimp truly are.

quote:

Originally posted by buffetbuster


I had only driven a short distance when I spotted something unusual in the middle of the road.

Now wait a minute, buffetbuster. You spotted this even before we
had consensus on what form of[url='http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=29731&SearchTerms=Roadfood']RoadFood Identification[/url] to use??

What a Great trip report. Those shrimp and eggs with potatoes looked awesome. Really a taste of America through my computer screen.
Loved the picture of the guy in the lawnchair as well. That's America right there!

My only concern...with a name like Buffetbuster.... just 2 plates? I did I miss something?

i95-
Maybe you can clarify something for me. Are you saying us Roadfooders should carry one of those pigs around with us to make it easier for us to spot each other. Or are you saying that some of us Roadfooders may already look like the back end of a pig?

buffetbuster, I believe that[url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww&feature=related']this[/url] will give you the undeniable clarity to which you seek.

Oh at least give him this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_jGlyqoYoo

I found out that the Smithsonian traveling Key Ingredients exhibition will be at the Edisto Island Museum in March through May: http://www.keyingredients.org/default.asp

I just celebrated a birthday recently, and the same friend we visit at Edisto asked where I wanted to eat to celebrate, and I said "I want some more of those shrimp at Whaley's."  So me being me, I arranged to go down for an overnight and subject my partner and our hostess to not one but two consecutive meals at the place.  Because I at least need a couple of hours between big piles of shrimp, believe it or not.

This past Saturday we visited.  It is located at the end of Myrtle Street, the opposite end of the island from the Pavilion.  I'm telling you this because there really isn't much of a sign.  This is what it looks like from Myrtle:

 

And the very nondescript sign in the front window:

 


The view from the booths next to the bar:

 

But the reason we are here is shrimp, here fried for lunch along with raw fries:

 

Let me try to describe why these are so good.  Really fresh shrimp. whether it's fried or boiled or broiled, should fight back a little in your mouth.  The bodies should be tender but not so tender.  They should almost have a little snap to them.  And fried like this, with the slightest of coatings, they are very nearly the most perfect food on the planet.  Remember, as the Buddhists would remind you, with every bite you're taking a tiny life.  They should be worth it.  My friend's basket, along with very good fried flounder:

 

Julie got the shrimp and crab bisque again, which had been haunting her dreams since our previous visit.  She pronounced this bowl merely good, not how she had described it before--so good it would preclude us being able to ever move very far away because she would need to be close to it at all times.  I tasted it this time.  It's delicious.   She said that last time there was more crab meat in it, chunkier crab meat, and I wonder if the makeup of the bisque is dependent on what they have on hand.

 

I wasn't able to resist one of the desserts they offered, raspberry key lime pie, although we did take it with:

 

So that was lunch at Whaley's.  I continued to insist throughout the afternoon that we were going back there for dinner, to glances exchanged between my dining companions as to my sanity.  I stayed firm.  We wandered back a few hours later, for the shrimp and grits, which had been recently listed by Coastal Living magazine (or something) as one of the best:

 

Hooooleeeee cow.  Now, typically shrimp and grits would be sauteed shrimp over some grits cooked with cream or leavened with some kind of cheese, with a reduction or sauce that typically includes tasso ham or andouille, but could also be tomato-based, or a number of variations.  As far as we could tell, the liquid you see pooling at the plate is butter, maybe mixed with some white wine or chicken broth, but very very very subtle, and it is delicious.  It's probably testament to the quality of the shrimp and grits that they felt able to just leave it at that.  We also ordered a crabcake:

 

that just gets a B on the crabcake scale for the same reason--too much folderol in it.  It had a wonderful taste and you could tell the crab was also fresh but there was some pepper and onion business that would have been best left out of it.  The remoulade was also good.

This place does the little things very very well.  The dinner salads that came before the meal are usually a throwaway and here were very good; romaine lettuce and good tomatoes, what tasted like decent parmesan.  Julie got a Big Salad with the crabcake and that includes marinated tomatoes and cukes, bacon and avocado.  Salad dressings tasted homemade; the thousand was laced with fresh dill.  Even the cocktail sauce had a sufficiently horseradishy bite.

The service is very good but full of characters; you might run into the duo we had at lunch of a very crusty old man and a very voluble, friendly young guy, or my personal favorite, a guy I like to call Local McConaughey.  He sounds just like him and looks very much just like him.  All excellent servers.

I would put Whaley's in the top five of shrimp places in the state.  And this is an excellent state for shrimp.

Next morning we did something delightful.  There is a place called Botany Bay Plantation, a wildlife preserve http://www.dnr.sc.gov/managed/wild/botany/description.html that includes a beach area where adults are not allowed to take shells, driftwood, anything.  So you see a great deal of variety of shells that you don't normally see.  Plus it's just stunning.  This is a sample:

 

If you like that and are a serious shell/beach dork, you can see more here (warning, there are lots of pictures): http://flickr.com/photos/nancypalooza/sets/72157614004941995/

So after a couple of hours roaming the beach right after dawn we tucked into one of our favorite joints for breakfast, the Sea Cow on Jungle Blvd:

 

Whereupon I spied this with my little eyes:

 


What, Almond Joy pie?  What disciple of Satan hath wrought such?  Martha, you say?  And then I immediately talked myself into the coconut pineapple instead.  Listen, I am not Cliff.  I can't handle two pieces of pie at lunch, and I'm off the reservation here getting it for breakfast at all.  You should have seen my companions' eyes when I snuck it into my order at the end.  Here's the pie, and this is the most light-doctored photo because the fork made my camera focus insane.  So scusi if this is not up to par:


 

But you get the idea; this was very good, the crust very flaky, and very appropriate for a beach setting.  It would probably be the bomb-diddly if you could get banana in there somewhere, and I'm assuming some chocolate-coated version is the Almond Joy.  We also got straight-up eggs and bacon:

 

The only really meh thing here is the home fries, but that may be because of our preference for the crispy (see also the raw fries from the day before), but oddly enough we cleaned the plates of them.  Must have been the beachcombing.  And the picture that has quickly turned into food porn among some of my friends, the pecan pancakes:

 

The Sea Cow is a really popular spot; I've never been there when it wasn't hopping, and the staff handle it with aplomb.  There is an indoor area, a covered porch and tables on the deck as well.

We had a lovely weekend.  Let's see, local gossip.  We were in the With These Hands gallery (the shop that shares real estate with the Old Post Office--by the way, stop here) and eavesdropped the saleslady telling a gentleman that the interior of the restaurant was finished, they were waiting on the health department OK, it would be the same chef and different owners, and they were hoping to reopen around April 1.  So an old favorite might be coming back after all.

Nancypalooza, I enjoyed your report and the great photos. Those pecan pancakes look sooooooo good!

Thats what I'm Talking about!Fresh off the boat Shrimp fried as lightly as possible.

Thanks guys!  Jellybear I would think you'd be able to get some like that where you are too.

My brother, his wife and children and his wife's family ( 25 people, give or take a few) go to Edisto Island every summer.  I will have to tell him that his favorite restaurant is going to reopen soon.  I all also tell him to read this great review of restaurants.....he might just become a roadfoodie...

Nancy-
I think you are one visit away from having your own private table at Whaley's!  Pie for breakfast?  You should be ashamed of yourself!  I would never even think about doing something like that!
 
Beautiful photos and report.  Thanks for adding them to my trip.

Well thanks for sharing your space sir as always.  I would be fine with living in the duct work at Whaley's and crawling out for shrimp from time to time.

Living in the ducts?  I don't think the Health Inspector would look too kindly upon that...   Chris

P.S.  Even if you didn't include the pictures, your report is a wonderful read.  Why can't I write as wittily as you?

Oh wait, I know the answer to this.  It's the beard.  It's acting as a wit-suppressor.  When I go get my lip and eyebrows waxed, I come out 8 percent funnier than before.  If I get an 8 percent boost from that small amount of hair . . just imagine what it might do for you.  ;)

I think your writeups are perfect, sir.
 
Edited to add: and the beard is good too!  Don't touch it! 

Oh my gosh, I want tropical toast...right now!

and I'm so glad I'm not the only one who photographs cemetaries.

Great post!!!!

In Charleston last week for only a one night stand we had dinner at 82 Queen Streeet. It was a chilly Wednesday night so the place was practically deserted and we had the almost undivided attention of our helpful and efficient waiter.

The she crab soup was a delightful bisque loaded with crabmeat. A couple of light biscuits mildly flavored with garlic butter went well with the rest of our meal. I had the shrimp with a BBQ type sauce and bits of Tasso ham over creamy grits - a glorious dish - the shrimp and the mild sauce were superb and the grits were unbelievably light creamy and tasty - not to be compared with the usual grits we get with our southern breakfasts which are fine but put to shame by the grits at 82 Queen Street. Gail had mac n cheese with crab meat - she loved it, but it was not to my taste. We washed it all down with a bottle of Pinot Grigio and finished off our meal with coffee and a mixed sorbet of pear and raspberry. 

Thanks to previous Roadfooders for putting us on to this place...

Cheers, John 

seafarer john-
Thanks for the report back on 82 Queen.  It sounds like we both ordered some of the same dishes.  My only regret, now, is missing out on the sorbets.

I don't know if he was the first person to bring up 82 Queen here on Roadfood, but wanderingjew is the one who has been singing its praises the longest and the loudest.

Dale has never steered us wrong...

Cheers, John 

Nancypalooza:

Very nice photography and commentary.

One question: What is a "raw fry"?

Oh, it's a chip-cut potato and you order them floppy or crispy.  I'm sure it's one of those things that's a local name for and they're called something else where you are, like a home fry.

buffetbuster


Friday June 20

My first stop after I landed late Friday night in Charleston, SC, was Diana's.

At least it used to be called Diana's. As is noted in the updated review by Michael Stern, it is now called Tropical Toast at Diana's.

What an unwieldy name! The theme here is tropical and the interior is kind of Jimmy Buffett-ish. This sign made me think I was at Hodad's in San Diego.


I started off with an appetizer of the Tropical Toast. If they think this dish is so wonderful that they decided to incorporate it into the name, I think that is a "must try".

Sorry for the lousy photo. This is basically cut up pieces of french toast along with some whipped cream on a plate. The dish itself was just fine, but maybe I was expecting more. One nice thing is that if you buy a dinner, the Tropical Toast is free.

For my entree, I went for the coconut shrimp.

As you can see, there is just some shredded pieces of coconut laying on top of the shrimp. It is also supposed to come with a pineapple glaze, which wasn't applied to the shrimp. I asked my waitress, so she went back to ask. The chef had forgot about the pineapple glaze, so she brought some pineapple sauce for me to dip the shrimp in. Not the same, but no big deal.

Lots of interesting side choices here and I settled on the red rice, which was just okay and the macaroni and cheese.

This was easily the best item I had here. This was some supremely soulful mac & cheese!

I was sitting next to the impressive looking dessert case,

so I carefully studied my options. Since it was getting very late, I got a piece of the buttercream chocolate to take back to my hotel.

I'm afraid it didn't taste any better than it looked. Another disappointment. I really have to give this place a very mixed review. They did seem to be having a bad night, but the mac & cheese was wonderful. I wouldn't mind checking out some of the other sides on a return visit.

I may be a little kinder to this place because of the service. My waitress, a UVA student from Franklin, TN, was a real sweetheart. When she told me how much she loved Pancake Pantry in Nashville, well, I was smitten! I love when a woman talks pancakes!

http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Writeup.aspx?ReviewID=1414&RefID=1414

I checked into my hotel just across the bridge in Mt. Pleasant.

Much more to come.....

 
You should have went to the Wreck. THAT'S the place for seafood in the area.

kevincad-
Welcome to Roadfood!  I have been to The Wreck several times before and really enjoy the place.  I just wanted to check out some new to me places on this trip.