Today is doing the tourist thing – a wander down one of my
favourite streets Downtown Charleston, East Bay Street. It suits all
of us. I drop the GOM off at their watering hole – the wine and
cigar shop – looks really tiny from the outside but inside opens up
into a lounge big enough to house large squidgy leather sofas and a
wide screen television (you know, the sort that only shows sport)
with wall to wall, floor to ceiling wines. It's a serious business
wine tasting.
I'm off across the road to Charleston Cooks! - I mentioned in Chapter
7 I visit this store at least twice - today I'm spending dosh. I
wouldn't describe myself as a gadget/gizmo person but now and again I
come across a piece of kit that is not destined to join the box,
already full to bursting, of junk that, when purchased, the mantra
was “this is brilliant, I'll use it all the time”......tell the
truth - how much stuff have you got stashed away gathering dust.
My purchase, I can confirm, has not been committed to the junk box.
A corn stripper. The best way to describe it, is similar to a potato
peeler, it has a blade in the same way and strips a cob evenly and
easily without any danger of inflicting multiple stab wounds.
Photograph attached so you can see what I mean. I threatened
previously to book a class at the school and so pick up
information.....a tempting treat for next week.
Collect the GOM and grab a fizzy water whilst they finish their
Merlot. Off for a spot of lunch.
Welcome to the Brown Dog Deli - garden salads, deli salads, wraps,
specialty (their spelling, not mine) sandwiches, deli classics and
sides. The “specialty sandwiches” - mainly burgers, were truly
inspirational, two examples, Carribean Black Bean Burger with
pineapple mango salsa, 3 pepper cheese, red onion & raspberry
chipotle sour cream, Broad St. BBQ – pulled pork on a brioche bun
with Cheerwine BBQ sauce, bacon, cheddar, coleslaw & pickles.
The
best “side” I've ever eaten - potato salad like no other. I
tried very hard to isolate various flavours both with eyes and taste
buds. As is the custom in the USA your “server” (not an
attractive term in my view) returns to ask if you've enjoyed your
meal. Our server turned out to be a guy who knew his stuff and so
consequently I was able to extricate the recipe (or at least the bare
bones thereof) for the potato salad. The twists to the norm were
three different types of potato, new, baked and sweet. Minimal mayo,
a touch of American mustard, salt and white
pepper but the crowning glory, sour cream – heavenly – so much so
that I rapidly made notes on a napkin before my aging memory gave out
and stuffed it into my handbag, (for future translation into a recipe
on my return home). Nobody does a deli better. Btw, they used small
brioche buns for the burgers, it might sound weird but it works, the
combination of slightly sweet but quite light in texture with the
savoury burger works for me. We now know it works in the UK too for
we now have brioche buns/rolls at BBQ/summer time – another
excellent BBQ side or slider!
Need to walk off the lunch and so we browse a few art galleries along
East Bay Street. I just love the Gullah art, it is simple and
straight forward using bold and in your face colour. Should anyone
visit Charleston - Lowcountry Artists, a gallery on East Bay Street
is a joy, and Lynne Hardwick is one of its local artists. We had a
great time chatting and exploring.
Lower down East Bay is “Marion's in the French Quarter” -
photograph attached – tee hee, I wish!
How good was that.
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