foodie fun in Chucktown

Home sweet home and back at the keys.  I wanted to share some of the cool things I crammed in while I was in Charleston this time. If you aren't following Gap Creek Gourmet in Facebookland, you should be cause you're missing out on the rest of my adventures.  Just saying.

First, I stopped off at the SC State Fair on my way to the coast on Tuesday.  I've only been to a big fair once or twice in my life.  My favorite part? The animals, of course. (You thought I was going to say food, didn't you?  Heck no!  Fair food is terrible unless you like grease pit food that drips down your arms. Okay, the cotton candy is an exception. Love cotton candy.)

One of the coolest things I did while I was gone this time was to hang out with the guys at Sweeteeth Chocolate and King of Pops in their digs in North Charleston.  If you read the blog regularly, you know Sweeteeth is my favorite chocolate.  I swear you'll have an adult moment when you bite into their Sea Salt Caramel bar. I watched Mr. Johnny Chocolatier whip up some caramel

and watched the King of Pops folks make a batch of pops.  Also a fan of the King of Pops gourmet Popsicles and happens that both companies share a warehouse space.  I got a little taste of the behind the scenes magic.

The guys were listening to this band. Whatcha think? I downloaded the whole CD.  Very cool 1940's vibe. The video is freaking awesome. Watch it.

I think I could honestly eat out every meal for the rest of my life in Charleston and never hit every place I want to go, so it's a tough decision where to eat while I'm there.

I finally made it to The Wreck at Shem Creek, though I don't know, besides the fantastic sunset, what all the fuss is about.  Average seafood. Expensive considering they serve it on paper plates... But they did have half price bottles of wine and a good selection at that (though I stuck to tea this time).

I met friends at Huck's last night on Isle of Palms and let me tell you, it was the best thing I've put in my face in ages!  Honestly. I had the fried pork chop with apple butter on top of blue cheese mashed potatoes and collard greens.  Heaven. Did I mention I totally blew the Gluten-Free thing most days while I was gone?  Okay, didn't do too bad, but I didn't abstain either.  Hi, I'm a gluten-aholic.

I took my child and her friend to the Boone Hall Corn Maze on Wednesday.  Now that was something!  I thought it would be a crazy, get me out of this corn cause I'm panicking situation, but no!

It was fun walking through the maze and trying to trace along on the map we had in our hand. My daughter thought to leave a corn trail "like Hansel and Gretel" in case we got lost.  Good thinking.  We took a hay ride (sans hay), too and the kids played on a fake spider web, a climbing tower with a slide  that emptied out into a pile of sand and some bouncy things.   Fun thing to do if you're in the lowcountry soon.  It was a cool way to welcome fall and start the big week of Halloween celebrations coming up.

So now I'm back home and the laundry is rolling.  Date night with the husband tonight!  Yea me!  Hey, did you know Starbucks put out Pumpkin Spice Latte Ice Cream this year?  I swear I gotta get some of this. Anyone seen it in the store yet?

Anywho.  Happy weekend all!

mission big nasty, robot candy...crabs

Hey yall!  Well, I'm back from the last Isle of Palms beach jaunt of the summer (booo!), but have tons of stuff to share with you.  After getting over the last of my ikks a couple of days into the trip, I was crazy excited to get out and see what I could get into.

The Big Nasty

The hubs has been ambling to go to Hominy Grill in downtown Chucktown to try out The Big Nasty -a piece of fried boneless chicken breast on a biscuit covered in gravy with some cheese. They had him at gravy. So he finally got his Big Nasty and it was amazing. (That just sounds wrong.)

We ordered an insane amount of food. This is normal for us when we hit one of the restaurants on our wish list.  Hominy seriously knocked our socks off.  Seriously.  It's like a meat and three on crack.  The food is like your grandma went to culinary school.  The mac and cheese was the best I've ever put in my face and the tomato pudding gets props as the best new food I never knew existed.

It's tomatoes, sugar, and cornbread all mooshed up and cooked.  Holy S.  It was magnificent. I immediately decided to box up half my food so I could one, enjoy it for lunch the next day and two, order dessert without dying right there at the table.

We ordered Hummingbird Cake and Chocolate Chess Pie and Creamcicle Ice cream. Again: yum.  I had been craving cake all week. Heaven.

I was on a mission to find some Mr. Weed's cold press coffee while I was in the city. I saw it in June's Charleston Mag and put it on my list.  It took me a while, but I located some in Queen Street Grocery.  $5.  I thought, this better be some dang good coffee. Nope.  I'll stick to my Starbucks in a jar thank you very much.  Sorry dude.  I wanted to give you rave reviews, but spent more than $5 in gas hunting your product down and once I found it, it didn't knock my socks off.  I had such high hopes...

(I did discover a really cool little grocery store on Sullivan's Island while hunting down the coffee.  The Co-op on Sullivan's Island made sandwiches to order, carried lots of local products and fresh produce and had a nice selection of wine and ice cream.  Score.  And the owner was super nice and was just as excited about Mr. Weed's Cold Press Coffee as I was when I told her about it. She got on the computer immediately for some research and pointed me in the direction of Queens St.)

While we were in downtown Charleston, we hit Caviar and Bananas.  It's a HIGH end grocery/deli right in the heart of College of Charleston land.  They carry Sweeteeth Chocolate. Props! But seriously folks, should groceries cost that much?  I was in awe at the bulk salt selection and the yummy deli salads, but we were still full from Hominy,  thus just swung through for some site seeing.

And then I spotted Robot Candy Company.  My  husband was like a kid in a candy store. (hehehe)  There was an ENTIRE wall of gummy candy... his absolute favorite candy in the world.  He loaded up a bag of gummy sharks and gummy coke bottles and peach rings. And I made a mental note of a few very cool things to purchase for stocking stuffers. This place ROCKED and made me happy in general.  I can't wait to go back.

Since I was sick FOREVER am so far behind at my day job it isn't even funny.  While we were at the beach I decided to check out crabbing so I could write about it.  We did.  It was fun!  We caught three, took their picture and put them back because quite frankly I didn't want to cook the little boogers... well because you throw them in while they're alive AND they remind me of spiders and I seriously don't want that in my kitchen.

The hubs now has a cold. (I'm popping vitamin C like it's candy.) So I'm off to the store to grab a chicken to make this soup (or a variation of it). I'm already gearing up to post tomorrow so, well, stay posted. Have a good Sunday!

Operation breakfast: Joey Bag a Donuts

This morning the hubs roused me bright and early (7am early!) for a donut run!  I saw a write up about Joey Bag a Donuts in a lowcountry travel magazine a couple of months ago and made note to go there when I could get my boy back to Isle of Palms.  I knew he wouldn't want to miss another food adventure ending with a box of fresh donuts. 

I was SOOO tired being that I'm still popping Benedryl to ward of the anti-antibiotic hives, but popped right up, grabbed some shoes and threw up my hair and out we went.  The place is just 10 minutes away from Isle of Palms...lucky us!  It's owned by an Italian guy who wanted to create a place like the bakeries his parents took him to when he was a kid in Italy. He wanted a family place where kids would drag their parents and press their little noses against the glass oohing and ahhhing over the fresh baked goodies.   Look at that selection! Success! 

I instantly felt like I was a five year old again, staring into the case of smiley face donuts, donuts covered with fruit loops and fruity pebbles (yes!) and donuts with lots and lots of sprinkles.  Standing there, I wished we had brought our daughter along because she would have gone NUTS!  It was crazy hard to make a decision. I let my boy decide. He picked out a dozen plus two maple bacon to take back and share with the family for breakfast.  

I'd like to give a big shout out to the staff .  They were so happy and welcomed everyone that came in the door.  There were lots of regulars who filed in and they knew their names! Love it! This one little kid and his sister came in with their dad.  I swear I couldn't get to my camera fast enough to take his little pic, but the dad handed him his donut in a bag of his own and the little guy opened his big white bag and stared down into it with the biggest look of wonder and excitement.  It was soooo cute.  Check out the Joey Bag a Donuts website.  There's a cute little intro video to the shop!

Get a load of these guys!  You know I flipped out over the donuts at Glazed when we stopped in last month.  I'd say the difference is what Glazed is to the adult crowd, Joey's is to the kiddo (and kiddo at heart) demographic. Joey's definitely beats Glazed out of the top spot in the salty pork goodness topped pastry category, though.  The bacon is made to order and put on the donuts in the kitchen so these puppies come out hot! We seriously had a hard time not diving into these in the car.   We loved the raspberry jelly filled and chocolate covered cream filled too. The donuts are so fluffy!   The SUPER sweet icing topped donuts were a little overkill, but you could put pluff mud on these donuts and they'd still pass bar.  The basic donut recipe is just that good. A definite must when visiting the island. 

Look at that sleepy morning smile! I think she agrees. Think we'll get parents of the year for having these waiting when she woke up? (The hubs says we're going back before we leave. We'll see. I think he's trying to make me fat!)

Beachin', doughnuts and ancient cookbooks

I have returned to the Valley after another week of island living. I was very glad to see my hubs, my house and my pets, but I sure can't wait to go back. I think I felt every single cell of my body do a happy dance when we crossed the IOP Connector this time.  I drug along my laptop for a little work time, but for the most part, I spent the week toes in the water, ass in the sand (I actually did. I'm not just quoting a song.) and watched two little girls make some memories at the beach. 

Semi-take-out: Fresh SC shrimp with Charleston Cocktail Sauce
with Greek Salad from Atlanta bread. 

I did manage to squeeze in a foodie adventure just before we left town. I hope you've checked out my Charleston Pinterest Board.  If not, you should follow.  I'm slowly pinning and making my way through some foodie awesomeness in Chucktown.  During the last trip we grabbed a few salted chocolate and banana pudding popsicles from King of Pops at the farmer's market on Mount Pleasant.  This time, we headed to King Street for Cream Cheese Filled Pepper Jelly Glazed doughnuts from Glazed Gourmet Doughnuts and stopped in Heirloom Book Company. Both of these have been high on my to-go-there list, so I once again I drug my child along and thoroughly embarrassed her by acting like a fan girl. You'd think I was visiting the Beatles. 

In the 9 months since Glazed opened, pastry chef Allison Smith has been interviewed by a ton of mags and her doughnuts have gained quite a few fans. (I'm raising my hand and flailing it about wildly.) Folks, I spent $25 on doughnuts.  What the heck, right?  I'm telling you, when you are staring down her giant, sticky doughnuts and you know it will be a long while before you get back, you try choosing just one or two!  I let the kids each pick two, I picked two and I brought back a box for the hubs.  

Then we stopped in at Heirloom Book Company. I don't know where I first heard about this place, but I could not wait to go.  I am a little obsessive about cookbooks and food mags and they have a crazy selection of antique cookbooks along with new releases.  I walked around with my mouth hanging open and resisted the inclination to purchase every book I picked up.  I did settle on a great little Chocolate cookbook for $3. They have monthly dinners there... I gotta get to one of those!

Before I go, I want to send a big shout out to Dr. Kathleen Malaney and her office assistant (a very cool guy whose name I can't remember) on Isle of Palms for taking care of my soon-to-be earache during my vacation.  We took my daughter there when she was little and got swimmer's ear on vacation, so when I felt one coming on myself, I walked right in to get that taken care of.  They have the best customer service of any doctors office I've ever been in!  I love that it's a one woman show.  She's like the old school small town doctors, accept she offers Botox, too. (No, I'm not kidding...and no, I wasn't tempted.  I'm going to wrinkle gracefully!) Thanks Dr. M!

I am not Kate Bosworth and surfing IOP

I am terrified of sharks.  Terr-i-fied, but grabbed a SUP board today and headed out to paddle the BIG Water on Isle of Palms. I totally know why surfers wear rash guards.  You should see my arms!  So I couldn't pull of a Kate Bosworth in Blue Crush, but paddled around on my knees for a long time and even stood up (once!), and that was good enough for me.  I was EXHAUSTED and totally proud of myself.  That was some choppy water.

The Windjammer was hosting a Surfing Expo, so I was surrounded by actual surfers trying out different SUP boards.  A little intimidating, but they'd come right up beside me and give me tips and were totally encouraging.  It was awesome!  Can't say I'll do it again this week... I might not be able to get out of the bed tomorrow...but I totally want to get back out there one day and try it again.


In other news we've been eating on-island this week and I've been so hungry and tired by the time we've sat down, I've forgotten to take pictures.  I know, right?  I never, ever forget to take pictures!  It's all the sun and the surfing (wink. wink.).  The best fare so far has been a Shrimp and Chorizo Sausage Quesadilla from Banana Cabana.  I haven't had a single bad meal in that place and the fact that we don't have to get into our car and drive to get a meal is a plus right out of the gate.


I think I'm headed into Chucktown (aka Charleston) this afternoon, so I promise I'll deliver on the pics if I get into anything cool, which, let's face it, will probably happen.  Who are we kidding.


Happy Saturday.  Wishing I had brought this DVD with me. Did I mention that Miss Kate used to date Alexander Skarsgard (Generation Kill, True Blood...)?  Here's hoping he'll be our Mr. Grey. Anyway, here's another summer anthem. 

Lowcountry livin', Poe's Tavern and Popsicles

Where the heck is summer going and why is it sooo hot?! Today I'm going to pick my child from camp.  She's been gone all week, but I swear the time has gone so fast it feels like a day.  Last year was her first year and I was crying my eyes out the whole week she was gone because I couldn't talk to her.  Slowest week ever. Not this year man!

I haven't posted many pics from my crazy amazing Isle of Palms beach vacation. I honestly didn't want to leave. I thought I would cry.  Here are some highlights.

OMG, the view.  I've been going to the island every year almost since I was a kid and I have never once stayed beachfront.  THAT was crazy awesome.  Acme Wings: a must for any IOP trip.  We gnawed our way through four dozen.

The ocean was awesomely still most of the week (much to the dismay of my body surfing family).   I finally got up the nerve to swim out to my husband and child who like to go farther out than my comfort zone one morning. My husband spotted dolphins so he pulled the float, on which I was perched (hoping it would half save me in case of a shark attack), out about ten more feet, putting me within a couple yards from dolphins who were playing close by.  I was stupendously happy and freaked the hell out all at once. I squealed like a little girl.  Okay, I screamed.  Out of fear.  (I asked for a little warning next time.) Well, I can kinda say I sort of swam with dolphins now.

(I made pancakes for the amazing father of my child and his dad on Father's Day and did not burn them!  Yea me!)

There are two farmers markets on Mt. Pleasant.  One on Tuesday afternoons starting at 3:30pm and a new one on Saturdays staring at 9am.  I LOVE a good farmer's market.  We always grab curry spices from Charleston Spice Co. at the Tuesday market and this year Sierra grabbed a banana pudding pop from the King of Pops!

He's been all over Charleston media for his brilliantly delicious popsicles.  (I begggged the hubs to swing by the Saturday market on the way out of town where we spotted the guy unloading his cart from his truck.  I assaulted him before he was off the truck.  We snagged a salted chocolate pop (made with Sweeteeth!) and  two banana puddings.  They dripped down our hands in the hot car and didn't last long!

I think I might sort of be settling back into the reality that I'm back in the Valley.  Sigh.  But I am headed back to the island again a couple of times this summer, so I can't complain too loudly.

Okay, my friends and I are totally getting sloshed and going to see this on Saturday.  I am so excited!

And I just heard this song last night and Shazamed it and downloaded it immediately! (You'll have to watch it on YouTube so follow the link. And why the heck won't it center?! Anywho.)

Back to the island experience.  Okay, so my sister told us we should go to Poe's Tavern.  We knew it was there.  How could we not?  There is usually people spilling out of the place and wrapped around the gate.  We went REALLY early for dinner to avoid a crowd.  So worth it.  I got fish tacos and my husband got a hamburger with so much on it he could barely eat it.  It's the "hot" place to go on Sullivan's Island for twenty-somethings apparently. Gotta say, I dig it too!

 

Oh!  And my mother-in-law and I stopped into Burger King for a quick snack during a shopping marathon and they had BACON SUNDAES on the menu!  I had to try one.  Gotta admit, it was pretty great.

So that's that.  Heading out to pick up my munchkin!

Happy Friday!!!!!