Just a bit of Southern Comfort: Part 2

Food is on my mind.  I've been flipping through my recipe book, flipping through cookbooks and looking at food blogs like crazy today.  I have discovered and bookmarked some great recipes but decided I should probably continue on with the trip down the East Coast before I just leave it blowing in the wind.

So here we go.  After our night in Charleston, we headed to Folly Beach.  Like usual, food was part of the reason we headed to this spot.  Before I travel anywhere, I obviously do research and figure out what kind of delicious food the place has to offer (this should be a compulsive habit everyone partakes in)  Awhile back my precious mother had sent me a magazine article about seafood in South Carolina.  For some reason the best fish tacos section caught my eye, on which Taco Boy took the top spot.  So I did a bit more research and found out that Adam Richman, from Man vs. Food, had designated this place as his favorite place for fish tacos.  So obviously we had to try it out.

Taco Boy.

When we arrived in Folly Beach we found that the charming little beach town was rampant with St. Patty's Day festivities.  While we had no intention of participating in the festivities it was incredibly entertaining to watch, especially at 11am.  What time did these people get up?  Anyways, the restaurant had the perfect "beachy mexican" feel, with the wild colors on the wall and the eccentric decorations.  We were fortunately lead to the only open table left, which was outside on the patio so we could enjoy the warm air while watching everyone else enjoy their St. Patty's Day beverages.   I ordered two different types of tacos.  The first was the tempura shrimp taco, which was made up of crispy shrimp, white cabbage, cilantro and nuevo remoulade sauce all wrapped up in a homemade corn tortilla.  The next was the grilled fish taco which was chipotle marinated mahi mahi, cilantro, dijon sauce, field greens and salsa cruda.  Both tacos were absolutely delicious.  The tempura shrimp had the best textures with the crispy shrimp combined with the remoulade sauce.  But for some reason the fish taco easily went down as my favorite, and I can't point out my favorite part of it because it was ALL delicious.  And...I would like another right about now.

Tempura Shrimp Taco

Grilled Fish Taco

After we filled our bellies we jumped back in the car and headed to the beautiful mountains of North Carolina.

As much as I would love to tell you about all of the fun things that happened along the way, I'm going to jump to our next meal, which was at a quaint, yet hip little barbecue joint called Luella's.  By the time we got to Luella's we were starving and were prepared to try out what was claimed as the best barbecue in western North Carolina.  When we finally got a seat (it was absolutely packed) we went ahead and ordered sweet potato chips to ease the hunger pains.  They were served with a creamy ranch and topped with cinnamon sugar.  I love sweet potato chips to begin with, but top it with a little bit of sweet and a side of yummy sauce to dip it in?  Yes, please.  After the chips, I ordered the only type of barbecue dish that should ever be ordered in North Carolina.  Pulled pork.  The pulled pork was so tender and had a great smoky taste.  It was served with fried okra and mac and cheese.  Both of which were delicious.  The okra had the perfect amount of batter and salt, and the mac and cheese was so incredibly cheesy and creamy.  What's missing here?  Ah, the sauce of course!   Each table was decorated with a bucket of barbecue sauces.  My favorite was the sweet pisgah sauce, and scooters vinegar sauce.  Western North Carolina is famous for it's vinegar based barbecue sauce.  And there is definitely a good reason for it.

So, so sweet.

Pulled pork, hush puppies, fried okra, mac & cheese.  Yes please.

 Luella's was my favorite stop of the trip, even though we had some other really great food.  The food, service, and atmosphere were top notch.  Next time I'm in Asheville, North Carolina I will definitely be going back to visit.

Okay, there is one last thing I have to mention.  This past summer Kaston's family turned me on to a classic southern dish.  They fed me boiled peanuts.  Dangerous.  I'm not sure I could ever live in the South due to the fact that I might die from an overdose of boiled peanuts.  Luckily, Kaston and I were only in boiled peanut territory for a few days.  We did however, make a pact not to leave the South until we had gotten boiled peanuts.  So as we were driving along the highway just north of Asheville we spotted a road side stand.  Our reaction could have been in a movie.  We slammed on the breaks, made a hard left turn and pulled over.

Ah, how I miss this place.

You're jealous aren't you?

The man running this roadside stand was possibly the cutest old man I had ever seen.  We told him we would take some boiled peanuts, so he got out his huge mason jar filled it up with the peanuts and dumped them into a bag, $4 for a pound of boiled peanuts, talk about a steal.  He asked where we were from, we told him originally Missouri but we were living in Boston now, and then he proceeded to have a 5 minute conversation with us using his best Bahstan accent.  I could have stayed there all day just to hear him talk.

Other than the wonderful food, this trip proved to be just what I needed to relax and get my mind off of school for a bit.  The East Coast is a beautiful place, I'm so happy to be living here and have the opportunity to drive around and see it whenever I please.