Overview of Charleston's Food Scene

High Cotton
Great food, helpful staff, prompt service.
Prices are high, but menu selection and quality of the food reflects the price. Not really any reasonably priced bottles of wine, you'd be better off ordering by the glass. The mixed drinks were not worth the high price, except for the Caipirina (pronounced Cap-a-ree-na) which is a brazilian drink made with cachaca. The Caipirina may have been the best one I'd had in the States, and it is rare that bars stock cachaca. The Mojitos were not very good. The Espresso Martini was not tasty at all, yet they touted it as one of their favorite martinis. The deserts were delicious, small portions and high prices, though. High Cotton makes its own pickles, sausage, and sauces that are delicious! They also have coffee made exclusively for their restaurant that is available for purchase. Several of the food products are from local farms and ranches.
They serve several menu items that are different, like chile rubbed Texas venison, duck hash and stuffed rabbit dishes. The rabbit was very good, but my favorite was the Bourbon Glazed Eden Farms Pork Chops. I got the shrimp stuffed Carolna Trout, and it was very good, but dissapointing after I tried the rabbit and pork chop dishes.
We went to the Sunday brunch there also. They had several different flavors of mimosas which were great. The brunch was not a buffet, but they several different menu items. My favorite was the eggs Benedict atop crab cakes and fried green tomatoes. The prices were very, very reasonable. Once again the atmosphere and service were great.


Blossoms
Blossoms was advertised as a mid range restaurant, but the prices were only a little less than High Cotton. They did have some lower priced items like pizza. The food was of premium quality, but smaller portions. We all left feeling adequately full, too full for desserts. The wine was reasonable, but there were not that many choices. It was a very enjoyable experience. Great, prompt service and the staff was attentive. The decor was very cool! I ordered a salad and a pasta dish, and the goat cheese on the salad was very, very smooth. Both dishes were delicious. The pasta was homemade.


Fleet Landing Seafood Restaurant
Great service! I can't say enough about the excellent service! It is a casual restaurant on the waterfront, and the prices are a step below High Cotton and Magnolias. The food was great also. The pimento and cheese appetizer tasted almost like my mom's, so it tasted fresh and homemade, but it just wasn't quite as good. The crab brushetta appetizer was a little bland, but again, fresh tasting. The flounder was excellent, as was the she crab soup - best she crab soup we had in Charleston. Charleston is known for it's she crab soup, so you HAVE to get it while you are there, and I'd suggest getting it here. If you like fried fish, don't pass up the flounder! The fried oysters were good - I'd say excellent, but some oysters tasted better than others. The ones that were good, however, were very good. The shrimp and grits were awesome. The grilled swordfish over polenta was good, the fish was cooked just right and had a good flavor, but the polenta was bland. We had a great time at this restaurant, great casual atmosphere and best service at any restaurant.


Kamenskis is THE place for dessert and coffee. The coffee was excellent and the variety and quality of the desserts were great. I split the ice cream brownie with my twin sister, and we wolfed it down. I could have had another dessert if it weren't for the sugar high. They have a selection of mousses, and my mom, having an affinity for mousse said was a good, smooth and creamy mousse. My sister got one of their cakes that she said was moist and flavorful. Had we been in Charlston longer, we would have come here again!

Mediterranean Deli by Tristan's on S. Market - I do not know the name of this place. It is a great choice for a quick lunch. If you are shopping at the marketplace, you can take a quick break but not get tired of things taking too long. You order at the counter and they cook from scratch. The Mediterranean plate was very good and authentic. The hummus, however, could have stood a little more garlic, the baba ganoush had a spice in it that I am not used to, and the tabbouli could have used a little more twang with lemon juice. All that to say, I would definitely order it again given the opportunity! The chicken salad sandwich with cranberries and pecans was excellent! The chicken pesto sandwich was also a good choice. Chicken breasts sandwiches can be bland no matter where you go, but this one had enough variety in it to hold my attention. The service was great here, also. I highly recommend this place!


East Bay Crab ShackWe went to the East Bay Crab Shack right next to the hotel (Lodge Alley Inn) on East Bay and it was great for the price. After the high quality food we had been getting, you could tell the quality difference, but the amount of food and the price were great. Decent service, too. They have posted their recipes on their web site, and there are coupons there, also. www.crabshacks.com

East Bay Coffee Shop has a good atmosphere, and cool decor. They draw fun leaves on the foam on top of some of the coffees (Au Lait) so make sure you look for it! One day the coffee was much better than the other day, and the baked goods were not worth mentioning. I'd rather Kamenskis, but this was a few doors down from the hotel and the feel was much more modern.

Day 3, Charleston, SC

Today I slept in until 8 am WooHoo! I jumped out of bed quickly, because Kimberly had to get to the airport, and we were going to go to the slave market. It was called Ryan’s Mart and it was where slaves were traded in Charleston. It was very humbling to think of how we thought it acceptable to view people as property and had no regard to family except to use it in the lives of slaves to manipulate them. As I write this, I feel so inadequate by the statements I have mentioned. What do you have left, if you don’t have your freedom? Terrible, terrible, and a few of the quotes rang in my soul ,like, “Am I not your sister and your daughter?” It was deeply riveting.
We all dropped Kimberly off at the airport and went to Middleton Plantation. The grounds were quite remarkable, and my favorite part of the visit there, besides seeing the old, majestic oak trees, and how ancient they looked, was seeing how the southern economy, so strong pre-civil war era, was affected during the civil war and then was further affected at the abolition of slavery. The knowledge the slaves brought over from Africa shaped Charleston, especially pertaining to rice and indigo.
Our garden guide talked to us about formal gardens, symmetry, and depth of illusion. Amazing what you can do with plants and landscape architecture. The wood nymph statue was gorgeous, but the secret gardens were disappointing. Just a small grassy field covered in grass and surrounded by high bushes. Francis Hodges Burnett’s book of the Secret Garden, being my favorite book as a young girl, I wanted to see blooms pushing through the dirt, a high wall, rose bushes, ivy, and tall trees. What I saw was a grassy field planked by bushes. We saw so many things, though. The plantation was self supportive, including pottery, woodworking, and weaving.
We finished the vacation in Charleston at Magnolia restaurant, and it was all delicious food. We had a great time laughing and embarrassing dad with all the racket. Only one night and half a day left, then I get to fly back to my family. Charleston has truly been a charming, genteel, southern city, ripe with history.

Day Two Charleston, South Carolina

Crisp coolness awakens me as Karen and I go for a brisk morning walk. We head to the water and walk along the coast. Winding through streets, we make a keen find. Passing by an open courtyard, we notice that it is an artist gallery open early. The artist invites us to look around, and as I leave the courtyard and enter his gallery, there are three buckets of dirt and a gaping hole in his hardwood floor. He has peeled back the flooring and is digging out under his floor because it was filled in as they extended Charleston’s coastline out. We could see the brick wall of the building under the floor. We also turned the corner and found the painted row houses. It was a great walk. We got back in time to go to a Sunday brunch that was delicious. We walked it off looking at the houses in Charleston, and toured the Calhoun Mansion. A quick rest and a coffee break, then off to more shopping, and boy did we shop! We ended the evening at Fleet Landing Seafood Restaurant. Another great day in charming Charleston!

Our annual sister–mom vacation

Yay for Sisters! And Mom! And this year, Dad!
Every year my mom and sisters and I meet up for a weekend away. This year is Charleston,South Carolina. We are having a great time, fun, full of laughter, and relaxing! This year we invited our dad to join us and he footed the bill for the hotel. Go dad! When I arrived yesturday, I could see that the town was even more beautiful and quaint than I had imagined, even through the torrent of rain.

My morning yesterday started off with a nice breakfast out with Mark, and then he rushed me to Memphis when the first leg of my flight (to Memphis) was cancelled at the departure time. I seriously ran through the airport and everyone in the security line let me go to the very front. That was cool – good ole southern hospitality! One lady laughed when I told her what time my flight was departing. But I made it and my luggage did too!

Back to the trip – we went to High Cotton for dinner the first night and it was great. We stayed up laughing in our nice two bedroom condo. Today was full of shopping at the open air market and all the cute shops on the streets around it. we had our annual carriage ride which really gave us a good layout of the history of Charleston. Lunch was of Mediteranian flair and everything was homemade. Of course we had our afternoon coffee break and then enjoyed another great dinner at Blossoms. The ghost tour of choice was to the town jail. It was full of history, but we saw no apparitions. After the ghost tour we rode the rickshaws (bicycle-manned two-seater cart rides) back to the hotel for the finale of dessert at High Cotton. I liked my dessert best, which was a chocolate mousse pie with oreo crust and surrounded with a chocolate shell. Our waitress was originally from the town I live in and took ballet lessons from my business partner’s mom. How random is that?

Pumpkin Patch

We had a great day! Hilights included the pumpkin patch, the playground, the hay bales, and playing in the corn kernel "sand box". We went with our homeschool group, and were accompanied by our good friends, Carmen and family.