Dining Out – Vacation Meals

While it isn’t the premise of this blog, I thought maybe I would share a couple pictures of great meals we had on vacation.  The point of this blog is to document our cooking exploits, but none of our meals last week were photographed … and they weren’t all that fancy either.

We were in Garden City Beach, SC so I had to get a seafood boil.  This was from the Blue Crab in Pawley’s Island.  It had crab, mussels, oysters, clams, shrimp, kielbasa, corn, and red potatoes.  It. Was. Fantastic!  It was everything I had hoped for.  My suggestion when you travel is to take advantage of the local cuisine.  I once made the mistake of getting a beef tenderloin in Jamaica.  I’m from the Midwest!  What was I doing getting beef from the Caribbean?!   After that, I ate seafood the rest of that trip.

We also enjoyed oysters on the half shell from Russell’s in Murells Inlet.  This was our best experience yet.  The wait staff & owners were a hoot!  They really made the experience all that much better.  My wife ordered the soft-shelled crab that was caught that day.  I had the catch of the day (grouper), but grandma’s mahi mahi took the prize for best dish.  Their key lime pie was great too.

On the way home we stopped for lunch in Ascheville, NC.  My wife looked up on Yelp for good restaurants.  There was a BBQ joint that had a 91% approval rating from over 600 reviews.  So we had to check it out.  I got their award winning blueberry chipotle ribs, jalapeno cheese grits, and vinegar coleslaw.  I decided to try the Cheerwine soda too – because, when in Rome…

The Mrs. Got their pulled pork with corn pudding and mashed sweet potatoes.   This allowed us to try their four BBQ sauces:  jalapeno, vinegar, mustard, and sweet tomato.  They were all good.  The restaurant is 12 Bones, and it’s 5 miles off the highway and well worth it!  President Obama had his picture hanging on the wall along with a signed menu.  And as I said to my wife, I don’t think he just happened upon that restaurant.  Someone did their research.  And thankfully so did my wife, because this was possibly the best BBQ I have ever eaten!