Meathead Brothers

More from our adventure at Brookgreen Gardens...

Giant grasshoppers, as big as your hand!

beautiful butterflies everywhere

Pablo is very curious about the platypus

say cheese!

After we had exhausted the gardens (or rather the gardens exhausted us...) we were hungry for a late lunch.  We found a great sandwich place called Meathead Brothers, serving Philadelphia-style deli sandwiches. Some of their sandwiches are very traditional, while others are a bit more unique. All made with fresh ingredients, a lot of which are locally sourced.

One of their more popular sandwiches is the Italian Stallion...ham, salami, and capicola on thick Italian bread served with provolone, lettuce, tomato, and onion.  Their Carolina Sweetie has sweet sausages with sauteed peppers and onions on a toasted Italian roll.  The Smoked House Hoagie has smoked turkey, applewood smoked bacon, and smoked gouda. Or how about the Gobbler Panini with turkey, stuffing, swiss cheese, and cranberry sauce!

There were so many delicious sammys to choose from! But we finally settled on Its Got Meat and Meathead's Reuben. Its Got Meat was piled high with, well, meat! And lots of it!  Roast beef, turkey, and ham plus applewood smoked bacon, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, all piled high on thick Italian bread. And it came with truffle fries! Great meaty sandwich with some earthy rich fries!

The Meathead's Reuben...corned beef, swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing served panini style on marbled rye bread. (Am I the only one who thinks of Seinfeld when I hear "marbled rye"??) I had garlic fries with my sammy. I wouldn't say Reuben's are my favorite deli sandwich but I do enjoy a good one. And I have to say this was probably the best Reuben I've ever had! A definite winner!

It was an interesting treat getting to chat a bit with the owner as well! A vibrant, sensible down-to-earth kinda guy trying to make a living making good sandwiches with local products! Will definitely be back!

Pablo approves!!

Pablo gave Meathead Brothers 4 ants!

***UPDATE*** Literally the day after I posted this, I found out that Meathead unexpectedly closed up shop, apparently for good! I'm not sure what happened but they will be missed!

Hominy Grill and Caviar & Bananas

Our second day in Charleston we visited the tea plantation which I already shared with you in my last post.  It was a very interesting food adventure in itself but we also had a couple other very cool food adventures that day.  Hominy Grill for breakfast and Caviar & Bananas for lunch.

Hominy Grill was at the top of my must-have restaurant list for Charleston. And there was really only one thing on their menu I wanted to try.  The Charleston Big Nasty Biscuit.

The iconic building mural

cute cafe feel

loved the old-fashioned mason jars with fresh yellow daisies on every table

The Big Nasty Biscuit is probably their most famous offering. Many celebrities have come and gone in this place wanting to tackle this feast.  A soft, warm buttermilk biscuit (like they can only make them in the South) topped with classic fried chicken (crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside), melted cheddar cheese on top of that, and all of it swimming in sausage gravy (one of my favorite breakfast foods, which needs nothing else but a spoon). It was everything I dreamed it would be.

Needless to say, because of its richness and knowing we would be running around in the heat at the tea plantation, we opted to split this. A good call! Plus splitting it gave us the option to try their cheddar grits as well. The cheddar was mildly sharp and added to the creaminess of the perfectly cooked grits. A perfect Southern breakfast to start the day off right!

Their sweet country charm made the whole place feel like we were in someone's home, not just another gimmicky restaurant.  Beautiful hard wood floors, some of the original windows, old-fashioned tiles in the foyer and bathrooms.  Very charming character!

After the tea plantation we needed a light lunch.  We knew we'd have a heavy dinner at Magnolia's later (which I will share in my next post) and we wanted to be extra hungry when that time came. I had heard about Caviar & Bananas and it was recommended to us by someone who used to live here so we figured it must be worth a try.

They have two locations in Charleston: one at the main market and one closer to our hotel on George St.  We took a hot & steamy walk all the way to the market only to realize, that location was very small and cramped and didn't really have any seating.  So we took another hot & steamy walk back towards our hotel and realized we had already passed by the other location and could've saved ourselves a little extra sweating. (Who's idea was it to go to Charleston in August??)

Anyway, once we finally arrived, we were definitely ready to eat and cool off!! Caviar & Bananas is, well, just like their tote bag says, a gourmet market and cafe.  It reminded me of a smaller and more accessible Dean & Deluca's.  If you've ever been to a Dean & Deluca's, it very cool but can be very expensive, not somewhere you'd be able to shop every day.  Caviar & Bananas, while still very much gourmet, it also offers a lot more every day fare for the average shopper looking for something a little special and unique.

Aside from the small gourmet grocery area, it also has several counters to order food and drinks from for breakfast or lunch.  There was a sandwich counter, a sushi bar, a prepared foods bar, and a beverage bar. We went straight to the sandwiches and decided to split a Duck Confit Panini.

Best. Sandwich. Ever.

The duck confit panini has duck confit (obviously), black pepper mayo, pickled onions, aged gouda cheese, and fig preserves all pressed onto sourdough bread and panini grilled to perfection!  The fig preserves sounds a little weird at first but it works. It works really well.  The duck is kind of fatty, the gouda is salty, the pickled onions are a little tart, so the fig preserves bring a touch a sweetness to balance all the flavors in perfect harmony to make the most awesome sandwich!

Did I mention this sandwich was really tasty?? If you like duck, this is a must-have on your next trip to Charleston. Trust me, you will not be disappointed.

And of course we had to pick up some gourmet sweet treat. We opted for butter toffee pecans. Sweet and crunchy deliciousness! They are very sweet so only 2 or 3 at a time is good!

Pablo gave Hominy Grill 4 ants and Caviar & Bananas 5 ants!! Both Pablo approved!!

Tomatoes fresh from the Farm

A couple weekends ago, the weather was gorgeous here.  Not too hot and perfectly sunny.  We knew we had to get out and enjoy it while we could. So we decided to drive out to the country and have a picnic. And what better place to stop for the perfect picnic foods than the local farmers market!!

We packed a few accessories like water bottles, a knife and cutting board, and a big cozy blanket. Then swung by the Leesburg Farmers Market to see what goodies we could find.  Lo and behold, we found the perfect thing.  Beautiful heirloom tomatoes from Mock's Greenhouse! Plump round shape and gorgeous colors.

Then we stopped by one of the dairies and picked up some Chevre, a spreadable locally made goat cheese from Caprikorn Farms.

pretty white butterflies resting on the ground

And the last item to round out the meal, a good bread.  The one we chose was an onion and herb ciabatta from South Street Under bakery.

With our fresh market goodies in tow, we drove out to the country and found a lovely place for a picnic. Our heirloom tomato sandwiches were so deliciously wonderful.  The tomatoes were juicy and sweet.  The goat cheese was creamy and slightly tangy. The bread was soft and hearty with a lovely herby savoriness. Each flavor was perfectly in tune, all of them present but none of them overwhelming.

A delightful meal with a loved one soaking in the sun and all of God's creations.

Rock Lobstah! Rolls

A couple weeks ago, my hubby and I were shopping at Wegmans and noticed the lobster was really cheap.  It was at that moment we decided we had to make lobster rolls. We've never had genuine lobster rolls like from Maine or anywhere really but they always look so delicious and easy to make.

So we picked up 2 smaller lobsters, about 1 1/2 lbs each, already cooked, and some fresh baked ciabatta bread. Now I know ciabatta bread is not traditional for lobster rolls, usually its a hot dog bun type bread, but ciabatta is really yummy. And you can't beat fresh-baked! Be prepared, you may see a couple other ingredients that aren't traditional to lobster rolls either.  But we're in VA so we can do whatever we want. If we were in Maine doing this, then we would have to be traditional but we're not so...

yummy ciabatta bread

lobsters in love!

We cracked open the lobsters and started pulling out the meat.  For 2 of their smaller lobsters, we got a TON of meat out of those little guys!! We had enough to make 2 large lobster rolls that night and plenty to make 2 more large ones the next night!

And oh so sweet, this precious lobster meat!!!

From top left: remoulade, lobster, onion, celery

We chopped up some red onion and a bunch of celery along with the meat.  Then we mixed in some remoulade sauce (love that stuff! all I need is a spoon!), -again traditionally you use mayonnaise- a little salt and pepper to taste, and then pile all that on a warm toasted ciabatta roll...lobster perfection!

And we served up those delicious lobster rolls with a pile of buffalo blue cheese potato chips! A perfect combination of flavors...sweet, salty, tangy, creamy, savory, crunchy!

Totally Yumma Yumma