Charleston Tea Plantation

Our first full day in Charleston we took a trip to nearby Wadmalaw Island to visit the Charleston Tea Plantation.  We had other food adventures that day which I will share in a later post but I felt the tea plantation needed its own post, since we talk a lot about food here but not a lot about beverages. Tea is an important beverage in American history, as well as world history. And I, myself, love to have some every morning!

This is the only tea plantation in the U.S. so its pretty unique and special. It officially began in 1987 (though its history dates much further back than that) and it's home to the American Classic Tea and is partnered with Bigleow teas, which you've probably seen in your grocery store.

The tea plant first started arriving in America from China in the 1700's but American plantation owners weren't familiar enough with the plant to be successful at cultivating it until 1888.  A man named Dr. Charles Shepard founded a very successful tea plantation in Summerville, SC (not far from Charleston) and called it Pinehurst Tea. Eventually Shepard passed away and someone else bought all his tea plants, and had them tranferred to a 127-acre potato farm on Wadmalaw Island, which later became known as the Charleston Tea Plantation. It is now run by William Barclay Hall, a partner of Bigelow Family Teas, but every tea plant there today is a direct descendent of the original tea plants that belonged to Shepard in 1888!  How many other plants do you know of that can survive that long?

one of the tea plant fields that had recently been harvested

a cute little gift shop with all kinds of tea and tea accoutrements

inside the factory

This guy, Bill Hall, definitely has his chops when it comes to tea! He is a world-reknown, third-generation, expert tea taster from London, England!!! He has traveled all around the world expanding his knowledge of growing, tasting, and cultivating teas.

This is Waddy the Frog, the mascot of Wadmalaw Island. I was giving him a
little kiss, even though I already have my prince!

This is the trolley tour bus.  We ended up showing up right around lunchtime and got a private tour!
And found out our tour guide lived in Ashburn and had just recently moved to SC to retire with his wife.

I'm no tea expert or tea taster nor would I consider myself even a tea-fanatic (like some coffee drinkers I know) but I do love a good cup of tea, both hot and cold!  Coffee, I could take it or leave it and usually I'll only take it if its drowned in sugar and cream. There's something about a good cup of hot tea in the fall or winter.  Its comforting and soothing, the perfect accompaniment to a good book on a rainy or snowy day.  It relaxes me after a stressful day and it makes a lovely partner to a sweet dessert!  In the summer, I can't get enough of some Southern sweet tea!! I think its hilarious whenever we go on vacation in the South and my husband orders UNsweet tea and the waitress gives him a strange look. Whether its summer or winter, I always start my day with a cup of tea of some kind.

tea plants in a greenhouse

baby tea plants!!

A special tractor/harvester made especially for harvesting tea leaves at this plantation.
One of a kind!!

At the tea plantation, they offer loose teas and tea bags. I chose the loose teas, 1) because you get a better value for your money, and 2) because I feel you often get a stronger flavor from loose teas than from tea bags. Though I use tea bags most of the time because they are more convenient to use and whats readily available at the store, its nice when I have the opportunity to use the loose tea as well. It feels more authentic!

I picked up Plantation Peach for the summer and Cinnamon Spice for the winter!! Can't wait to try them!

An Anteater, Pearlz, and The Ordinary

We just got back from a wonderful fun-filled vacation...3 days in Charleston, SC, and a week in Myrtle Beach.  We packed a lot in those 10 days too! And I'm excited to be able to share them with you!

The first thing you should know is that we've added a member to the "Me and My Cohorts" page.  His name is Pablo and he's an anteater, originally born at our Washington National Zoo. He's a special buddy of ours that goes along on all our adventures and you'll see him in many of our pictures.  He also will be weighing in his opinion on a lot of the restaurants we review, giving it a rating of 1 to 5 ants (5 being the best). So let's see how many of our Charleston/Myrtle meals were "Pablo approved"!!

Pablo is ready for his adventure!!

We arrived in Charleston after a very long drive, hot, tired, and hungry.  We decided to make dinner reservations at a place called The Ordinary but couldn't get in until 9pm. No problem, this gave us an opportunity to get a pre-dinner snack at another little place that was recommended to us by a friend. Pearlz Oyster Bar.

Our hotel, the Francis Marion, located right in downtown historic Charleston.

This was the view of the city from our hotel room on the top floor!

Pearlz has a cool beach-bar vibe to it. We bellied up to the bar just in time for Happy Hour, which means cool drinks and low prices! We began with Southern Fried Oysters served with buffalo sauce and blue cheese. Now let me preface this meal by saying that I am not a fan of oysters...usually. But Charleston has a way of making you fall in love with all kinds of food you might not normally like. Its all about the preparation.

These were delicious!! Crispy fried and spicy, they just melted in our mouths! And not a hint of sliminess (which is the main reason I don't like oysters). And the buffalo sauce they served was a little different than most buffalo sauces I've had before. It had just the right balance of tanginess and spiciness without completely taking over the flavor of the mild oyster. And of course, whats not to like about blue cheese? It even makes celery taste good (which I also am not a fan of yet I ate all 3 pieces).

We also ordered Grilled Mahi Tacos.  The soft tortillas were filled with crispy cabbage, pico de gallo, and a fresh crema sauce.  The fish was mild but very flavorful and seasoned perfectly. Very light and refreshing, tasted like the beach!

**Okay, I'm just going to get this out of the way and apologize right now for the poor quality of some of my photos.  When you go to a restaurant at night, all you have to work with is this dim mood lighting which is not very good for taking food pictures and in most of these places I don't feel its appropriate to use the flash as it can be annoying to our surrounding diners. Hopefully, in the near future I can find a way to remedy this. In the meantime, I did what I could with the amatuer photo editor I have.**

Our next stop later that evening was The Ordinary, located just a few blocks from our hotel. They call themselves a seafood hall and oyster bar and its located inside a historic building that used to be a bank. Beautiful historic charm shows up in every inch of the decor with the dining room extending up to a balcony seating area that overlooks the bar.

view of the lower dining area and bar from the balcony seating. loved the big arching windows!

We began with a wahoo crudo, which is similar to ceviche, that had grapefruit and pine nuts mixed in with the fish. Very unusual combination of flavors but the grapefruit brought a citrusy brightness to the other flavors while the pine nuts provided a nice crunch.

Sorry I couldn't edit this one better but the crudo is on the left with the fried oysters & beef tartare on the right. Trust me it looked better than this and tasted amazing!

We also had crispy oysters with beef tartare.  My 2nd plate of oysters in the same day! And these were just as delicious! Having the two proteins paired together like that, I also thought was unusual but it worked well. The crispy briny oysters mixed with the coolness of the raw beef was a textural delight.

Next I ordered the lump blue crab toast which was very rich and creamy, yet had a slight crunch of onion and cabbage. It reminded me of eating an uncooked crab cake but in a good way!

Hubby (aka Superking) ordered a sampling of raw oysters. This is where I draw the line when it comes to oysters. I can't get past the cold slimy texture. Blech! But Hubby loves them! "They are all yours, sweetheart," I told him. There was a variety of 7 different oysters on the plate, one of which was called the Oyster Moscow.  It was served in vodka and topped with a small dollop of sour cream and caviar. How very decadent!

The oyster on the far left with the black dot on top is the Oyster Moscow. The others, I don't remember what they were all called but we were told they were from various places which gave each oyster its own unique subtle flavor.

We finished off with a chocolate mousse terrine for dessert. A dense smooth chocolate cake topped with hazelnuts & mint leaves, and drizzled with a coffee sauce. All I can say is yumma yumma!!

And then we arrived back to our hotel room to see that the staff had left some beautiful chocolates on our pillows!! A delicious end to our first day in Charleston!

Pablo gives Pearlz 4 ants and The Ordinary 4.5 ants, which makes them both Pablo Approved!!

Hello again!!

We're ba-ack!! It's been almost two years since the Yumma Yumma blog went offline due to some technical difficulties. Now I'm very happy to say we are back in the blog business!!  I've tried to stay active on our Facebook page but you don't quite get the full story of all our food adventures to go along with all the pictures.

Starting tomorrow I will be going on vacation to Charleston and Myrtle Beach for a couple weeks to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary and getting some much needed beach therapy. But when I return (and possibly if I'm able to blog while I'm gone) I am hoping to have some epic food posts to jolt Yumma Yumma back to life!!

carriage ride in Charleston, SC

Yumma Yumma is staging a comeback!!

Stay tuned!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all are having a wonderful day of giving thanks for friends, family, and rich blessings! I would love to hear what your favorite Thanksgiving recipes and traditions are! Please post comments!!

I'll be sharing a few of my own over the next couple days! For now, enjoy your family and feasting!

P.S. I wanted to post a couple pretty Thanksgiving pictures but I am having technical difficulties with that at the moment...please stay tuned!

S'mores Housewarming Party!!

Yes, I'm still alive and well. I can't believe I've left my readers hanging for over a month and a half with no posting!! No excuses but I have been a little busy moving to a new house.  Buying and selling a house is very stressful and is a lot of work and very time-consuming (and mind-consuming). But hopefully you'll forgive me when I share with you a wonderful recipe to make home-made marshmallows that are super yumma yumma and surprisingly easy!

S'mores Buffet

Only two weeks after moving in we decided to host a housewarming party for our new home.  We were only able to pull it together so quickly because A.) we had TONS of help moving in and getting unpacked and B.) I had already mentally planned this party in my head for about the last year before we even knew we were going to move, not knowing it would necessarily become a housewarming party. I came across the idea of a s'mores party when someone turned me onto this wonderful little party idea blog called Juneberry Lane.  Ever since then I've been dying to have my own s'mores party! And since s'mores and fall go so well together and our move took place end of October, how fortunate for me that the timing was perfect!

Strawberry Marshmallows...pretty in pink!

So I began the search for homemade marshmallow recipes. And came across a great one by one of my favorite TV food personalities, Alton Brown.  Here is the basic recipe as follows:

Ingredients

• 3 packages unflavored gelatin
• 1 cup ice cold water, divided
• 12 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• Nonstick spray

Directions

Place the gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer along with 1/2 cup of the water. Have the whisk attachment standing by.

gelatin and ice water

In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 cup water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt. Place over medium high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F, approximately 7 to 8 minutes.

Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from the heat.
Turn the mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture.

it's like magic...sugar syrup transformed before your eyes!

mmm...marshmallow fluff...

Once you have added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 to 15 minutes. Add the vanilla during the last minute of whipping. [If you want to do other flavors, here is where you can add them.  Instead of vanilla, you can substitute any flavor of extract, or you can still use the vanilla but add a tablespoon of whatever spice you want, like cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice or cardamom. This is also the time to add a few drops of food coloring if you want some pretty colors to your marshmallows. For the chocolate marshmallows I added 1/4 cup of cocoa powder.  For the pumpkin marshmallows I added a 1/4 cup of pureed pumpkin. The possibilities are endless!] While the mixture is whipping prepare the pans as follows.

cinnamon

mint

strawberry

 Combine the confectioners' sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl (for chocolate marshmallows you can also add a little cocoa powder to this mixture. I even added a little cinnamon for the pumpkin ones too). Lightly spray a 13 by 9-inch metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Add the sugar and cornstarch mixture and move around to completely coat the bottom and sides of the pan. Return the remaining mixture to the bowl for later use.

cinnamon

pumpkin...the pureed pumpkin in this recipe made these extra moist. next time I might use less pumpkin and/or more pumpkin pie spice instead.

strawberry

 When ready, pour the mixture into the prepared pan, using a lightly oiled spatula for spreading evenly into the pan. Dust the top with enough of the remaining sugar and cornstarch mixture to lightly cover. Reserve the rest for later. Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.
Turn the marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into 1-inch squares using a pizza wheel dusted with the confectioners' sugar mixture. Once cut, lightly dust all sides of each marshmallow with the remaining mixture, using additional if necessary. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

I will warn you that these marshmallows are a little more sensitive than store-bought ones so they will melt a little quicker over the fire.  Have your chocolate and crackers ready!

Mint and strawberry...we purchased these lovely metal containers from the dollar section at Target!

Pumpkin and Cinnamon...the containers are not food-safe so we lined them with linen napkins.

Plain (store-bought ones for the less adventurous eaters) and Chocolate

A variety of graham crackers...honey and cinnamon...

And also chocolate grahams!

A variety of chocolates...toffee, raspberry, and orange

Dark chocolate

Milk chocolate and white chocolate

And some good ol' Hersheys for the traditionalists (and these are nut-safe for those with allergies as most of the fancy chocolates are not!)

Its good to offer a variety of toppings for your s'mores buffet...a variety of marshmallows, a variety of chocolates and crakcers, even some caramel dip, peanut butter, and apple slices. And of course don't forget the s'mores sticks and the fire!

some of our guests gathered outside around our new firepit (a housewarming gift from the family)

a perfect sweet treat...chocolate and vanilla marshmallows on chocolate bars with chocolate graham crackers, served with hot cocoa and marshmallows!