Too Hot to Handle

I haven't had a lot of food adventures lately as we've been trying to save money and we've had a lot of snow days where I've been stuck at home. So I thought I'd do a retro-post from our last trip to Myrtle Beach.  On this cold snowy winter day, here's a spicy burrito challenge...

Superking had told me of a newer restaurant he had read about and wanted to try, called Salarita's.  Its a Mexican fast-food Cantina-style place know for their Burr-Heato Challenge. And Superking decided he had to try it.

Supposedly this is the World's Hottest Burrito because it is made with the Guinness World Record Hottest Chili Pepper: Smokin' Ed's Carolina Reaper. In this burrito, it uses one tablespoon of sauce made with this chili pepper, along with chicken, black beans, rice, corn salsa, tomatoes, and cilantro.  Notice there is no cheese or sour cream to help cool the burn.

Pablo says "that's too hot for me! smells dangerous!"

Superking can usually handle some pretty hot stuff (he's eaten a raw scotch bonnet and loves ghost chilies) and he likes it! I think the more pain he's in, the more he enjoys it. And its not just the burn. Its the sweating and, God help you if you get the hiccups; then you know you're in trouble. he actually brought his own jug of milk with him in case things got really rough. But I have to give him credit, he didn't drink any milk until after he downed the entire burrito! And it all stayed down, if you know what I mean! Way to go Superking! You have truly earned your nickname on this one!

(I tried to post the video here of him eating the burrito but the file is too big. However, I will be posting it on my Facebook page and will post the link here.)

Luckily they have pretty good food thats not as hot as Hades as well.  I, for example, had a tasty tortilla pizza. A crispy flat tortilla topped with red sauce, cheese, ground beef, black beans, and a sour cream sauce. A nice mild yet flavorful Mexican treat! So if you're feeling saucy and tired of the snow, go check out a Salsarita's near you!

P.S. Extra Bonus: if you make a video of yourself completing the Burr-Heato Challenge, post it to Facebook and tag Salsarita's with #WorldsHottestBurrito, you get a free t-shirt for your troubles! 

Nacho Hippo

Nacho Hippo is one our favorite places to go in Myrtle Beach.  And we sort of have a tradition of going there for dinner our first night in town. This year was no different.

this is our hotel, The Anderson. We are waiting in the parking lot for the rain to die down.

We had arrived in Myrtle earlier that afternoon and were welcomed by a torrential rainstorm.  Great start to our week at the beach. A little rain (ok, a lot of rain) wasn't going to stop us from enjoying our vacation though. After we got settled into our room and unpacked, it was off to Nacho Hippo at the Market Common.

Obviously nachos are their signature dish and there is a wide variety of toppings for the nachos.  Some have queso and chili, or jerk chicken with mango salsa, chorizo with jalepenos, taco beef and pico de gallo, one even has lobster and shrimp! And be prepared to share your plate of nachos with someone because they are huge!!

this is from last year's trip

also last year's trip

But aside from nachos, their tacos are really good as well. Just like my earlier post I wrote about going to Taco Boy in Charleston, the tacos at Nacho Hippo are also by the piece so you can mix and match as many as you want.  I had the Thai One On taco with red curry chicken, spring roll slaw, toasted coconut, and Thai peanut sauce. And also the Bangin' Shrimp taco with spicy sweet chili sauce, lettuce, and mango salsa. Both of which had a little bit of heat and a little bit of sweet.

Left: bangin shrimp; Right: curry chicken

Hubby got one of his favorite Mexican dishes...a steak quesadilla, otherwise known as the Good Stuff quesadilla. Grilled steak, blend of cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses, sautéed peppers and onions, served with lettuce, sour cream, and pico de gallo on the side.  Nothing super adventurous but delicious nonetheless.

And to top off the evening, churros for dessert!! Warm and crispy, sugary, cinnamony goodness...so good in fact, I think I forgot to take a picture of them before I scarfed them down! Sorry! Trust me, they were good!

Pablo gave Nacho Hippo 3.5 stars! Pablo approved!

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

Lulu's Cafe

Just driving around in Myrtle Beach one day we passed by a little cafe called Lulu's that looked fairly new and seemed full of people.  We looked it up online and found some good reviews so we thought we'd take another chance and check it out for breakfast the next day.

there was outdoor seating but we arrived during the only 10 minutes of rain we had the entire trip.

We've mentioned before how difficult it is to find decent non-chain, non-buffet restaurants in Myrtle Beach.  If you're searching specifically for breakfast, its even harder. But we were able to locate two such breakfast gems on this trip.  The first being Lulu's, a 1950's style diner. Having opened only six months ago, they serve traditional American meals with a flair of Southern hospitality.  They also serve lunch and sometimes dinner, depending on the day and time of year. I hear sometimes during the summer they even stay open 24 hours!

With its cute kitschy 50's decor, you instantly feel transported back in time.  Bright colors mixed with black leather and chrome and an inviting little bar area.  The food wasn't anything particularly unique but it was very tasty and hot and served with a smile.  One thing kind of unique and funny was that everyone had a different mug for their coffee.  It was as if someone went through their kitchen cabinets at home or stopped at a flea market and randomly grabbed whatever mugs they could get their hands on. 

this mug was too hot to handle...literally...

...so we requested another one

I had to have their biscuits and gravy, something I haven't had in a very long time.  It was super yummy! The soft buttery biscuits hiding underneath a mountain of creamy, peppery sausage gravy. So warm and comforting!

Superking went for the simple plate of two eggs sunny-side up with a couple pieces of crispy bacon and toast with a side of hot grits. Again nothing fancy or special but very tasty!

Its so nice to find a place like this at the beach.  Good food that's well-prepared and presented.  An adorable homey atmosphere.  And friendly helpful staff. Can't wait to go back for a visit next time we're in town!

look at those fluffy grits in the middle! Yumm!

Waterscapes

Superking and I were able to do two fancy dinners while in Myrtle Beach.  Our favorite one we saved for our last night, which you'll hear about in a later post.  But we wanted to try a new place as well. We found a restaurant called Waterscapes.  Its located inside a hotel called the Marina Inn at the Grand Dunes.  The Grand Dunes is a more upscale portion of Myrtle, located right between the north and south areas, so this hotel was pretty posh as was the restaurant.

pretty fountain outside hotel entrance

Waterscapes strives for a sustainable "farm to table" dining experience. All their seafood menu options are selected fresh every morning by the head chef himself, straight off the fishing dock in Murrell's Inlet, a small fishing town just south of Myrtle. As such, the menu changes daily depending on what was caught that morning.

beautiful "waterscape" paintings along the hallway leading to the restaurant

fancy balcony in hotel

sweeping "Scarlett O'Hara" staircase in hotel leading to restaurant

We began with an appetizer of Foie Gras Torchon.  The foie gras (fatty goose or duck liver) was served with rum-pressed peaches, pickled radishes, and pain perdu (which is sort of like French toast, kind of sweet and eggy bread).  The foie gras was super creamy and smooth while the peaches were very boozy.  Very unique and interesting presentation of ingredients.

Superking also ordered a salad.  A fried salad actually.  Yes, a fried salad. Kind of an oxymoron isn't it?  It actually was called the Parmesan Seared Romaine Salad. A long chunk of romaine lettuce topped with sun-dried tomatoes, crispy prosciutto, kalamata olives, and a creamy house dressing all of which is covered with a layer of parmesan cheese thats been lightly seared just enough to melt it and slightly wilt the lettuce.  We've never seen or even heard of anything like this before.  The melted cheese gave the whole salad a light crispy shell that was amazing!

Superking also ordered the Seared Tenderloin for his entree.  A juicy tender cut of beef served with a mushroom ragout, asparagus spears, and topped with a lobster tot.  We weren't really sure what a lobster tot was but when it arrived, it appeared to be a risotto croquette with lobster in it. Delicious of course! And the steak was ordered rare and was cooked so perfectly, he wasn't even given a steak knife because the butter knife worked just fine.

I decided I had to go for their specialty...one of their fish specials of the day.  After consulting with our knowledgeable waitress, I went for the Triggerfish, a local specimen, topped with pork belly and served with a fig risotto.  Omg, it was absolutely amazing.  I think probably the best fish I have ever eaten.  Sometimes white fish tends to be a little dry or bland.  This was nothing of the sort.  Completely juicy and as flavorful as chicken.  The pork belly (ok you haven't lived until you've eaten pork belly btw) was smokey and sweet. The fig risotto was also sweet and creamy.  The combination of all of it together was pure awesomeness.  And beautifully presented too.

We were pretty stuffed but I knew once we got back to our room, I'd be ready for dessert so I ordered one to go.  A coconut cake soaked in rum with a creamy coconut filling in the center and served with a passion fruit sauce. And the slice was huge! The flavors didn't quite live up to what we had in our entrees but I think if I had eaten it fresh, it probably would have. Still, who's gonna turn down a coconut cake soaked in rum?