For my birthday, we had a delicious lunch at Chez Nous and then took a private carriage ride around downtown Charleston:
The streets of Charleston have a lot of beautiful architecture and the carriage ride started out with a stop with a ping pong ball game to figure out which route we would take to make sure there wasn’t a lot of congestion for people actually trying to get around downtown in cars. The woman working at the ping pong ball booth drops a ball into a box and where it comes out determines which route you take. Our horse, Mellow Yellow, was patient and good with the cars and oncoming traffic.
The residential streets are pretty quiet and everyone gets around with golf carts instead of cars:
A chicken we ran into on the afternoon ride:
After doing the relaxing carriage ride around downtown Charleston and walking to the water, we headed to FIG for an early dinner. The restaurant accepts reservations but we decided to walk in and try our luck. We had to wait a bit, but it was definitely worth it. The restaurant is located off a major street in the middle of downtown:
We started off with some refreshments:
We sat down at the communal table with another couple from New York, a mother/daughter duo from Charlotte, and eventually an uncle and niece. They serve freshly baked bread with delicious butter to everyone at the table to get started:
We decided to just order a bunch of items and share everything because we were hungry and wanted to try everything on the menu! We started with the chilled corn soup with razor clams:
FIG is a restaurant that uses local and seasonal ingredients so this dish isn’t on the menu right now, but I hope they bring it back because it was so light, refreshing, and very tasty (and really beautiful!) It reminded me and Ken of a chilled corn soup we had in Napa (at Solbar Calistoga).
We also ordered a salad with local butter lettuce and tomatoes:
This was a little underwhelming, but it didn’t matter because we ordered so many different delicious dishes that needed to be eaten! The waitress served us in courses so the next course was pastas. We ordered two – the soft shell crab with lemon, bottarga and herbs:
We also ordered the ricotta gnocchi with lamb bolognese because I can never resist bolognese:
Both pastas were excellent; they were both cooked to a perfect al dente, the sauces were rich in flavor and I couldn’t get enough of either of them (and Ken was extra nice because he let me finish everything!)
For our main course, we ordered the fish stew (for a few extra dollars, they’ll split it for you so we decided to do that):
The stew came with all types of seafood, including mussels, shrimp, squid, and also had some rice and an amazing rouille that you mixed in. We were so full but couldn’t stop eating!
The meal at FIG was really delicious and it was fun sitting at the communal table because we all talked to each other and everyone ended up ordering different items so we were able to see all of the dishes FIG offered. We can’t wait to check out the other great restaurants in Charleston!
On my birthday, we went to lunch at a French restaurant tucked away in a townhouse in downtown Charleston called Chez Nous. My friend, Russell, recommended it and said it’s one of her favorite restaurants (alongside FIG, Husk, and Hall’s Chop House). Each day, they serve one menu for lunch (not sure if it changes for dinner or if it’s the same menu and prices as lunch time). The restaurant is very charming and they handwrite their daily menu on paper as well as some of the mirrors that decorate the dining rooms:
Me trying to figure out some fun places to shop later in the day:
We started off with French baguettes, a diet coke and tuna and potato salad:
The tuna and potato salad was filled with all kinds of accoutrements, including green olives, red onion, and a lovely Dijon mustard dressing:
We also ordered the melon and jamon salad:
For our main course, we shared the branzino, served with mushrooms:
The branzino was very meaty and fresh – we both enjoyed it but definitely didn’t need to order two appetizers. The portions were very generous and we were both pretty full by the time the fish arrived.
For dessert, we ordered the profiteroles with chocolate sauce, which was rich and decadent and definitely worht trying.
We had a great time at Chez Nous and it was a great recommendation for my birthday!
This year for my birthday, Ken and I decided to go on a short weekend trip to South Carolina. We flew to Myrtle Beach for an afternoon of golf and dinner (he planned the weekend so he threw in a round of golf because the weather forecast looked nice but I was happy to join him). I’ve been to Myrtle Beach once before (for my friend’s wedding last November) but have never really experienced the actual beach because it was too cold when we visited. After a fun afternoon of driving, golfing, and Dairy Queen, we went to dinner at Sole Italian:
The restaurant is a small Italian restaurant on the main street in Myrtle Beach and has really delicious food that can easily go up against some of my favorite Italian restaurants in New York. The restaurant is family owned and they all work at Sole doing front of house or the actual cooking. We started off with some bruschetta:
We both decided to start off with some clam chowder:
The clam chowder was homemade using clams they had caught earlier in the day. The soup had a lot of clams and even though it was cream based, wasn’t heavy at all.
For Ken’s entree, he ordered the seafood pasta because it was the special of the night:
There were mussels, scallops, shrimp, clams and lots of garlic tossed in a white wine sauce with fettuccine pasta. Ken really liked the dish but I thought it was a little on the bland side.
I ordered the lobster ravioli with a tomato cream sauce:
The tomato cream sauce reminded me of the delicious pasta I used to get at Il Mattone, one of my favorite Italian restaurants in New York. It’s funny because the seafood ravioli at Il Mattone is not my favorite (but the sauce is so good that it’s almost worth getting just to eat the sauce) and at Sole Italian, the ravioli is delicious and the sauce tastes really similar (if not better).
For dessert, the owner heard that it was my birthday and sent over his mom’s homemade tiramisu:
Definitely worth ordering – it was light and fluffy and had a very good coffee flavor (not over powering and the lady fingers weren’t over soggy, either.)
The service was really great and friendly and we both really liked the food. It’s worth a visit if you ever find yourself in Myrtle Beach!
A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the China: Through the Looking Glass exhibit. My friend’s parents are members of the museum and they do receptions while the museum is closed so members can walk around without huge crowds. China: Through the Looking Glass is going on through August 16th and there are some really interesting pieces by Dior, Balenciaga, Tom Ford, and Yves Saint Laurent that are worth checking out. Here are the photos I took from the reception:
When I was a kid, my mom used to take us to restaurants by her office. Since she taught in Oakland, we would go to places that were much cooler than what we were used to. One place that always comes to mind is Mad Mex, a tex-mex restaurant that always had the world’s best black bean soup and calamari. Sadly, the calamari isn’t on the menu anymore (it wasn’t even the calamari, it was the dipping sauce that was out of this world…similar to Chop’t’s Mexican Caesar dressing!). I brought Ken to the restaurant (after walking to my childhood home) and we were ready for some food.
We used to always order the super nachos with meat, so Ken and I ordered them for old times sake:
Tortilla chips are doused with cheese, jalapenos, black beans, sour cream, guacamole, and salsa + meat of your choice. The nachos were just as good as I remember from my childhood….I’m glad some things don’t change.
We also shared a black bean soup because I raved about this soup to Ken and wanted him to try it. The soup is chunky and has a kick to it, it’s also served with some sour cream:
The soup might have been better than I remembered (I don’t remember it being that chunky). Whenever I get black bean soup, I always measure it against Mad Mex’s and nothing even compares. The food at Mad Mex is still awesome and I’m glad Ken had the opportunity to experience it, too!
