Not in North Carolina yet, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to make a detour into Germany for a delicious lunch of jaegerschnitzel with red cabbage and spaetzle at this little mom-and-pop restaurant. And no passport required either!This is a blog of my five-week exploration of culinary experiences in North Carolina. Baaswell Sheep is accompanying me and offering his own commentary on the trip, although he refuses to go into any place that serves lamb chops.
Select/click any image to see it at double (or more) the current size. Select/click on the large image or any part of the darkened area to return to the blog page.
Please note that all restaurant names are used simply for referential purposes and links provided as a courtesy. Reviews are the sole opinions of the reviewer: no restaurant has paid to be listed here, and no restaurant is being explicitly endorsed. In other words, go out there, try them all, and form your own opinions!
Not in North Carolina yet, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to make a detour into Germany for a delicious lunch of jaegerschnitzel with red cabbage and spaetzle at this little mom-and-pop restaurant. And no passport required either!
Crossing into South Carolina, I checked out the Chatooga River right at the state border. The weather has been nice so far, but I hear its going to reach 100 degrees next week. I may need to get my wool trimmed before then!
Came across this gastronomic delight, but it might be a bit too big for me to eat. I call it the Big Peach, but the street sign refers to it as the "peachoid", whatever the heck that means! (Explanation for those unaware: Gaffney is home to a water tower that was stylized as a giant peach more than forty years ago. The "big peach" or "peachoid" is readily visible from I-85.)
Finally made it into North Carolina. This isn't exactly high cuisine, but Bojangles was founded right here in Charlotte, North Carolina back in 1977, and I do like Cajun food, so I'm happy to have dinner here. My companion had the two-piece dinner with dirty rice and I had his cole slaw.
Decided to try a local BBQ restaurant for lunch today. Can't complain about the portions – we should never have ordered two sides, especially when the side salad was enough for a whole meal (well, especially for a sheep). My companion couldn't find a sauce he really liked in spite of five options. He prefers a good Carolina vinegar sauce, but their's was made with apple cider vinegar, which is the one flavor vinegar he can't stand. Still, he enjoyed the 'cue and I enjoyed grazing on the salad.
Great museum with a cool dinosaur exhibit featuring realistic oversize models of some of the most notable dinosaurs and their Paleozoic relatives. I thought that would be the highlight, but the classic wildlife and wild habitat galleries were very well done with beautiful dioramas and exquisitely well preserved taxidermy animals. And, just to surprise you, in certain places they actually have some real animals, too (imagine my surprise when a small owl started moving its head and blinking its eyes at me, and then I looked down to see the food and water bowls.) Outside, they have a farm area with a handful of animals, but dagnabit my sheep relatives were all hiding inside their enclosure staying cool! Nice nature trail, too, which would be even nicer in cooler weather. (Sorry, but since my cousins refused to come out to see me, I declined to pose for a picture here.)
No, duck is not on the menu – I'd have my companion's hide if he dared suggest such a thing. But, we had to marvel when we went out the side door of the hotel and discovered this mother duck going along with at least six little ducklings following her. We've no idea where they're living, as the only water around is the hotel pool.
Once upon a time, this Charlotte based chain opened a location in midtown Atlanta not far from where my companion worked, and he was was there every Friday at lunchtime for about five years. Then, in 2020, the pandemic shut them down and they never re-opened, and they never had any other locations outside greater Charlotte. So, he's been dying to get back to one and finally did so tonight. Their soups are amazing (if not a bit out-of-season when we're approaching a major heat wave) as are their sandwiches and iced tea (excuse me "thé glacé"). He had the chicken-pesto-goat-cheese sandwich (an old favorite) with a spinach-asparagus-leek soup. He's always raved about their caramel salted brownies and said nothing could top them – well, they managed to do that: introducing the caramel salted brownie torte, or as I like to call it, heaven on a plate! Even Mona gives her approval to this place!
As my companion has family roots in Waxhaw, we went down there for the to check out the town, the cemetery, and the Museum of the Waxhaws.
We started our journey with a side trip to Ireland for some bangers and mash at the local Irish pub. The meal looked so good when it was brought out that my companion forgot to take a picture of it, but you can see that he cleaned his plate. Just use your imagination to picture a delicious sausage, mashed potatoes, and English peas on the plate. This is definitely a place to stop if you like Irish food: it's not a fancy pub, but to us what's more important is the food and the people serving the food, not how closely the space recreates a typical Irish pub.
Let's just say that this town is nothing like it was when my companion's great grandmother lived here a hundred years ago. The traffic is a bit too thick for my tastes, and on the north side coming in we saw building after building being erected. Still, the downtown area is nicely maintained and the shops were nice, albeit a bit crowded at times. Later in the afternoon, we got a much needed mint ice cream at the Waxhaw Creamery to help cool us down with temperatures getting up in the 90s.
Small but interesting museum that covers several aspects of the local area: the original Waxhaw native American inhabitants, the fact that Andrew Jackson was born in the area, the Revolutionary War and Civil War history of the area, and the general culture of the people and life in the area. The museum is effectively one large room, but it does have a small collection of early buildings outside. Only open on Fridays and Saturdays, but a great way to get a better sense of what makes the town and the area unique.
We returned to Amélie's, this time to try something new: the French toast, complete with strawberry pieces and blueberries. It was quite delicious, and this time I held my companion back from eating until he'd photographed the food first!
We returned to Amélie's one more time, this time to get a taste of the old days with a Croque Monsieur sandwich (that's a fancy ham-and-cheese), with the spinach-asparagus-leek soup and another caramel salted brownie torte (I wanted to try the garden stew, but they were out today). It was quite enjoyable, and in spite of asking for a glass for our thé glacé, they put it in a to-go cup, but I just kept that as a souvenir. We won't be back to Amélie's again this trip, but hopefully someday ... someday.
As my companion and I have an affinity for smaller towns, we ventured fifteen miles east to Matthews to see what it was like. Unfortunately, my companion took a nasty fall on an odd double-step curb and skinned up his wrist, elbow, and knee, but he'll live, thank goodness – otherwise, I'd be in a lot of trouble. I include a couple of his pictures of the town below to try to make his fall worthwhile.
So, we wanted to give this place a try - any place that lists its major menu items in big lettering on the windows is usually a good place to eat. Unfortunately, we got up to the door and found that they'd closed early due to "staffing issues". Well, it looked like a nice place – guess we'll never know. EDIT: Turns out this is part of a multi-state chain of diners, so not the mom-and-pop place we thought it was going to be, but it would have been interesting to have tried it. Unfortunately, none of the other North Carolina locations are close to the path we'll be on this trip.
With Metro Diner closed, we wandered around the shopping center and found a Mod Pizza. We'd never been to one before, so we gave it a try. With 6" pizzas, the portion size is just right for us, and the style reminds my companion of Uncle Madio's Pizza Joint, which we used to visit a lot until the locations near us closed up in the late 2010s. The staff at this Mod Pizza were extremely nice and helpful and the food was great, too, with real lemonade to boot.
My companion wasn't feeling that well today after his fall Sunday, but he's doing his best to continue with his trip. We left Pineville this morning and headed southeast to Soutport. We were originally going to spend a couple of nights in Wilmington, but my companion decided he'd rather go somewhere a little smaller and less busy.
We stopped in Marshville planning to eat at a small cafe, but they were closed on Mondays, so we went down the street to Wagon Wheel, which features breakfast and lunch buffets, but we stuck to ordering a club sandwich.
Finally made it to Southport, but got here so late that we didn't feel like going any further than the hotel area. So, we ended up at a Bojangles again -- at least it's a North Carolina original. We walked across the street and realized along the way that the outside lights had been turned off, even though it was only 9 PM and they were supposed to be open for dine-in until 10 PM. Since the inside lights were on full blast, we tried the door and to our surprise, it was unlocked, so we went in and spoke with the nice lady at the counter. Well, they were out of chicken – imagine that, a chicken restaurant that's out of chicken! Honestly, this isn't the first time we've run into this: I think they only prep a certain amount of chicken each day and don't have the capacity to prep more in the evening if they should get slammed and run out. But, they were able to make us a bacon-egg-and-cheese biscuit and gave us a large fry box full of Bo-Rounds, so we were well fed. The really amusing part was that as we sat and ate, a Domino's delivery driver showed up and brought the staff two pizzas! (Q: Were they BBQ chicken pizzas?) I guess that's what you do when you run out of chicken at a chicken place. Even stranger, the guy went out to his car and came back in wearing a really nice gray cat mascot head and gloves. I wish I could have heard the conversation with the two staff members, as I was really curious as to what that was all about – the staff seemed to know the guy pretty well, so I'm guessing this is far from the first time they've ended the work day with pizza.
My companion got a decent night's sleep and is feeling a little better, but I think he has a cold on top of his injuries. He's trying to adjust his approach since simply sitting in his hotel room all day would not be comfortable at all. So, we went down into downtown Southport, taking in the city in small chunks while spending plenty of time in the library where he could cool off, rest, and do some of his remote work (yes, this is a working vacation, but that was the only way he could manage a five-week trip.)
Southport goes back to 1745 and the establishment of Fort Johnston. In 1792, the town of Smithville was founded on that site, and in 1887 it was renamed to Southport. In spite of the new name, it has never been a major shipping port, but is a nice getaway spot that is most likely not nearly as overrun as the major beach destinations. If you want a place that has a bit of a fishing village feel to it with Victorian era houses along the riverfront and not too much modern development, this is the place for you. You won't find an open beach here, but IMHO that's not a bad thing.
So, I went into this place and ordered a light lunch, and they brought me a box of 25 watt incandescent bulbs. That was't very bright. Okay, okay – baaaad joke. Seriously, folks, we did want something light for lunch, so we stopped in this little coffee shop that had a hummus wrap on the menu. It was pretty good, though the only indoor seating was upstairs, and on a hot day like today that was a little stuffy. On a more mild day, the patio seating or the front porch seating would have been really nice, but it was in the mid 90's most of today.
Small but interesting museum about the maritime history of the Southport area with a few exhibits stretching beyond the local area. If you're into this sort of thing, it's a great stop given that it had no admission fee. They even had a model of the CSS Colonel Lamb ship – that's a good name for a ship if I do say so myself.
Great little history museum and once again, no admission fee (but please, do leave a donation for these kinds of places if you visit them, or they won't stay around or will have to start charging a fee.) A lot of good information about locals who were active over the past 150 years in civil and disabled rights. The town has also been quite active in the movie industry, including a movie based on a book that was set in Southport.
In the first picture below I'm looking out from a fishing pier where at least ten people were fishing that morning. By 5 o'clock, all but two had left. The views are stunning here, even if you aren't looking out directly at the ocean. (The water you see is the end of the Cape Fear River, and the land beyond is Bald Head Island – the ocean is on the other side of that island, or you can simply follow the river south just a short ways.) Some of the most interesting residents here are the laughing gulls, whose vocalization really does sound a bit like a laugh. I was amused by the numbers hanging out at the nearby seafood restaurant, which was closed that day (sorry guys, no free handouts today.) There's also something oddly amusing about the fact that a riverside seafood restaurant was closed due to "water problems".
One of my companion's favorite drinks is Cheerwine, which was created in North Carolina and has been produced there for over a hundred years. It's a cherry/black cherry flavored soda (no, there's no alcohol in it despite the name). Interestingly, Wikipedia describes it as having "an unusually high degree of carbonation compared to other soft drinks." Interesting because my companion opened his store-chilled plastic Cheerwine bottle, had a little, and closed it, then we went down a block to the waterfront to enjoy the view. When he opened the bottle again, it just spewed out everywhere, soaking his arm, shorts, and socks. He has no idea how that happened, as he'd never had that happen before. Thank goodness I'd had the good sense to sit on the other side of him – can you imagine how hard it would be to get red Cheerwine out of bright white wool? Ah, well, at least he didn't loose all that much of the soda, though his shorts and socks may never be the same again.
After a full day in downtown Southport, we returned to the hotel and went to the nearby Bella Cucina for dinner, my companion craving a little pasta. The food was good and the portions plentiful, the server nice and friendly. Overall a great combination. Unfortunately, since we're hitting the road again tomorrow, we couldn't take the leftovers with us, but that's life sometimes.
The culinary climax of our trip is arriving in Kinston today, home of "Chef and the Farmer", the restaurant of award winning chef Vivian Howard who has had not one but two PBS television series ("A Chef's Life" and "Somewhere South"). Chef and the Farmer is only open Thursday through Sunday, so we won't get there until tomorrow, but we're hoping to visit three times before we leave so we can sample several of her dishes.
Vivian's childhood home and current home is in Deep Run, North Carolina, about twelve miles from Kinston (hense the name of her first cookbook, "Deep Run Roots"), so it seemed appropriate to stop there first and see what it looks like. We'd seen an indication of this restaurant on the map, so we tracked it down, but were a little disappointed. The food was okay, but we'd been expecting some quaint place that had been around for thirty or more years in a similarly aged building. Instead, the restaurant was in the end of a small strip shopping center likely built in the last ten years. We'd also assumed it would have some meat and vegetable entrees, but it was just a sandwich and salad shop. My companion liked the chicken salad but the broccoli salad side lacked flavor, though in fairness we're used to broccoli salads made with a vinegarette dressing, and this one was simply mayonnaise based. And sorry, no outside picture for this one – when we got there the thermometer in the car was registering 103 degrees outside!
We spotted this place near our hotel and went over to it for dinner. It's a classic 50's style diner inside with pale blue and pink seats and plenty of decor on the walls. As we ate, we stared at a picture of Marilyn Monroe directly in front of us, and I kept hearing Elton John's Candle in the Wind in my head. (For those who don't know, his original version of that song was about Marilyn's death – he later rewrote it as a tribute to Princess Diana after she died.) The food here was nice and classic, with a twist. My companion got the "Carolina Classic Burger" that comes with onions, mustard, cheese, chili and slaw – kind of like combining a chili dog and a regular hamburger. Can't say we've ever seen that one before, but it was good. Turns out the place is an eastern North Carolina chain with a couple dozen or more locations, but that isn't always a bad thing.
