Good Eats

While were in "The South" we made it a point to eat as much Southern Home Cookin' as humanly possible. Dad found a restaurant featured on "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" just outside of Columbia, and so on Thursday after Heather's graduation we decided to try it out. It did not dissapoint! It was called "The Farmer's Shed" and there I had my first encounter with collard greens, rutabagas, black-eyed peas, and fried okra. It was all absolutely delicious, of course!  

On Thursday evening we ate at the Waffle House, since it was just a block or two from our hotel. The Waffle House is all over the south, so we figured we definitely needed to try it out anyway. It was small and quaint and the food was delcious. Here Heather and I had our first encounter with cheese grits. They weren't bad, but I much preferred the wafffles, hash browns, and biscuits and gravy. Sullivan liked the waffles too, but tried to fall asleep whilst eating one. It was all we could do to get him to wake up enough to finish chewing and swallowing!? The expression "out like a light," literally applied to this situation.

On Friday we took a two-and-a-half hour drive down to Savannah Georgia to see the sights. Along the way we passed a sign on the freeway for "Duke's BBQ" and decided to try it out. It was definitely a bit of a dive, but it proved to be a great stop. They had the best pulled pork I had ever tasted and the bbq sauce was amazing. The buffet was full of delicious southern food...fried chicken, fried okra, collard greens, home-made potato chips, mashed potatoes and gravy, mac and cheese, sweet potatoes, and the most scrumptious desserts known to man. We definitely felt like pigs leaving that place!

On Saturday, while still in Savannah, we ate at Paula Deen's restaurant, "Lady and Sons." Here we had the best garlic biscuits, corn pancakes, chicken pot pie, salad, meatloaf, mac and cheese, mashed potaters, and fried chicken one could ask for. We had to wait 1.5 hours for a seat, which we spent wandering around the city, but it was totally worth it! I mean, come on, it's Paula Deen!?  How could we have gone wrong?

On Saturday night we ate at "Uncle Bubbas," the restaurant owned by Paula Deen's brother. During lunch at "Lady and Sons" they had given us a coupon for a free appetizer at "Uncle Bubbas," and since we so conveniently passed it on our way out to Tybee Island, we figured it must be fate. Here I had my first encounter with real oysters in the shell (not my fav) and we had the best shrimp and scallops I had ever tasted. Oh, how I love good seafood!

It was a great trip full of magnificent culinary experiences. The south definitely knows how to feed a hungry belly. However, while they have perfected the art of most foods, Heather and both agreed that the sweet potatoes in the south still don't hold a candle to our family's sweet potato casserole we whip up on special occasions (which is a recipe I got from my cousin, Amy). We tried three different versions of sweet potatoes on our trip, and ours still wins, hand down. So, Paula Deen, if you need our recipe for sweet pototaes, just let me know...I'm sure we can work something out. :)