Posted in Charleston Eats

Had a good time meeting up with people at Mama Brown's BBQ over in Mt. Pleasant. It's not a fancy place (the good BBQ places never are), but the food is tasty and they offer a number of dining options ranging from small to large plates and the all-you-can-eat buffet.

I went for the all-you-can-eat option.

Round 1: Pulled pork (vinegar based sauce), mac and cheese, mashed potatoes and red rice.

Round 2: More pulled pork, ribs, more mashed potatoes and some other kind of rice.

Afterwards, the Digitel folks recorded an episode of their DigiCast podcast and interviewed Chrys, the man behind LowcountryBBQ.org.

Based on this first visit, I'd say it's hard to leave this place being anything but fat and happy.

Thanks to Chrys and LowcountryBBQ.org, a group of blogging and tweeting BBQ enthusiasts is starting to grow. Tonight some of us converged at JB's Smokeshack tonight for good company, conversation and some mighty tasty BBQ.

Can't really explain why I've been here so long without making a trip to JB's until recently. Like most BBQ joints around here, it doesn't really look like much, but what it's lacking in appearance is more than made up for by the food.

The buffet comes in two sections, and it's hard not to make at least two trips up to the buffet. Everything is drool-inducing good. At $8 ($11 for dinner), it's tough to find a deal like this that's much better.

To go along with the pile of smoked meat on your plate, there's a variety of sauces on the table. The brisket carving guy recommended the mild sauce to go along with the brisket. Not too much of it though he said, or it will mask the flavour of the brisket. He was pretty spot on too, although I would expect that he knows what he's talking about.

Definitely a place where you'll never leave hungry (unless you're a vegetarian).

BBQ action this evening was at Moose's BBQ up in Moncks Corner. A bit of a drive out there from my place, but definitely well worth the 70km round trip.

This was actually my second trip out to Moose's, and I was eagerly anticipating tonight's visit out there. The buffet line is well stocked with a wide variety of items, but I think the highlight of the buffet is the brisket. Not that the rest of the buffet isn't good, but for me, it's the brisket that brings me back.

If you haven't left Moose's fat and happy, there's something wrong with you.

I think BBQ needs to be its own food group.

There was a very good turnout for tonight's Cin-cue de Mayo BBQ meatup at Fiery Ron's Home Team BBQ. To commemorate the occasion, Chrys had some appropriately themed door prizes

The BBQ meatups are always a good time. For the next meatup, keep an eye on the calendar at LowcountryBBQ.org.

It was road tripping up to Ridgeville for the latest Lowcountry BBQ meatup at Duke's BBQ this evening.

Word on the street is that Duke's BBQ is pretty good (one of the best most would say), and I'd have to say the street is pretty accurate.

Like many of the really good BBQ places, it's not fancy inside. Walking into the door you're greeted by the large main seating area with 3 large tables (perfect for large groups or communal dining). Off to the side is more table seating. Pony up to the cashier and pay your $8 (plus tax) and dig into the buffet. Buffet items are pretty standard for a SC BBQ place: rice, hash, sweet potatoes, pulled pork, chicken and a few other things.

I think my favourite item was the hash. Almost gravy like, it was good over rice or just straight up. Give me a bowl of the hash and I'll be happy. Mmmm, hash...

A plate of this would make me happy too.

George Pasley was the lucky winner of the Media Mogul Twitter contest between the Carolina Regional Business Journal and The Digitel. George's prize: a couple of boxes of Moon Pies and two cases of RC Cola.

The Ridgeville Duke's is pretty good, and worth the trip. I'm starting to think that I'll have to move because I live too far away from all my favourite BBQ joints.

See the rest of my photos here.

Today's LowcountryBBQ meatup at Hickory Hawg was pretty well attended and turned out to be a big family affair. I got there a little after 6 thinking I'd be early, but everybody was there already.

Unlike the last few BBQ places, Hickory Hawg isn't a buffet style place. You walk up to the counter, pick something from the menu (and they're pretty flexible about letting you pick and choose) and when it's ready they'll bring your food out to you.

I ordered the Hickory Hawg platter for $8 and change, which is a big heaping serving of BBQ pork and two sides (I got the hash and baked beans).

The pork was pretty tasty; really good all by itself, but made even better with a little of their sauce, a slightly vinegary tomato based sauce. You can even buy some of their sauce to take home with you.

The platter is just a bigger version of a plate, and is a pretty substantial amount of food. If you're really, really hungry, the platter is the way to go. Otherwise you might want to stick with the plate version for $5 and change. Regardless of which one you get, the prices at Hickory Hawg make the place a terrific value.

I'll have to go back another day and try out the ribs. They looked pretty good too.

Tonight's Lowcountry BBQ meetup was at the relatively new Central BBQ in Summerville (903 Central Ave).

Aside from the bright yellow sign, it's a pretty small building that wouldn't be very hard to drive by without noticing (which would be too bad for you).

The menu at Central is pretty short and simple. From what I've been told, the owner puts on a batch of 'cue at night and stays open the next day until it's all gone so you're always getting fresh off the BBQ food. Don't think it can really get much better than that.

I opted for the large BBQ plate, which comes with a couple of generous scoops of pulled pork and two sides. Dug in before I remembered to take a photo of the plate.

The pork was amazingly good. Tender and smoky, I probably could have easily eaten another plate. There are four sauces available to choose from. I'm told the mustard sauce is excellent, but I rather enjoyed the Trinidad and Tobago Carribean BBQ sauce. It's sweet and tastes really good.

Central BBQ is definitely worth a visit, and if you don't live in Summerville, it's worth the trip. You'll want to get there early though before they sell out and close. Oh, and one more thing. Central BBQ is cash only.

Last night was a Lowcountry BBQ meatup at the fairly new Willie Jewell's Old School BBQ up in North Charleston.

Willie Jewell's is located in a little strip mall almost across the street from Wannamaker County Park. It's not a very large place, but is pretty decent looking inside. Definitely not the hole in the wall shack type places you typically associate good Lowcountry BBQ with.

The menu has a pretty good variety to choose from, but I went for the pork supper plate, which turned out to be a pulled pork sandwich (with a pretty good sized portion of pork) served open face and two sides. I went for the baked beans and mac and cheese.

The pork was deliciously tender and very smoky. I think it's some of the smokiest tasting BBQ I've had so far. Just check out that smoke ring.

The sides were kind of meh, although the baked beans were pretty good. The mac and cheese seemed to be just macaroni with salty cheese sauce poured on it. Ok, but there's better out there. I got the impression that the sides were somewhat inconsistent. A few people in the group ordered the coleslaw which they said was really good before, but was pretty bad this time. The corn fritters, little fried nuggets of battered corn, were pretty tasty though.

The sauces are served warm in pump dispensers on a counter across from where you place your order. There are 4 sauces to choose from: traditional, sweet and tangy, classic mustard-based and a hot and spicy one. There's also ketchup and regular mustard too, but I don't recall seeing anything on the menu that you'd want to put them on. I probably just missed it though.

I went for the traditional and hot sauces. Don't think I really liked the traditional sauce a whole lot, but the hot BBQ sauce was pretty decent. It tasted like it might have been mustard based as well. Really though, the pork stands up pretty well on its own and didn't need any sauce at all.

If you're in the area and develop a hankering for BBQ, Willie Jewell's is definitely worth stopping at. Based on comments from the others, it seems like they still need to work on the sides to make the quality more consistent though. Prices are pretty reasonable though.

3.5 stars out of 5.

Sausage & Baguette Stuffed Pork Loin with Tomato Butter / Smoked Local Farmers Market Ratatouille / Potato & Sage Gratin / Pavlova with Local Kiwi Couli & Cayenne Chocolate Ganache

Loved the pork loin, and the smoked ratatouille was excellent, as was the gratin.

Had no idea there were kiwi fruits being grown locally. The pavlova was pretty sweet and not quite to the liking of my dinner companions, but I liked it.

The pictures were taken with the new phone. They turned out fairly decent. The noise is definitely noticeable in the full resolution images, but not unexpected because of the low lighting.

Beef barbacoa enchilada platter with boracha bean soup and mexican rice from Zia Taqueria.

After 6 long months of construction and eating outside in the big white tent, MUSC has a shiny new cafeteria. Personally, I think the highlight of the cafeteria is the nifty rotisserie. You can stop by in the morning and have a look at what's being rotisserie'd for lunch later on.

Today it was ribs. For cafeteria fare, the ribs were pretty decent.

Feeling rib-y again after lunch, so it was a half rack at Jim 'n Nick's BBQ at tonight's CHSTweetup.

Across the street from MUSC where Blend used to be, a new place called Halo has opened up shop.

There's a pretty wide selection of items on the menu from breakfasty things to sandwiches, salads and desserts.

And they have wi-fi too.

Prices are pretty reasonable with most of the sandwiches priced around the $8 mark.

Open faced meatloaf sandwich topped with mashed potatoes

Half of a jumbo slice of key lime pie

Halo was good enough to warrant another visit for lunch today, this time with my good camera.

Today I went for the Maryland Crab Cake sandwich. This is now my new favourite sandwich.

Almost all crab, with just enough filler to hold things together and carry the seasonings. For $8 you probably aren't going to find a better crab cake in the Charleston area (I haven't encountered one yet). Comes with house-made potato chips, pickle and topped with a pickled okra. The crab cake comes in a large round pretzel roll which makes eating it sandwich style kind of tricky without having crab cake smoosh out the sides. I just ate it piece by piece, starting with the top part. The crab cake is delicious, and something you'll want to take your time savouring. The relish and crab bits that fell out were wrapped up in the lettuce burrito style. Then polished off the bottom half of the roll.

If you're in the area, it's a great place to stop for lunch. It gets pretty busy around noon for the lunch rush, but you can always call ahead and place your order. There's plenty of seating upstairs where it's a lot quieter.

In a bit of restaurant drama, Norm's closed down a few months ago and reopened last week under new management.

The menu is largely the same, slightly expanded from the old menu. Norm's has a fresh coat of paint, new tables and some interior redecorating, but it's still looks mostly the same. Regulars of old Norm's will feel right at home in new Norm's.

Norm's Italian Combo sub (salami, pastrami and ham) and fries

Pizza

Charleston Deli Dip from East Bay Deli

A few years ago I discovered the deliciously edible creations from Sublime Pies. Then back in 2008 or so, they moved shop and then disappeared for a while.

Now thanks to Judith Moore at Charleston Cookie Company, Sublime Pies are back!

I am quite happy to report that despite the hiatus and Charleston Cookie Company taking over the making of the pies (but still with Sublime's recipe), the key lime pies are just as delicious as I remember.

So if you're like me and have been missing your Sublime Pies, make the trip down to Charleston Cookie Company on James Island and pick one up. If you haven't tried one yet, you're missing out.

Fish has been around for a few years now, but tonight was my first visit there. Forgot to bring my camera with me, so I had to settle for the camera phone.

We started off with some of the steamed clams and the butternut squash soup

Mmmm, clams.

Triggerfish was the special for tonight, served with something resembling fried rice. My first time having triggerfish. A firm fish with a hearty mouth feel to it, but still mild tasting. The fried rice was good, although a little heavy on the soy sauce.

There was also vermilion snapper filet, served with coconut rice and a coconut based sauce. Very Caribbean island-y flavours.

Finally we finished off the evening with dessert: the chocolate malt souffle and the banana cake. The souffle was flambéd, but by the time the camera app started, the flames had disappeared.

Fish can be a little on the spendy side, but the food was excellently prepared and all of it was delicious. Definitely a place worth checking out.

Seafood Pho from Quyen.

Note to self: have them make it without the cilantro and onion next time.

In the middle of the Radcliffeborough neighbourhood is a tiny little unassuming corner store called Charlie's Grocery. It doesn't look like much on the outside and it's the kind of place you probably wouldn't notice driving by.

I walked over there for lunch to meet fellow blogger Andra Watkins, who told me there were really good falafels to be found here.

Walking inside brought back childhood memories of being in the corner store dad used to run. Charlie's is a lot smaller than that store, but has almost the same kind of feel (I don't remember Dad selling wine or beer though). In the back of the store is a little lunch counter where you can place an order for a variety of subs or sandwiches, including the sought after falafels.

We placed our order, and about 15 minutes later walked out with falafel in hand. Along with a Diet Mt Dew, lunch was just over $5.

The falafel was pretty good. Warm balls of mashed chickpea, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and sauce stuffed into a half pita.

Yes, oh so tasty. It's only a short walk from work, so it's definitely going on the list of nearby lunch spots.