Well hello there! I hope that your week has gotten off to an excellent start. Not to brag or anything but mine started off smashingly with a quick jaunt to one of my favorite places - Charleston, SC. I was able to tag along on Mr. Fo's work trip and we made a mini vacay out of it because this week is our 5-year wedding anniversary. To celebrate we were able to get a reservation at Husk, a hot-spot restaurant in Charleston. If you don't know, Charleston is not only a city filled with history and beautiful scenery, it's a major food city. Husk is about three years old and has received many, many national accolades. In fact,
in 2011 Bon Appetit magazine named it the best new restaurant in America. Not too shabby! Last time we ate at the bar at Husk which was also great. You can read about our hilarious time
HERE.
Now that we had the full Husk experience, I can say it is totally worth the hype. Seriously. Make your reservation and go to Husk to be completely wowed. Everything is impressive at Husk, from the menu to the dish ware. The menu changes daily and uses food from local farms.
I thought I considered myself a foodie but the menu at Husk had a few (read: a lot) items I had never heard of before. I played it cool though, don't worry...I only asked the waitress like 6 questions.
I'd heard a lot about the fried pig ears lettuce wrap appetizers, so I knew we'd get those. Mr. Fo was a little uneasy about the pig ears because, well, it's pig ears. But we went for it and OMG they were amazeballs. Combined with fresh veggies, spicy sauce and nestled in big beautiful lettuce, they were absolutely delicious! You can read more about them
HERE.
Benne Buttermilk Rolls were brought to the table and Mr. Fo and I went through 2 baskets of them. Whoops. A benne is like a southern sesame seed. The rolls were served with the creamiest honey butter I'd ever had. Mr. Fo and I had read a lot of Husk accolades, including one article that kept referring to various menu items as "The most influential ____ of the year." So Mr. Fo said this was the most "influential" bread of the decade. He also continued to use this terminology about everything. Read: "This is the most influential water I've ever had. This is the most influential napkin I've ever seen." Oh, Mr. Fo.
Another impressive thing about Husk is the cocktail menu. In addition to unusual cocktails, Husk is known for it's over 50 choices of bourbon. Overwhelming much? Mr. Fo decided to get a flight of bourbon which obviously came with a side of shaved ham. Man that ham was good. Being that Mr. Fo and I are probably too unsophisticated for Husk, we were sort of like, should we be dipping the ham in the bourbon? Is there a process for this ham/bourbon situation? In the end we just ate the ham and enjoyed it. Mr. Fo doesn't normally drink bourbon straight (although I think it's one of his life goals to do so) so he may or may not have diluted the bourbon with ice cubes in a super stealth way. God we're classy. In his defense I just smelled it and it immediately cleared up my sinuses, so this was some hard core liquor.
Since I'm apparently selfish, I only took a photo of my entree. Mr. Fo had the flat iron steak which was excellent. I think I won with my crispy duck breast, which was out of this world. It's probably the only time I'll have pig ears and duck in the same meal. The duck skin was crispy and flavorful and the meat was tender and delicious. Loved it!
For dessert, we had an apple crisp that was out of this world. Most definitely the best fruit crisp/crumb I've ever had.
If you have a chance to go to this restaurant, I highly recommend it. Save your pennies so you can experience the whole meal - cocktail, apps, entree and dessert. I also really loved that the portions were quite large. Sometimes you go to an expensive restaurant and the portions are teeny tiny, and this is not the case at Husk. We were in a definite food coma post-Husk, but it was completely worth it.
I don't want to ignore another great meal we had that day. We ate brunch at
82 Queen, just down the road from Husk. Maybe its just because I was really hungry because we had driven in fom Charlotte and I didn't have breakfast, but they were some of THE best biscuits I'd ever had. Mr. Fo said you don't get to eat breakfast when you are having brunch, but I disagree. He's so judgmental.
In the meantime, it was a little cold for Charleston and you can tell that the residents and tourists were confused on what to wear. I include myself in this mix. One day I wore flip flops and the next day I wore boots. It was a real condundrum.
That said I was able to go for runs along the Battery both mornings and the view as always was spectacular. Running in Charleston is a joy because there's always something beautiful to look at. I bet if I lived there I'd be a marathoner. (Haha, that's funny.)
While Mr. Fo worked, I occupied myself by wandering around the market, shopping and lunching. Charleston is the absolute best place to aimlessly wander. There are beautiful homes with courtyards and front porches and endless little nooks and crannies to explore.
In my next life I want to become a lady who lunches in Charleston. Is this too much to ask? I practiced this at
Eli's Table (see photo below), another wonderful restaurant I highly recommend. After going on and on about how fun it was to wander aimlessly in Charleston, shopping and eating and drinking wine, Mr. Fo told me it was time for me to go back to work. Meanie face.
Oh Charleston, I miss you already!
