Love is braised meat

We ate our weight in braised meat this weekend. Friday night we met G's family at Corduroy where we celebrated belated birthdays for the ladies.  I LOVE Corduroy. It's our occasion place, and where we had our proposal dinner.

Birthday Friday

I had the braised pork belly, G had the beef cheeks.

Art Saturday

Saturday we went to David and Laurie's (our gallerist friends) to pick up the Lou Reed piece and have dinner with them.

Little did we know, Laurie had been slow cooking beef short ribs since the night before. Served with pureed parsnips, it was amazing. She's such a good cook! We got on the subject of eating meat, and our hosts recalled the year that they stopped eating it. They said they aged quite a bit, got grey hair, his eyebrows turned white, and they experienced hair loss. Their friend, a doctor, told them that there are trace elements in meat that cannot be gotten anywhere else, so they returned to eating and got their pigment and hair back. Interesting, non?

Valentine's Sunday

Sunday, Valentine's evening, G made beef Bourguignon, authentically I might add, starting it the night before and marinating it with aromatic vegetables, bouquet garni, and an entire bottle of wine.

It was delicious. The recipe even called for heart-shaped croutons. Haha!  He gave me a tongue-in-cheek-"never"-cliche box of chocolates and a single red rose. I won this episode of the Bachelor!

I made a card for G.

Presidents Monday

Then today, President's day, we had Augustin (who's French) over to eat the leftover stew. He said it tasted great and authentic (I think). This time I served it with boiled potatoes. We also had last night's bread pudding that I made from the bread scraps of the crouton hearts.

MUST.GO.TO.GYM.

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day!

Southern Holiday Part 4: Charleston

Ahhh, Charleston, now that's more like it. We did a quick trip over to this magnificent port city. Beautiful Georgian architecture everywhere.

We stayed at the lovely Governor's House Inn.

 

We stayed in the Middleton Suite, which was utterly magnificent.

The beautiful home of Edward Rutledge--one of South Carolina's representative to the First Continental Congress, and the youngest sign and ratify the Declaration of Independence--was built in 1760.

 The staff was very nice and hospitable; there was afternoon tea, delicious breakfast of "Southwestern" casserole with fruit; and the friendly cat (Mr. Bigglesworth or something like that).

We had dinner at that FANTASTIC Fig (Food Is Good) restaurant downtown. Seriously, this represents the best of serious food in a casual, unpretentious, yet stylish atmosphere. Their specialty is pork. And I don't say this lightly: THEY SERVED THE BEST PORK I'VE EVER HAD IN.MY.LIFE.

 

Pork trotters (aka pig feet, slowly braised, chopped, and delicious with a bit of poached egg)

 

OH MY GAWD, this loin chop was INCREDIBLE. It's Heritage pig, a lean and absolutely delicious heirloom variety raised by a small farm in Alabama, called Fudge Farms. It was so, so, so FANTASTIC in an umami-rich brothy sauce topped with a bright and fresh flat leaf parsely salad. Beautifully simple and smartly composed combination.

 

The local Caper's Island oysters (you have to have the local oysters--there's a whole culture around it) and G had the Wagyu beef bistro steak with a bit of hen-of-the-woods mushrooms. Nice.

 

Sticky sorgum pudding, a southern and modern twist on the English sticky toffee pudding. Delicious. We brought our own bottle of 1999 Profile.

 

Romantic Charleston night scenes along our walk back to the inn.

I COULD LIVE HERE.

Southern Holiday Part 3: Beautiful Beaufort

  Halfway between Hilton Head and Charleston is the utterly quaint town of Beaufort. We stopped in for lunch at Wren (formerly known as Sea Island Gourment and Wine market). Funny thing, we had an old address for the establishment, and were saddened to find it closed. As we walked along the town's main street, we decided to stop in a bistro. Turns out the bistro was the new incarnation of our sought-after destination.

  

The interior was wine crate-inspired, with coir rugs as curtains, large wing back chairs made from crate wood and bottles everywhere. Rustic contemporary chic. Surprising in this traditional low country town. The food was decent and they have a nice rotating menu of wines by the glass.

The dining room and my Beetlejuice outfit

The Parisi market sells cheese, deli stuff, and pastries.

We had the shrimp bisque and the fried green tomato sandwich (with goat cheese and bacon). The menu wasn't extensive or fancy, but the food was good.

After lunch we strolled around town and a bought a used coffee table book on the history of fashion. The woman who previously owned it vacations in Beaufort and is a buyer for Saks, apparently. I guess that says something about the town!

Southern Holiday Part 2:Savannah

From Hilton Head, we made a day-trip to sassy Savannah, took a quick buggy tour of the gorgeous squares, and completely avoided the very commercial and tourist-driven City Market.

The house from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and the house from Something to Talk About 

There are 20-something beautiful squares in Savannah. Each has a church and its own character.

Movie sets and beautiful squares aside, Savannah's amazing restoration, preservation and architecture is a standout due in large part to the Savannah College of Art and Design.

In terms of dining, locals, politely, encouraged us to stay away from City Market (and Paula Dean's restauarnts in particular). And we love off-the-beaten-path places that are more suited to locals. We found it in the Soho South Cafe and art gallery, a colorful, southern, bohemian, artsy, eatery built in an old firestation/garage for lunch.

Fun interiors of the Soho South Cafe; our delicious meal of shrimp-n-grits, sweet tea, and crabcake Savannah (a crabcake with poached egg and hollandaise sauce...with grits and a biscuit, of course!). Soho South is ecelectic in its styling as well as its menu. They offer all the southern favorites alongside organic, healthier salads and vegetarian options. You'll find local art students and get a real feel for Savannah that you'll most likely miss in the more commercial and touristy eateries in City Market.

Okay, like Charleston, I could definitely live here! There's lots of history, art, architecture, urban design, and great food. What else could you ask for? I highly, highly recommend Savannah Off the Beaten Path if you're into culture and avoidance of tourists.

Southern Holiday Part 1: Hilton Head

After all the Christmas festivities at G's parents' house, we hit the road to Hilton Head! His parents gave us a week at their timeshare on the lovely South Carolina island, and we relaxed fully. It's a little bit like a suburban planned community on the beach. Everything is very planned. Not exactly our taste, but, again, it was nice to spend the time relaxing and enjoying the relatively warmer weather. It was in the 50s the whole week, which was much better than the frosty 20's and 30's at home in Washington DC. We made satellite trips to nearby Beaufort, Charleston, and sassy Savannah.

First up, Hilton Head...

We stayed in G's parents' timeshare at the Shipyard "plantation".

 

The weather was decent, in the 50s. There was Spanish moss and palmetto everywhere, along with some azaleas here and there.

Hilton Head is a planned resort area. Lots of family and elderly-friendly activities that are easy and a bit contrived. Though not for us exactly, I can see how it can be very attractive, again, to families and older vacationers.

There wasn't really that much to do except run on the beach and horseback ride (and for G, golf). I enjoyed the latter, even though they gave me this really wide and hairy half draft horse name Teresa (she rode well despite her clumsy look).  We strayed behind the group and had the chance canter.

We brought a bunch of stuff from home to stock the place with, including cheese, wine and pate that were gifted to us at Christmas (from my mom and sister).

Dining on the island was okay. We enjoyed CQ's and The Sage Room the most.

CQs: A "modern American" restaurant situated in an old frame house. We brought the Champagne from G's birthday; I had the venison; G had the low country shrimp and slaw; the place was decorated in festive holiday lights and bows. Nice, good service. Okay food.

The Sage Room: We enjoyed sitting at the chef's table/bar and watching the open kitchen at this modern American restaurant (with an Asian twist).

Chef-owner Matt Jording--who's actually from right outside of DC and named the place after DC's own Red Sage--was very gracious, noticing that we were waiting a bit longer than necessary, gave us Prosecco on the house.

 

Crusted tofu--veggie delicious

 

Corkage was only $15. We brought Pommard Premier Cru,  a hostess gift from Tim and Francoise (from Festivus)

Colorado lamb, medium-rare, prepared right before our eyes.

 Matt Jording (r) with his great crew. Sage Room was definitely the best of the restaurants we tried on the island. The service was young, casual, but professional and the food was excellent! This restaurant was the highlight of the HH portion of our trip.

Next up, Charleston!!