Arrived to find our room was better than we imagined, we had our own living room and porch - which we put to good use. Thanks John, Heather, Chris, Helen and the KWM cru for this!
We even had our own doll's house.
So after settling in with some wine we went out to F.I.G ("Food Is Good") for our 9pm booking - thanks Vedad! - (which Clare had made exactly a month before as is necessary for the most popular restaurant in town). The house keeper of the inn, Charlene, also recommended it and Jestine's kitchen for the best food in town (more about that later...) - we were excited.
We were not disappointed. Rich had the most amazing beeline snapper and Clare had amberjack. The desserts were also insane - Clare had not however ticked off any meals from her culinary to do list. Luckily we were booked on a culinary tour the next day - thanks Josie (and Jenks)!
Before the culinary tour, Clare found a waking tour, dressed up in her tour guide outifit she took Rich on a tour of Charleston. (The tour was on her iPad and she marched along carrying it, whilst dragging Rich behind her...)
She took her job very seriously and would only let Rich look at a map for a photo opportunity at a designated coffee stop.
Clare took Rich to the slave market (but no one would buy him), 4 churches, rainbow row, the battery, the harbour and the only street in Charleston where you can see both rivers that join at the harbour. Basically Clare showed Rich everything worth seeing (this point will be proven later).
Clare even let Rich play with some guns.
Then it was time for the culinary tour - which was good as we were getting hungry.
We met our guide and were sad to find that there were 4 annoying Americans who were on a girls trip away. They were about 50 but acted like they were 15... Luckily there was also a great couple from Texas and a sweet couple from Missouri that Clare managed to insult by calling 40 yr olds old without realising that the guy was clearly over 40...
First it was pulled pork, wings, brisket, air blown pork scratchings - basically a massive BBQ. Our tour guide explained that most states argue they invented the BBQ but actually Charleston did - and as the "inventors" they explained that we had to eat BBQ with sweet mustard. It was good, but the Texans had a thing to say about being the inventors of BBQ.
Then it was pastrami and cheese sandwiches - sounds dull, tasted like heaven. Then a full meal of fried green tomatoes with a red pepper dressing
sweet potato pancakes with pecans
and the famous shrimp and grits.
The food was amazing at Eli's table and we managed to finish everything off (some losers had to take doggy bags) before heading for dessert...
We learnt about Charleston on the tour - interestingly although it is known as one of the culinary capitals of the States, the first restaurant only opened in the 70s, which is why the Southen food is slightly different as it really comes from Southern kitchens and has not been heavily commercialised. Now there are nearly 500 restaurants with new ones opening up all the time - 2 open for every one shutting but turnover is quite high. They reckon it would take 13 years to eat at every restaurant - a different one every night - because of the turn over rate.
Excellent times.
That evening it was martinis, whisky, meat and more live bands for us - after some more drinks on our private porch.
