Earl v. Food: Charleston

Got to check off another grub joint that I'd been drooling over since I saw it on Man v. Food on The Travel Channel.

We went to Hominy Grill (starting at 1:40 on the video) back in October for breakfast and it was incredible. I had some eggs and the sausage gravy over biscuits. I have to say that while it was great, it wasn't my favorite breakfast that I've had down there. I had breakfast at a place called Charleston's Cafe (in Mt. Pleasant, actually) that served fried eggs over fried green tomatoes smothered in sausage gravy with grits and biscuits. Holy crap! I need to have that once a week.

But for this trip we went to Bowen's Island Restaurant for the oysters that are shown starting at the 6:20 mark of the video above.  I loved the whole experience, but I was in the minority.  No one else in my party was overly thrilled with the joint.  They are in the process of remodeling and the place is kind of a wreck.  Crappy tables, crappy chairs, didn't look very clean and the band wasn't very good either.  And it's not overly clear what the ordering process is to a newcomer.  You head into one shack to order, another shack to eat (remembering to tell the oyster guy what you had ordered) and back into that first shack to pay once you are finished.  Same thing if you wanted another beer or two while eating dinner.  The joint was packed and there was no way for them to know whether or not we paid, but we did anyway.  I don't get it.

But the oysters were delicious!  I'm not a fan of oysters generally.  Gia loves them raw and I can have a few if they are small, but these steamed oysters were delicious.  They were very similar to steamed mussels in texture and taste.  Very clean, no sand at all in them.  And the whole process of eating them in clusters was unique and fun.  They served them with a watery cocktail sauce, but I just ate them right out of the shell.  They didn't need anything at all to fancy them up, although the rest of the gang thought some lemon or hot sauce would have been nice.  I finished up dinner with the frogmore stew, a batch of peel and eat shrimp with some steamed potatoes, corn and sausage.  Very good, but way too much food.

I would definitely go back, now knowing a little something about the joint.  Maybe bring some of our own lemons, hot sauce and oyster knives.  I would skip all the rest of the food and do all-you-can eat oysters.  A few cold beers to go along with them and I'd be just fine.  Yes, sir.

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. Good gravy, that's good gravy!