Charleston Restaurant Week- 3 courses for $40.00

Tucked down a quaint brick walkway off North Market, the Peninsula Grill at the Planter's Hotel is an oasis of style, grace and good food.  We were greeted for our early evening reservations by a very accommodating hostess who seated us at a comfortable table, giving us a choice of seating due to my mobility issues.  A parade of employees, including Jonathan, our excellent server, brought us cold drinks, freshly baked bread and knowledgeable descriptions of the courses offered on the restaurant week menu.  

We each chose the Trio of Soup for our first course, an offering of soups available nightly on the regular Peninsula Grill menu.  The Lobster Corn Chowder was chunky, with a mild flavor.  The Cauliflower Soup was smooth, extremely flavorful, with a bit of a spicy zing.  My favorite, the Mushroom Bisque, was a dark, rich soup, with tiny chunks of apple and a hint of cinnamon.  It was easily my favorite part of the meal.

For our second course, we chose the Trois de la Mer and the Grilled Berkshire Pork Chop.  The three fish components of the Trois de la Mer were shrimp, scallop and trout.  The shrimp was grilled in mild spices and served over a wilted greens salad.  Delicious!  The large sea scallop was grilled in salt and pepper and served on whipped potatoes.  The trout, flavored with red pepper, was tender and flaky.

The pork chop was very good sized, served over Dixie grits and smokey bacon jus.  Scattered around this pork centerpiece were perfectly prepared roasted brussels sprouts, which were so full of flavor that I could have eaten an entire plate full.  

We finished the meal with coffee and Chocolate Grand Marnier Bread Pudding.  The pudding was dense, with a pleasant orange taste.  It was topped with very thin slices of white chocolate and accompanied by a dollop of vanilla bean chantilly cream.  It was a very rich dessert that I could only eat half of.  My dining partner, however, had no problem eating every bite.  

So...great atmosphere, delicious food and a lovely parade of wait staff gives Peninsula Grill an A+.

My two favorite times of the year in Charleston are September Restaurant Week and January Restaurant Week.  What could be more fun than to try any one of 100 or so Charleston restaurants, with a 3 or 4 course menu sampling, showcasing what is so right about the Charleston gastronomic scene?  If you're a true Foodie, nothing!~
On the first night of this winter's Restaurant Week, we visited 39 Rue De Jean, a lovely mid-sized French restaurant on John St., just off of upper King.  We found convenient parking behind the Music Hall next door and were seated opposite a wall of gently aged mirrors, tilted just so to give the room an expansive feel.
For our first course, we chose a creatively prepared mixed salad, topped with a deep fried, soft cooked egg.  The egg was just crispy enough on the outside, warm and smooth on the inside.  The garlic in the vinaigrette was very subtle.  We also tried the roasted carrot soup, which was perfectly pureed and seasoned.  It was topped with creamy goat cheese and crispy prosciutto.  The prosciutto was slivered and just salty enough.  Served with a crusty French bread, the soup was my favorite part of the meal.
For entrees, we chose Basque chicken and Trout & Mussels, "En Papillote".  The chicken was "fall off the bone" tender, served with a hearty creole red rice.  The fish and mussel dish was very flavorful, with sliced lemon, red onion and squash, in white wine and butter, wrapped in parchment paper and oven poached.
We both chose a Chocolate Pate for our Dessert course.  The dish consisted of a very thin, rectangular slice of rich, smooth chocolate pate, surrounded by Creme Anglaise and sliced, fresh strawberries.  The combination of textures and flavors was perfect....not too sweet or heavy....absolutely delicious, we both agreed.
The only disappointment was that the dish recommended to us by friends who had eaten at Rue De Jean often, the Steak Frites, was not on the Restaurant Week menu.  We will return to try it, along with another dish, their potato truffle soup.  After the success of their carrot soup, I can only imagine how good their other soups must be.  Bon Appetite.

Hemingway's Boat, Everything He Loved In Life, And Lost, written by Paul Hendrickson, begins as an unbiased view of Ernest Hemingway, his boat, Pilar and his life in Key West and Cuba.  Perhaps two thirds of the way into the book, Hendrickson, who was doing such a good job telling the story of Hemingway, the talented, disturbed and desperately unhappy pillar of 20th century American literature, and his beloved boat, gives in to sensationalism, drifting into the life of E.H.'s transgender son, Gig.  What began well, digressed unnecessarily towards tabloid-ism, into another sad Hemingway life which should have, and could have, been told in another book. Hendrickson swerves back on course towards the end of the book, returning to Ernest Hemingway's end of life tragedy in Ketchum, but never really finishes fleshing out the saga of how Pilar the boat, Hemingway the fisherman and Hemingway, the author were connected.                                                                                 I did, however, love reading every word about Ernest H.'s obsession with his boat, fishing, Cuba and the ocean he knew well and loved.  The stories told by those who knew him and fished with him in both Key West and Cuba were well researched and told with heart and humanity.  When Hendrickson resisted the temptation to pass on sensationalized, peripheral family information, the book was well worth the read.  He almost did it.....an unbiased look at a controversial man and author, Hemingway, a master of clean, clear prose, yet not, ultimately, the master of his own mind.

On a cold and rainy December night in Charleston, reminiscent of a blustery London night, to be sure, a lovely 4 course dinner was served at theWentworth Mansion's restaurant, Circa 1886.  The annual Dickens Dinner, featuring storyteller Tim Lowry reciting Dickens' story, A Christmas Carol, took place in their cozy dining rooms on Dec. 12th.
The attentive wait staff served each course between segments of the story told by Mr. Lowry, who alternated between the two dining rooms, in period costume, with vitality and verve.
The first course was a creamy parsnip soup, an English specialty, with a Lowcountry touch....lumps of tender poached crabmeat.  The nutmeg whipped cream swirled throughout was the perfect finish to the dish.
The second course this year featured braised chestnuts, (last year's chestnuts were roasted) which were perfectly prepared with just the right nutty flavor.  They complemented the poached egg salad, served with wilted endive, lardons and a tangy malt dressing.
Our main course was wild pacific salmon, "Fish & Chips" with a twist.  It was cooked in a light lemon caper sauce, served over a very crispy potato cake and accompanied by tiny, whole baby carrots.
Our fourth course, the "Sweet Finish", was an absolutely perfect Christmas pudding.  The dish was full of plump golden and dark raisins, with just the right spongy consistency and a strong but sweet brandy flavor.  All of the guests at our table agreed that it was the best dessert they had tasted in a very long time, and a picture perfect Christmas pudding.  Bravo!!

Author Mitch Albom's books are always interesting, thought provoking and controversial.  I say controversial because they are sometimes considered "light" by those who feel you should read "high brow" or stay home, so to speak.  As someone who reads voraciously, everything from St. Paul, Dickens, Wiesel, Dostoevsky, Hardy, Fitzgerald and Hemingway to Theroux, Stewart, Mayle and Krakauer, I feel like I can speak honestly enough about books to say that my first reaction to his books, just for a flash of a few seconds, was "light weight".  Then, I read them.  They make you think, they make you feel and they make you remember and return.  Isn't that what good literature is all about?  
Albom's newest book, the time keeper, lower case, is certainly interesting.  It gives us time personified, in the form of a primitive man who produced the first clock and calendar, much to his eventual dismay.  The dismay is thought provoking, as it makes the measurement of time the villain.  The controversy comes in when you see the squandering of time by both young and old.  Is time put to good use, which actually is still measured, a villain?  Not in the summation of the events in this novel.
The Ben Franklin quote, first published in Poor Richard's Almanack in June 1746, comes to mind....
"Dost though love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of."  Is it the squandering of it or the measuring of it that's the enemy?  Take the time to read the book, and you can decide for yourself.

I finished reading "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak early this morning.  It's a novel about a young girl in Nazi Germany just prior to and during WWII.  Told from the point of view of the Angel of Death, the story unfolds around Liesel, a pre-teen foster child who lives with a family just outside of Munich, Germany.  It's a beautiful, disturbing, deeply moving book, written almost in outline and diary form, at times.  Finishing the book is like losing a good friend.. I will wake up each day and miss Liesel Meminger, but know she is in a better place, as am I, for hearing her story.  Amazing job, Markus Zusak.

On a recent shopping trip on Meeting Street, downtown Charleston, I stopped in to the Mills House Hotel's restaurant, The Barbadoes Room, for lunch.  Their she-crab soup has always been my favorite, and it was still just as creamy and delicious as I remembered.  It has a little kick from just the right amount of red pepper and a nice finish from the dash of sherried cream on top.  The restaurant itself is cozy and quiet,  decorated in a rich, Caribbean style, with paddle fans in the shape of palm leaves, comfy upholstered chairs and deep carpets.  The wait staff is experienced, professional and friendly.  Most of them have been waiting on me for years.  The new presentation of the food on the lunch menu, however, is not quite up to par.  The chicken salad has always been a favorite, served in a halved pineapple, but is now served in a mound on the plate.  Just not the same.  Still, worth the trip for lunch, if just for the she-crab soup.