Sunday, November 15, 2009

Southern exposure

Jeremy and I just returned from 10 days in the south, North and South Carolina to be exact. We visited as many friends and family as we could squeeze in and ate our way through each state. We had hush puppies, boiled peanuts, grits (lots of grits), tomato pudding, hash & rice, buttermilk pie, some barbeque with vinegar bbq "sauce" , some lovely seafood, and key lime pie (which apparently originated in the south). We didn't get around to having okra, really good barbeque, pecan pie (which also originated in the south), or bourbon. But I'm sure we'll be back again some day!

Some of the sites we saw:

wildlife and sculpture at Brookgreen Gardens





took us awhile to realize those alligators weren't living!


part of the irrigation works for the rice plantations that covered this area - banks were built up and then these wooden sluices could let water in or out. South Carolina had a lot of rice plantations in the 1700s and were growing and exporting tons of it.




These are "live oaks" - I'm not sure why they're named that. But they are absolutely enormous, gnarly old trees. The grey-green stuff dripping down from the branches is Spanish moss which is all over the trees in that area.






I had to play on the beach of course...






It seems a common buiding ingredient is shells, at least in sidewalks.


And a little humor...


I almost forgot! Jeremy's friend in Charleston has a great collection of strange instruments and he treated us to some hurdy-gurdy tunes. (And yes, there is a baby in the background trying to communicate with her mom. =)

5 comments:

Jonathan Dresner said...

Buttermilk Pie? I've never heard of it, but it sounds decadent.

Jessica (your sister) said...

I have no idea what buttermilk pie is but apparently we have a recipe for it. Just in case you liked it and wanted a recipe.

Aimee said...

Well, the woman at the restaurant explained it as "the south's version of key lime pie." At least I think that's what she said, but now it doesn't make too much sense since I think the south invented the key lime pie too!
Anyway Buttermilk Pie turned out to be a custard pie with some nutmeg in it. Simple, but incredibly tasty!

Omar said...

Key lime pie would have to be from the South, wouldn't it? Don't the key limes come from the Florida keys?

Aimee said...

Uh... maybe. =)