Category: Eats

Food, glorious food

Posted on

Winding down at Ted’s

My new favourite thing to wind down the week with is the Friday night dinner at Ted’s Butcherblock.

The best deal in town: $12 for for a hot, home-cooked, gourmet meal. Each Friday, Chef Eva prepares a creative, restaurant-style meal, including dessert

Ted’s has been around for a few years now, but aside from the occasional trip there to ogle at all the neat meat and not-meat items, I hadn’t gone there too often. A few weeks ago a few CSCLUG members gathered there for a Friday night dinner. It was my first one and the food was pretty phenomenal. I’ve made it a regular Friday stop for the past few weeks now, and each time the food never fails to put a smile on my face. It’s a nice place to relax with some good food and to indulge the inner foodie.

After dinner (and the wine tasting should you choose), it’s also hard to walk out of Ted’s without picking up something else, like the house roasted Wagyu beef from the deli, the very tempting hunks of meat in the butcher case, or all the goodies in the freezer.

So after a long week, head over to Ted’s Butcherblock for a nice relaxing dinner. Then bring something back home with you to throw on the grill for the next day.

Posted on

Hickory Hawg

Today’s LowcountryBBQ meatup at Hickory Hawg was pretty well attended and turned out to be a big family affair. I got there a little after 6 thinking I’d be early, but everybody was there already.

A group of people sitting around a long table eating BBQ

Unlike the last few BBQ places, Hickory Hawg isn’t a buffet style place. You walk up to the counter, pick something from the menu (and they’re pretty flexible about letting you pick and choose) and when it’s ready they’ll bring your food out to you.

Ordering counter at a BBQ restaurant

I ordered the Hickory Hawg platter for $8 and change, which is a big heaping serving of BBQ pork and two sides (I got the hash and baked beans).

A BBQ platter with pulled pork, hash, baked beans, and hush puppies

The pork was pretty tasty; really good all by itself, but made even better with a little of their sauce, a slightly vinegary tomato based sauce. You can even buy some of their sauce to take home with you.

The platter is just a bigger version of a plate, and is a pretty substantial amount of food. If you’re really, really hungry, the platter is the way to go. Otherwise you might want to stick with the plate version for $5 and change. Regardless of which one you get, the prices at Hickory Hawg make the place a terrific value.

I’ll have to go back another day and try out the ribs. They looked pretty good too.

Posted on

$12 dinners at Ted’s Butcherblock

Met a bunch of fellow CSCLUGers at Ted’s Butcherblock today for one of their $12 Friday night dinners. Today’s menu was grilled domestic shrimp with truffled summer succotash, crisp parmesan grit cake with cauliflower buttermilk puree.

A plate of grilled domestic shrimp with truffled summer succotash, crisp parmesan grit cake with cauliflower buttermilk puree

First of all, cauliflower buttermilk puree? Totally not yuck like you might think. In fact, if you didn’t read the menu, you’d never know it was even made of cauliflower. I wanted more of it on my plate. Shrimp: Yum. Grit cake: excellent with the puree.

Everything on the plate was really yummy.

For dessert there were a couple of Chocolate-Banana Eclairs

A bowl with two chocolate covered banana eclairs

Delicious.

Yeah, I have to go back for more of these $12 Friday night dinners.

Posted on

Bacon + Chocolate = Win!

At Ted’s Butcherblock today, I spotted this bacon chocolate bar (by Vosges Chocolate) at the counter. It was the last one, so I had to buy it to check it out.

Bacon chocolate bar

Bacon chocolate bar (back)

It’s milk chocolate bar with little bits of bacon in it!

Bits of bacon in chocolate
As a chocolate bar it was actually pretty good, despite the milk chocolate. It’s a little bit salty, a little bit smoky from the bacon and sweet from the chocolate. Maybe a little bit strange at first look, and I’m sure it’s not going to suit everybody’s tastes who expect chocolate to be a sweet treat, but this one works pretty well. It’s pretty expensive for a chocolate bar, but makes for an interesting and different treat. Looks like there’s a dark chocolate version of the bar out now, which I think might be even better. I’ll have to keep an eye out for it now.

Posted on

Dukes BBQ Meatup

It was road tripping up to Ridgeville for the latest Lowcountry BBQ meatup at Duke’s BBQ this evening.

Word on the street is that Duke’s BBQ is pretty good (one of the best most would say), and I’d have to say the street is pretty accurate.

Like many of the really good BBQ places, it’s not fancy inside. Walking into the door you’re greeted by the large main seating area with 3 large tables (perfect for large groups or communal dining). Off to the side is more table seating. Pony up to the cashier and pay your $8 (plus tax) and dig into the buffet. Buffet items are pretty standard for a SC BBQ place: rice, hash, sweet potatoes, pulled pork, chicken and a few other things.

Duke's BBQ building
A group of people sitting at a table eating BBQ

I think my favourite item was the hash. Almost gravy like, it was good over rice or just straight up. Give me a bowl of the hash and I’ll be happy. Mmmm, hash…

A styrofoam plate of pulld pork BBQ, hash and rice, coleslaw, and hushpuppies

A plate of this would make me happy too.

A serving container of pulld pork BBQ

George Pasley was the lucky winner of the Media Mogul Twitter contest between the Carolina Regional Business Journal and The Digitel. George’s prize: a couple of boxes of Moon Pies and two cases of RC Cola.

Two people standing in front of the Duke's BBQ sign shaking hands. One is holding a box of Moon Pies. A box of moon pies and two cases of RC Cola are sittingo n the ground.
Three people standing in front of the Duke's BBQ sign. The person on the right is holding a box of Moon Pies. The person on in the middle and on the left are shaking hands. The person on the left is holding a case of RC Cola.
Two signs posted inside Duke's BBQ. One sign reads Dukes Bar-B-Que. Pig In or Pig Out. Ridgeville, SC. The other sign says Dukes Bar-B-Que, Ridgeville, SC

The Ridgeville Duke’s is pretty good, and worth the trip. I’m starting to think that I’ll have to move because I live too far away from all my favourite BBQ joints.