Wickles: The most delicious pickles. Ever.

I am not a big pickle fan. For the first 20 or so years of my life I would make every effort to remove any pickles that happened to sneak their way onto my sandwiches, or would specifically ask for them to be left off. For the last five or six years, though, I have begun to embrace pickles, even going so far as to add them to my food sometime. Still, I'm not a huge fan.

That is, until my friends in Birmingham, Abby and Jane, introduced me to Wickles pickles. Like so many other good things, Wickles are made in Alabama (Dadeville, to be specific) and while they seem innocuous at first, a closer inspection will reveal chopped garlic and two chili peppers floating in the brine. It is those chili peppers that give Wickles their kick--a nice touch of heat that comes after the initial sweetness. While they certainly add a lot to sandwiches, hamburgers, and likely to tuna salad, Wickles are good enough to eat on their own (even for non-pickle lovers like me).

While the Wickles company has a whole line of products, including pickle relish, red pepper relish, pepper strips, banana pepper strips, and pickled okra, I have only tried the pickles at this point, though I would certainly like to try the others. In fact, if the good people at Wickles would like to ship me a gift pack, or a 64 oz. jar of regular Wickles, I would certainly be obliged to give them a taste.

Although I have no looked extensively, I have so far only been able to find Wickles pickles in Birmingham. I've been to two Publixes (Publices?) in Atlanta that had some of their other products, but not the pickles. Fortunately, all of their products are available on their website, and the pickles are just $4.95 a jar. If you remotely like sweet pickles, I highly suggest giving these a try, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Southern Staple: Cheese Straws

Cheese straws are, quite simply, a classic Southern snack. Equally at home with a glass of sweet tea on the porch as they are being served at a cocktail party, cheese straws are an unpretentious but delicious choice. And while cheese straws are fairly simple in concept, the ingredient list is basically just cheese, flour, butter, salt and cayenne pepper, it is in the execution that things become tricky.

A proper cheese straw is light and dense and should have a good snap to it. It should not be too gummy or crumbly, nor should it be crispy like a potato chip. The two keys here are proper density of the dough, the proper texture/shape.

My mom (who is a frequent reader of A Trip Down South and will probably be excited that she is getting a shout-out) makes, in my opinion, the best cheese straws in the country (pictured above). They are just the right texture, which is due in large part to the use of a hand-crank cookie press. She has an electric cookie press that she tried once, but they just didn't turn out right. Whenever she makes them, it's usually only a matter of days, if not hours, before they are gone.

Unfortunately, getting your hands on some really good cheese straws can be somewhat difficult. While they do sell them at stores like Publix, they are usually quite expensive ($6 or $7 for a pretty small bag), and even those aren't as good as homemade ones. If you've got a suggestion for readers as to what some of the better store brands are, I'm sure others would appreciate it.

Southern Staple: Fried turkey

You Yankees can keep your pop-up thermometers and Butterball hotline. Here in the South, we like our turkey with crispy skin, moist, delicious meat, and the ever-present threat of a giant grease fire.

Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you are.

Recommended: Palmetto Cheese

Photo taken from this blog (because I was too lazy to take my own picture)

For those of you who have been reading this a while, you may remember my Southern Staple: Pimento Cheese post, or my other post when I made my own pimento cheese--which brought about a reversal of my 24 year objection to it. Well, the other day my mom spotted some Palmetto Cheese at Costco and picked some up. After giving it a try, first on crackers, then on a sandwich, I've got to say this is the best store-bought pimento cheese I have had. Really, this stuff almost makes making your pimento cheese a moot point.

She bought the regular, not the jalapeno, and it was not too sweet or too mayonnaisey, with sharp cheddar and just the right amount of heat. I would like to give the jalapeno a try, though. Interestingly enough, according to the website, they use Hellman's mayonnaise; this is sure to stir up trouble with those who insist on using Duke's.

On top of being delicious, this stuff is made at Pawley's Island, SC, so obviously they know what they are doing. According to their website, it is available at Publix, Piggly Wiggly, Costco, Harris Teeter and Bi-Lo (and some other place called Central Market, which I have never heard of). You may have to request it, but I suggest that you do.

Pimento cheese: UPDATE

Thanks for all of the suggestions and comments from everyone regarding my pimento cheese troubles. I appreciate the recipes and advice. Given all of that information, yesterday I headed off to the grocery store to get the necessary ingredients. I ended up following the recipe (or technique, rather) of Anonymous at 12:33PM since it appeared to be the easiest and seemed to be the way that I would imagine most grandmothers have made it over the years. After experimenting with my ratio of mayo and peppers (and adding a bit more onion than was originally suggested), I was finally able to create a delicious concoction worthy to be called "pimento cheese." Perhaps all it required was having a better understanding of the ingredients and where the unique flavor comes from, but now I am afraid that I am having trouble restraining myself from eating the entire batch this weekend.

Southern Staple: Pimento cheese

Photo stolen from this website

Growing up, I remember my parents and grandparents enjoying pimento cheese on a regular basis. Used on a sandwich, or ordered on a chili cheese dog at the Varsity, I was well acquainted with the mysterious yellow substance. I, however, never really enjoyed it, and lately, this has been causing me some consternation.

I would like to take a second to state that if you are unfamiliar with pimento cheese, you are likely not from the South. Basically it is a mix of cheese, mayonnaise, and pimentos. It is often served between two pieces of bread as a sandwich, with crackers as an appetizer, or simply as a condiment. While I suspect that it is not really as popular with the younger generations, I would be willing to wager that 9 out of 10 Southerners still know what it is. Somewhat related to my previous post, here is an article about pimento cheese on NPR's website.

As I mentioned, I never really found pimento cheese to be very appetizing. However, at some point last year, I decided that since my taste buds have matured, and since it had likely been a decade (at least) since I had last tried pimento cheese, I would give it another shot. I went down to the local Western grocery store and picked up a pint of local variety from the deli. Upon taking it home and trying it on some bread, I quickly came to realize that love for this substance still eluded me. In fact, as much as I like mayonnaise, I was really having trouble not gagging from the overwhelming mayo taste that accompanied this concoction. So, as quickly as it began, I gave up on my quest.

My interest was piqued again, however, while reading the November issue of "Garden & Gun." In the article "100 Southern Foods You Absolutely, Positively Must Try Before You Die," there was a featured picture and write-up of the pimento cheese and crackers from Blackberry Farm in Walland, TN, and frankly, it looked delicious. My likelihood of making it up to Walland to try the best pimento cheese in the South is pretty low, so I wondered if anyone might have a pimento cheese recipe to suggest. I would really like to avoid a recipe that has an overwhelming mayo flavor, and I am confident that it can be accomplished, I simply haven't tried it yet. I feel like my Southerner status is lacking as long as I cannot enjoy this staple, so please, share your best recipe.

Restaurant review: Siam Royal Thai Cuisine in Clemson

I am primarily writing this review in the hopes that someone Googling for a review of this restaurant will come across this post so that they may avoid the mistake that I made. That mistake would be eating at the new Thai restaurant in Clemson.

For a little background, about a year and a half ago, the shopping center where the old Thai restaurant in Clemson used to be burned down. This shopping center has been rebuilt since then and a new Thai restaurant (or perhaps the latest incarnation of the old restaurant) opened up around a month ago. Being a lover of Thai food, a love which I developed at the Surin restaurants in Birmingham, I was quite excited about this. A few weeks ago my classmate/neighbor went there for lunch and came back raving about it, so later that week I went up there for dinner with said neighbor, as well as three other friends.

The atmosphere in the restaurant was nothing to write home about, but certainly wasn't bad. It is fairly small and there were only a few other customers in there at the time. We sat down and began looking at the menu. It had a pretty typical Thai menu and seemed to offer most of the "traditional" dishes that one would look for. Right away we noticed that the prices were pretty high with most dinner entrees costing around $13-$15. The lunch menu isn't much cheaper and there few options under $10. Since masaman curry is what I usually get, and the gold standard by which I judge Thai restaurants, I ordered that, though I did ask them to hold the pineapple (I have never seen pineapple in masaman before coming to South Carolina; I don't get it).

It didn't take very long for our food to arrive, along with our disappointment. One friend, who was the first to get her food, ordered yellow curry. What arrived was a reddish-looking bowl of soupy curry covered with a coat of red oil. My curry arrived and did not look much better. I have never made curry from scratch, but I do understand that a proper curry does not have a layer of oil floating on top. My curry was actually fairly bland-tasting, had beef instead of the chicken that I ordered, and didn't have any cashews--one of the key ingredient of masaman as far as I'm concerned. The friend who recommended the restaurant ordered pad see ew, his typical dish, and again raved about it. I didn't taste it, but I did observe that the portion size looked pretty small for $13.

The friend who ordered yellow curry found hers, in spite of being labelled "mild," to be very spicy, too spicy for her, in fact. She tried to eat it, but really found it to be too much for her. She called the waitress over, said that she found the dish to be too hot and asked if she could order something else. She ordered some crab angel things (cream cheese and crab fried in a wonton) which were pretty good. Anyways, when the bill came, said friend found that she was charged for both her entree and appetizer. She asked mentioned this to the manager/owner (I could not tell exactly who it was), indicating that the curry was much spicier than she had been led to believe and that it wasn't what she ordered, and asked why she had been charged for both. His response was that the food had to be thrown away and that it was just the same as if she had eaten it. He grudgingly conceded to taking it off the menu with the warning that this would be the only time he would do that. I worked in a restaurant for 3 years in high school and have pretty good sympathy for restaurant staff. However, I also have pretty decent standards for customer service at restaurants and I found this to be pretty abysmal "service." Even if the food had been good, I'm pretty sure that most of us would have thought twice about going back there to eat.

Anyways, to sum up, Siam Royal Thai Cuisine really did not have any redeeming qualities. The food was not good, was over priced, had poor portions for the price, and has bad customer service (though I will say that our waitress was nice). Like I said, I hope that someone will read this review and avoid wasting their money there, or perhaps it will inspire someone at the restaurant to step things up and solve these problems. Clemson could use a good Thai restaurant, and I guess we will have to keep waiting.

A Trip Down South...to Birmingham

The weekend before last I paid a much-needed visit to the Magic City for a long weekend. It was an excellent trip, so for those who might be interested, I thought I would include my itinerary.

Thursday:
-Lunch at Mellow Mushroom with friends who I used to work with at the County (and who are all beating me in Fantasy Football)
-A visit to see a friend who works at the Starbucks in Crestline Village
-Dinner at Al's with above Starbucks friend, along with some other friends who used to work there (Starbucks friends are great ones to have, I should note)
-Had a beer at the J. Clyde with Starbucks friends and some acquaintances from Red Mountain Church (was not as impressed with J. Clyde as I would have hoped)

Friday:
-Visit with former co-workers at KPS Group (also trying to drum up job leads)
-Visited my Magic City lacrosse teammate at he and his wife's new art gallery, the Dobbs Gallery (if you like art and have not been there, I would highly recommend stopping by)
-Lunch at Cobb Lane Restaurant with former co-workers at Ogletree Deakins (and had the "pleasure" of being waited on by most awkward/nosy waiter who has ever worked in the city)
-Made a trip to my favorite thrift store in the city and picked up two new with tag suits (one was a Corbin, one was a Southwick) which I plan on reselling (though I did sell one to my former roommate who I was staying with; the other is a 43L glen plaid if you're interested)
-Bought my brother three bottles of booze (quality stuff, I assure you) for his 21st birthday and took them to his dorm at Samford
-Had dinner at Jackson's at SOHO with some other lacrosse guys

Saturday:
-Went to lacrosse practice and had a blast
-Went to the St. George Middle Eastern Food Festival with Starbucks friends and enjoyed some authentic Middle Eastern food and belly dancing (spectating, not participating)
-Hung out with a friend at her apartment and watched Florida destroy LSU

Anyways, if you can't tell, it was a great weekend and made me really miss the city. So if you have any leads for real estate jobs there, I'd love to hear about them...

The Recovery Room, Charleston, SC

For the past seven weeks after church I have visited the Recovery Room in Charleston for brunch. I suspect that my friends are getting annoyed about how much I talk about this place, but frankly, it is pretty fantastic.



Located on upper King Street, practically beneath the Crosstown Connector, it isn't exactly in a great part of town, but it certainly adds to the bar's unique character. Inside, it is a windowless dive bar with plenty of neon and kitschy decor. The food is greasy brunch fare (along with yogurt and granola, for those trying to be healthy) and includes egg sandwiches, massive omelets, biscuits with chicken fingers covered in your choice of honey or gravy (or, if you are like me, you might accidentally get both), and "hash browns," which are better known as "tater tots." Another highlight are the $2.50 mimosas which are hard to pass up.



The place is run by Chris Boston who came from Moe's Crosstown. I must admit that he was so friendly and hilarious as our server the first day we went there, that my affinity for the place is probably due in large part to his personality. My only complaint is that it can take a while to get your food after you have ordered, so it would be great if they could work on that. However, each of the tables have Trivial Pursuit cards (Genus Edition; the only real version as far as I'm concerned) and there is a game of Connect 4 that floats around somewhere in the bar to keep you entertained while waiting.



I have not visited this place any time other than for brunch on Sundays, but it is open as a bar during the week and, apparently, serves breakfast food all day. If you're having rough morning after a late night out in Charleston, I highly recommend finding your cure at the Recovery Room.

685 King St., Charleston, SC 29403
(843) 727-0999
There is plenty of parking located across the street in the gravel/dirt lot.

The Magic City: Eight Things I Miss

*Photo courtesy of Brian T. Murphy's flickr

Below is a list of eight things that I miss about Birmingham. I'm sure there are more, but these are eight that I came up with.

8. Old houses: Sure, lots of places have old houses, but Birmingham really has some great old neighborhoods (South Side, Highlands, Crestwood, to name a few) with houses built between the 1920s and 1940s. While I have not personally lived in one (though I did live in a 75+ year old apartment complex), I had a number of friends who lived in them and always relished in the comforting feeling of old hardwood floors and plaster walls.

7. "Mountains": While Birmingham's mountains are not every impressive by normal mountain standards, they did provide for a nice change in elevation, great background for the city, and beautiful vistas, which would include Pregnancy Point and Pregnancy Point II (these were names that I came up with, though I do not know if any babies were actually conceived at either place).

6. Mountain Brook: After I graduated from college, I was fortunate enough to live in an apartment complex in English Village, one of the three historic villages in Mountain Brook. While I am not sure if I will ever be able to afford an actual house in Mountain Brook, living in an apartment there was enough to give me a good appreciation. In spite of the "Brookies" who populate it, it is difficult not to enjoy the winding, tree-lined roads, beautiful old houses and mansions, and the walkable retail environments created in the different villages. Say what you will about it, I certainly wouldn't mind living there again.

5. Hipsters and their parties: Through various avenues I became somewhat acquainted with a good-sized part of the hipster population in Birmingham. While I mentioned this in my last post, and while the verdict may still be out on whether or not hipsters are actually a useful part of our society, I will say that they did add a nice bohemian flare to the city that I sorely miss in Clemson, South Carolina. They did create, or were at least involved heavily in, the art and music scene, and to see them driving around on their Vespas did add a nice cosmopolitan touch to the city. Most of all, as mentioned, I love their parties and Kids Got the Disco, a monthly hipster techno dance party, really seems to be getting pretty huge.

4. Magic City Lacrosse Club: I first played lacrosse in the 5th grade when I lived in NOVA, and then started playing again in middle school once my family moved back to Atlanta. I have basically been playing ever since. When I got to college at Samford, it was not surprising to learn that they didn't have a lacrosse team. However, I was able to find the local men's club team and played with them from my freshman year until I moved away last summer. I had a great time with those guys just getting out once a week and throwing the ball around and scrimmaging. It kept me (relatively) in shape and let me make some good friends. I really miss those guys and I really miss being able to play every week. If I do end up moving back to Birmingham, I will be at practice the first week back.

3. Red Mountain Church: I mentioned Red Mountain a few posts ago, but that church has meant a lot to me. Along with the things that I learned from great preaching, it has shown me how a church really is a family more than a building. It is about relationships and loving those around you as Christ did, in spite of what their past or present situations may be. I'm not sure if there is another church anywhere that is quite like Red Mountain, and I consider myself fortunate to have been able to attend there for as many years as I did.

2. Restaurants: I think that Birmingham is one of the best kept culinary secrets in the South. I would even say that the New York Times would agree with me. While I miss the nicer restaurants like Hot & Hot Fish Club and Chez Fonfon (I never actually made it to Highland Bar & Grill, so I will not include it, though I would still really like to go sometime), it is some of the smaller and cheaper restaurants that I probably miss more. Rojo, for one, is still hard to beat for a relatively cheap meal and a fantastic atmosphere. The line of Surin restaurants is some of the best Thai food I have eaten, and Taj India really opened my eyes to Indian food. Perhaps Birmingham's greatest boon, however, is its Greek restaurants. From the 24 hour gyro/hamburger places like Purple Onion and Al's, to the mid-level places like Taziki's, and the nicer places like Nabeel's and Fish Market, if you have a craving for some Mediterranean food, the Magic City is the place for you. Other favorites include Zoe's, Tip Top Grill, and too many bars to name.

1. Friends: Of course, I could not talk about Birmingham without mentioning the many friends I made there, many of whom still live there. I will not get specific for fear of leaving someone out, or singling someone out, but I will say that I really enjoyed having friends from so many walks of life, whether it be college or work or church or lacrosse or some combination of those. I really feel like I felt a great network of close relationships that would overlap and interweave, and I could really see what it was like to live in a community. I miss them, and hope that I might live in Birmingham again to try to pick up the loose ends of those relationships and continue on.