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Every town has one, or ten. A place that has no sign out front, no Twitter page, no way to know it exists unless some tells you it's there. The only way a place is going to survive by shirking every kind of modern-day media is if it's AWESOME.

Rockaways Athletic Club is just one of those places. Known simply for it's bar food. Specifically, it's pimento cheeseburger and pimento cheese fries. It's the kind of place that isn't going to have fancy plasma televisions on the wall. (Oh, there are TVs, but they were inherited from the 90s.) But it's still the kind of place that is going to be slammed during any important game. Hell, it was a Tuesday, I still heard people losing their minds long before the sun went down. Columbia is one hell of a place.

Husband and I went to Rockaways with some of his work colleagues for the second game of the College World Series. Our beloved Gamecocks were looking to take home the title for a second year in a row against the hated Florida Gators.

Of course, Husband and I split a pimento cheeseburger and a large order of pimento fries. The pictures below are SERIOUSLY as good as they look.

It's greasy, it's cheesy, it's glorious. Nothing fancy, nothing pretentious, just fried, grilled goodness.

Needless to say, the Gamecocks brought home their second title (Go Cocks!), and Husband and I gained a couple of pounds.

The Breakdown:


The decor: Decor? What decor? There's a bar, a table, some chairs. Sit your ass down and order the cheeseburger already.

The food: Always the same, always delicious.

The wait staff: Quick and efficient. The way a good bar should be run. I still see the same waitress there I have been seeing since I've been here in 2003.

The drink: It's a dive bar. Beer and house liquor, stick with that.

The atmosphere: Down home. Regulars abound.

The price: Burger + cheese fries and several rounds of beers ran us about $35. Not too bad for four to five hours watching the game!

Wonderfully Wine-y Weekend

It's been one year since Husband and I got married. Because he's such an awesomesauce guy, he took me to Asheville, NC for the weekend. We started up to the mountains Saturday morning and settled on something that Husband loves dearly for lunch, Mexican food.

In Columbia, we have San Jose's as our popular, chain, quasi-Mexican hangout. In Asheville, it looks like the chain to beat has to be Papas and Beer. They had a nice little patio, which we took full advantage of since Asheville weather is decidedly less sweat-inducing than the armpit of the south in late June. We were greeted with the regular chips and some bean dip. The bean dip was about as interesting as a Monday-morning staff metting, BUT they did have this excellent salsa bar inside. Instead of the salsas being a mush of spice and oil and tomato like I tend to find at some salsa bars, these salsas were fresh, vibrant, spicy and delicious. They had avocado salsa, some sort of tiger sauce, a green chile salsa, pico de gallo, among others. It was a very nice surprise.

Knowing that we were going to splurge on an enormous dinner, we both opted for tacos. I had the shrimp tacos, which, very awesomely came in corn tortillas. I believe the corn tortillas were very fresh since they were not at all dry. The shrimp were well prepared and seasoned well. There was nothing extra special about the rice and the beans.

The service was fairly quick and kind. There were some points where we waited a bit longer than expected, like when we asked for the check, but it was fine for a quick lunch. It was also very reasonably priced.

From our lunch, Husband and I went for a tour of the Biltmore estate. Now, a nerdy American history-loving little minx like me eats that stuff right up. It was just fascinating to see this grand estate and learn about the family and see the architecture and blah, blah, blah. Really, it's one of those places that you can't do justice describing in a food blog.

After the house tour, we went down to the winery and did a red wine and chocolate tasting. (Husband KNOWS me.) Thankfully, this did not come with the half hour guided tour of the winery. I've seen a winery, I know how wine is made, seriously, I just want to drink it.

A pinot noir with milk chocolate hazelnut, the winery's special blend with dark chocolate raspberry, you get the picture. It was $30 for the two of us to do this and we got all the wine we wanted, but only those four truffles. It was really well worth it. We purchased bottles of two of the wines that we tasted.

After this tasting, our guide asked us if we wanted to head to the complimentary tasting room. Uh...yea, we do, we have problems. She set us up with Vanessa, who was one of the wine hosts. They have about 15-20 different wines to taste and the tasting is free with tickets to the Biltmore. Husband and I, tried almost all of them. Don't judge us. The tasting room is located in the old dairy barn. They have lots of tables, with lots of people and lots of wine. Vanessa took great care of us.

All happy off of our wine tasting, we headed to check into our hotel at Biltmore Park and get ready for dinner. We decided on a place called 131 Main, a popular place right across the street from the hotel that features steaks, chops and chicken. We started out with an appetizer called The Double Dip, which was homemade guacamole and a red pepper, cream cheese dip. It was very good. That appetizer hung out with us for a while.



I also decided to defer from wine for a bit and opted for the house drink, the 131 MAINIAC, which was a sweet and sour blend of Southern Comfort, Peach Schnapps, Amaretto and sweet and sour. It was very refreshing.

The only bad part of the meal was the salad. Both Husband and I did not like it. I ordered the cesar. That salad was the most over dressed salad I have ever laid eyes on. It reminded me of trying to get a toddler to eat a salad. Why is that? Well, how do you get a young child to eat a salad...why, you kill it with Ranch dressing. It was truely a shame.

For dinner, I had the meatloaf and Husband had the BBQ chicken. The meatloaf. Was. Awesome. (MOM...THE MEATLOAF!!) There is something about really great meatloaf that just makes me so happy. It's so easy to do bad meatloaf with a ketchup sauce and it'll be dry and awful. 131, I believe, mixes sausage into theirs. There was a deifinte hint of fennel-y goodness, slathered with a mushroom gravy. The red skinned mased potatoes were chunky and delicious.

The end of the meal came with a banana cream pie. Now, after having more wine (we had a bottle of the Syrah, which was decent), I was too...happy...to take a picture of it. It was wonderous though, laced with whipped cream and white chocolate.

Our waiter was wonderful. Husband and I tend to have LONG dinners, and we hate feeling rushed. Our waiter picked up on this and our food came out at a pace where we did not feel at all rushed. He was friendly and courteous and checked in on us often. We left absolutely sastiated.

The next morning, we were looking for some breakfast and we found a little place in the Arts District call the Clingman Cafe. It was a tiny little place with local art on the wall, serving bagels and sandwhiches. I had the Josh Special, which was egg, pesto, mozzarella and tomato on a cibatta roll pressed like a panini. Seriously, I didn't think I was hungry after our rediculous dinner the night before, but I ate the whole thing. It was delicious.

What a fantastic way to celebrate our first anniversary. It wasn't long at all from Columbia (about two and a half hours), and it was better weather!

The Breakdown (Papas and Beer):

The decor: Dark inside, sit outside if you can.

The food: More authentic that I've found with most "Mexican" chain restaurants. The salsa bar and corn tortillas were key.

The wait staff: Not bad. Not great.

The drink: They have your typical beer on tap for this type of establishment.

The atmosphere: Laid back. Perfect for a nice lunch.

The price: Perfect. Two lunches and a beer for Husband came in under $20. A definite deal.

The Breakdown (131 Main):


The decor: Modern. The outside terrace has a cool fire feature and the inside has some cool glass art. It's very open.

The food: Beside the unfortunate salads. The food was great not-quite-upscale comfort food.

The wait staff: Very sweet. It is always nice to not feel rushed and have food being thrown at you when the kitchen sends it. They were very attentive.

The drink: A short, but decent selection of wines. You're going to drop at least $45 on a bottle if you choose to get one. Their cocktail menu is very fun.

The atmosphere: Open, bustling, busy. It's a popular place but your don't feel like people are sitting on top of each other.

The price: For a nice dinner out for our first anniversary, it was about $120. Which I believe with a bottle of wine and four courses, is a great price.

The Breakdown (Clingman Cafe):


The decor: Local art for sale on the walls. Tables lining the block outside. Your typical neighborhood cafe.

The food: Great bagels and breakfast sandwiches. Homemade with love.

The wait staff: You order at the counter and it's just a short wait for your food. So you don't see the staff all that often.

The drink: They do have a couple of bottles of wine and bubbly if you choose. They seemed like very nice choices.

The atmosphere: Laid back, artsy. Would be a great place to hang out on Sunday mornings.

The price: Two homemade breakfast sandwiches = $14. Seriously a steal.

The Value of a Virtu

It is restaurant week in Columbia, SC. Husband and I took the opportunity to try something new. Vitru is a tapas-style restaurant on Devine St. The setup is pretty run of the mill. One giant room with a bar that is too big, tables that are stacked on top of each other and are too small. Tapas is not my favorite style of dining, but this was a new restaurant for Husband and myself, so we decided to try it.

The menu has a few good wine selections, definitely a little higher than your normal table wine. After strategizing the menu, Husband and I settled on one cold tapas and four hot ones. Now, the reason why tapas is not my favorite would be because there is no semblance of order. I not only have a hatred of chaos, no matter how unimportant the chaos might be, but I am a linear-thinking individual. The kitchen and the wait staff throw dishes at you and your are left with this tiny table covered from end to end with plates.

We began with the chile rellenos con pollo. They were batter-fried and severed with a chile lime sauce. The sauce was brilliant. It was bright and spicy. The chiles were well cooked and cheesy and yummy.

The rest of the food was thrown out at us all at once. We had the crab, avocado and tomato stack, which lacked in seasoning, but the ingredients were fresh. It could have definitely benefited from some acid and some spice.

We also had mozzarella on focaccia with a tomato dipping sauce. Now, this was the most exciting for me when I ordered it. Cheese? Bread? Yes, please. It let down a bit, the sauce was incredibly too chunky to dip the bread and cheese in and the bread either needed to be crispier to begin with or be toasted a bit more. The tomato sauce did have an excellent garlic and tomato flavor.

We also had wasabi-encrusted scallops. This, by far, was the best dish of the night. Inventive and sophisticated. Beautifully prepared. It had a crunch which was contrasted by the velvety scallop and a spice that was just enough not to overpower the dish. This was also the prettiest looking dish of the night.

The last, and unfortunately least, was the "tomato-salted" fries with a chipotle dipping sauce. Now, I don't know what they meant by tomato-salted, but I didn't taste any tomato. The dipping sauce was also the consistency of wallpaper paste. It was an average lump of french fries with an average sauce.

This place has promise. There is a patio outside that will be perfect (mostly because the tables are bigger) once the weather warms up a bit. My biggest problem of the place is that it doesn't have a true identity. Yes, it is tapas, but the dishes ranged from refined to ordinary. The waitstaff have these horrific red shirts to wear as uniforms that reminisce of TGIFridays. I think we'll try again in the spring/summer to see if their crisis will be solved. I'll be rooting for this place.

On a second note, after dinner, Husband and I went to Speakeasy to meet up with some friends for some after dinner drinks. I have a new chick drink favorite. The pear pomegrante martini is amazing.

The Breakdown:


The decor: Typical, almost too typical. The patio has promise, but the bar and the television stationed there dominate the place.

The food: On the fence on this one. Some dishes I would want again and again and some were just ok. The scallops were a home run and the stack and the bread and mozzarella plate would be too with some tweaking.

The wait staff: I don't think that some of the wait staff here are very well trained. Our main waitress was efficient and sweet. Although, they do make the mistake of allowing some of the other wait staff to run plates to their tables. We almost received a plate that was meant for another table and also received a credit card and receipt from another table after we had paid our tab. Please don't make me remember their uniforms again.

The drink: Above average selection of beer and wine.

The atmosphere: Generic. You eat on top of the people next to you and you can't help but notice the television on the bar.

The price: A bit pricey for the atmosphere. Even with a 10% discount from checking in there for the first time on Foursquare, our tab was $70. We did have a couple glasses of wine a piece, which accounted for almost half of the check but to pay that type of money again, I would expect a bit more refinement from the staff and the decor.

A Time for Resolutions: Dieting and savings for all!

I can't pretend I don't participate in the New Year resolution revolving door of "THIS year I WILL get in shape and STAY in shape" and then 3 weeks later after I've shed the 5 pounds I've gained over the holidays turn around and say "yea, right." Well, 6 days into 2011, I've finally gotten on that dreaded scale. Four pounds...SIGH. Up comes the Lost It! app on my iPhone (which, by the way, is a great calorie tracker) and down goes the confidence I had to slap on that really cute new black skirt Mom got me for Christmas.

Dieting sucks. This isn't news to anyone. You've got to curb everything to lose weight and get off the damn couch once in a while. Now, dieting does suck. I have to forgo the urge to snack on the chocolate chips and homemade frosting I used for holiday baking. Yes, I snack on frosting...you have a problem with that? But dieting doesn't mean you have to have boiled chicken and frozen green vegetables. You can actually diet without going hungry, or going without flavor. It's all about making the right choices.

Last night, I made something I have never made before. Tilapia. Apart from canned tuna and anchovies, I have never made anything with fish in the house before in my life. Why? Because it scares me. Fish can overcook so quickly and it intimidates me to drop more money on a product that's just going to taste like I'm licking the kitchen floor at a Red Lobster (but the biscuits are good).

So, while I was browsing my local Food Lion, looking for something a little less fatty than the ham Husband made for me last weekend, I came across some tilapia fillets. The package of two was only about $4.50, so I decided to give it a whirl. I seasoned the fish with salt, pepper, garlic powder and tarragon. Then I sauteed it on medium high heat for about 3 minutes on each side and served it on top of a cup of cooked couscous with raisins and squeezed some fresh lemon juice on top. Less than 400 calories for so much stuff.

Since I suck at segues, I'm just going to start with my second topic. So a couple of nights ago, I saw this show come on called Extreme Couponing. Now, Husband is an extreme cheapskate, so I told him he should turn it on. I regret this. The show was about these people who, as a hobby, try and put together manufacturer's and store coupons with store discounts to basically get hundreds of dollars worth of food for a ridiculously low amount of money. Think $600 worth of food and products for under $10.

This got Husband's mind all jacked up. This is the kind of stuff he thrives on. The man loves a bargain more than anything. Immediately, he got to work, at work (such the productive little monkey he is). He, almost instantaneously found out that he could go to Bi-Lo and work his coupon and savings magic and somehow make it so that the store owes him money. Yup. He called me in the middle of the day, so proud of himself that he caused one of Bi-Lo's self-checkout computers to crash because it said it owed him $0.13. He went to four different Bi-Lo stores yesterday, cleaning them out of pasta. He came home with about 40 boxes, all for a grand total of about $1.50. Here's the proof.

He spent most of the evening scheming about his next purchase. I have been attempting to plant a little seed in his head that he needs to only stockpile stuff that we will:

1) Use, and not the "hey, this is different and looks kind of interesting so I'll get 70 of them" kind of use.
2) Will not expire, at least not in this decade.

I don't know how much of that actually sank in, but I have a feeling we're going to need a bigger boat.