I miss Asheville BBQ and beer

Whoops. I forgot to post this before. I wrote it on my phone and then forgot about it until just now.


There is a difference between eastern and western Carolina BBQ, I now know. I thought all Carolina BBQ was the kind with a vinegar-based sauce. That's east. Western is the same but with a little tomato sauce added. It is now my favorite. Also, smoked turkey is completely under-rated.

There are tons of galleries here. I bought a print by a local artist sold in a converted Woolworth's that is now an artists' collective plus a soda fountain.

I don't think I've seen any fast food restaurants here. And the only chain store I recall seeing is Urban Outfitters. Not being one to seek out Starbuck's or any other national chain on vacation, it didn't hit me right away. But now I'm thinking this can't be accidental. And I think it definitely contributes to making this such a charming town.

I forgot to mention that when we saw the bluegrass band the other night, there was a bonfire out back behind the brewery as well.

My favorite local beers: Duck Rabbit Milk Stout (already knew and loved that one), Duck Rabbit Amber (I'm convinced that brewery can do no wrong), Pisgah Coffee Stout, Wedge Russian Imperial Stout (yes, raspberry can successfully be added to a dark beer), Wedge Community Porter, French Bread Wee Heavy-est.

What came first: hippies or beer?

I was determined that we'd hear some bluegrass this weekend, ideally in a bar that serves good local beer. I had picked out an option and then in the meantime we took a drive out to a brewpub just outside Asheville called Pisgah. They make beers the way we like them: strong and dark. We didn't want to leave those beers so we opted to stay and hear the band that was playing there. We really liked the opener: Jackass Flats (from Richmond). The main act, Cornmeal, is apparently a popular local band and was more of a bluegrass slash jam band so slightly less our preference. But still really great, especially the dynamo female violinist. 

It's a high of maybe 50 degrees but you'd think it was 80 the way people are dressed here. The worst part is that the restaurants are buying into this "heatwave" mentality and are seating people on their porches. We're waiting for a table right now and I'm really hoping for an inside one or else I may eat brunch with my gloves on. 

What is it about hippies and beer? It seems like wherever you find a good craft beer scene there is also an abundance of patchouli, dreads and Birkenstocks. 

We were seated inside for brunch where shared shrimp and grits and a fries green tomato BLT, both of which bordered on amazing. 

Mostly tasteless

My ears are pretty clogged. Going up and down the elevator is rather uncomfortable. I am having trouble (more so than normal) hearing.

The backstory here is that I had a cold that had my feeling pretty crappy from Monday through Wednesday. Yesterday I felt almost normal. Today I am 99% not a mouth-breather anymore.

My taste buds are operating at about 10%, I think, although it's kind of hard to tell since my brain seems to do a pretty good job of filling in the blanks.

I drank some red wine last night and I'm fairly certain that I detected enough of the flavor to appreciate it. Why else would I have drunk two glasses??

I ate a piece of sharp cheddar cheese and didn't taste it, but I like chewing cheese, so I had a second piece.

I made a sauce from scratch to put on chicken tacos. The spice was readily apparent in the back of my mouth, but other than that, nothing. Jeff, ever afraid to criticize my cooking (probably wise), only told me that it was "good."

Here's another weird fact: I didn't mind eating my taco cold as I would have if I could have tasted it.

I am quite fond of the chopped salads at Fresh & Co, so that's what I got for lunch today. What makes them especially delicious is the sesame ginger dressing. But let me tell you: eating salad that has no flavor is not at all pleasant. It is like eating wet lettuce. As it turns out, it's ALL about the dressing. Lettuce does not have good mouthfeel.

When I stick my nose down in the plastic bowl and take a deep whiff, I feel a slight burning up inside my sinuses, which masks the very very faint odor of ginger.

I picked out a cherry tomato. It does have a good mouthfeel. And I can detect the acidity in the back of my mouth.

Give me other things to try! Although not too many things. This might be a good diet. Although I am going to a beer, bourbon and BBQ tasting tomorrow, so let's hope it goes away before then. Otherwise, Jeff might be looking for someone to go with him tomorrow...

Charleston, SC

Preppiness is alive and well down south. I did not see any outrageously dressed people. 

The craft beer scene here is burgeoning and will definitely be worth checking on again in a few years. My favorite was the Duck Rabbit milk stout from NC. Terrapin makes a good porter. We finally found Wake & Bake at a beer store in Charleston. We didn't notice it on the shelf at first because, we were told, the name had to be changed to W&B for legal reasons. 

Yelp is not at all big in the south. Or at least not in Savannah or Charleston. 

Yes we smelled fried food as soon as we got off the plane and yes fried food is quite prevalent down here. However: they do it RIGHT. It's not heavy or greasy. Okay well maybe a little heavy. They tend to call it "lightly fried." Come on. Is that an oxymoron?

Fried foods we've eaten on this trip: oysters, shrimp, alligator, tomatoes, catfish, hush puppies, okra. Fried alligator tastes a lot like calimari but a little more like chicken. My favorite meal was smoked Virginia pork chop. So tender!

We got upgraded to a penthouse room (well, the penthouse is on the 4th floor). Our room had a fireplace! Traveling during the off season definitely has its perks. 

More on Savannah

I don't think I sufficiently explained the way that people are not bundled up here. Is it possible that many people here don't even own any long-sleeved clothing?? 

What is it about southern men that makes them look so southern? The women look the same as northern women though. Yes it's a generalization, but it's true. 

I'm not kidding! We're currently sitting indoors at a cafe. I'm wearing a long sleeved shirt over a t-shirt and I have my scarf on because I'm cold. A woman wearing a short sleeved sweater just sat down at a table outside! In the shade! She's not smoking or anything! Do these people have Vermont blood??

Places I can recommend:

Moon River brewing: get the pulled pork sandwich and a porter. 

Rail Pub: divey, peanuts to be shelled onto the floor, some craft beers (ask about bottles). 

Planters Inn: 4 poster bed! Huge room. Centrally located. Wine & cheese happy hour! 

The Distillery: great diverse craft beer selection from all over US plus Belgium. 

ShopSCAD: art for sale made by locals 

Gryphon: classy little tea room across from ShopSCAD

Harris Bread Co.: 4.5 stars on Yelp but 3 locals waiting to get into a different breakfast spot a block away had no idea about it. (it's in the back) No line at all and excellent bread. 

Colonial Park graveyard: great history lesson (tons of signs about the famous residents) and also beautiful and central

Sweet Melissa's: the only place to get a snack at 11pm. Hot dog stand outside (Jeff loved), pizza inside (I loved). A mixed crowd of folks out on the town but not at all rowdy.

Savannah, Georgia

It's in the high 30s here and Jeff and I are by far more warmly dressed than 99% of the people out tonight. Is this because they don't own coats? (definitely possible) Or because they're in denial?

The whole concept of being able to walk around with an open container is so very strange. The bars should give straws with the plastic cups, though. It's hard to walk and drink. 

There is some good beer to be had here, including Bell's, Sweetwater and New Belgium. 

We gave up going out to a nice dinner and instead went on a haunted pub crawl. The best part was going upstairs above Moon River Brewing, which is a falling down old hotel and has gorgeous old details. I guess they only fixed up the ground floor and called it good. 

Ooh la la

A panhandler wearing a beret and playing the accordion is much more charming than a rather well dressed dude shuffling through the subway asking for change.

On our way to the Pompidou we noticed an outdoor market down a side street. We wound up buying olives flavored with basil and others flavored with herbes de Provence. It went on for several blocks and was inter-mixed with small restaurants full of late lunchers (it was Sunday). More than one place had a man stationed outside shucking oysters. We had planned to get a cheap(er) meal but we figured oysters are clearly what is best on this strip. The place we chose had 5 kinds, designated by number only. The waitress told us the sizes as well. I was recommended a white wine from the Loire called Cheverny. Excellent with the oysters.

I'm sure this is a typical American complaint but even though I LOVE not feeling pressured to give up my table after finishing a meal or even a drink, sometimes getting my check when I do want it can be a pain.

French people seem perfectly content to stand at a bar drinking coffee or a beer, even if there are seats available at tables. Often there are no seats in front of the bar in a cafe or a small restaurant.

Charcuterie plates seem to always come with pâté. I am picky about pâté and don't like it too strong. And Jeff is just scared of it. At lunch in a brasserie we were chastised for not eating it. I feel bad now. I guess we can't order any more charcuterie platters. I told the guy it was too strong for me and he just tsked.

On the metro, rows of seats face each other. Why would they not be row upon row? Odd. Uncomfortable.

The metro train doors open before it had come to a complete stop.

There is not much variety among restaurants. There will be a selection of salads with names like Caesar that may only vaguely resemble an American Caesar salad. There will be an onion soup and at least one other soup option. There will be perhaps a hamburger, perhaps a steak tartar, perhaps a savory tart.

Andouille sausage in France is (we found out after making the mistake of ordering it and taking one bite each) made of tripe and smells like a sewer. Relatedly, rognon de veau is not a lovely veal chop, but rather veal kidney.

There is good craft beer to be found in Paris but not easily. A couple bars serve some more unusual French beers. One small store specializes in selling French beer as well as some Belgians, but the French ones are front and center while the Belgians are near the back. Down the street from that store (which is called Cave à Bulles) is a quaint little restaurant with mediocre food and 6 French beers on tap that an American is not likely to recognize.

Based on the Cave à Bulles' proprietor's recommendation we bought 7 bottles of beer to bring home. It remains to be seen whether those will in fact be findable in the US. We thought we had discovered Mikkeler in Copenhagen last year and perhaps it began being available in the US right after that or maybe we had just never noticed it before.

Parisiennes apparently aren't privy to the power of zinc for staging off colds. A pharmacist told us he doesn't carry it and when I asked if the French take zinc at all he said no, not really.

See the rest of the photos.

This is Halifax

There are two great candy stores here. I am such a sucker for "exotic" candy.

We have tried a number of local brews. None have blown my socks off but these are decent: Garrison Nut Brown, Stout and Amber; Propeller Pale, Porter and Pumpkin and others I'm forgetting right now. 

There are a couple of upscale, classy seafood restaurants here. Both The Press Club and Five Fishermen are excellent. Plus 5 Fish has a daily oyster happy hour where oysters are a dollar a piece. We tool advantage both days. What? Oysters are great. 

They are not bathrooms or restrooms or ladies rooms. They are wash rooms. 

There is a bit of a club atmosphere late at night on weekends but mostly everywhere is fairly casual. That is not to say that people look like they just walked in from working in the fields. People are for the most part nicely dressed. I'm glad that Jeff and I tend to not wear jeans and look especially casual on vacation because we wandered in to The Press Gang last night without a reservation. I like being able to fit in to most situations on trips so a lot of black is key. 

There's a sort of doner kebab here called a donair which is pronounced like the Don in Don Draper. I have not had that sort of thing in years so I can't say I'm an expert. But it was really good. We went to King of Donair. 

Poutine is fairly prevalent but it's made with mozzarella not cheese curds. This is not bad but I would really prefer the real thing. 

In the public garden (which was built in  the 1870s) there is no jogging, marrying or pets. No jogging?? 

The life list, in part

1. Have a really clean apartment all the time.
2. Own a dog.
3. Learn to drive stick shift.
4. Live abroad (again).
5. Be a mother.
6. Get better at cooking through practice.
7. Write a book.
8. Publish a book.
9. Be someone's role model.
10. Be able to say, "I'm a runner" and not inwardly say, "liar" because I don't stick with it.
11. Have toned biceps.
12. Learn to use a sewing machine.
13. Make a cute skirt on the sewing machine.
14. Invest properly.
15. Study French again.
16. Continue to take at least one fabulous trip per year.
17. Live in a 2-bedroom 2-bathroom house/apartment.
18. Run 10 miles.
19. Have a proper bar in said larger living space.
20. Get involved in homebrewing with Jeff and make some delicious beer.
21. Complete the toastmaster's certification and become a competent public speaker.

I'm a pragmatist. All my items are very much attainable. I think some people put things on their lists that are huge stretches, but that seems to be setting yourself up for failure.

Master of toast

This is the first speech I gave in Toastmasters. My feedback was that I should never apologize and I should try to do my next speech without the whole thing written out. I'm sure that is a good idea, but I'm so afraid my mind will go blank. Also, it was suggested that I get out from behind the podium and to gesticulate more. I could have sworn we were told we could do our speeches in the front of the room, if we were comfortable doing so, or at the podium if we preferred. I know for a fact that I would have been shaking like a leaf if I were not behind the podium. I have a lot to overcome, that is for sure!

Good afternoon Madame Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters, and guests.

I hesitated to do my first speech on the topic of beer because I plan to do a future speech on that topic. But there's quite a bit I can say about beer, so I don't think it will be a problem.

This story is also not about me alone, but anyone who knows me knows that beer is a big part of my life. There is no way that I could tell you my whole life story in 5 minutes (and a lot of it is boring anyway -- I was a normal kid, I went to college, I had some jobs, I got married, blah blah blah), so I chose this particular aspect of my life to focus on.

This story begins in November 2003. I was visiting Canada for the fourth time and Montreal for the second time with my boyfriend Jeff. Jeff had proposed to me (I said yes) and we were floating around Montreal on our excitement.

To escape the cold, we stopped in a Tin Tin-themed bar, which turned out to be a beer bar. We didn't recognize any of the beers on offer so we went with the one called La Fin du Monde. Who could resist a beer called The End of the World?

La Fin du Monde is named after European explorers' belief that they had reached the end of the world when they discovered a new world, which turned out to be America. That Belgian style golden ale, similar to a Belgian triple, opened up a new world for Jeff and me.

It took us a little while to become fully ensconced in beer culture. But with our eyes open to the craft beer scene, we discovered that almost everywhere in the world has locally made beer. Some are certainly better than others and a lot are not available for export.

Yes, there are beers made in Austria, for example, that you are not likely to find here, but my advice to you would be that if you travel to Austria you might want to stick with the wine. And there are some lovely Austrian wines.

Some people travel to scuba dive or to collect antiques or just to get away from it all and lie on a beach. Jeff and I travel for beer. We started off by combining trips to Pennsylvania, upstate New York, Virginia, or California with side trips to famous beer bars or breweries.

And then in 2005 we took our first trip to Belgium together. At the time, we were heavily into Belgian beers and to us, Belgium was mecca. If you've been to Belgium, you know that it has a lot more to offer than just great beer, so we fell completely in love with not only the beers, but also the people and the food. It was on that trip that we went to THE Belgian brewery to trump all breweries.

Westvleteren is one of seven Trappist monasteries in the world that produces beer and their beer is believed by many to be some of the best in the world. We rented a car expressly to drive out to this monastery because you could only buy their beer on site. It was the dark ale -- the Westvleteren 8 -- that they were selling that day so that is what we got. We bought a whole case because heck, when were we going to be back?

Jeff and I HATE to check luggage, so bringing back 24 bottles of rare beer was an experience I hope to never relive. This was before the 3 ounce liquids rule had come into effect, so we wrapped all the bottles in our dirty laundry and split them up between our bags. I had most of the bottles in my bag since mine was the one with wheels. I got caught at the gate and was told to gate check it. I did not want to give up my bag, so I took it on the plane anyway. The gate agent then came looking for me! On the plane! All the way in the back! The last row! And took my heavy bag of beer away from me. I was certain at this point that my bag -- and all that beer -- was going to wind up in Timbuktu.

It made it just fine. Not a single bottle broke.

Belgian beer was a good entry point for Jeff and me. The Belgians tend to adhere to a couple of standard styles. But after a while, seeking out Belgian beer was not enough for us. For one thing, the more we searched, the more we found that many of those beers we thought we could only find in Belgium are available in Belgian bars and beer stores around the world.

Our pilgrimage to Westvleteren will probably always remain one of our top experiences, especially since now you have to make an appointment weeks in advance -- if you're lucky enough to get one at all. When we went back to Belgium in 2008, we called and called, trying to get one of those elusive appointments in hopes of scoring one of the other two types of beer they make, but the phone would just ring and ring. As it turns out, the Westvleteren beers are sold (not for cheap, mind you) in at least one beer store I know of in Bruges.And on eBay, too, of course.

Now that we have learned a bit more about beer, we don't have to go as far as Belgium to try new beers. What we seek now is on the opposite end of the spectrum. We look for start-up breweries that are crafting something unusual, maybe using a unique combination of spices or aging the beer in certain type of wood barrels.

This is not to say that I would ever diminish the experience of being invited to stay after-hours at a bar in Belgium and getting to share some bottles of Belgian beer that had been aged 20 years. I still seek new and unusual beer-related experiences. I don’t suppose I will ever again discover a whole new world in craft beer, so to speak, like when I first tried a beer that was not a Bud Light or a Heineken.

And, as it turns out, we did not have to travel to the end of the world to find great beer. There are plenty of amazing beers to be found right here at home.