#20  NORTH CAROLINA – Livermush!

I was not familiar with livermush, “the poor man’s pate”, until I starting searching for a breakfast spot in North Carolina and saw it on a few on-line menus. Frankly, it sounded like something you would feed your sled dog team at an Iditarod rest stop, but nevertheless, I wanted to give it a try.  Apparently, you can only find it at small mom and pop restaurants in the Piedmont region of North Carolina.  We were going to be driving from the home of my favorite sister near Charlotte to Chapel Hill and this would take us through “The Livermush Belt” that extends from Shelby NC to Greensboro NC.  There were a number of livermush breakfast possibilities in and around Salisbury NC and I settled upon this one in a little strip mall on a busy highway outside of Salisbury:  

Wahoo’s Diner
Granite Quarry, North Carolina

 

AMBIENCE:  Wahoo’s Diner looked like the type of place where Andy, Barney, and Goober would stop in and linger over a cup of coffee while discussing the latest stop sign violation. It only opened a couple of years ago but gives the appearance of being well worn and loved. Wahoo was the name of the co-owner’s father.

The diner has 66 seats (no, I didn’t count them; I read this in a newspaper article) of which only one was occupied on this Monday morning.

 

Upon sitting down, we were presented with our silverware which came in a small paper bag. I hadn’t seen anything like this since my dentist pulled out his little instruments of torture from a sanitized packet. Perhaps, there was some infectious disease rampant in Granite Quarry and the cutlery had to go through some sterilization process and couldn’t be touch by human hands before being used. Ironically, The Healthy One came down with some sort of stomach bug the next day.

The fork and knife are snug in bed. The spoon had run away with the dish.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

FOOD:  I ordered the Steak, Egg, and Cheese Wrap and, of course, a side of livermush. The Wrap was decent enough, but I would have liked it better with some salsa inside.

The livermush was very much like scrapple (see my Delaware report). This is not surprising given that it was first introduced by scrapple happy German farmers who had migrated from the Mid-Atlantic to the North Carolina Piedmont region in the mid-1700s. Livermush by law must be at least 30% hog liver. The rest is made up of ground pig parts mostly found above the neck. It is flavored with sage, salt, pepper, and cornmeal.

  

  

The Parisian, Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimond de la Reyniere (1758-1837) who wrote the world’s first restaurant reviews (his byline must of taken up half the page) stated “everything in a pig is good. What ingratitude has permitted his name to become a term of opprobrium?” Alexandre, I suspect, would have been a big fan of livermush because as one commentator noted it contains “everything but the squeal”. I, on the other hand, thought it was just okay. I much preferred the scrapple I had in Delaware for two reasons. First, I could taste a much more funky liver flavor in the livermush than in the scrapple. Second, this livermush was grilled in a pan while the scrapple was deep fried. Deep frying gave the scrapple a much more, hard, crunchy exterior than the grilled livermush and my palate just preferred more crunch and less mush.

Both The Healthy One and my sister readily declined to order a side of the livermush and even did not want a taste of mine. The Healthy One went “traditional” and got scrambled eggs, bacon, and potatoes which she thought were all very tasty.

My sister went “big league” and got the Open Face Steak Biscuit with Gravy.  She thought it was excellent but could not clean her plate. She should be sent down to the minors.

4 out of 5 stars

COFFEE:  The coffee was not memorable – neither great nor awful.

3 out of 5 stars

SERVICE: The waitress, who also happened to be one of the co-owners, was very nice and welcoming. She kept calling The Healthy One “sweetheart”.  I thought a waitress, who I guessed to be in her 30s, calling an older female customer “sweetheart” was both endearing and disconcerting. I just couldn’t help but remembering that the caretakers in my mother-in-law’s assisted living facility often called their charges “sweetheart”.

5 out of 5 stars

COST: $22.00 with tip. This was the first breakfast place we’ve been to that offered a senior discount and it was a significant one at 10%. I am both discomfited and pleased to say we qualified.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT GRANITE QUARRY:  A few words about Granite Quarry are probably too many words about this small town of 3000 people. Quaintness and charm are not to be found here.

A little “digging” on the internet turned up the fact that there is still some quarrying done in Granite Quarry but the town is well past its stone age heyday.  Curbing stones once quarried here can be found in cities all over the United States.

There wasn’t much going on as we took a post-breakfast walk up and down the not so beautiful Route 52 corridor. We passed a few small businesses, including the ubiquitous North Carolina barbeque establishment. We did stop in a small grocery store and I bought a can of Cheerwine, a locally produced, super-carbonated soda that taste nothing like wine.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

-          - Walked around the pretty little town of Pittsboro NC.

-         -  Walked the length of downtown Chapel Hill and the campus of the University of North Carolina.

November 7, 2016

NEXT UP: The plan is to take the winter off and then visit 6 states in the Southwest in the Spring: Oklahoma, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Arkansas.  

#19   SOUTH CAROLINA – Breakfast With The Lycra Crowd

It was a beautiful Saturday morning in Greenville, South Carolina and we wanted to get out and walk after breakfast before getting on the road to our next destination. Breakfast needed to be quick and easy without having to deal with the usual Saturday morning crowded restaurants. We decided to forego the usual breakfast practice of being seated, perusing a menu, and giving our order to a server.  Instead we decided on a place that was half café, half grocery store.

Swamp Rabbit Cafe
Greenville, South Carolina

AMBIENCE:  The Swamp Rabbit Café, located just outside downtown Greenville, sits next to a 20 mile rails-to-trails paved path called the Swamp Rabbit Trail. The café and the grocery store share the same building but are in different connecting rooms. There are a few tables inside the café and a couple of picnic tables outside. You get in line and order at the cash register which is parked next to a glass case containing all sorts of enticing baked goods. Then you wait until a young man with a voice that could sink a ship yells out your name and hands you the goods. 

As we ate and sipped our beverages, we watched the people in line and it became very apparent that the café’s customer base was made up entirely of walkers, joggers, and bicyclists, from the trail. There was enough spandex in that line to stretch from the café to the North Carolina border. There were singles, families, and small groups, all who looked extremely fit and healthy. These looked like the type of customers who might truly enjoy drinking one of the Café’s offering: The Vegan Hulk Smoothie made with almond milk, avocado, apple, banana, and kale. These looked like the type of customers who could order an organic pastry (is that an oxymoron?) without any guilt because they just biked 20 miles pulling a trailer filled with rosy cheeked toddlers.

We really liked the informality of the place. Everyone was polite, cheerful, and sweaty.

5 out of 5 stars.

FOOD:  I got in line to order our breakfast while The Healthy One went over to the grocery store in search of yogurt.  She wanted me to get her a cinnamon bun roll. I guess with no granola on the menu, a cinnamon bun was the next best thing. As I neared the register I noticed this free sample of bread and olive oil:

This was like putting treats in front of a dog. Fortunately, there was a family of five in front of me putting in a large order so that I had time to dunk four or five of these babies in olive oil and ingest. I hoped no one was videoing taping this frantic action.

I did notice on a chalkboard above the counter that there was one non-pastry breakfast item – an egg and cheese sandwich. Since I half believed the Healthy One would give me part of her cinnamon bun, I eschewed the pastries and ordered the sandwich.

The egg and cheese sandwich came on Stecca bread which was unfamiliar to me (but may have been what I was tasting in line). Google told me that Stecca is Italian for “stick”, reflecting the baguette style of the bread. This bread didn't look like a stick but more like a branch or small log. The sandwich was excellent with the bread being the highlight.

When The Healthy One came back with her yogurt she had a funny expression on her face. “What’s wrong?”  I asked.  She said that the little 6 oz. container cost $3.00. “Are you kidding me?” I said. She wasn’t kidding me. This was Atlanta Fresh Greek Yogurt – Artisan. I believe “artisan” is Latin for overpriced. Trader Joe’s Greek Yogurt is about 19 cents an ounce. This stuff was 50 cents an ounce! I guess that’s the price you pay for probiotic rich, non-GMO yogurt made from humanely treated, fully pastured, grass fed Georgia cows. We hoped at 50 cents an ounce, it had the ability to counteract the calories in the cinnamon bun.

She reported that  the yogurt tasted fine and the cinnamon bun was delicious and she even let me have a substantial piece.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

COFFEE:  The Swamp Rabbit Café served Counter Culture Coffee.  This coffee roaster, based in Durham NC, has a national reputation among coffee aficionados.  It was excellent. Too bad they didn’t give free refills but I’m starting to realize that usually free refills = mediocre coffee. The Healthy One got a de-caf cappuccino made with Counter Culture Coffee and Happy Cow Milk. No word on whether these were happy Georgia cows or happy South Carolina cows.

 5 stars out of 5

SERVICE:  Self-serve.

COST: $17.58 with tax.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT GREENVILLE:  Greenville is an impressive little city of 62,000 people. It has been lauded in a number of publications for everything from its quality of life to its impressive economic growth.

Throughout the late 19^th century and until the 1960s, Greenville was widely known as the “Textile Center of the World”. During the 1960s and 1970s many cities, including Greenville saw their manufacturing jobs evaporate, leaving vacant factories and stores, and causing massive population migration out of the central downtown areas.

The city leaders didn’t sit idly by but began to envision a plan to revitalize the downtown area. Thirty years of urban planning and public-private investment partnerships have paid big dividends. Downtown Greenville has busy restaurants and retail stores, high-end hotels, bars, theaters, residential offerings, public art, and riverfront pathways. Businesses located in Greenville including Michelin’s North American headquarters and Lockheed Martin’s Aircraft & Logistics Center.

The centerpiece of the downtown area is Falls Park. The park showcases the Reedy River and large waterfalls that once powered some of the textile mills. Forty years ago, the falls were hidden beneath a four lane highway bridge. That was demolished and replaced with a dramatic pedestrian walkway over the falls.

The Swamp Rabbit Trail is a big deal. It’s used by more than 400,000 people a year and has spawned a significant number of small businesses along the trail. A swamp rabbit, by the way, is a large cottontail rabbit found in the swamps and wetlands of the Southern United States. Those of a certain age may remember that President Jimmy Carter was “attacked” by a swamp rabbit while fishing from a boat.  We didn’t encounter any swamp rabbits when we used the trail.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

We rented bikes and road the 40 mile round trip Swamp Rabbit Trail. We also took a side trip off the trail and rode through the campus of Furman University. We did some walking around downtown Greenville.

November 5, 2016

NEXT UP: North Carolina

#18   GEORGIA – What? No Greek Diner In Athens?

You would think there would be a Greek diner in a city named Athens; you know, one of those diners with 10 menu pages of breakfast choices, mirrors, murals, and bright lighting. That did not turn out to be the case as an internet search for breakfast places turned up only one viable breakfast candidate. It turned out to be a great substitute.

Mama’s Boy
Athens, Georgia

AMBIENCE:  Mama’s Boy opened  in 2006 and since has won a number of awards including “Athens’ Favorite Breakfast” for the last nine years in a row. Southern Magazine listed it as one of the South’s best biscuit joints.  Every review I read warned about the long waiting lines to get in. When we arrived, the small parking lot in front of the restaurant was filled so we drove around back to the much larger auxiliary lot which was also filled. After driving the side streets and reading all the “No Parking” signs we finally found a spot about a 10 minute walk from the restaurant. I feared a 15 minute search for parking would translate into an unbearable wait for a table. We were joyously surprised that we were seated immediately upon our arrival.

Mama’s Boy bills itself as “Southern Fun Dining” and both staff and customers seemed to be having a lot more fun than such an early hour of the morning deserved. There were a couple of people who were even eating chocolate cake for breakfast.

The place is not real big, maybe with a capacity of about 50 customers.  It is cheerfully decorated with a quirky mason jar chandelier and wallpaper you might find in Austin Power’s bedroom. The ceiling-to-floor windows in the front of the restaurant let in plenty of sunlight through sheer curtains.

5 out of 5 stars.

FOOD:  Many of the reviews I had read raved about the biscuits so it was predetermined that I would be ordering one. Furthermore, I had yet to have the iconic southern biscuits with gravy.  It was an easy decision; I ordered two of the homemade biscuits topped with sausage-thyme gravy. To top it off, I also asked for a side of bacon.

As is my habit, I eat all of one item on my plate before moving on to the next item. I tackled the bacon first and it was outstanding. Next, the main course looked like a tsunami of gravy, all but obliterating most of the biscuits. I thought the taste was more akin to turkey stuffing than sausage, probably due to the influence of the thyme. It was very good but I would probably have preferred a more sausage laden gravy. Speaking of heavy, I read that a healthy breakfast should energize you for the rest of the day. If there was any doubt that this was not the most healthy breakfast in the world, when we got into the car to drive to South Carolina, I promptly fell asleep.

The Healthy One ordered Cook’s Trail Mix granola with yogurt, fresh fruit, and honey. She has now had granola with yogurt in five of the fourteen breakfast stops she has visited on the tour; a very respectable .357 average.

The presentation of the granola, et. al. as a parfait in a mason jar was pleasing to the eyes but made it difficult to mix everything together. Valuable granola bits were lost during the mixing process. Nevertheless, she thought it very tasty.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

COFFEE:  The coffee was quite good and was the restaurant’s own special blend from one of the best named roasting companies I’ve run across – Jittery Joe’s.

4 1/2 stars out of 5

SERVICE: Our server was friendly and helpful. Most of the staff was tattooed and pierced and she was no exception.  About a month before we ate at Mama’s Boy, a server was arrested after he reportedly stole a Donald Trump campaign sign from the neighboring property because he felt the sign “reflected poorly on the business”. As I said, the service was outstanding.

5 stars out of 5

COST: $29.65 with tax and tip.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT ATHENS:  Athens is to Georgia as Madison is to Wisconsin or Austin is to Texas or Boulder is to Colorado. The small city is a liberal university-centric enclave nestled in the middle of a conservative state. The University of Georgia’s 36,000 students along with the resident Athenians support a vibrant downtown district. There are a ton of bars and music venues and restaurants. Athens gained national music fame for spawning such rock bands as R.E.M. and the B-52s back in the late 1970s. Today, the music scene still very much thrives but is much more diverse with rap, country rock, folk, Latin, and other genres entertaining the populace.

UGA, founded in 1785, dominates life in Athens. The University’s economic impact on the local economy has been put at $2.1 billion. The mascot of UGA is the bulldog or “dawg” as they like to say. There are more than 50 statues of the mascot throughout the city of Athens. The official live mascot bulldog’s name goes by the not-so-creative name of “Uga”. Since the original “Uga” was paraded out in 1956 date, 9 dogs have carried the name “Uga”. Each of the 9 males has been descended from the original “Uga”, and has frequently been the son of the predecessor. If seeing a statue or two or three doesn’t sate your “Uga” appetite, you can always visit the mausoleum where all the previous “Ugas” are buried. It is located at the football stadium.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

We walked the downtown Athens area and the massive campus of the University of Georgia. Go Dawgs!

November 4, 2016

NEXT UP: South Carolina