South Carolina Eateries

During my vacation in South Carolina, I experimented with food photography, and I loved it! Since I pretty much always had my camera with me anyway, it was not too much trouble to carry it to dinner or lunch when we would go out to eat. Although I got some weird looks from the waiters and other restaurant workers, it was worth it. 

As I'm sure many of you know, South Carolina and the Charleston area are famous for shrimp and grits. Although I am not much of a seafood eater, my family is, and it was fun to see how the shrimp and grits changed from restaurant to restaurant. Although it is a staple, everyone interpreted it a little differently. The typical shrimp and grits dish was served with grits and a thick gravy-like sauce with shrimp in it.

This picture above is of shrimp and grits at Fleet Landing in Charleston. It was a lot more liquid than the norm. The picture below is made with a fried grit cake. It was at Paige's Okra Grill in Charleston which was one of our favorite places we went! We ate there twice in one week, which is unusual for us on vacation!

The hushpuppies seen above and the shrimp below are also from Fleet Landing. Fleet Landing was definitely one of the best dining experiences we had during our trip.We had a table right by the window overlooking the water, and the restaurant has a fascinating history and design aesthetic. Sadly, we heard it is closing, but after, posting about it, Fleet Landing reassured me that there has only been a change in land lords. They plan to remain open and in the same location in the future! Fleet Landing had especially beautiful plates. The perks of eating with your family is that you get to see, try and photograph a variety of meals from the menu.

As I said before, we ate at Page's twice during the week, so here are a few other things we ate there: french fries, mac&cheese, fried okra, fried chicken and mashed potatoes. I highly suggest sitting outside if you go; I liked the experience better than sitting inside, which we did the second time we went. 

While we were in downtown Charleston, we ate a place called Henry's. They had excellent burgers and sandwiches, like the philly steak sandwich seen above. My dad really enjoyed it, as you can see.

One of my other favorite places we ate was Mex One, which was on Sullivan's Island, closer to where we stayed on Isle of Palm. There was a strip of restaurants that we visited multiple times to eat at places like the Obstinate Daughter, a BBQ place, and get some ice cream! 

As those who know me already could guess, I could live on Mexican food, and so, of course, we couldn't end the week without some Mexican food. I loved the food we got at Mex 1 Coastal Cantina on Sullivan's Island which, of course, included cheese dip, quesadillas and carnitas (pork tacos). 

Overall, I learned that I really enjoy taking photos of food, probably related to my love for macro photography and flowers. I enjoyed capturing all the meals we enjoyed together as a family, and I love having these photos to remember the delicious food we ate and things we talked about over this food. I think our culture is based way too much around food, but I can't deny I'm guilt, plus that is a whole different post for a different day! 

Read more about Isle of Palm, Charleston, the homes of Charleston and Boone Hall Plantation here.