Culinary Tour - Dixie's

Because I am all about food, I managed to stumble on a company that did culinary tours. Umm yes! Yes of course, I put this on the agenda. This tour was with a company called Bulldog Tours. It was a walking tour of some of the best food related places in Charleston, complete with samples, food history lessons and tons of recommendations. The first stop on the tour was a tiny, slightly hidden (mostly) breakfast place called Dixie's. Up first on the sample menu was a piece of sweet potato cornbread. This tasted like a gingerbread spice cake, but was very delicious! I didn't feel like I was eating cornbread because it was sweet, had tons of spices (like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves) and oddly enough the consistency seemed to be slightly different. Next were the stone ground cheese grits. These were completely different from the grits at SNOB. They were richer, as they were made with butter and cream, had a much more apparent cheese taste, and literally melted in your mouth. They were the best grits I have ever had and I don't think that I could ever eat the boxed kind after tasting these. I can honestly say that I have now been turned into a grits fan, but only if they are made the right way...now I just have to figure out how to recreate them.

The next stop on the tour was at Tony, the Peanut Man's stand. You can't go anywhere in the South without having something fried. So a fried peanut it was... because you should try everything once in your life right?! I was pretty skeptical about this, especially when the tour guide said that it was pretty fibrous because you eat the shell and all. Also to be honest it looked a little odd, but I gave it a try anyways. She was right, it was pretty fibrous, though I was surprised because I thought it would be super salty which it really wasn't. You needed some water afterwards to wash it down. I can't way that I was a huge fan, but it could have been much worse. Stayed tuned for the next stop on the Charleston culinary tour.