Saturday Missions, Ted's Butcherblock, and bad girls at Baked!

Saturday morning I woke up with two Asian missions: sweet chili sauce and nail polish. I called Ashley and told her about my weird needs and thankfully she's weird enough to join in on my adventures. Mission 1: Nail Polish, accepted.

Re-Fresh Mint by China Glaze

Both Sally Hansen stores in Mt. Pleasant and Summerville were sold out...since we were on already on the way to the ghetto of North Charleston, I checked out that location. Lucky me - they had it! I also picked up this color: 

High Hopes by China Glaze

After our success in the ghetto, we drove over to the Asian supermarket on the other end of Rivers Ave. Yikes. This place smells "like both soap and fish." If you can handle the stench, you can get some great deals on Asian staples. I picked up a knob of ginger, 2 stalks of lemongrass, and 4 bottles of Mae Ploy sweet chili sauce:

A 32-ounce bottle only costs $2.59. At Whole Foods it's like 5 something for a 20-ounce bottle. My total for everything was a little over $10. I think I spent more in gas being lost in the hood than I did on actual food. Hmm.

We worked up an appetite and headed over to Ted's Butcherblock for lunch treats. Ted's is a butcher shop and gourmet market in downtown Charleston. Ted was at the counter when we walked in and greeted us cheerfully. He made some recommendations since we were new to the block to help us decide. While we waited for our sandwiches to be made, I snapped some photos. 

Butcher counter: 

 Prepared food and Sitting area:

 Gourmet Cheeses:

 Wine and Sitting area:

Beer!

 

Saturday was beautiful, so we sat outside in the warm sun. Ted was nice enough to bring our food out to us. I chose the chicken, pancetta & avocado: roasted chicken, crispy Italian-style bacon, avocado, tomato, red onion, garlic aioli  for $8. 

Onions were removed!!!!

This was the freshest tasting sandwich I've ever had. The avocado and tomato were at the peak of their ripeness, the pancetta was perfectly crispy, the chicken was moist, and the bread was chewy. Loved it! 

Ashley chose the waldorf salad sandwich: chicken, dried cranberries, pecans, apple & brie, lightly tossed in garlic aioli for $8.

As soon as she took a bite she said "Oh that's a 10!" We switched sandwiches for a bite and hers definitely was a 10. She asked for it warm so the brie had melted a little. As our included sides, we both had the three-year Gouda mac & cheese:

The mac & cheese was served cold, which surprised both of us, but it was still good. Ted offered to warm it up, but it was fine just like that. The menu had so many other options that I'd like to try so I'll definitely be back. After eating half our sandwiches, we were filled to the brim, but you-know-who wanted something sweet. I asked Ashley if we should be good and she said we might as well go big or go home. We didn't go home; we went to Baked.

I've been to Baked before and was so in love that I bought three things at once. Baked has a NYC location and a Charleston location on East Bay St. They serve cakes, cupcakes, morning goods, brownies, bars, biscotti, cookies, marshmallows and tarts. I chose a strawberry-lemon curd ginger tart. 

It was a ginger and pretzel crust as a base, with a layer of lemon curd and topped with strawberries. The lemon curd was pretty sweet and Ashley and I kept picking at the crust instead. It was a fun foodie day that just energized us for more shopping -- receipts for eyeshadow, lip gloss, and new black heels are now in my purse.