Bambu for Mary’s Birthday

Wednesday was Mary’s 26th birthday, so a big group of us went to Bambu to celebrate. I had previously met the chef, Joaquin, at the Best of Charleston awards party. I let him know that I was coming in because I wanted to say hi. Right after we ordered our meals, Joaquin texted me telling me to come in the kitchen.

In the back waiting for me was a little sake glass bouquet of flowers! How sweet is this?

While we waited for our appetizers, I was suddenly presented with…….I kid you not…FRICKLES!!! Frickles at a sushi restaurant? How was this real!?
They were tempura fried and served with some kind of sauce that Lauren ended up stealing to put on her sushi. Both Jess and Amanda decided that these were the next best frickles after Midtown’s. I agree – tempura battered pickles are pretty ridiculous.

As part of my meal, I ordered the edamame & spinach dip served warm, crispy wonton chips. The last time I went to Bambu with Diana and Lucy, a reader told me that I needed to try this appetizer the next time I went in. Thank goodness for her recommendation – this was absolutely delicious. The whole table was raving about how good it was. It was topped with panko breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese – to die for!

I also ordered a unique roll that was wrapped in cucumber instead of rice. This is the Coleman Blvd roll with tuna, salmon, yellowtail, scallions, asparagus wrapped in cucumber with ponzu sauce.

Without the rice, it was a lighter roll and you could really taste the freshness of the fish. Although it really didn’t need any sauce, I ended up dipping it in Jess’s ponzu sauce. That citrusy sauce is hard to resist!

After we all finished our meals, the birthday girl was surprised with dessert! Our whole table got these amazing sugary cinnamon dough balls with warm caramel sauce. One bite in, Jess declared, “My life has changed forever.” They were that good.

Perhaps the most exciting event of the evening (after the surprise frickles, of course!) was my next surprise. Joaquin had made me Pad Thai to go for tomorrow’s lunch! Lauren and I plan on eating this at work tomorrow, Lady & The Tramp style.



Shout out to Lauren – it was great to meet you!  

Weekend Recap

Friday afternoon: Boding and I were gchatting about my new phone (he also has an android phone) and he asked about my weekend plans.

Boding: What are you up to tonight/weekend? I want to nerd out with you.
Me: omg i know.
Boding: Technology is fun!!!!
Me: it really is.

So basically we’re huge nerds. After work, I picked up my 14-year-old brother so he could could spend the night/hang out with Boding and me. Boding met us at Pearle Vision so I could finally pick out a pair of glasses using the Charleston Savvy Shopper Deal I bought last week. I spent about 5 minutes choosing between a ton of glasses – I honestly have never made a decision so fast in my life. I narrowed it down to two pairs, then made Boding, my brother, and the girl helping me give me their opinions. In the end, I went with the DKNY tortoise shell pair that I blogged about last week.

I think they are so much cuter on in real life than in that webcam photo I took, so I’ll be sure to take another picture for y’all.

After the glasses purchase, the three of us went home to hang out. I got a text from Jonathan, the chef of Mustard Seed saying, “I made you sushi and fried pickles because you made me feel bad for not being here yesterday. You can come pick it up if you’re hungry.” What, what!! I was so excited even though I really did not mean to make him feel bad. I went to Mustard Seed later that night and Jonathan gave me a huge plate of sushi:

 

He also sent me home with fried pickle spears with a saffron aioli!

Saturday: Jake and I hung out by the pool all day and made a stop by the library for this book:
I started it while at the pool and it is so good. I’m excited the movie is coming out soon! Has anyone read this yet?

I dropped Jake off that afternoon and then headed over to the house where Mariah was housesitting. I brought over the sushi and frickles for our dinner. The frickles were awesome. It was the first time I had tried fried spears. Jonathan used cornmeal and panko crumbs so they were extra crunchy! Now y’all know why I love Mustard Seed so much – Jonathan is thoughtful and creative.

We made ourselves some big girl drinks (sweet tea vodka + water) and sat on the porch with this wonderful view:

 

We also found a really interesting contraption in the living room. Anyone know what this thing might be used for?

Look, again, no pupils!

Sunday: I went to church today! I hadn’t been in almost a year, and it was so nice to be back. I went to a contemporary service at East Cooper Baptist which was completely different than the traditional services I went to growing up. The music was so lively – I caught myself tapping my feet as I was singing.

After church, an old friend and I had brunch at Red Drum. I ordered the Huevos Rancheros – two fried eggs, ranchero sauce, cotija cheese, and refried beans over corn tortillas. Delish.

I spent the rest of the day at the pool. It had to be about 95* today. Scorcher!

My birthday is in 11 days!!!!!! Hope everyone has a great week!

Surprise Frickles!

Last night, a bunch of us girls planned on doing frickle tasting at Mustard Seed. It didn’t work out as planned because my favorite chef Jonathan wasn’t working that night. Instead, we decided to go to Uno Mas for their yummy Mexican food and drink specials.

What’s special about this picture? None of us have pupils.

I was too starving to even thinking about taking a picture, but I ordered the Ensalada Camarones – grilled shrimp, baby arugula, queso fresco, roasted corn, diced tomatoes, red onions with a pomegranate vinaigrette. I asked for it without red onions, but unfortunately when it was presented to me those disgusting things were alllllllll over it. No joke, I got goose bumps when I saw them. Dramatic? Luckily they were easy to pick off and the rest of my salad was great.

After dinner, we went to O’Brion’s Pub & Grille for “one more drink.” Yeah, ok. On a more serious note, I’ve been cheating on Coor’s Light. For what? Bud Light. That stupid label where you can write your name on it has sucked me in!! Thank you, Jess, for scratching my name on the bottle with your car key. A group of 6 girls and none of us had a pen? Weird.

After “one more drink” I randomly asked our waitress if they served fried pickles. When she replied that they did, we may have all let out a loud shrill of excitement. A few minutes later, it was tasting time! O’Brion’s pickles were pretty good. Mary determined that they used Lawry’s seasoning which would explain why they were so salty. The southwest ranch  that they served them with, however, had no flavor.

As happy as we look in this photo, I think it was the beer. We all agreed that Midtown’s frickles are still winning!

In other news, Words With Friends has taken over my life. I may or may not have skipped the gym on Wednesday because I was sucked in to um, 16 games. What the heck?! I also cannot type on this phone. Examples of my typos:

Christina = Christuna

Xtina = Xtuna

What the heck? = What the gecko?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Frickle Fest 2011: Midtown Bar & Grill

About a week after making a list of restaurants that served frickles (see the post here and new tab here), Jess and I decided we needed to continue our adventures. We had both sampled the frickles from Leaf and the frickles from Cinebarre, so we decided to check out Midtown Bar & Grill next.

Although frickles aren’t on their current menu, Luke told me he had them before, and Amanda sent Austin a heads-up message saying we wanted to come taste test. I also messaged Fred on facebook telling him they better start preparing!

Amanda, Jess, Mary, and I met at Midtown last Thursday with just two things in mind: alcohol and frickles. We had no idea that our frickle testing adventure would actually turn into a fried food extravaganza.

Apparently neither Austin nor Fred took Amanda and me very seriously, because when we came in demanding frickles, they kind of just laughed at us and asked us what we’d like to drink. After a couple minutes of convincing them that this was serious business, we four lucky ladies were presented with  two plates of frickles!

Wearing the name tags that Jess made us, our tasting began.

me, Jess, Amanda, Mary

Amanda absolutely loved the frickles:

Jess thought they were delicious:

I was also very pleased:

Mary, who doesn’t even like regular pickles, was a bit skeptical. She ended up loving them, too!

After pretty much inhaling them, James Maybank, executive chef, brought us out a second type of fried pickles. These used the new pickles they just purchased from Charleston Pickle Company. Holy heck, these were even better! They were thicker slices, so they had a better pickle to batter ratio. And such zing!

James must have loved how much we were enjoying his food because he brought out two more experiments: fried okra and fried jalapenos. We were in absolute grease heaven. Both of these were awesome – the okra was sweet and crunchy and the jalapenos were super spicy. A couple Happy Hour beers ($1 off!) were necessary to wash it all down.

Despite all this food, we still ordered dinner. Jess and I shared the Turkey Avocado Wrap: roast turkey, avocado, lettuce, tomato, sprouts, crumbled bacon and pimento mayo, and a side of sweet potato fries.

Amanda and Mary split the Fried Chicken Wrap: strips of fried chicken, lettuce, tomato, crumbled bacon, jack and cheddar cheese and honey mustard, with a side of mac & cheese. Look at all that cheese!

We were in pain from so much good food, but it was totally worth it. Right as we were about to leave, James asked us if we had ever had their wings. We all moaned out a “Mmmm no” and he asked if we had just a couple more minutes to spare. Oh holy heavens, he was bringing out wings.

These were hands-down the best wings I have ever had. We four girls all took a bite at the same time and looked at each other, wings hanging out of our mouths. Our eyes bulged from the flavor. The wings on the left were their signature smoked flavor that had been dry rubbed, smoked for two hours, cooled, fried for extra texture, and tossed again in the rub. No wonder they were so flavorful! The wings on the right were the teriyaki flavor that won best wings in the 2010 Lowcountry Wingapalooza contest.

We absolutely had to take a pictures with James – he deserves so much credit for his culinary skills.

We were stuffed to the brim but oh-so happy. Jess summed up the evening by saying, “I’m all frickled out.” Mary said, “I don’t even eat pickles, but I enjoyed it. The thicker the better.” Bahhaha. My Charleston friends need to go to Midtown for some good eats. You can check out the rest of their menu here but I’m telling you to GET THE WINGS. And 5 or 6 beers. :)

P.S.: On the weekends they have awesome live bands. You can get your dance on to burn off all the frickles and beer!

Special thanks to Mike, James, and Austin for showing us a DILLicious time!

‘Twas a Happy Tuesday!

Tuesday was a good day! The whole day just went well and I was in a great mood. I started off my morning by correcting/prettifying a presentation. I was surrounded by grammar books and style guides and it just felt so right. NERD ALERT.

I also destroyed an entire pack of gum. Again. As of about a week ago, I have been going through a pack of gum a day. This was my pack of gum with four pieces left at 2:17 p.m. You’d think I was stressed or something.

After work, I headed straight to the gym for an interval run that went a little something like this:

Warm Up @ 4.0 for 75 sec

Sprint @ 7.0 for 75 sec

Walk @ 4.0 for 75 sec on 4.0 incline

Sprint @ 7.0 for 75 sec

Walk @ 4.0 for 75 sec on 4.0 incline

Repeat for 30 minutes, end with a 2 minute cool-down @ 4.0, no incline.

I was Christina Lee Sweaty when I left!

After the gym (and a shower obvi), Lucy and I met Margaret at Cinebarre to see Something Borrowed. I read the book a couple years ago and loved it, and had high hopes for the movie. It definitely lived up to my expectations. Colin Egglesfield, who plays Dex, is probably the hottest thing I’ve seen since Zac Efron. Dear God, bring me one of him!!!!!!!

At the movies, Marg and I ordered some treats to share: a Diet Coke (my first in 30 days!) and FRICKLES!

Megan and Caroline were right – they were delicious! They weren’t as crispy or sour as I expected,  and had much more batter on them the ones from Leaf. One of them was crispier than the rest, and that was my favorite. I can’t believe I’m describing fried pickles so much.

Please note Marg’s gum.

I also picked up my 4th CSA box today! It was full of greens!

In this week’s box were:

• cabbage
• leaf lettuce
• radishes
• romaine lettuce
• rutabagas
• spinach
• spring and sweet onions
• Swiss chard

I also had broccoli, but I swapped it for an extra head of cabbage. So far, I have been more excited about getting the strawberries and spring onions than anything else. Has anyone cooked a rutabaga before? According to the Pinckney’s Produce website, rutabagas are a cross between turnips and cabbage. Pretty neat! I’m still loving my CSA goodies and am always excited for a new box each Tuesday. Oh, and Pinckney’s, if you’re reading, I’m so sorry, but I currently have three of your green boxes. I promise to return them all next week! :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday!

Frickles Are Everywhere!

I’ve always loved pickles, especially the ones from Chick-fil-A…

but I never thought that I’d be obsessed enough to actually make pickle juice popsickles, aka picksickles. Then I did. By the way, your responses from that post were hilarious. Thank you.

And then came the fried pickles at Leaf.

I started thinking about where else might serve frickles, because I really needed more in my life. My new friend Jessica agreed that we should start a mission to find the best fried pickles in town. I consulted my other pickle-obsessed friend Megan (whose blog is appropriately titled Fried Green Pickles) and my facebook friends. I was overwhelmed by the responses. So far, we have come up with 20 different restaurants that serve frickles:

• Boulevard Diner –  fried dill pickles, honey mustard sauce…$5
• Brick – beer battered and fried pickles with ranch, roasted jalapenos, or our “special sauce.”
• Cinebarre -  “Big Lebowskies” – hand battered pickle chips fried golden and served with a side of ranch…$8
• Fat Hen 
• Finz Bar – dill pickle slices lightly battered and served with Southwestern dipping sauce…$7.99
• Grindz Burgers and Brew - A basket of thick cut garlic pickles marinated in buttermilk & fried golden brown, served with our spicy ranch dressing
• Hooter's – lightly breaded sliced pickles.
• Husk - Fried Bread and Butter Pickles with Tarragon Cream…$6
• Kickin Chicken - Lightly breaded and fried to a golden brown. Served with ranch dressing...$4.99
• McCrady's
• Midtown Bar & Grill 
• Mustard Seed
• Petticoat's
• Poe's 
• Sesame
• Skibo's
• Southend Brewery
• Sweetwater Café – dill pickle spears hand breaded and fried to a golden brown, served with our house-made tangy horseradish sauce
• The Griffon – served with dipping sauce…$5.50
• Virginia's on King - cornmeal batter with spicy remoulade…$5

The best response was from Jonathan, the chef at Mustard Seed.

So, we have a lot of work to do. Er, a lot of frickles to eat. Jess, Bess, and Margaret have all volunteered to help taste test and anyone else interested in this frickle-eating extravaganza should let me know when and where they’d like to go. The mission starts tomorrow night at Cinebarre – a bunch of us girls are going to see Something Borrowed. Can’t wait!!

Have you ever eaten frickles? From where? And with what were they served?

And more importantly, what kind of rating system should I use? What things should I look for?

THANKS AND LOVE!