Kim Shook

Blackberries and cherries. The blackberries were enormous and very, very good: Made blackberry shortcake:

I've never made Hasselbacks, but I've always suspected that I'd be underwhelmed.

They are just the kind of thing that well-meaning non cooks buy for people who DO cook. Bless their hearts. 😄

I spent some time wandering around the Sur La Table in Northern VA the other day while waiting to meet someone for lunch. We used to have one, but it closed. I've always enjoyed window shopping at kitchen stores and I'm pretty sure nothing else at the mall (Tyson's Galleria) fit my budget or my body! I even found a perfect house warming gift for my friend who is moving to Cape Cod. But I saw a couple of things that I immediately scoffed at. When I've done that in the past I've often been chastised as being ableist. So, you tell me - stupid or not? Does anyone need a dimpled pan for spacing out shrimp and scallops? $30 Wouldn't two chopsticks (freeze with take out) do the same thing? And store so much easier? $18

I'm pretty sure that the only cruise ships we saw were on Sunday when we went to church at St. Peter's in St. George. And they were nowhere near the size that they are now.

Saturday, July 9th was my 63rd birthday. And since the trip out of town to Florida and SC was so satisfying, I requested another adventure. Only one day and close to home this time. We’re in the Richmond VA area and only one hour and one and a half hours respectively from the charming little towns of Charlottesville and Staunton, VA. I asked for an off-the-interstate drive, a wander around the lovely Staunton, lunch and dinner at old favorite places, a visit to Reunion bakery, and chocolates from our own @Jim D.. The only thing that didn’t happen was Reunion. Sadly, they were closed that week for their summer break. Still, it gives me a good excuse to get the family on the road again and make another visit to Jim. I didn’t eat a bite of breakfast because I wanted to be good and hungry for lunch. This was difficult to accomplish as our first stop on the way to Staunton was at the Albemarle Baking Co. in Charlottesville: Incredible place! I wish we had something comparable in Richmond. We bought a few things that fit into breakfasts and snacks over the next couple of days. A sampling: Back in 1987-1989 when Mr. Kim was in grad school at VA and we lived in Charlottesville one of our favorite places to sightsee was a store called Food of All Nations. I say sightsee rather than shop because we were, of course, broke. Our name for it was Food of High Prices. But we loved to look and did treat ourselves occasionally – my beloved English candies, HP sauce, German sausages, good bread, etc. We almost never go to Charlottesville without stopping and this time was no exception. A good wander through the aisles, a search for Tiptree Little Scarlett jam (none there), and a little stash of candies: I can’t find the treacle toffee here in Richmond anymore and haven’t had liquorice toffee since Callard & Bowser stopped making it. Then it was on to Staunton for lunch and neighborhood crawling and CHOCOLATE! (Back to Charlottesville for dinner). Lunch was at Wright’s Dairy-Rite, a classic drive in (with actual car hops). When Mr. Kim was in grad school, I worked at a private social service agency, inspecting day care homes for the USDA meal reimbursement program. One of my responsibilities was observing meals served at day care homes that were licensed through our agency. Every home had to be visited once every six months, so about half my time was traveling around central VA meeting day care providers and children and helping to serve breakfast, morning snack, lunch, or afternoon snack. When I would find myself in Staunton, I always ate at Wright’s. I’d sit in my car, order a cheeseburger and a shake, and eat. I could read a book, smoke a cigarette, and enjoy some quiet time! They have a pretty wide assortment of food (including a highly recommended Reuben, funnily enough) but we stuck with the classics. Jessica had a double cheeseburger and crinkle cuts: Mr. Kim had another double with jalapenos: I had the “Superburger” and onion rings. Basically, an early Big Mac, but with excellent, flavorful burgers: The burgers were just our style – thin and juicy. Let’s just take another look at those onion rings: These were among the best onion rings I’ve ever had. Maybe I had some better ones when I was a toddler, but not since I became an adult have I had any better ones. They were NOT tempura, which is what everyone seems to do nowadays. They were crumb coated, but thinly. The onions were completely cooked, but still crunchy. I cannot say enough good things about these. Two weeks later, we’re still talking about them. The day just kept getting better. Next, we got to meet @Jim D.. He was so gracious and invited us into his home for a little visit and “get to know you”. We had a lovely time and really enjoyed meeting Jim and hearing about his late arrival at chocolate making. Mr. Kim had arranged for me to receive this gorgeous assortment of chocolates: I was stunned at how lovely they were but was truly stunned at how delicious and inventive they were when I tasted them. I’ve done a more in-depth post about them here, and you should definitely go look at that. After a leisurely drive around the lovely old neighborhoods of Staunton and a little antiquing, we had a snack and a drink at Clocktower Eats & Sweets. A lovely coconut cake: And the saltiest soft pretzels and beer cheese we’d ever tasted: 😵 More neighborhood wandering, then we took the long way to Charlottesville – my favorite drive across Afton Mountain and Rockfish Gap and beside lovely old homes. Dinner in Charlottesville was at our family favorite, Al Carbon. I’ve talked about this restaurant before and shown almost identical photos. Most American cities now have the Mexican/Central American rotisserie/charcoal chicken places, and they are good. But most of them that we’ve been to are basically Mexican restaurants with rotisserie chicken. This is miles above any other place we’ve ever tried. The chicken is astonishingly good, and the sandwiches and sides are unlike anything I’ve ever had. This is a chicken tamale and the beef cemita: Don’t know why I neglected to undress the tamale before taking the picture. The cemita was loaded with breaded slices of beef, Oaxaco cheese, ham, and avocado. It’s my favorite thing there. The elote and the incomparable chicken: It’s even excellent cold the next day. Sweet potato and fried plantains: The sweet potato is cooked in a sweet, creamy sauce and is slightly caramelized and the plantains are perfectly cooked. Dessert always presents a dilemma. Al Carbon makes churros to order. BUT just outside, in the parking lot is a frozen custard stand. I had a flash of genius. Considering that it was my birthday and that you are allowed, actually ENCOURAGED, to go big that day it occurred to me to do both. We ordered churros and took them across the parking lot and created this on the spot: It was utterly divine. And we were a happy family:

Not mine, but some incredible chocolates that Mr. Kim arranged with @Jim D. for me to have for my birthday. I mentioned them to him back when we were planning my little birthday adventure to Staunton VA and he took it from there. I confess that I have steered away a bit from the gorgeous looking confections in the past - having experienced lots of beautiful shells, but underwhelming fillings. That was SO not the case with these. I know that they talked and that Jim designed the box with my taste in mind, which was SO appreciated. There were nine different varieties and each one was delectable. The box: I cut the first of each one open - both to share with either Mr. Kim or Jessica and to show the insides. S'mores: toasted marshmallow, milk chocolate, graham cracker, molded in milk chocolate & Dark caramel with Maldon sea salt, molded in dark chocolate: layers of dulce de leche caramel and Irish coffee ganache, molded in dark chocolate & caramelized almond gianduja with dried cherries and caramelized almonds, molded in dark chocolate: Mango and passion fruit ganache with Sambuca liqueur, molded in milk chocolate: toasted coconut ganache with macadamias and lime zest, molded in dark chocolate: "Apple crisp" (apple pate de fruit, cream, spiced shortbread) molded in caramelized white chocolate: Layers of crispy hazelnut praline gianduja and black currant ganache with Chambord liqueur, enrobed in milk chocolate, topped with a toasted hazelnut: "Crème brûlée" (vanilla buttercream with crunchy dark caramel shards) molded in dark chocolate: Please forgive the bad layout, couldn't figure out how to arrange the photos differently. But you can imagine from the photos and descriptions how wonderful and inventing these combinations are. Thank you again, @Jim D. for your welcome and your artistry!

Gorgeous! Thank you so much for taking us with you. We've been blessed to have been about to do a lot of traveling in our lives together, but nothing has really topped Bermuda. It was the late 1980s and Mr. Kim had just gotten out of B-school. His mom sent us as a graduation present and kept Jessica. I remember chatting with an "older couple" (almost certainly younger than we are now) who said we'd made a mistake coming to Bermuda before going to any other resort islands. They said nothing would ever measure up to it. And they were right. Just a lovely, lovely place and people. We still order Outerbridge's Sherry Pepper Sauce to add to soups and other things.

Not a fan of crunch in hot broccoli. When I get lemon chicken at our Chinese restaurant, I always give the broccoli and Mr. Kim - they just lightly steam it and I can't bear that. I don't eat the stems at ALL except for in broccoli slaw. My MIL was appalled the first time I served her broccoli when she saw how close cut the florets were. I just hate cooked stems.

Yes to both statements. I remember my grandmother discovering broccoli when I was a young adult (it wasn't big in the south in the 1960s and 70s). She would start the pork chops, boiled potatoes, and broccoli all at the same time. During one visit, I offered to take care of the broccoli and she and my granddaddy were shocked at how good it was cooked properly (to me that means just tender - no crunch and no mush). And broccoli seems to have it's own air conditioning system. If it is the last thing off the heat is it still beginning to get cold by the time we start eating.

Wow. That looks amazing. Even the cocktail menu looks incredible. That would definitely go on my list next time. Yes!!! That's another "next time" place. Had we had one additional morning, we would have gone there for breakfast. The biscuits look amazing.

Savannah is on our wishlist! We attended a family wedding there years ago and it was just long enough to make us yearn to go back and have a REAL visit!

LOL! Imagine my British dad's disgruntlement on discovering while going out to dinner while visiting my grandparents in NC that he had to BRING HIS OWN BOTTLE!

The jerky assortment is pretty varied. As are the gummy and dried fruit and snack and nut assortments. They have whole walls of each thing. Lots of the same items packed side by side, though. A friend of Mr. Kim's (a fellow competition BBQ judge) sampled the BBQ at a Buc-ee's. If you'd like to see a video about it you can find it here at about 5:47. There's a lot of "not bad" and "ok". 😄

@chileheadmike - looking at those restaurants makes me want to go back NOW. Pearlz sounds especially good. 6/15/2022 Day 6 Last Day of our trip I had found a place that I thought looked great for breakfast or “brunch” (time-wise, not style-wise), called Marie's Diner. Very similar to Hannibal’s from day 4. But it just didn’t fit in with the schedule for the day. We had to check out of the hotel and pack the car and we didn’t want to leave town too terribly late. It would have required a lot of back and forth and I wasn’t willing to miss the plans I had for lunch. So we ended up at the rooftop restaurant at the hotel. It was your basic mid-range hotel buffet. Not great, but not terrible. Just ordinary. Mr. Kim’s plate: I just had a giant plate of bacon and rye toast 😁! We took a long, wandering last ride around Charleston. What a lovely city! I will never come back again in hot weather, but we’re hoping to meet our Florida friends here for a long weekend next February or March. Mr. Kim would love to see Ft. Sumter and I’ve got a list of restaurants that I want to get to! We stopped for lunch on our way out of town. I belong to a British ex-pat FB group (even though I’m neither) and this place was recommended: I couldn’t resist. It is in an interesting part of town. Not at ALL a trendy area – mostly warehouses and construction yards. We seemed to be the only tourists in the place. It looked like mostly working people on their lunch hours. The menu: We had pie, a sausage roll, and fish & chips: Everything was very, very good. The pie was beef and potato and luckily it was good and saucy so that we didn’t have to resort to what was obviously just a cup of plain, gelatinous Bisto (I love Bisto, but not by itself – I use it to thicken and flavor a gravy I’ve already started). And to be persnickety, I found the chips slightly over-cooked. Mr. Kim disagreed. But those two things are being extremely picky. This was a delicious meal and if we lived here, I’d be a regular. We said “goodbye” and “see you again” to Charleston and hit the road. We stopped at the completely insane Buc-ee's on the way home. For those not “in the know” it is a gigantic gas station/convenience store. Think 7-11 products the size of the biggest grocery store in town. It’s the kind of place you stop at because everyone says you should and after you do you know you’ll never stop again. Honestly, South of the Border is a LOT more fun! Thanks for coming along. It was so wonderful to get out of the house and to be away from responsibilities and work!

6/14/2022 Day 5 Charleston SC We started our only full day in Charleston at Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits in the City Market. I had gotten biscuits there when I was there with my family for my dad’s and uncle’s 80th birthday in 2019, but Mr. Kim hadn’t been with us and had only had the frozen ones that I bought at a store in Richmond. Everything we had was really, really good, but there was a mix up with our order. I don’t know if the guy taking the orders was new or if the problem was my mask. We ordered one large biscuit and 3 little ones. We paid for 2 large ones and the little ones weren’t correct. But they were good. The little ones are cheese & chive, buttermilk, and country ham. The cheese & chive was supposed to have country ham on it, the buttermilk was supposed to have strawberry fig and the country ham was supposed to have butter. All three only had butter. The large one is Mr. Kim’s Cheddar and jalapeno biscuit with bacon, cheese, and egg. Mr. Kim’s Yelp review: "The Callie's location in the city market is busy and obviously successful. This was a "destination breakfast" for us, and we were delighted to find the wait not overly long. The menu board takes some deciphering, which led to confusion between my wife and the man taking orders. Once this was straightened out we awaited our biscuits in a tight corner out of the walkway. Our order was incorrect -- one $5 biscuit missing completely, two of three mini biscuits constructed incorrectly (correct on the receipt but fillings/spreads not correct or missing completely.) We did not go back through the line and try to straighten it out, so no real points off, just a word of caution here for the next diner to check your order. What we ate was delicious. I recommend the jalapeno biscuit, in my case with bacon, egg, and cheese. Flaky biscuit, generous fillings. The buttermilk biscuit (missing items) was nonetheless delish as well. Coffee was moderately strong and tasty -- just what I needed. So, while half of the order was not what we intended to order / paid for, everything we got was delicious. Hard to complain too much about that. Will gladly stop back by, but it will not be destination dining next time." We wandered around the market for a while, but even though it is covered it was still miserably hot. We later heard that there was a heat advisory both this day and the day before that we didn’t hear about until we were gone. We spent most of the day in the car, driving around and looking at architecture: We decided to get out of town and try to find a beach we could possibly sit near and have lunch or at least a cocktail. We ended up following our noses to Isle of Palms SC – only about 20 miles away, but literally at the end of a road on the Atlantic ocean. Even with the ocean breeze, it was just too hot to be outside, so we got lunch. The first two places were closed/crowded and we basically threw up our hands and picked this place because they could seat us: It was right on the beach and playing Buffet, so we figured typical tourist joint, but there was AC and cold drinks and maybe decent steamed shrimp. We started like any good tourist would: Mine (on the left 😁) was a Parrot Colada – a Pina colada with Don Q Rum, strawberry syrup, and whipped cream. It was creamy and ice-cold and delicious. Mr. Kim sucked down that icy Bud in about 45 seconds. I think he got brain freeze! When we looked around at the tables near us and saw what was coming by with the servers, we decided to take a chance and order something besides basic steamed shrimp. We were very pleasantly surprised. I got a delicious grouper sandwich and Mr. Kim got mahi-mahi: The fish on both was excellent and the “side salad” on mine was huge and really fresh. The slaw reminded us of our England trip as it was totally gloppy and gooey, so that was nice 😄. I had never heard of grouper until my parents moved to Florida in the late 1990s and we visited them. I fell in love with it and it has become one of my very favorite fishes. We went back to the hotel: …which was 1960s fabulous! The emergency exit on the room door cracked me up: We intended to take a swim to cool off, but the freshly made bed and chilly room seduced us into afternoon naps. We had planned to go to Hyman’s seafood that night for dinner. I was craving a classic seafood house fried “Captain’s Platter”. Unfortunately, Hyman’s doesn’t take reservations (😠) and the wait was going to be about 90 minutes. I have distinct opinions of incredibly popular restaurants that refuse to take reservations. I believe that it indicates a lack of caring about their clients. They don’t care that you have to wait that long in the heat or cold because they know people will. I tend not to go to restaurants like that. So, we left and really took a chance. We Googled “seafood in Charleston” and picked a place that was out in the burbs. I was seriously pouting about not getting to go to the place I’d planned on, so this place was starting out at a disadvantage. It was called “The Crab Shack” and looked like a Joe’s Crab Shack. We were NOT hopeful, but it was late and we were tired and hungry. Mr. Kim got steamed shrimp (not pictured) which were huge and perfectly steamed and very, very good. I got the fried seafood platter I had been craving and was prepared to NOT be impressed: And it was EXACTLY what I’d been craving. Shrimp, scallops, flounder, and oysters. Everything was perfectly prepared (NOTHING was overcooked), the breading was crisp and not to thick and the seafood was sweet and tender and GOOD! Back to the historic district for some frozen custard and an evening walk: Two unplanned and coin-toss restaurants today and both turned out so well. Such good luck!

Ah! That was so cool. It was a façade of what had been an really old building. It was sitting in what looked like a construction/storage yard right behind a grocery store. It is shored up with scaffolding and looks like they've saved it to use on some new construction planned there. Which we were very happy to see.

If you meant the first picture in the latest post, it's Mr. Kim standing in front of Rodney Scott's BBQ restaurant.

Just astoundingly gorgeous. I have to say that last night I ate at a fairly ordinary chain restaurant in Sterling VA (suburb of DC) - my host had an $18 cheeseburger and I had a $19 fish sandwich. And we had nothing like the views you all had. 😁

Mr. Kim always uses the smaller (6-inches long from tip to handle and 1-inch wide) knife in the knife holder, even though I have a regular chef's knife. He uses it to chop things and bangs his knuckles on the chopping board with every slice. It makes me crazy.

I think you're right. Some kind of crouton/fried noodle/nut/seed would have been better, I think. 6/13/2022 Day 4 Jacksonville to Charleston SC We left our friends’ house early that morning. I stupidly forgot that Whataburger serves breakfast and we ended up at Wendy’s. No pictures and actually not bad at all. I had the bacon, egg, and Swiss croissant and the potatoes. The sandwich was fine, but those potatoes are fantastic. They need to offer them as an option all the time. Our first stop in Charleston (even before our hotel) was Rodney Scott’s – another legendary BBQ pit and one that Mr. Kim has been dreaming of since hearing about it a few years ago: Pork and slaw with some fried skins on top: Hush puppies and ribs: The perfect rib bite: We also bought a bag of fried pork skin: This place did not disappoint at ALL. Mr. Kim said he didn’t know if this BBQ made him want to quit work and make BBQ every day to try to get this good or give up BBQ altogether because he’ll never be this good. I told him to shut up and pass the ribs😄! His Yelp review: I eat BBQ as a hobby. I judge BBQ competitions, I cook BBQ for my family and friends and local church groups, BBQ is my first choice for a meal when traveling. Rodney Scott's taught me something -- it taught me that I know NOTHING about good BBQ. It's like Mr. Scott tasted my best cooking-for-company backyard effort, looked me in the eye, and said "hold my beer." After eating in maybe a hundred BBQ restaurants, dives, joints, and cinder block shacks, I have found the best damned Q I have ever put in my mouth at Rodney Scott's. The ribs were that perfect perfect perfect balance of smoke and meat and seasoning, pulled off the heat at exactly the right moment to preserve the integrity of the meat and deliver an irresistible bark. The pork was just this amazing and honest presentation of pork flavor that was enhanced by the treatment in the pit. I am certain there was mopping and/or injection involved in the process, but neither masked the taste of the pork itself. Both meats presented what barbecue should be -- slow cooked meat that accepts the seasoning and the fire and the wood smoke without being dominated by it. As with all good BBQ, no sauce is necessary, although there were several on the table. Thank you to the owner and staff for a truly wonderful food memory. I wish you were closer than 425 miles away. Attention YELP management -- how do I give this place 10 stars? It was an incredibly hot couple of days, so our plans to stroll around turned into driving around. But we saw lots of lovely architecture and did walk around White Point Garden (in the Battery neighborhood) in the evening when it got cooler: I searched out this great little neighborhood place for dinner that night: The menu: My plate: Smothered pork chop, white rice, candied yams, and cornbread. Mr. Kim’s: Collards, fried chicken, and lima beans. Every bite was excellent. My favorite kind of food served by a charming young man (who, it turned out, was from Richmond originally) in a comfortable, family friendly setting. I wish we could have come twice during our visit. There were multiple things I’d like to have tried, but we were too full!

It might not be. We bought these at Aldi and we ALL noticed that they were extremely salty. At first, I thought it might be because of the saltiness of the queso (Velveeta, jarred salsa, and sausage), but when I tasted a few without dip, they were like you said - overly, overly salty. I really like the strips for dipping, but won't be buying that brand again.

@TicTac – gorgeous lobster tails. Reminds me that we’ve still got a gift card for lobster from Christmas that we haven’t used yet. @Ann_T – your beef is lovely, but I’m truly enamoured of the color you manage to get on your roast potatoes. We had a phone dinner date with our Florida friends on Wednesday, so dinner was take-out pizza and Greek salad: Last night was leftover pizza, but the important part was the sides. We had stellar corn and heirloom tomatoes from the produce stand: And some leftover queso and chips:

I did that with a few for the next couple of days. It's a definite improvement over the microwave! Thank you for abetting my junk food addiction. Yesterday was eggs on toast: I haven't done these in a bit and ended up with a bit of egg-snot. They had to go back in the pan for a minute. This morning:

Same with us. We're ok with separate tables (like a well-arranged restaurant), but we mask up when waiting for a table. The new head of the agency Mr. Kim works for was planning a "mandatory" lunch to welcome everyone back to the office (I think the compromise was 3 days a week - the new administration wanted everyone back immediately) and people were really up in arms. During the time that they've all been working remotely, Mr. Kim has had periodic lunches with his staff. He'd get everyone's order and then they would meet outside somewhere they could talk and still establish some distance. He thought it was valuable to have some in person face-time, but still maintain safety. Not all of the directors felt that way and now they are faced with losing some of their staff. Many people are just not ready to take risks yet.