deibu

The difference is that cream of coconut has tons of sugar added to it. Also, I believe they use the "meat" of the coconut to make the liquid. It is very, very sweet in taste because of all the added sugar. However, it is by far the best way to make a pina colada.

The only supermarket here I can see any value in keeping the same card is Piggly Wiggly... The old "greenbax stamps" are now incorporated into their PFC card. So everytime you spend you earn a certain number of "books". Every week they have specials and "free" items - frequently, a 5 lb. bag of sugar, roll of paper towels or a dozen eggs are "free" with 1 or 2 "books". So if you start with a new card you lose all those books you've earned. Of course, everything else in there is overpriced. Thank God Publix still has a "no card" policy.

How about something "Blackened", like chicken? Blackened anything was huge in the early 80's. Sushi of course - I love that scene in Valley Girl where they are piggin out on some sushi. Salad bars were huge everywhere. Of course, oat bran was in and eggs were out. This link is pretty good: IACP's take on the 80's What about drinks? Margaritas were big in the 80's. Shots were also big in the 80's... Wine coolers, and also it was the decade that import beers hit it big, namely Heineken and Corona. "Corona with a lime" was very popular.

My mom makes baked beans that everyone raves about, and the recipe is from the user's manual to our first microwave, which was built-in to the new kitchen in the house I grew up in, which was built in 1974. It uses nearly exactly the same recipe. You just dump ketchup, mustard and dried onion and a couple of other things along with a couple of cans of baked beans into a big glass caserole dish, nuke it, and voila. She never cooked anything else in the microwave, but she still does it this way.

I think this is a different Bessinger's than the one you mentioned. Maurice Bessinger's is located in Columbia and has 12 locations throughout central SC, nowhere near I-95. He is well-known for his racist rants and support of huge Confederate flags in front of his stores. However, his brother operates several stores (under the name Bessinger's, while Maurice Bessinger's is called "Maurice's"). Most of the Bessinger's BBQs are in the Charleston area. I believe that's where you may have actually gone?

Don't also forget... Lost in the Supermarket - The Clash

Bagged salad mixes. Seems like I always try to pop open the bag carefully, and the whole thing tears apart and everything ends up on the floor.

Either a Banana daiquiri rum, 2 bananas, a little lime juice, sugar syrup.... or a pina mango colada - gonna see how the new Dole Pineapple Mango juice works when added to the Coco Lopez...

I hate the texture of coconut. I find the texture like you find in a Mounds bar really disgusting. Also, I hate coconut shavings. However, I love pina coladas and the flavor of coconut. It's just a texture thing to me.

20-25 years ago, it used to be a mall-only thing, but they discovered how much more lucrative having drive-thru restaurants was back in the late 80's and started building them.

Speaking of High Life, it seems to be making a huge comeback as well. I think Miller is trying to market to the same hipsters-who-look-like-the-Strokes crowd as PBR.

I hate the pickles on Chik-Fil-A sandwiches, but I love the taste of the pickle juice that gets leftover on the top bun from where the pickle was... I guess I like the taste of the pickle, but not the texture.

Please, please, tell me where to go in Gaffney. I have to go there for work once a year, and I have yet to find anything besides the chain restaurants besides the outlet mall on I-85...

There's also a "Chat 'n' Chew" in the town of Turbeville, SC...

I've been all over the country, but grew up and still live right here in good ol' SC, and I love it. One big difference - cigarette smoking. I think, partially due to the tobacco crop being grown here, lots more people smoke. Ironically, the number of smokers seems to be the highest at two type of Southern dive bars I frequent - the gay dive bars, the "indie" dive bars and the redneck dive bars. Over half the patrons are smoking like chimneys. I'm not being critical, because I'm one of them.

It seems like I've heard that Fresh Samantha/Odwalla are now owned by the same company? Part of the consolidation in organic marketing - it was inevitable...

How about this food-related item in the same day's column:

What part of the country do you live in? At the Piggly Wiggly that used to be right up the block from where I live here in SC, you could get EVERY possible pig part imaginable! Too bad it closed down - the nearest "The Pig" (as we call Piggly Wiggly) is a couple of miles away next to a neighborhood full of elderly ladies and doctor-dads and tennis-playing-moms. Despite the fact that they have bad supermarket sushi and a pretty crappy organic section, I really miss the "Ghetto Pig" (as everyone used to call it) that was right around the corner from me - you'd see all kinds of packaged hog parts there.

I seem to recall this one being mentioned by someone else, but I'm not sure whether or not it was on this thread... But, it's something I haven't had in years that I occasionally think about and how delicious it can be: Wendy's french fries, piping hot and crispy, dipped in a cold chocolate Frosty

Here in Columbia (SC) it is pretty much the same as maf said in Savannah... Kroger, Publix, Food Lion, Piggly Wiggly, Bi-Lo, Winn-Dixie. In the early 90's, Bruno's came and went in a couple of years, then Harris Teeter moved into their stores in the mid-90's, but ended up pulling out and all the stores are now Piggly Wigglys. Harris Teeter is still in Charleston though. Publix definitely has the best stores here, hands down. Later this year, they are even opening one downtown in the old Confederate printing plant that has been abandoned for decades.

Also in SC, you can't buy minibottles in a liquor store unless you have a restaurant license. If they change the law, they are thinking about requiring that bars only serve liquor out of 1 L bottles, and forbidding 1 L bottles for sale to the general public (so they can get the tax on the bottles). A really dumb idea if you ask me...

I live in South Carolina so I'm definitely used to it, and drinks here will definitely wipe you out if you're not careful. The good thing is that you at least know you won't be cheated. The bad thing is that it is very hard to get multi-liquor drinks unless you share them with someone else. When you order shots at a bar, you usually order "2 3-ways" or maybe "3 4-ways". When I was in college one of my favorite bars (which I frequented quite a bit) would stay open after 2 on Saturday night but had to stop serving by law (on other nights in most places there's generally no such restriction). One of my friends was a bartender, and right before 2, I would order a couple of extra minibottles from him of cheap vodka to put in my pocket, and then go up to the bar later to get a Sprite or something to mix them with. Of course, to make it somewhat legal, but he would twist the seals off of the bottles (which is required) and then screw the caps back on.

I was trying to think of the place that my friend and I went last November to that was excellent, and it was 915. One of the tapas that I got was a seared tuna fillet wrapped around lump crab meat. They said that their tuna was flown in fresh everyday. It was one of the best things I've ever eaten, it was so incredible. I highly recommend this place.

Here in Columbia, SC my favorite watering hole has been selling PBR on the cheap for a couple of years... First it was $1 for the can, now it's $1.50 for the bottle. It's really popular with the rock crowd. I'm surprised The Strokes haven't started endorsing them...

I don't know - in the South we have a tradition of overcooked vegetables with lots and lots of bacon grease or fatback. However, I still think this is the best way to eat collard greens...