Author - Grant
Based In – PaulaDeansVille (Savannah), Georgia
Today’s Photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/32017704@N03/sets/72157612290011731/
This was supposed to be our quiet, uneventful, relaxing day in Savannah with no firm plans and the glorious possibility of being rained in and being forced to chill, read and catch up on chores. Somehow, however, it turned into another jam-packed day – doing nothing is truly exhausting you know.
Today was to include a visit to southern home cooking gal Paula Dean’s restaurant and,
inconveniently, they only take reservations in person so we trekked down there at 9:30am to reserve a couple of seats for lunch before firmly donning our touristy hats and jumping aboard one of Savannah’s 90 minute Trolley Tours. Fifty-plus year old Tracy was our driver and narrator for the tour and luckily we caught her after she’d inhaled a dozen double espressos as she had more energy than a hyper-active chimp. Needless to say we were the youngest people on the tour by a clear thirty years and, yes, it was extremely embarrassing when the trolley slowly passed some of the town’s many young ‘uns who enjoyed sneering at the comical tourists (I guess it didn’t help that we were in almost matching North Face jackets). But generally it was pretty good and I love a bit of random trivia. For example, much of Forest Gump was filmed here and the park bench “box of chocolates” scene was in one of the 21 green squares. My favourite trivia, however, was passing an old school movie theatre which hosted the premiere of Gone With The Wind. Impressive stuff I hope you’ll agree.
On to lunch at Paula’s restaurant (called “The Lady And Sons”) and the first surprise (assuming that being greeted at the door with a “Hey Y’All” was a given) was that we were eating on the third floor. Now I understand why she lives on something the size of a plantation if she can fill three densely packed, sizeable floors of her restaurant on a dreary Wednesday lunch in the middle of an economic downturn in early January. The opening gambit for all diners is a stodgy side plate with a crispy, pan fried cornbread pancake and a garlic and cheese biscuit (think scone for the UK readers) which were both really tasty but would easily pass for a full week’s worth of intake for the average supermodel. Luckily, however, we are far from supermodel material so the next choice was whether to have the buffet or go a la carte. A quick inspection of the buffet made that an easy decision because it consisted of fried chicken, a beef stew looking dish, various veggies and some salad. Not a massive choice and I would imagine the fried
chicken looses much of it’s quality by being sat around so a la carte it was. The lunch menu is presumably smaller than the dinner menu as it contained just four mains and a bunch of sandwiches. As such, we decided to share a starter and order half of the mains on offer. As an appetiser we ordered the fried green tomatoes as we’ve had them at a few other places so I thought we could do a pretty good comparison. They had a more textured batter than the others we have tried which meant that the tomato didn’t quite star but it was still good and the sweet pepper and onion relishes were both excellent. Good work Paula – 100% scorecard so far. Then on to the entrees. We ordered the Crab Cake which came on a bed of rice and black beans and the Chicken Pot Pie. Unfortunately the meal bombed at this point as the crab cake was soggy, a bit bland and had some shell in; the rice and beans was a just a soggy pile of stodge and whilst the chicken pot pie was flavourful, it was hard to eat more than a couple of mouthfuls as it was just so hideously rich. She has a reputation for throwing butter at a recipe and it really came through in the pot pie. As I sit here typing this blog 36 hours later, I am sporting a spot on my forehead the size of a FIFA approved football which I solely attribute to eating this dish. On the plus side, it was all very cheap as our total check came to a miserly $40 but, then again, it was crap so I guess that makes it relatively expensive. So I guess I’m pleased we went to her restaurant but I won’t be going back. It didn’t stop me snogging her life-size cardboard cut-out in the souvenir shop next door, however.
After such a sizeable meal, Kate went off to do some chores whilst the pup and I sat in a square in a butter coma, having a read and watching the world go by…until the arrival of a gale sent us back to the hotel. I’ve now carried a set of golf clubs for two months and over 7000 miles without actually hitting a ball yet so I thought I would take advantage of the hour of remaining light by slapping a few at a local driving range. With such a plethora of courses to choose from and no knowledge of their relative merits, I simply picked one with the most appealing name. As such, I can heartily recommend Bacon Golf Club if you are passing through the area.
Still bloated on the lard-fest at dinner, we needed some exercise but it was marching on towards 8pm and that’s beer o’clock in anyone’s language. I know, let’s mix the tw
o events. Yes, let’s drinkercise. The strip of boozers we were aiming for was five miles away in downtown Savannah so we walked there. Unfortunately, however, no one walks anywhere here (unless you are pushing a shopping trolley and look like you’re on day release) so the pavements/sidewalks are sparse which severely hampers speedy progress. I think we looked a little like serial killers when we arrived at pub one lightly perspiring with muddy shoes. Still, it built up a decent thirst and we managed to know back a few bevies in a whopping five different bars of very different ilks. We were crooned to by an Irish folk singer, talked to by someone recently on sniper training in Scotland, played retro Mrs Pac Man in a heavy metal bar and watched UFC in an olive bar. All good fun and the recent return of many of the students to Savannah’s massive School of Art & Design meant that there were enough people to stare at. Kate tells me I was a bit giddy and embarrassing by the final bar – I find that all very hard to believe.
We have a big day of driving tomorrow as we leave Georgia for Florida’s Cape Canaveral via the Spanish influenced St Augustine and the home of Speedway, Daytona Beach. Get the Aleve on standby…
Based In – PaulaDeansVille (Savannah), Georgia
Today’s Photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/32017704@N03/sets/72157612290011731/
This was supposed to be our quiet, uneventful, relaxing day in Savannah with no firm plans and the glorious possibility of being rained in and being forced to chill, read and catch up on chores. Somehow, however, it turned into another jam-packed day – doing nothing is truly exhausting you know.
Today was to include a visit to southern home cooking gal Paula Dean’s restaurant and,
inconveniently, they only take reservations in person so we trekked down there at 9:30am to reserve a couple of seats for lunch before firmly donning our touristy hats and jumping aboard one of Savannah’s 90 minute Trolley Tours. Fifty-plus year old Tracy was our driver and narrator for the tour and luckily we caught her after she’d inhaled a dozen double espressos as she had more energy than a hyper-active chimp. Needless to say we were the youngest people on the tour by a clear thirty years and, yes, it was extremely embarrassing when the trolley slowly passed some of the town’s many young ‘uns who enjoyed sneering at the comical tourists (I guess it didn’t help that we were in almost matching North Face jackets). But generally it was pretty good and I love a bit of random trivia. For example, much of Forest Gump was filmed here and the park bench “box of chocolates” scene was in one of the 21 green squares. My favourite trivia, however, was passing an old school movie theatre which hosted the premiere of Gone With The Wind. Impressive stuff I hope you’ll agree.On to lunch at Paula’s restaurant (called “The Lady And Sons”) and the first surprise (assuming that being greeted at the door with a “Hey Y’All” was a given) was that we were eating on the third floor. Now I understand why she lives on something the size of a plantation if she can fill three densely packed, sizeable floors of her restaurant on a dreary Wednesday lunch in the middle of an economic downturn in early January. The opening gambit for all diners is a stodgy side plate with a crispy, pan fried cornbread pancake and a garlic and cheese biscuit (think scone for the UK readers) which were both really tasty but would easily pass for a full week’s worth of intake for the average supermodel. Luckily, however, we are far from supermodel material so the next choice was whether to have the buffet or go a la carte. A quick inspection of the buffet made that an easy decision because it consisted of fried chicken, a beef stew looking dish, various veggies and some salad. Not a massive choice and I would imagine the fried
chicken looses much of it’s quality by being sat around so a la carte it was. The lunch menu is presumably smaller than the dinner menu as it contained just four mains and a bunch of sandwiches. As such, we decided to share a starter and order half of the mains on offer. As an appetiser we ordered the fried green tomatoes as we’ve had them at a few other places so I thought we could do a pretty good comparison. They had a more textured batter than the others we have tried which meant that the tomato didn’t quite star but it was still good and the sweet pepper and onion relishes were both excellent. Good work Paula – 100% scorecard so far. Then on to the entrees. We ordered the Crab Cake which came on a bed of rice and black beans and the Chicken Pot Pie. Unfortunately the meal bombed at this point as the crab cake was soggy, a bit bland and had some shell in; the rice and beans was a just a soggy pile of stodge and whilst the chicken pot pie was flavourful, it was hard to eat more than a couple of mouthfuls as it was just so hideously rich. She has a reputation for throwing butter at a recipe and it really came through in the pot pie. As I sit here typing this blog 36 hours later, I am sporting a spot on my forehead the size of a FIFA approved football which I solely attribute to eating this dish. On the plus side, it was all very cheap as our total check came to a miserly $40 but, then again, it was crap so I guess that makes it relatively expensive. So I guess I’m pleased we went to her restaurant but I won’t be going back. It didn’t stop me snogging her life-size cardboard cut-out in the souvenir shop next door, however.After such a sizeable meal, Kate went off to do some chores whilst the pup and I sat in a square in a butter coma, having a read and watching the world go by…until the arrival of a gale sent us back to the hotel. I’ve now carried a set of golf clubs for two months and over 7000 miles without actually hitting a ball yet so I thought I would take advantage of the hour of remaining light by slapping a few at a local driving range. With such a plethora of courses to choose from and no knowledge of their relative merits, I simply picked one with the most appealing name. As such, I can heartily recommend Bacon Golf Club if you are passing through the area.
Still bloated on the lard-fest at dinner, we needed some exercise but it was marching on towards 8pm and that’s beer o’clock in anyone’s language. I know, let’s mix the tw
o events. Yes, let’s drinkercise. The strip of boozers we were aiming for was five miles away in downtown Savannah so we walked there. Unfortunately, however, no one walks anywhere here (unless you are pushing a shopping trolley and look like you’re on day release) so the pavements/sidewalks are sparse which severely hampers speedy progress. I think we looked a little like serial killers when we arrived at pub one lightly perspiring with muddy shoes. Still, it built up a decent thirst and we managed to know back a few bevies in a whopping five different bars of very different ilks. We were crooned to by an Irish folk singer, talked to by someone recently on sniper training in Scotland, played retro Mrs Pac Man in a heavy metal bar and watched UFC in an olive bar. All good fun and the recent return of many of the students to Savannah’s massive School of Art & Design meant that there were enough people to stare at. Kate tells me I was a bit giddy and embarrassing by the final bar – I find that all very hard to believe.We have a big day of driving tomorrow as we leave Georgia for Florida’s Cape Canaveral via the Spanish influenced St Augustine and the home of Speedway, Daytona Beach. Get the Aleve on standby…
2 comments:
sweet pepper and onion relishes :
if she didnt call it CHOW CHOW I can't believe she is really from the south
She DID NOT call it Chow Chow (which sounds more like dog food than a garnish). I think she's French.
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