A Deep Fried Murder Mystery, Part One

Oh my goodness, two in a row?! Who am I??

We've made it to Thursday (finally)! Much like the day before, it was a lazy day. My friend went to the pool while I hung out in the room to relax and to work on a blog post or two - some good that did, right? Anyway, we decided to walk over to the nearby shopping plaza to get something to eat. If you've never been to Coligny Plaza in Hilton Head, you should totally check it out. There are tons of shops and restaurants there, so there are plenty of options if you're hungry or just plain bored. Plus, it's right by the beach so you can go grab something to eat then head over to the beach to check out the pods of dolphins that hang out there. 

It took us a while to decide what we were going to get, mostly because we couldn't decide what kind of food each of us wanted. We somehow miraculously narrowed it down to two places: a beautiful bar and grille called Bomboras and another café and bar called The Frosty Frog Café. Since we couldn't decide on which one we were going to go to, we did what any hungry girls on vacation would do: we decided to get something from each.

  

We went fairly early in the day so Bomboras hadn't gotten a crowd yet, which was nice because we got to see how beautiful the restaurant actually was. You can check out a virtual tour of the restaurant here. Its menu can probably be best described as Southern cooking with a bit of flair. From Bomboras, we decided to try their hushpuppies, which everyone knows is just a piece of fried Southern heaven. They had two types: roasted corn, which was stuffed with corn kernels, and jalapeño and cheddar, which was stuffed with...well, jalapeño and cheddar. I got the jalapeño and cheddar ones and, boy, were they delicious. They were just the right amount of spicy and they were fluffy and fried to perfection. It came with a cinnamon honey butter but, to be honest, it didn't even need it. Over at the Frosty Frog, it was a bit of a different story. It was a great looking place but it definitely wasn't empty. The Frosty Frog is more of a family-friendly restaurant than Bomboras is, so there were a lot of families grabbing a bite to eat either on their way to or from the beach. Also, since it's also a daiquiri bar, a lot of people were just stopping in to grab a drink, because, hey, it's 5 o'clock somewhere. We got the appetizer combo which had chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, and fries. Unfortunately, they weren't anything super special and it could have come from any restaurant. Still, they were good. 

Once we got our food, we trekked back to the room to enjoy some Murder, She Wrote to prepare us for our murder mystery cruise later that night. Because is there anyone better to train you in the ways of solving murders than J.B. Fletcher?

Let's be honest, Jessica Beatrice is the best there is.

 So, who's ready to solve a murder?! Stay tuned!

If you happen to be in Hilton Head and are down near the beach, check out Coligny Plaza. You can find all the store and restaurant listings at their website: www.colignyplaza.com/directory. If you'd like to specifically check out Bomboras or The Frosty Frog Café, check out their respective websites at www.bomborasgrille.com and frostyfrog.com.  Also, even though I didn't get a chance to go their this last visit, I highly recommend visiting The French Kiss Bakery, also located in Coligny Plaza. They don't have a website but they have amazing fruit tarts and, if they have it, you have to try their bread puddings. 

Midnight in the Gourmet Gas Station of Good and Evil

Ok. So maybe I didn't come back as I had promised, but here I am, ready to update. In case you've forgotten (which I will admit, I kind of did), I was in the middle of the third day of my Hilton Head and Savannah vacay. If you don't remember the first part of Wednesday, which included lazy times and some killer Gouda grits, go back and refresh yourself. Go ahead, I'll wait.

So, now that we've all gotten reacquainted with the past days' events, here we go!!!

Once we were dressed in proper ghost hunting apparel (read: khaki shorts, a t-shirt, and comfy walking shoes), we headed to Savannah for the Beyond Good and Evil Tour. We were a little worried because on the way, there were a few strikes of lightening in the distance but things turned out just fine. We stopped at a recommended gas station to grab some drinks and to use the bathroom before we headed to the meeting spot for the tour.  The recommended station/convenience store was unlike any I have ever seen. It was practically a mini grocery store, only with a much more diverse selection of goods, including international foods. There was a freezer section, a bakery and deli, as well as your typical chips, snack cakes, and magazines you find in a gas station. I suppose there was a reason it was called "Urban Gourmet".  After we left there, we met our tour guide, Nicodemus, in front of the Colonial Park Cemetery, which he explained had been the site of voodoo rituals for many years, as recently as in the last couple of decades. Nicodemus was this amazing Australian guy who definitely looked the part of ghost tour guide. Think Edgar Allan Poe but with more modern clothing. And guyliner.

This is Nicodemus.
Actually, it's John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe in The Raven.
But it could totally be Nicodemus.

The walking tour lasts for about 90 minutes and goes through a few of the town squares and to a few of the haunted - and privately-owned - homes, full of tragic and dark stories that will definitely entertain you.  One of the houses visited was the house from the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which is based on a true crime. It's also been made into a movie starring Kevin Spacey and John Cusack. It's pretty good so if you don't want to read the book, you should definitely check out the film.

  

I guess the night was a very John Cusack-y kind of night.

The tour was really interesting - there was definitely a reason it has high ratings on TripAdvisor! I would highly recommend booking Nicodemus' tour if you're interested in doing a ghost tour. Now, if you're unable to do a walking tour, then you should look into one of the ghost tour buses or, better yet, a hearse ghost tour. 

Okay, we've got two more days left... And then there's also the Paris recap. Sigh. Lots of catching up to do, but I'm super excited about getting to Paris and the times after. There are gonna be tons of cool stories, even more photos (I'm looking at you, Versailles), and even a couple of recipes!! So let's get started restarted!!!

If you are going to be in Savannah and want to explore some of its haunted history, I'd strongly recommend booking a tour with Beyond Good and Evil - especially if you like a little lot of humor in your haunting. To check out some reviews, look at some photos from the tour, check out the map, or to book a tour, check out his website at www.beyondgoodandeviltours.com. 

EDIT: I forgot to mention the best part of the whole tour. It's ADULTS ONLY!!! This definitely allowed for some darker stories that may not have been appropriate for younger children.

Time flies...when you're not doing anything

So... two months isn't too long, right?

Right?

As you can see, I have not written in a while. Well, life got the better of me. Clearly, I survived my trip to Paris and am back in the States. Unfortunately, as soon as I got back, work got crazy and took a lot of my energy. 

But, now things are slowing down (a little) and I am more than ready to get back to writing this blog and updating things. So, I've set alarms so I can create a concrete schedule. Hopefully, with that and some discipline, I can get everything up to date. So expect things!!

Update!!

So it's safe to say that I got a little lot behind on writing. 

As I mentioned in my first entry, I'm heading to Paris, so naturally, I have been busy with that and work and just life, in general. I was hoping I would be finished with my Hilton Head/Savannah entries before I left for France but seeing as how I am leaving in... 8 hours, I don't think I will be able to. I will not be taking my laptop with me but I will have my tablet, so if I have some down time and I feel the urge to write an entry, I'll finish up with Hilton Head/Savannah. Please see that I said "if". We did a tentative itinerary and it's a little busy. Don't believe me? Fine, see for yourself...

 

See? There's little downtime. But, it will be a blast.

See you on the flip side!!

Fancy, Schmancy

Yay, we've made it to halfway!  I think it's safe to say that procrastination and life got the better of me. So Wednesday was a very chill day, especially the morning/early afternoon. We took advantage of the great weather (fortunately, all of the storms happened at night) and the fact that we were staying right above the pool and went for a dip. We laid out for a bit - I ACTUALLY TANNED!! - then dove in. 

I must say that my friend can make a new friend anywhere, and that day, she made two. We met a teacher from Nashville who was staying at the resort with her family and then we met this couple from Charlotte, NC. Since my friend and I both work in the education field, we ended up discussing the differences in the school systems in each of our current locations. It's really interesting to see how something that all children in the country is receiving (or should be receiving) can be done so differently in so many different places. Like, here in the school district I work for, all students, starting next year, will be receiving free breakfast and lunch. In Charlotte, there was one school (that I know of) that was providing free lunch for all students, but to the teacher from Nashville, it was a shock because, as it normally is, only qualifying students receive free breakfast and lunch. Anyway, that's the education system for you.

Lunch was light as we planned to do a "fancy dinner" that evening before we headed back to Savannah. I had the rest of my AH-MAZING French Onion Soup from Vic's and my friend made an impromptu "pizza" with tortillas and pesto. We ate, showered, and got ready for our dinner reservation at Wiseguys, this restaurant and bar on the island. Also, as a heads up, you definitely need to make a reservation if you're going to go. Wiseguys is a gorgeous restaurant; it kind of reminds me of those restaurants in the commercials for the wallet flashlights. You know the ones? 

Anyway, we were seated in one of the corners of the restaurant and were almost instantly greeted by one of the managers, Sandy. When our waitress came, I ordered the Grouper Daufuskie while my friend ordered the Twin Crab Filets.

After looking at some other restaurants' menus, Grouper Daufuskie may or may not have a set recipe (?), because each menu had a different set of ingredients. If anyone out there knows about a concrete version of Grouper Daufuskie, let me know. The Grouper Daufuskie at Wiseguys was seared grouper on top of smoked gouda grits surrounded by baby spinach leaves coated with their Daufuskie sauce (The dish is also served with mushrooms, but I ordered it without.). The grouper was seared wonderfully, leaving the fish with a beautiful crust, and the sauce was good. The baby spinach was more like a garnish than an actual part of the meal, so the leaves ended up taking away from the dish rather than adding to it. The star of the dish, though, was the gouda grits. Good Lord, those grits. I was quite apprehensive of getting grits because, up to this point, I hadn't had a decent serving of grits since I'd been in HHI/Savannah. Those grits made up for everything. 

My friend's Twin Crab Filets were described as "Two 4 oz. filets encrusted with crab cakes, lemon butter, Yukon gold whipped potatoes, Seasonal vegetables".  A major reason I was excited for her to order it was because I was really curious as to how a steak was encrusted with a crab cake. Really, it was a filet topped with a crab cake. I am not a huge steak eater; I just don't crave a lot of red meat. But, this steak. I would gladly order this any day of the week. The steak was tender and the saltiness from the crab cake was a perfect complement to the steak itself. As I mentioned before, I love potatoes. Love them. 

Oh, Samwise Gamgee, be mine!

These whipped potatoes were delicious; they were creamy and silky and perfectly seasoned. It was safe to say that, other than Vic's in Savannah, this was the best meal we had on our trip.

After we left the restaurant, we headed back to the villa to change into clothes fitting to go out and find some ghosts.

  

Oh, you Winchester boys with your disguises and whatnot.

Stay tuned for the ghost tour blog!

If you happen to be in the Hilton Head Island area, take a trip to Wiseguys Restaurant and Bar. It's a little on the pricier side, but it's totally worth it. They're open from 5 to midnight, so they're strictly dinner and late-night eats. To check out their entree and their small plate menus, check out their website at www.wiseguyshhi.com.

Baby cows, bourbon, and books

Ok, we're finally making progress on these things. If you haven't read the last entry, go do that now and catch up on our trip to Savannah so far. If you have read the last entry, then you know that at the end of our shopping trip on the Savannah riverfront, we stopped by a restaurant named Vic's on the River. There are two entrances to the restaurant: one on Bay Street, which is the main entrance, and then there is the entrance on River Street. The entrance on River Street is actually the entrance to the restaurant's coffee bar; to get to the actual restaurant, you have to go through the coffee bar to the elevator and go up to the fourth floor to the dining room.

Like I said before, the actual building was gorgeous, but their food? On a scale of one to ten, ten being the best, their food was a solid...12. Yes. It was off the charts delicious. Even their worst dish, I would gladly order again. I ordered their Fried Green Tomatoes and their French Onion Soup. My friend ordered their Crawfish Beignets and their Crab, Shrimp, & Oyster Stew, but more on those dishes later.

I love Fried Green Tomatoes, and I'm not just talking about the movie. Seriously, I could quote and reference that movie until they discover the real secret in Sipsey's sauce. If you didn't get that, then you have a movie to watch, don't you? 

 Anyway, the Fried Green Tomatoes at Vic's were delicious. They were served on grits and topped with goat cheese, tomato chutney, and a balsamic glaze. The only problem was that the cheese, chutney, and glaze just added to the acidity of the dish. I prefer my FGT's to be accompanied with a little lot of spice so, in my opinion, the tartness of the goat cheese and the balsamic glaze was almost overpowering if you had a bit of each in a single bite. Also, putting tomatoes on top of another tomato, albeit a fried one, is a bit much for me. BUT. It is an appetizer so I really think that if you split with another person, the flavors will be just enough. Or, you could do like I did and just take some of the stuff off and keep it for yourself.

Unlike the FGT's, Vic's French Onion Soup had no flaws. None. Not even a little. Perfection. If you don't know what a French Onion Soup consists of, it's basically meat stock (most likely beef) and onions, topped with croutons and cheese. There's also some wine, brandy or sherry or something similar in the soup, depending on the recipe used. Vic's uses bourbon in their soup, but the thing that really made their French Onion Soup was the meat they used in their stock. Vic's uses veal to make their stock instead of beef, which gives their stock a much richer flavor and makes it 1000 times more drool worthy. My mouth is watering just writing about it. Honestly, if I had to choose a dish for my last meal, it may very well be this soup. 

As I said before, my friend ordered the Crawfish Beignets and the Crab, Shrimp, & Oyster Stew. The Crawfish Beignets were pretty good, despite the fact that they weren't really beignets. Beignets are a lot like doughnuts are in the US; they're fluffy and fried and, according to Disney darling Charlotte La Bouff, have the added benefit of helping one catch a man. 

"I'm gonna need about 500 of your MAN-CATCHING beignets
for my ball tonight!"

The "beignets" at Vic's were more like empanadas or turnovers, as they were pastry dough filled with meat and then folded over while creating a seam by either folding the dough in on itself or by pressing the dough shut with something like a fork. I had never had crawfish before but I have to say, it was tasty. I'd definitely try some more crawfish dishes. However, for me, the star of the show was the Tabasco syrup. Yes, syrup. It was delicious and was the perfect complement to the crawfish beignet/empanada (beignada?).  The Crab, Shrimp, & Oyster Stew, though, was her winning dish. The stew was comprised of sauteed shrimp and blue crab in a cream based seafood broth, topped of three large pieces of fried oysters. The menu says that there were to be potatoes in it but I don't think there were and, honestly, I don't think it needed them. If you know me, you'll know that me being okay with the lack of potatoes is saying a lot; potatoes are my favorite things. 

Beignets

Empanadas

After leaving Vic's in our partial food comas, we headed back to Hilton Head. We dropped our stuff off at the room and then headed out for our next adventure. Whenever I get together with my friends, there are two things that we will ultimately do: eat good food & buy a ridiculous amount of books. So when we returned to the island, we stopped by the local Barnes & Noble. This excursion took us an hour...or so. It would have taken longer if I had wandered into the DVD/music section. Have you ever been in that part? It's like a time suck, a glorious, expensive time suck. Anyway, we got our books (and gave the cashier a shock, as she'd never seen so many books purchased at a single time) and headed back to the room. Dinner consisted of leftovers and candy and Scene It.* Ah, to be in grandma mode at 24 - it's a beautiful thing.

*- We did not eat Scene It. Do not eat board games and do not put game pieces in your mouth. You could choke. And I doubt they're tasty.

If you happen to be in the Savannah area or really within a day's drive of the place, go to Vic's on the River. Don't question it, just go. Check out their website and their menu at www.vicsontheriver.com. 

"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams." - Albert O'Shaughnessy

Just as one does not simply walk into Mordor, one does not simply go to Hilton Head without taking a day trip to Savannah, GA. Savannah is one of best cities in the South* and it's only about an hour away from Hilton Head.

*- While this may seem like an opinion, it is 100% fact....based on my opinion.

The drive to Savannah from the island is ridiculously beautiful, especially if you're a sucker for Spanish moss-draped trees lining the streets like I am. It also can make you a bit nervous if you aren't a fan of giant, hella high bridges. Hint: I am not a fan. Regardless, the trip is worth it. And one place you should definitely go is River Street. If you haven't already guessed, the cobblestone street sits directly on the Savannah River. The street is lined with stores and restaurants, ranging from those T-shirt stores that seem to be at every tourist locale to gorgeous art stores selling original works and prints to Irish pubs to more upscale restaurants serving amazing soups and seafood. Basically, there are tons of choices for everyone, whether they want to shop or eat or both.

Who doesn't love some good Spanish Moss?

 

Once we got to the riverfront (btw, parking can be a little tricky. If you can manage to get a spot in a lot on the riverfront, you can pay to park there for up to 10 hours. If not, there is paid parking on Bay St. and the time allotted ranges from 2 to 5 hours.), we browsed a bit as we made it to our main destination, River Street Sweets. If you've been to Myrtle Beach or Charleston or even Atlanta, you may have come across one of the many branches of this store. However, this one is the original and the best. You can see them making their famous pralines and their taffy, so there is absolutely no doubt that their goods are fresh. To me, the store feels like you've wandered into some part of Willy Wonka's factory. There is candy and sweets everywhere; there's a wall of taffy. A WALL OF TAFFY. 

The main reason we went to River Street Sweets, other than the fact it's amazing, was that my mom requested an undisclosed amount of pralines. I am not overly fond of pecans but, my gracious, I will willingly gorge myself on those pralines. While there, we bought...well, let's just say we bought a lot. As a marshmallow lover, I always get their chocolate covered marshmallows with sprinkles. I also decided to try their truffles and they definitely lived up to my expectations.

White Chocolate Raspberry & White Chocolate Cappuccino Truffles

At this point, we had been there for a while and were ready for lunch. While we were walking the riverfront, this girl handed us a flyer for this restaurant called Vic's on the River. The menu looked good so we decided to try it. It was a gorgeous restaurant; the ambiance was enough to come back for.  So, how was the food? I guess that will follow in the next blog!

If you want to check out River Street Sweets and are headed to one of their many locations, check out their website: www.riverstreetsweets.com. You can also order their goodies online and send them as gifts to relatives or friends. Or yourself. Let's face it, you're totally gonna order stuff for yourself.