Summertime and the living is easy

Picking up from the last post - The hotel's washing machine took 30 minutes to wash the clothes and it was another 30 minutes for them to come out of the tumbler dry and fresh. We packed them and then left the hotel and headed downtown.

I was reminded by a friend that George Gershwin had composed Porgy and Bess while here in Charleston and the great jazz hit 'Summertime' is probably the most famous song from this. I can see why one would sing 'the livin is easy' as the warm atmosphere with the cool sea breezes does engender a feeling of relaxation and ease. More about Gershwin's experience and the song can be found here (thanks to Robin for the link) <<the co-pilot would like to thank Robin for mentioning the song as it has been monotonously sung for the last day!!>>

Charleston offers a free trolley service around downtown, it stopped right outside our hotel, so we hopped on and in about 30 minutes were downtown.

Our first stop was Marion Square, this wide, open, city centre park had a number of ornamental fountains and monuments. One large needle commemorated the southern side during the 'war between the states' as the civil war is called here.

We next came to an interesting Baptist church, it was interesting as, being Welsh, I am used to dark, square, box like Baptist churches. This church was ornate and had a steeple, not something we associate with Baptist churches back home.

The Episcopal Church in Charleston, St. Philip's, was also ornate, but that is more expected. Its graveyard had two famous people buried there including Edward Rutledge, a signatory to the declaration of independence and Charles Pinckney, a signatory to the constitution.

From St. Philip's we walked on to the Market area, the old market building has been in use for 200 years. On the street beside it were a whole range of shops (we don't have photos as Drew doesn't like photographing streets with lots of people in them.) These included a specialist peanuts' shop with tastings of such delicacies as jalapeño peanuts and habernero peanuts. Next to that was a sweet shop, this one had products like chocolate  with bacon and biscuits (one of our regular readers was only talking about bread with bacon bits earlier in the blog, I guess this is the equivalent!)  The next store had a wide range of chilli sauces, including Orange Chipolte and Raspberry Chipolte sauces!!

We next came to the French quarter, which is very picturesque,  Drew summed this part of Charleston well. He said 'it is like he had imagined New Orleans would be, until he went to New Orleans and found it was mainly bars and voodoo.'

The waterfront park overlooking Charleston Harbour provided some nice views of the two rivers running into the Atlantic, though it also had some eccentric rules about people using its fountains.

Strolling back from the waterfront we passed a very nice looking restaurant called Carolina's, it describes itself as a Southern Bistro. It was really very pleasant. This was a fortuitous but very lucky find. 

The menu was unusual and very focussed. I opted for the roasted Veal Bone Marrow, Soffritto, Ciabatta and Sauce Romesco. The marrow was served in the bone itself, which was a stylish presentation for a very tasty dish. Drew opted for peppered beef carpaccio which was served with arugula, radish, capers and devilled egg toast, the devilled eggs were spicy and delicious, the carpaccio was light and delicate, we both loved what we had chosen.

For mains, as tonight is our last time beside the sea for at least two weeks I decided to go with seafood. I opted for calidillo seafood stew, this included clams, mussels, shrimps, scallops, squid, sliced new potatoes, red pepper, carrot and chili in a cream and garlic broth. While if I had been making this myself I would have left the cream out, that one item did not spoil the overall texture of the dish. Each of the items were distinct and tasty in their own right, but they came together as one dish with the huge local scallops being the stand out item, but even the el dente veg was memorable. Drew opted for flounder which was served with clams, creamed corn sauce and blacked corn and kale. Flounder is a white fish with a stronger flavour than some white fish, allowing it to carry the other flavours well. Drew loved it, leaving an empty plate at the end. 

After dinner we got a taxi back to the hotel and were in bed for 10.00 pm ready for an early start tomorrow.