Noshing Nirvana: November 17, 2016

This column is sponsored by Chase Payne Law Firm and Paisley of Daniel Island.

Editor’s note: This week we mixed up our normal Noshing Nirvana feature. Normally we feature a reader interview based on the questions at the end of this column about the best thing you ate all week. This week, we had an out of town guest dish on the Charleston Culinary Tours. Great for tourists but also great for locals!

While visiting Charleston, we took a tour with Charleston Culinary Tours. Our tour guide was Glenn Morehead. What a great way to sample Lowcountry cuisine!

Our first stop was Cumberland Street Smokehouse where we ate Hickory Smoked Chicken wings and BBQ Duck Fat Fries. The chicken wings were smoked with a dry rub then fried and served with a mayonnaise barbecue sauce. The fries were nice and crispy with a light barbecue seasoning. They also served pulled pork, pulled chicken and burnt ends with sides of coleslaw, baked beans and mac and cheese. There were three types of BBQ sauces: Southern, vinegar, and mustard. It was all tasty but my favorite was the burnt ends. They were seasoned with a flavorful rub, caramelized on the outside, but tender on the inside. The vinegar BBQ sauce added a nice tartness to the ends. The meat was tender and moist. The BBQ paired well with the Kentucky Bourbon Ale.

The next stop was Carmella Dessert Bar for a Pimento Cheese Bacon Sandwich on “Jack Nicholson” bread. The bread is flown in from New York. The sandwich was a new twist on the classic bacon and tomato with the addition of the pimento cheese. The bread had a nice crust yet was very tender and tasty.

The third stop was Amen Street Fish and Raw Oyster Bar for their Famous Shrimp Corndogs. What an unusual treat. A shrimp on a stick wrapped in a delicious sweet cornbread deep-fried to a golden brown - my husband’s favorite of the tour.

Next up - the Oyster House on Market for a Fried Oyster Slider with Kimchi, Shrimp & Grits, and Red Rice made with Carolina gold rice. The slider had a nice layer of salty and crunch with the fried oyster, and a layer of tartness with the Kimchi. The sides of shrimp and grits and the red rice added texture and flavors.

The last stop was Kaminsky Dessert Cafe for the Tollhouse Pie. The pie was a Tollhouse cookie bar type of filling in a flaky flour crust drizzled with chocolate and caramel. This was a chocolate lovers dream. A Kahlua Espresso went very nicely with the pie.

We enjoyed the tour. Glenn was full of culinary information and provided recommendations for other restaurants and bars in the area.

My favorites were the chicken wings and burnt ends at Cumberland Street Smokehouse, Amen’s Famous Shrimp Corndogs, and the fried oyster slider at the Oyster House on Market. However, I would recommend all the restaurants on the tour. I will also recommend the tour to my friends when they visit Charleston.

Want to share your tale of noshing nirvana? It’s simple – just respond to the following or go online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7VNR3ZT to answer the same questions that are listed below:

1) Where were you served the best thing you ate all month?

2) What was the food that left you speechless (mainly because you couldn’t stop horking it down)?

3) Can you describe what made the dish so magical? Be sure to speak slowly...

4) Dish more on the dish, if you can - price, portion size, availability on regular menu, and the psychological repercussions of consuming something so rad.

5) Please email a photo of your to-die-for dish and responses to the four questions above (don’t leave any out!) to sdetar@thedanielislandnews.com.