We started our day, setting off walking toward a place to grab smoothies for breakfast. About a half mile from the hotel we found SmoothieWorld and each enjoyed a heathy strawberry pineapple/strawberry banana smoothie to kick the day off right, heading out again to extend our walk.
And then we found Glazed. And Gaspers have a weakness for doughnuts.
But Oh. My. Word. One bite of the Peanut Butter Pie doughnut and we were goners. Pretty much the best doughnut we’ve ever had. Justin also ordered a Maple and Neuske’s Bacon Doughnut, which was delicious, and a Sugar Twist Doughnut, which was spot on. But that Peanut Butter Pie doughnut… Yes, we will be stopping there again.
As we had been walking around, we found a nice sushi place, and after the heavy meal from last night, we both agreed that sushi would be a much more appealing option for lunch. At O Ku, we both chose a lunch special, which included one roll and several pieces of nigiri (simple slices of fresh fish on top of rice). Justin chose the Rainbow Roll, which was snow crab, avocado, cucumber, and masago, rolled in rice and topped with fresh fish. The nigiri was salmon, shrimp, and big eye tuna. It was bright, light, and very fresh.
But my roll “won” as we like to say, a nod to whoever ordered the best thing. I had the same nigiri, but ordered the Potato Wrapped Roll, which was shrimp tempura and avocado, rolled in sushi rice, then shoestring potatoes, and then fried, drizzled with eel sauce and a sweet and spicy mango sauce. This roll was definitely a home run. Fried potatoes are always a win.
Following our meal, we wanted to get a nice long walk in, and find dessert in the process. We ended up walking towards the waterfront and found our way into Bakehouse. A couple years ago we were in Charleston with our Aunt Maggie, and we stopped at this bakery, when it was called Baked and associated with the Baked in New York City. Apparently that tie is no longer there, though you can still buy the Baked cookbooks here. Well, whatever the name, they can still make some mean sweets! We choose a peanut butter pie bar (I love the South’s obsession with chocolate and peanut butter!) and a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownie. Holy Sweetness, Batman! We were not able to finish both of these bars, though not for lack of trying. And then we continued our walk.
While out earlier, we walked by a place called Pace’s Pizza Balls. Now, a Gasper does not walk past a place that claims to have Pizza Balls and not decide then and there that they need to consume said Pizza Ball. So when we were ready for dinner we walked over and ordered a single Pizza Ball, as we were not going to commit to our entire dinner being Pizza Balls. And delivered to our table was a fist-sized, slightly deflated, pizza ball, filled with sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. Now, I actually enjoyed this funny foodstuff quite a bit. The filling and crust reminded me immediately of Rock Rococo’s pizza in calzone form. Justin didn’t really care for it and was thankful that we had decided to split one. He then decided that we should stop for frozen yogurt, so we stopped into Yogurt Mountain because he wanted to say he “climbed Yogurt Mountain.” Unfortunately, Justin made the awful mistake of choosing the Banana Pudding flavored frozen yogurt, which tasted EXACTLY like Banana Laffy Taffy. I stuck to safe choices like chocolate and cheesecake, so again, Justin was disappointed, but I was happy as a clam.
To make up for his two food strikes, at the last minute Justin decided we could split something at Jim ‘n Nick’s BBQ, primarily because there is a neon pink pig on their sign. We think this is always a positive way to judge a restaurant.
And Jim ‘n Nick’s did not disappoint. We choose to split an order of their Kitchen Sink Nachos with pulled pork, and a couple of their cheddar cheese biscuits. The biscuits arrived, and were nice and small, mini muffin size, but were warm and cheesy and great balance of sweet and savory.
And we thoroughly enjoyed the nachos. We were pleasantly surprised at how bright the flavors were, and as hard as it is to believe, that it wasn’t a plate full of heaviness. The abundance of fresh lettuce and pico de gallo, nice thin and crispy tortilla chips, and a light hand with the sour cream and shredded cheese, really put these nachos closer to the realm of a fresh taco salad. And the pulled pork had a great smoky flavor while retaining a good amount of its moisture. Very tasty indeed, and a a great way to end our very random day of eating. One we know John and Maggie would both have enjoyed along with us (well, minus the sushi)!
