Fresh and Funky in Asheville

Eating is one of my great worldly pleasures.  And dining out in new cities is such a lovely treat – especially when I have people to point me in the right direction.  Asheville, NC offered up some tasty venues and if you visit, I will wager that you won’t be disappointed by the food or the hospitality.  Folks here seem to take life as it comes, and then go with it and make it their own.  I appreciate that whole-heartedly and the food-scene embraces the local and the fresh and is all part of that making-the-most-of-life vibe.     And if anything, Asheville also encourages creative business ownership and the restaurants follow this same independent thinking paradigm.  Along with a host of microbreweries, restaurants and bars are ubiquitous and none of them served me a bad meal.   

I had a week to see it all, and there was no way a week would do it.  For breakfast, we didn’t get out a whole bunch, but we did try to get into Tupelo Honey Café one day and waited too long to do so.  I was starved (never a good thing) and so when faced with a 30 minute wait, off we trotted instead to Early Girl (www.earlygirleatery.com) just around the corner. Everything looked great and I ultimately decided on eggs over easy served on fried grit cakes which were capped with slightly sautéed fresh spinach.  The spin on eggs Benedict was served with a rich tomato sauce that I had on the side. How delish.   All fresh.  And as much as possible, local is the rule here.   Hitting Mo Daddy’s on 4/20 was a treat unto itself with everything on the menu knocked to $4.20, an awesome grilled 3-cheese sandwich, jammin’ blue-grass band, and fresh (almost local – South Carolina) strawberries sold by the bucket by an old man on a mission made it memorable.  Bar food but with an homage and respect for the food. Chorizo served amazing tamales to start our day, and a brunch that kept me ‘till dinner.  Salsa served up fresh and refreshing mojitos in the late afternoon.   The service here was a bit abrupt, but sitting outside on stools, enjoying the day, we didn’t much care.  12 Bones on the south side didn’t disappoint with decadent pulled pork, slammin’ jalapeno grits, and corn bread that I swear was baked with nutmeg.  Breweries were interesting and entertaining and diverse.  I am a malty beer-likin’ woman and cannot always be accommodated in this regard, but most of the time I did ok.  Every brewery had its own personality and variety of beers, but my FAVORITE without question was Wedge….   Go there.   An industrial artistic oasis along the train tracks and waterfront, their beers change often.   I very much enjoyed the artistic welding and the Hemp Ale (www.wedgebrewing.com‎).  Other stand out meals include a night of tapas at Limones with a great ceviche and ambiance to remember for a long time, and fresh pasta and Italian delicacies on offer at Cucina 24. 

Probably the best meals of the trip were had in fresh air, on porches, or in dining rooms of friends.  From my Philly perspective, spring and summer came early there in Asheville and it was good to be outside cooking on fire regardless of where we were.  A stand out fantastic meal was one you can’t buy there on a visit.  Easter dinner was prepared and served by friends of friends who I believe I can truly now call my friends after such a short time.  Lamb, beef, and pork were all grilled to perfection and served with fresh everything. Gourmet meals among friends make the world a better place. 

Asheville has option after option for great food and drink and it takes more than a week to tease it apart.  I only scratched the surface.  It will be nice to go back and see what the next trip offers, but I am sure of this….   it will be delectable and enjoyable.

River Camping NC Style

Easter fell late this year and it was a good opportunity to get out of Dodge to find some adventure.  I took a foray to Asheville and vicinity and was shown the sights.  Rain was scarce and heat and sunshine abundant.  I couldn’t have asked for better weather.  

Hopefully I will pop out a few nuggets of goodness about the trip in the next few days, but  **spoiler alert**  I will tell you right now:  I had a great time.    The food was awesome, the company was fantastic, the views were beautiful, the ambiance all around was entirely conducive to enjoying life.  Hopefully my food reviews will be fun and I will get some little travel snippets out there, but for today, I need to start with camping.  It was a total highlight.  I was asked by an Asheviller – is that a word? -  what were my three favorite parts of my visit and I only got to one before the conversation spiraled into stories and all kinds of chat around the table (perhaps another post?), but I will tell you now that camping was definitely one of the top three things. 

My first camping of 2011 was at Hot Springs, NC where the Appalachian Trail teases the French Broad River and the little town welcomes thru hikers to natural hot tubs and a respite from dried nosh.  Awesome.   We pitched our tent at the edge of the high-running river and took off to catch Max Patch before settling in for the night.

Max Patch (Bald) is a summit that, while perhaps not the tallest mountain in the range, certainly has got to be among the most breathtaking.  It was hazy on our visit, but not hazy enough to obscure the view of Tennessee, the Great Smoky Mountains, the Black Mountains, Craggy Mountains, Pisgah Ledge, the Newfound Mountains, and the Walnut Mountains of Madison County -- all from a 360 degree vantage point.  The haze just made the world seem a little bigger for some reason.   The drive up to this cleared patch of grassy earth was equally astonishing.  As we drove up the dusty winding Little Creek Road, it was easy to believe I had plunged into an entirely different world.  Time seemed to have forgotten it:  a barn covered with oxidized license plates and others yielding rusty boards to the earth, houses with No Trespassing signs on their debris-filled front porches, one-room churches grasping at the crystal clear stream’s bank.  To come out of the forested twisting time-forgotten ever-rising path into a sunshine-filled clearing was all part of the experience.  We breathed it in and I tried to absorb it into my cells.  My camera refused to do it justice.   After some pause with the grass and binoculars, we time-traveled back to the campsite with the good vibes of Max simmering at depth.

With the light into the valley turning a glorious burnt yellow, I enjoyed a limey G & T and we relaxed into the site .  After only a moment’s contemplation, we decided we needed more fuel for the fire for both the joy of the flames and for the cooking coals.  On the dinner docket:  sausage sandwiches with Manchego, onions, and peppers all on lightly fire-toasted buns.  I put together a yummy roasted potato and onion pocket as a side; and we ate well, drank well, and enjoyed the fire immensely.    The guitar was strummed most expertly, and above the noise of the raging river, we sang and played late into the night.  Welcome to camping 2011.

The morning brought a bit of rain and a slight hang-over, but nothing a little tour of the Grove Park Inn, a mojito, and some live bluegrass music couldn’t cure.  Camping was a great success.  Food next.  This was a whetting of the appetite.