Greenville (NC) Eats: Dickinson Fried Chicken

"No, it's Dickinson Fried Chickenson, not Dickinson Fried Chickenson... I mean CHICKEN, Dickinson Fried CHICKEN!" I exclaimed to my friend as we made plans to check out the new eatery in Greenville. My peers and I had been glaring with great curiosity at this new establishment on Dickinson Rd. since its opening late this summer. There is certainly nothing glorious about it on the surface, but all one needs to know is that this was a fried chicken joint, and from our experience, not a bad one either.

The interior isn't much to talk about. Maybe eight tables and the front counter were all that was really going on. And that's okay with me. The bright menu displaying all the food provided pictures of what was in store, ranging from sandwiches, the usual assortment of fried things including fried fish, fried livers and gizzards and of course fried chicken. Being at Dickinson Fried Chicken, there was no doubt that we had to tackle the namesake, so an eight piece box, an small assortment of fries and some gizzards for good measure were quickly ordered up. After a brief wait, our food was ready, piping hot from the fryer.

So, the fried chicken was good. Not in a life-altering, mind-shattering, "only chicken you'll ever have again" good kind of way, but completely satisfying in its own right. The meat was juicy, and the dry batter was light and crispy. The seasonings were simple (salt and pepper really), but packed with enough flavor to keep you wanting more. This was actually one of the least greasy fried chicken's I've had that turned out this well, and that made me eat a lot more then I would have elsewhere, making the shared eight piece box well worth the price. If I were craving fried chicken again, I would not hesitate to go back for more.

Everything else was on average or slightly above. The fries were your typical, store bought stuff, unseasoned but a little crispy. The rolls were warm, but nothing special. The gizzards are good for anyone who craves it; crispy, battered a little different from the fried chicken to give it an edge and cooked to the right doneness so it wasn't chewy, but honestly it was a little much as an individual meal. If you can order it as a small side, then it's totally worth a shot, but I would aim for the fried chicken any day of the week instead and save a few bucks.

No Reservations, The 411 on Dickinson Fried Chicken

Atmosphere: Clean facility, don't let the bars worry you.
Costs: Most specials ranged between $5-7 with taxes.
The eight piece was $9.99. About on par with most fast food.
Eat: The Fried Chicken. Of Course.

This is kind of like, guilty pleasure without having to resort to a chain. For some odd reason, my past year in Greenville has had a severe lack of fried chicken, preposterous thinking about my weekly doses of it back in Columbia during undergrad, but Dickinson certainly gives me a reason to have a lot more of it in my life, and for that I'll be coming in and out of Dickinson frequently as long as it is around. As far as fried chicken goes, this may be your best bet in a town where fried chicken is surprising hard to come by outside of a chain.

On the Prowl: The Charleston Food Truck Rodeo

Fate brought me Charleston this past week, just in time for Holy City's monthly Charleston Food Truck rodeo. Charleston, like Columbia, has become a hot spot for food trucks, supporting young local gourmet chefs looking to offer high-end food at affordable prices. Armed with a cold, crisp pilsner from Holy City Brewing - the host for September's rodeo and hopefully many more - I embarked on my perilous journey into the beast, starting with the oh so sinister Diggity Donuts.

Diggity Donuts is a vegan (!) food truck serving outrageous fried donut concoctions such as green pea and dates, mango, and other fruity, sweet, savory, maniacal creations. There were some incredible looking options available during the rodeo, but my eyes immediately wandered to two choices: the pluff mud porter and chocolate donut and the nefarious, wicked, sinfully brilliant peanut butter and sriracha donut. The porter and chocolate donut was more on the chocolate side - a good thing - but had a nice velvety touch thanks to the porter. You know, I would have been totally happy with just that. Crispy, sweet, chewy, and oh-so-chocolaty, it was knockout in its own right. The peanut butter and sriracha, however; that was f@#%ing amazing. The spicy sriracha, whipped with either peanut butter or frosting and lightly sweetened, worked beautifully with the creamy, savory peanut butter we all know and love dearly. This isn't just a donut, it's a revelation.

Next was the PotKettleBlack Wayward Bistro, which specialized in taking twists on the favorites. There's really no way to intro what I attempted this day. First off was an innocent jalapeno popper wrapped in bacon. Simple. Delicious.

Next was something perhaps on par with the peanut butter and sriracha donut in creativity and sheer ballsiness; a bacon wrapped crabcake stuffed shrimp with a sriracha aioli. Crazy. For a midday appetizer, this was fantastic. A little sloppy, but the weight of the idea itself was worth the trip. I want to critique this bad boy, but I just have to let it go. Easily worth a moment of your time if you have the opportunity.

While waiting in line at PKB, I ran into the owner of the neighboring truck, Carolina Creole. Hearing opportunity knock, I immediately threw down an order of their duck gumbo, their special of the day. The gumbo was a little thick for my taste, but chock full of rich duck with a nice burst of heat. Served on rice, this was definitely a solid, warm meal and good middle-of-the-road snack during my food truck run. Best of all was the heaping cornbread served atop the gumbo. It was beautifully crumbly, crispy, and just the right amount of sweetness to marry with the gumbo. Exactly the right contrast you want in a dish like this. Nice.

Feeling the food wall starting to creep my way, I decided to start moving towards desert. Tokyo Crepes has a bit of a nontraditional look to it with its very own platform, but their usually location at Folly Beach puts two-and-two together. While Tokyo serves up traditional sweet crepes like the ever popular banana and nutella and fruit rolls, they also serve a host of lunch and dinner crepes like the Spicy Corn Cheese and Teriyaki. Pretty cool.

I went the traditional route this day though, opting for The Dream, which contained fresh fruit of my choice, homemade pudding, and fresh whipped cream. The wrapping was a little clumsy, coming out in kind of a ice cream cone shape, but man alive, Tokyo Crepe's definitely knows their way around crepes, whipped cream and homemade pudding. The difference between store bought and homemade never was more apparent. Wildly fantastic. My only complaint that the crepe was tougher to gnaw on the deeper I went, with the folds become thicker and chewier as a whole. It was definitely a sloppy affair past the midway point, but one I was willing to tackle.

Feeling myself reaching a state of near coma, I dangerously decided to embark on one more culinary adventure at Happy Camper Snoballs. Verdict? Worth it. With the arrival of fall, Happy Camper decided to offer a new flavor for the season, the Fall Harvest, an apple cider thing full of spices. Lightly sweet, a little tart and slightly spicy from the spices and touch of ginger, the Harvest was a cool and pleasant way to cap off a frantic afternoon of good eats. The visual touch was great as well with the Chinese to go box, slightly creepy alien spoon, and straw for sucking up all those sweet juices drip to the bottom of all the shaved ice.

I had an excellent time at the rodeo, and hope to return for the remaining food trucks I missed out on. The whole event itself was a great time, filled with music, tours of the Holy City Brewery, and a little shopping on the side with some street vendors. Definitely a worthwhile event to check out if you are in the Holy City, for both foodies and families on the prowl for a good time.

Greenville (NC) Eats: El Azador

As far as I know, you can't really get more out of the way for a meal in Greenville, NC than El Azador. Located down the street from the airport, it may be the only reason outside of flying for anyone to be across the Tar River on any given day of the week. El Azador is by no means a sexy place to take a date or have a party being located in a relatively old building next to a laundry mat across the street and some warehouses. You may not even know this is a restaurant driving by if you didn't take a hard look at the sign on the side of building. It's almost as if they don't want anyone to know they are there, and for the most part it almost is as if no one does with its mostly Mexican clientale. So why should you give a damn about a place that doesn't seem like it gives a damn about you you ask? Well, because it's damn good of course.

Authentic Mexican cooking is the name of the game here, and El Azador features a few things that definitely sets it apart from its local competitor, Super Mercado El Rancho. Before we talk about all that though, we first must talk tacos. Compared to the competition, I think this is where El Azador falters for me. The portions aren't that generous, and although its nice they provide the appropriate custom sauce to each of their tacos, a few of these bad boys will not leave you filled. The chiccarron (pork skin) taco is half the weight of El Rancho, and doesn't have any real texture or bite to it that makes it stand out. The asada and pollo feel average. I think El Rancho's Moe's-esque bar of condiments is what really puts it over the top for me in the fight between Azador and Rancho, and Azador is definitely lacking there. They make up for it in so many different ways, however, that this lost is something I'm willing to part with.

While their tacos may be tame, specials are certainly their game. Weekends are pretty terrific at El Azador when their soups and whole grilled chicken are available. And they are great. I had the menudo this past week, a mild soup filled to the brim with beef tripe. Okay, that might not sound appealing to a lot of people, but I certainly enjoyed it. It had a little spice, some freshness from the onions and herbs, and a ton of tripe to gnaw through. My only complaint was that I wish there was a little more diversity in the soup, a little beef or something to give it more range. Compared to the pozole I had at El Rancho, however, the broth and dish had a lot more umph to it that I liked.

Other specials I've had at El Azador, particularly the grilled whole or half chicken, are just awesome. Sopas, a kind of corn cake thing piled high with a meat of your choice, beans, lettuce, avocado, herbs, and quesa fresco are savory and fun. Their tamales are flavorful and worth coming back for. If these are not things that sound appealing to you, that needs to change, right now.

No Reservations, The 411 on El Azador
Atmosphere: A bit challenging. It's actually very clean and inviting inside, with a fully translated menu available. There's definitely some confusion for newcomers though when it comes to ordering, so here's basically what you need to know: you go in and order, you wait and either they'll call your food for you to get. If it looks like you are lost though, they'll bring it out to you. Pay after. You may get a few glances from the local crowd,
but do not fear, it'll be okay.
Costs: While there are things that are $1.50-3 a piece, I think $6-8 worth of those are what it takes to fill up. Specials range from $7-11.
Try: The whole chicken for sure.

For tacos, I'm still going to wander into Super Mercado El Rancho any day of the week, but if I'm looking for something bigger, I'm definitely venturing over Tar River and checking out El Azador. It's not the most inviting place at first, but a couple of adventures there and you'll feel at home in no time. Definitely worth the trouble for a taste of the real deal in the Greenville area.

Greenville (NC) Eats: Sakura Asian Express

If looks can be deceiving, Sakura Asian Express may be the most deceiving of them all in the Greenville area. Instead of the Chinese fast food joint you'd maybe expect the place to be from the outside, Sakura is a remarkably honest restaurant serving anything but Chinese, including a wide variety of Asian cult classics such as Vietnamese Pho, Japanese Soba, Thai Pad Thai (Ha.), Korean bibimbap, and even Malaysian curry. Malaysian curry!

With such an eclectic menu though, Sakura has to take a few strange twists and turns, crafting interesting riffs on traditional dishes that both excite and impress. Take the bibimbap for instance, a classic Korean dish of mixed vegetables and grilled meat with rice. Sakura gives this traditional dish a very American spin, using a blend of American-friendly vegetables like carrots, peppers, and onions instead of the usual Korean fixings, but with the classic bibimbap sauce and korean grilled steak to make a familial, yet distinctly Asian dish. For an even more American twist, look no further then the hibachi sandwich; a simple, but clever hibachi stir fry served on a grilled kaiser roll and topped with an Asian slaw. How have we missed the boat on crisp, buttery bread with stir-fry, I do not know.

On more foreign dishes like Vietnamese "bun," which on the surface has little room for creativity, Sakura still manages to add their own subtle spin by swapping the traditionally light, sweet fish sauce with a beautiful sweet and spicy concoction that really elevates the dish in a surprising way. People familiar with Vietnamese bun might go what the heck!? on first bite, but the dizzying array of tastes and textures begin to mesh and make sense after a few more bites, be brilliant even.

In some cases, it's not creativity that stands out at Sakura, but the willingness to go the extra mile to make a dish better. The eggroll, for example, isn't that cheap knockoff found at other Asian restaurants and to-go places. It's a quality eggroll wrap often used at home rather than restaurants because of its high costs. The extra buck or so is worth the bite; the crispiness and light texture of the wrap really trancends the cheap knockoffs so popular in Chinese fast food. The list only goes on for Sakura. Kim chi is often made fresh in the facility or by local residents. Appetizers aren't frozen boxes, but freshly handcrafted and hot out of the kitchen. Herbs are fresh from local gardens. Vegetables such as daikon and carrots are pickled in house. For a growing menu that stretches from Korea to Vietnam, it's downright amazing the extent they are willing to go for customers.

No Reservations, the downlow on Sakura
Atmosphere: Clean, comfortable, and inviting.
Costs: A touch high at around $8-10 for entrees and $3-5 for appetizers.
There plenty of budget bites though that don't hurt the wallet.
Try: The "bun", pho, and really any noodle dish.

Most ethnic restaurants aim to serve dishes at their most authentic. I think Sakura's bravery for exploring new directions makes them one of the most exciting places to venture to in the Greenville area. They pride themselves on bringing authentic Asian flavors to town, and they absolutely do, but at the same time they also bring something that is uniquely themselves, and for that reason I have to call it one of my favorite places in Greenville, NC. The owners are incredibly sweet as well and greet all customers warmly as if they'd known each other all their lives. Ignore what you see outside and check out one of Greenville's best.

A Word to the Wise
Heat is usually a funny business in Greenville when it comes to Thai food. From 1-20 scales to unreliable alphabetic combinations, Greenville's got a lot of strange options at Thai restaurants that often result in disappointment. Not for Sakura though: the food is not only spicy at times here, it's almost volcanic. The kim chi stew for example, though a wonderfully hearty and vibrant dish, is near impossible to finish with the heat resonating from the kim chi and added spices, and the heavy glass noodles only provide a dangerous vehicle for it. The spicy basil isn't just a quaint name; it's a flat out threat.

Lassiez-faire, as they say. Sakura's heat scale is no joke and they are proud to tell you that. On a simple one-to-four scale, stick to two if you want a nice hot and spicy dish. Three or four will leave you stitches if you are not ready for it.

Greenville (NC) Eats: La Hacienda, King Panda, and Mongolian Empire

While I blog my fair share, I've certainly eaten at least twice as much around town. There are plenty of unmentionables anywhere you go, but every once in awhile one finds some decent picks a random night out. Here are a few hit-and-mostly-misses in the Greenville area:

La Hacienda Mexican Grill
Type of Food: Tex-Mex
Price: $6-7 lunch, $10+ dinner

Recently opened on 10th street, La Hacienda offers some Tex-Mex options for the local crowd. To be honest, I have a slight bias for the taquerias - restaurants serving tacos, sopas, burritos and other traditionally Mexican fare - over what you usually see. East Carolina is an area bustling with these family joints serving some incredible tacos that will make you forget those Tex-Mex versions in a pinch, so it was a little disappointing to find that Hacienda was a Tex-Mex restaurant after seeing their "authentic Mexican" sign outside. For a Tex-Mex in Greenville though, it's on par with everything else on town. I tried out the quesadilla relleno for lunch which was stuffed with shredded chicken, vegetables and cheese. Along with a side of rice and salad topped with guacamole, it made for a filling meal. I wasn't too impressed with the flavors though, nothing was really strongly seasoned and the quesadilla needed a large dose of salsa to stay interesting. It had a good crispiness though, and maintained it to the last bite which was a redeeming factor.

While the location makes it an ideal choice for students who can't venture further into town on a daily basis, I would still take the marginally longer walk and pick Armadillo Grill in the downtown area for Tex-Mex tacos. Anyone with a vehicle, however, should try hopping either cross Tar River to El Azador or the taqueria at the Mexican supermarket down Charles St. for some good eats.

Final Word: Meh.

King Panda Restaurant
Type of Food: Chinese-American
Price: $5 lunch, $8 dinner

Unlike Tex-Mex, I have a bit of sympathy for Chinese-American fast food. General Tso chicken, sweet and sour pork, hot and sour soup, that fast food fried wing, the lo mein stuff - I love that crap to death for no reason. I've had my fair share of the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to Chinese buffets though, and for me King Panda sits right in between the bad and the ugly. The sickly sweet taste of bottled sweet sour, uncrisp meats, and generally either bland or overly something made my two attempts at the buffet turn sour fast. They have a cheap lunch buffet, but this is one of those times where I can say you pay for what you get.

Final Word: Thumbs down.

Mongolian Empire BBQ
Type of Food: Asian Grill
Price: Can't remember, but under ten I'm sure.

I've been a little baffled about whether I should review this place, because in theory everything you have there is as good as you make it out to be. The way this or any Mongolian grill works is a pile of fruits, vegetables, mysteriously dehydrated meat and sauces are left out for you to fill a bowl. Once you get your bowls set, the cooks throw it onto a grill and combine until ready to eat. If we just leave it at that, Mongolian is satisfying in the sense that you get a nice diversity of food to mix and match at your leisure and enjoy.

I think I like Mongolian Empire, but a large heaping bowl of noodles with various Asian sauces and vegetables is commonplace in my own home, so that may be a personal bias. If you are hungry for bowls of meat and vegetable noodles and don't want to purchase the pieces yourself, I guess this is an option for you. It's a good way, if anything, to experience a variety of Asian sauces that you may have never touched on and help inspire some ideas for your own kitchen. If you are looking for more of a savvy culinary meal though, then crawl up the street and check out Sakura Asian Express instead.

Final Word: Craving bowls of noodles in Greenville, NC? It's okay.

On the Prowl: Nile Asian Market in Greenville, NC

Cooking became a million times more enjoyable for local Asian and Asian-food lovers in Greenville, NC with the opening of Nile Asian Market. Just a couple of stores from Anchalee Thai Restaurant and DMV on Memorial, Nile provides a host of ethnic essentials from rice to noodles to an interesting variety of meat and seafood for the local crowd. Opened only recently in July, it's already become a favorite for many locals and restaurateurs such as owners of Sakura Asian Restaurant down the street.

Location: 3400 S Memorial Dr, Suite 14
Greenville, NC 27834

Hours: Monday - Saturday, 9:30 AM -8:00 PM
Sunday, 9:30 - 7:00

Browsing through the store, you can find a lot of basics at Nile including soy sauce, fish sauce, chili's, and more. Being a Thai-variety of Asian store, Nile's strong points revolve around Southeast Asian cooking. Things like basil, lemongrass, ginger, and other Thai, Vietnamese, and similar regional flavors are all present here. It's the more East Asian - Japan and Korean - ingredients that are lacking for people eyeing ingredients for those dishes, things like red pepper paste for Korean cooking, soba and other noodle types or stock ingredients for Japanese in particular.

The positives far outshine the negatives though. Maybe best of all is the frozen goods located around store where all the vegetables and meats await. Pork belly is almost impossible to find in the area, but Nile keeps that along with a few neat seafood items in the freezer. Vegetables seem to rotate weekly, but I've found everything from daikon to Chinese broccoli and eggplant to bok choy here, and continue seeing other neat things come in week to week. You'll even find kaffir lime leaves, good for Thai curry enthusiasts.

There's still a lot of room for growth at Nile, especially in the second half of the store that has yet to be filled. As long as a steady stream of customers keep on checking out Nile's treasures, I'm sure this market will be able to expand and continue providing a greater diversity of ingredients for those in the area. Make sure you head and out Greenville's newest ethnic grocery and help make it a permanent fixture in the area.

You can find Nile on Facebook here.

Columbia Eats: Doc's Barbecue and Southern Buffet

My six-going-on-seven-years-too-late barbecue crawl of Columbia forged on this week with a trip to Doc's Barbecue. Location-wise, it may be one of the most accessible places I've been yet - though a yet-to-be-determined-but-forthcoming trip to Palmetto Pig will top that by a mile, literally. Just a few blocks from the Gamecock stadium and the State's (South Carolina's local paper) offices, Doc's caters to a diverse crowd of workers in the Shop Rd. area along with businessmen from the downtown area. It's apparently not rare to find a few state officials and law enforcement roaming around for a bite to eat as the majority of the people during my visit were just that.

Buffet-wise, Doc's is admittedly a lot smaller then I'd envisioned it. The buffet starts out with baked beans, collards and an admittedly welcome pile of brussel sprouts, then moves into the rice with hash and/or gravy. The collards were fine; they had a nice, crisp texture and were the usual sweetness that you find in Cola's collards. Hash, for non-South Carolina natives, consists of all the spare parts of the pork that don't get pulled or used for other recipes. Mixed with vegetables cooked to death and a variety of spices, it's a unique item that comes either in a soup-like consistency or something more akin to a stew - Doc's falls into the stew variety with their thick variation. I don't say this very often, but I wasn't a huge fan of the texture of this hash. It was like pulled pork mashed into a pile of mush, which doesn't scream pleasant. Down the line you can also find the trademark potato salad, slaw, casserole, and mac and cheese. I won't talk about the latter three, which were... "ya know?", but the potato salad. Killer. A bit creamy then some may want it, but there's some nice smoky flavor in there that makes it stand out over the less impressionable sides just mentioned.

Next was the all-important fried chicken. At first glance, it looked a bit disappointing to be honest, not dark and gold fried like you may expect. It turned out to be fairly crispy and juicy though, not the best in Columbia but not a disappointment like previously thought. Better yet, however, was their Tuesday lunch special, an amazing smoked chicken which had great smoke flavor and oozed juices right to the bone. Perhaps my favorite of the day. And then there was the barbecue. I hate to bring it up in yet another Columbia barbecue review, but the mustard pulled pork still falls to Little Pig's great bite for the Cola crowd. The vinegar, however, has just the right about sour and savoriness to it that made me come back for seconds. And then there was the catfish nuggets. I think Doc's is the only one to sport it, and I have to say, it's great. Crisp nuggets of fishy goodness, without that smell of whiting that you usually find elsewhere.

Finally, the peach cobbler, an essential for any Southern buffet. I have to say, I've been disappointed in the past by Columbia's peach cobbler. There were some where you couldn't find a peach if it was hitting you in a face, others where the cobbler reeked of the dreaded burnt crust, and some that just sucked horribly in the worse of ways. Not Doc's though; their crisp, sweet cobbler top and peached filled interior hit all the right notes. Pair with a slice of cool, cold watermelon to clean the pallete every few bites and you have one of the best Southern buffet deserts in Cola.

No Reservations, the word on Doc's
Atmosphere: Surprisingly clean, but a bit heavy on the business side. Bring company.
Costs: A touch steeper then the competition at $9 for lunch.
Pile Up On: The potato salad, vinegar pulled pork, smoked chicken if there on a Tuesday and the peach cobbler - with a slice of watermelon. Very important.

To be perfectly honest, if I were still living in the Columbia area frequently, I'd probably still run up to the other side of town to Little Pigs for barbecue. Doc's is worth a visit, but there just weren't enough notes to make me a frequent. The peach cobbler was great, and the vinegar pulled pork was nice, but there are others in town that are a step ahead of the game I feel. If you are strapped to the USC area for lunch and are craving barbecue though, I would definitely recommend Doc's in the face of it's local competition as it definitely wins in that regard. If you can make the drive though, Little Pigs - for me - is still Cola's best in the barbecue arena.