Tuesday, May 19th - The English Found Sun in Savannah

I stopped in Savannah on my way to Charleston – got there just in time for lunch - my first real introduction to true ‘southern’ cooking – I had heard one of the traditional restaurants to try was The Lady & Son – a Paula Deen restaurant (she’s one of the known southern cooks with many cookbooks and even a TV show I believe).  Well, normally, after the water arrives and your order is taken, the waiter brings some bread or a roll – well, here, you get a pancake (really, really good) and a cornmeal muffin … and still lunch to come.  From a vegetarian perspective, I must admit, choices were limited – the fried chicken ruled out the buffet.  So following the when in Rome philosophy, I chose the ‘deep fried’ crab cake sandwich … with battered deep fried potatoes …. a good thing, my heart has always been healthy, but it wouldn’t be for long living down here …

In need of a very long walk after lunch, I headed off to explore Savannah and my first impression was surprise at just how English it was!  The main street downtown has these lovely little squares every other block – usually with a statue in the middle (commemorating one of the city founders or Civil War heros) and always with the most incredible trees.  The architecture is also wonderful – beautiful churches and townhouses, many with the wrought iron features that I so love from Paris.  It was really lovely to stroll through.

Mid afternoon, I was back on the road Charleston, when I saw a sign for Le Creuset – for those that aren’t familiar, one of the true ‘name brands’ for cookware – famous as much, if not more, for their wonderfully bright colours as their quality workmanship.  I was intrigued – was there really an outlet store here in the hills of South Carolina?  It was only a few miles out of my way, so I went – and after at least 30 minutes in the store with the help of a lovely southern saleswoman, I left with a 7.5 liter French Oven in a very vibrant orange …. Yippee!!  Who ever would have thought that this is the name brand item I wouldn’t have been able to pass up …. there will be much more soup made next winter!!