Bowens Island Restaurant. Charleston, SC

We were in Charleston South Carolina and wanted some good seafood. The lady at the campground suggested we go to Bowens Island Restaurant at 1870 Bowens Island Rd for as local feel. Now, the restaurant is at the end of a dirt road and before you get there you will think you have gotten lost.

This is a real fish house. Simple menu of just a few items. They serve their oysters by the lunch tray and they are only come steamed. We went with other items since we do not care for our oysters steamed. All their beer is draft and it is all local.

You order at the bar and wait for your name to be shouted out. It takes about as long as drinking a nice cold draft beer. The beer was excellent.

Beth had the shrimp and grits. It was very tasty. It even had a little bit of heat to it. The portion was very generous.

The rest of us stuck to the fried seafood plates. Shrimp, fish, crab cake, french fries, hush puppies, and cole slaw. This was so much food I could not eat it all. It was damn good too. Just what you expect from a real fish house. Now this place was not cheap, but it sure was good. The best tasting shrimp I have had in a long time.

Rating, perfect 10

Indian Pass trading Post, Indian Pass Fl

While in Florida we went looking for oysters one day. At a slow spot on Florida 30A is Indian Pass Trading Post. Do not blink or you will miss it. Like most buildings in Florida, it has the worn out and run down look.  We pulled up at 12:50 and were abruptly told "come back at 1:00. We're open then." We walked in at 1:00 and within 5 minutes there were 10 names on the waiting list for a table.

There is nothing fancy here. The vibe is worn down Florida swamp shack. It is very popular with the local tourist crowd.

There are lots of beer signs but in the cooler was Bud lite, Corona, Sprite, Pepsi, and water. Self service beverages only. Low service is the business model. 

You order at the counter. The baked stuff is cooked from frozen in a convection oven. Everything else is microwaved. 

Shrimp, oysters, and crab legs are steamed to order. Raw oysters are shucked fresh.

Texas oysters were all they had. We had hoped for local Appalachicola oysters. They were good none the less. Drinking a few beers made the experience better than it really was.

Rating 4 of 10.

Super Star Inn, Baltimore MD

The Super Star Inn is located at 5603 Pulaski Highway in far Eastern Baltimore City. It is very easy to miss since it sits back from the road between a transmission shop and a auto body shop. It blends in with this light industrial part of the City. This place is quintessential, blue collar, Baltimore right down to the form stone exterior.

There is nothing fancy about the place. It really is a blue collar type place. At lunch time you see many guys in their dark blue or green work cloths sipping something in a discrete drinking glass. Eight years ago it would have been a haze of blue smoke.

The massive 360 degree bar takes up most of the room. There is a pool table, dart board, and three poker machines turned to face the kitchen window and not the rest of the room. The only thing missing is a pin ball machine. Twice now I have had lunch here. The bar tenders are real honest to God, Baltimore Hons. The cook watches you from the kitchen window to make sure you have a smile on your face when you try your food.

As most places like this, there is a board featuring the daily specials. Crab cake plater is one of them. $9 for a crab cake, fries, and slaw. This is a super deal. The crab cake is full of meat and has a nice strong old bay flavor. It is a bold cake, not a high brow one you might find for twice the money. The fries are really good too. Both visits, my guest went for the crab cake special. Both were very pleased with their choice.

I made the choice of gyro platter. At  $7.50 for the platter, it was not the best I have ever had, but it was acceptable. The second time there, I went for the little, 6 ounce cheeseburger. The 8 ounce is the standard. Sorry for no photo. It was one of the best burgers I have ever had. It sits firmly in the top 5. At $4.50 it was even tastier than I could have expected. All the food is good honest bar food at a very reasonable price.

I suggest you try the Super Star Inn. It has taken over as my place to take people who visit my shop. The dinner specials are very tempting and will probably having me bringing the family across town one evening. Thursdays they have a 16 ounce New York strip steak with two sides for $11.95. No need to dress up, or put on any airs when coming here. If you are the popped collar type, you might want to go somewhere else.

Score: A perfect 10

Shin Chon, Ellicott City MD

I think many will notice I tend to gravitate toward ethnic restaurants. Shin Chon at 8801 Baltimore National Pike, #27 sure fits this bill. It is at the far end of the Lotte Plaza. Korean BBQ is the thrust of this place. Be very careful coming here. The parking lot is very busy and the drivers tend to be oblivious to an other cars. I am not stereotyping, we almost got into three accidents just trying to park. It was Friday night so the place was packed and it was hopping. The wait was only about 10 minutes however.

The first home run; the beers are BIG. I like that. The beer was also VERY cold. Second home run.

Korean meals are always served with kimchi.  The furthest plate is what most think of as kimchi, but they all are kimchi.

10 different kimchi were served. This is not the record of 14 we were served once at another place, but it was a very nice array. There were also two different soups served. My favorite was the kimchi second to the right in the photo above. It was a green chili pepper in some kind of bean/ sesame paste. All of them were unique and delicious. My least favorite the one I pointed out in the last photo. It was delicious, but just typical.

Our entree was a meal for two. I cannot tell you the name, but it was billed as "baby squid and pork". It also contained cabbage, jalapeños, and cellophane noodles along with the baby squid and sliced pork belly. A lady cooked it all right in front of us on the table and unlike those NASTY Japanese places that cook it in front of you, A) it tasted great. B) the cook did not throw it at me, missing and hitting my shirt instead of my mouth. C) make a big show of cooking flavorless nasty food. This food tasted great as I pointed out in "A".

This photo speaks for itself. A big stack of empty plates and a big empty beer. The bill, $50 w/ tip and two big beers. Very reasonable if you ask me. 

Rating 9

Would I return? Yes, but there are so many other places I want to try. The Korean population is huge in Ellicott City/ Catonsville and there are a bunch of very obscure places we want to try. 

The Bavarian, Taos Ski Valley NM

At the bottom of the ski lift of Taos Valley Ski Resort is the Bavarian. It sure has the look of a Bavarian   gastehaus sitting at about 9000 feet on the side of Wheeler Peak. The hippy girls in dirndls kind of made it feel Bavarian.

The half liter or heifeweisen sure made it taste Bavarian. The weisewurst, or veil bratwurst, was spot on Bavarian. The buffalo bratwurst did not make it taste very Bavarian at all. The $17.50 for two sausages, a so called sampler, was not so tasty to me. Beth and I shared this entree. We did eat it all since at high altitudes you build a serious hunger. The kraut was okay as was the mashed potatoes. The gravy was brown, not sure what flavor it was besides brown. It was billed as an Optinator beer sauce.

Dan got the Bav dog. It must have met his pallet since he ate it all.

Jen had the spatzle. A seriously hardy offering as an entree. It tasted pretty good on my sample. It is not like my Mothers, but it was very good.

Dining experience, 9 but the atmosphere resulted in a boost to the score.

Taos Diner, El Prado NM

We always seem to have breakfast at the Taos Diner. Located at 908 Paseo del Pueblo Norte it is also known as The Taos Diner 1. There is a second one on the South end of town. They did a recent remodel of the place. It is brighter and sits more people, but I kind of liked it before. It was a little seedier and more homey to me. A big plus for this place is the kids area. There is a big pile of toys and the kids can leave the adults to talk.

I got another New/ Old Mexico standard, Huevos Rancheros. It was, well, standard, nothing special about it. The green chile was even kind of standard. This is not my usual experience at the Taos Diner. The coffee was rather good. 

The breakfast burrito my table mate had sure looked good. Bacon, ham, sausage, potatoes, eggs, and cheese smothered in red and green (christmas) chile sauce. The red sauce was fiery as it should be.

Dining experience; Usually 9, this time (just for me) 7

Horseman's Haven, Sante Fe MN.

While in New Mexico I had the pleasure of eating at some very good eating establishments. Horseman's Haven at 4354 Cerrillios Road was the first of them. I ate here a few years back and little has changed  since then on the interior. The first time I was here the Cafe was a stand alone business. Since then the surrounding land has been intensively developed around it. The building is not really much from the outside. The interior has a decor of worn, cow boyish, high desert cafe feel. It is nothing special, it does not need to be. People come here for the good food at a very reasonable price, not the decor.

The kitchen was humming place as we watched from the lunch counter. They have the routine finely tuned and everything happens very fast. Our food hit the table in  lightning speed.

Beth has the special of day; Chicken Fajitas. The beans, rice, and tostada filled with guacamole was a meal in itself. The chicken was crisp, moist, and heavily flavored of lime. The two of us could have made a meal of just this entree alone.

I came for the New Mexico classic; the green chile cheeseburger. It is served smothered, so a fork and knife were required to eat this bad boy. The green chiles were mighty spicy I should say. This burger is not for those who do not like it hot. The home fried potatoes were an unexpected touch, but a great way to sop up the spilt green chiles.

Dining experience; 8.5 Have not expectations and you can call it a 9