Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

Now, the part you’ve been waiting for! THE FOOD!

The food was pretty good all weekend. Because three meals of our trip were going to be provided as part of wedding festivities, boyfriend and I agreed to pick up some beer, sodas, and snacks and have one really nice meal. We picked up the equivalent of a case of beer, a case of soda, an orange, chips, hummus, soy milk and cereal for the house. Some of the beer we ended up giving away rather than take back with us. We did bring back the orange and leftover cereal to DC. Overall, the price on food I thought was expensive because everything has to be trucked in. I was hoping stuff would be cheaper but I think it’s not because nearly everything there is driven by tourism. Short of the poultry industry and some farming, we weren’t sure what other industries were down on the mainland there.

Part of the fun of going on vacation is finding out what the locals eat, but I made a mistake. Some of the kids at the house recommended Dirty Dick’s, a local chain for seafood and while my dinner was alright, boyfriend didn’t like his softshell crabs and fries. I had snocrab with corn and boiled red potatoes which I thought was yummy, even though it took some effort to eat it. We also had some oysters on the half-shell, but oddly they weren’t fully shucked. They were still attached to the shell and I’m used to the shucker cutting the meat off the shell. Boo! Later I was talking to a shop owner and told him we were at Dirty Dick’s and he just shook his head. I guess I shouldn’t have listened to the kids at the house, but that’s ok. We made up for it later. (Dinner with one cocktail, oysters on the half shell and two entrees was $50.)

We lucked out on Saturday when we found Dare Devil Pizza on S. Virginia Dare Trail, in Kill Devil Hills. (Get it?) We had their jalepeno poppers (yucky with too much cheese) and a totally awesome white pizza, The Greek. We asked for it without the usual tomatoes. It was really tasty with a lot of garlic and spinach with a white sauce that was really rich. We ordered the large but should have had the small since we only ate 4 slices. We boxed the rest and took it back to the house, but didn’t end up eating it when we realized we didn’t want the garlic smell in the car with us when we drove back to DC. Stinky but fantastic! The crust was pretty good on it too. Nice and crispy.

Detour first to the lunch we had on the way home: I think I’ve fallen in love with vinegary Carolina BBQ. I love good tomato-based sauce with spicy kick, but that’s what I’m used to having up north. Carolina BBQ may be my favorite, especially Scott’s because it has some bite. Wells is ok, but I prefer it a little hotter. Add a dash of Texas Pete or Tabasco, and it’s pure goodness. We stopped at Southland Trade since I saw a ton of billboards for it and we ran into it just as we were feeling puckish. It’s just a little souvenir shop and take out place with a bunch of tables. Not large, but pretty popular with the locals. The staff was nice and friendly. One BBQ pulled pork platter with fries, and one extra pulled pork sandwich and two sodas was $15, about the same as McDonald’s maybe, but WAY WAY BETTER. I sat there squirting Scott’s on to my plate and dipping my sandwich in it to get the bread sopping wet with vinegar tastiness. (And it’s available via mail order online! Click the link for tasty food!)

Lastly, you’ll note on yesterday’s post that I spent $150 at Owens’ Restaurant. That was a mistake on our part. You see, I saw a 2005 Cakebread Cellars Sauvignon Blanc on the wine list and I thought boyfriend might like it since he prefers whites. But it turns out he very much did not like it at all and though I could have been happy with a glass or two of something red for $15-20 total, I ended up very drunk and silly on 2/3rds of a $54 bottle of wine. If it wasn’t for that, dinner would have been less than $100 and well worth it.

I decided not to be tempted by their lobster tail appetizer stuffed with crab meat. I was too full from snacking in the car and craving some salad. I stuck to the Shrimp and Grits diesh with sausage and the creamiest grits I’ve ever tasted in my life. I swear, they were fantastic! The online menu doesn’t give you a sense of how much entrees are, but you can guess that it’s much more posh than other places on the Outer Banks. There’s filet mignon and lobster and stuff like that so expect to pay the same prices as you would in DC, $20-35 an entree.

Owens was by far the best place we ate. It was also the most expensive, but I think it was worth it. Boyfriend and I agreed that we’d eat one really nice meal while we were down there and it absolutely fulfilled our hopes and expecatations.