pretentious foodie post

I've been meaning to write this post since December, but every time I started it it just sounded like a dreaded foodie post. So now I'm just sucking it up and writing a foodie post.

But it really can't be too much of a foodie post because pretty much all I'm going to talk about is bacon. And I've loved bacon my entire life, even when I refused to eat most foods. Now, many kids don't eat their vegetables (and I didn't) but I also did not eat macaroni and cheese or most other forms of cheese, a childhood staple. I downed bacon, though. I didn't (and still don't really) eat eggs, so bacon and grits was my favorite breakfast. (Oh, hello. Forgot I'm from the South?)

So my love of bacon + increasing willingness to eat new foods= Husk, my new favorite restaurant. Anywhere. I'd recommend it to anyone visiting Charleston, SC, except maybe my vegetarian friends. There is too much bacon to leave still vegetarian.

Husk sources its ingredients locally and lists where each item is from on a large sign in the entrance, whether it's the bacon, benne seeds or clams. They say, "If it doesn’t come from the South, it’s not coming through the door." The focus is on Southern ingredients in Southern, particularly Low Country, recipes. All food is sourced fresh and the kitchen preserves, smokes and pickles the abundance. The menu changes daily. Sure, they list the source of most items on the menu, a common complaint of "foodie"-haters, but our waitress couldn't be described any way other than friendly and chill.

[Local food]

Our meal started with rolls with a bacon butter that I will never be able to recreate but somehow the smooth butter tasted like smoked bacon, perhaps due to bacon fat in the butter. To start we ordered a sampling of cured ham and housemade pickles, as well as fried chicken skins with a spicy honey dipping sauce, and wood fired clams with sausage, peppers and tomatoes and crispy bread.

[We ate every bit of the broth.]

[Due of pork. Pork belly and tenderloin, with parsnips, apples and granola.]

[Due of beef- filet mignon with bok choy and carrots.]

[Due of beef, other side. Ragu and mashed potatoes.]

Husk Restaurant, Charleston, SC.