Charleston's good eats.

Flounder Ceviche., originally uploaded by Luna Soledad.

The hubs had a lawyer gig down in South Carolina this past weekend and never being one to miss out on an opportunity to get out of town, I happily went along. (Thanks ever-so-much once again Nik and Wes!) Of course, there were other motivating factors for me as well, namely, photos and food.

And taking pictures of food.

Charleston is a beautiful port city famous for a lot of things -- it's rich history, architecture, sweet grass basket weavers, scenery, golf courses, etc., etc., lots of other stuff... and it's smörgåsbord of good southern eats. (Second perhaps only to New Orleans.)

We pretty much ate our way through the city over the course of four days and barely scratched the surface of this foodgasmic wonderland.

We dined at numerous fantastic places, including Amen Street Fish and Raw Bar where we had Chef Todd's Famous Shrimp Corndogs with horseradish mustard sauce and tiny pickles and Flounder Ceviche with diced mango (pictured here) for appetizers. For the main course: Flash in the Pan Pirlau with shrimp, scallops, muscles, clams, and lowcountry vegetable rice for me and for Kevin, Hot Shrimp and Crab with grilled tomato, brie, and lemon ailoi. (We won't even discuss dessert!) Everything was extraordinary -- from the atmosphere to the service to the food and presentation. ...Oh, and our bartender looked exactly like a young Matt Damon.

And since I love all kinds of ceviche (there are oh so many delicious types and so easy to make), here's one recipe that I stumbled across that sounds similar to the yumminess I had at Amen Street; just add mango!

"They eat the dainty food of famous chefs with the same pleasure with which they devour gross peasant dishes, mostly composed of garlic and tomatoes, or fisherman's octopus and shrimps, fried in heavily scented olive oil on a little deserted beach."

... Luigi Barzini, Jr., The Italians, 1964