Slider Nirvana at Sammy Greens

This was my second visit to @SammyGreens, a locally owned slider restaurant near downtown in Savannah on Abercorn. I could swear that I posted about my initial visit where I ate the Chee Booger and the Danang. However, for whatever reason I can't find it on here...so we march forward with posting about the my second trip.

The process at Sammy Greens is very simple: Walk up to the counter, place your order, have a seat, and feast when your food is brought out to you. Everything is made fresh, but doesn't take long to prepare being that they are small in size. On this trip I ate the Windy City, a Hogzilla, and a Chee Booger (because it is that good).

The Windy City is a Chicago style slider that packs the best of the Chicago Dog into just a couple of bites. This split mini dog is topped with diced banana peppers, minced onion, diced tomato, pickled cucumbers, relish, lettuce, celery salt and mustard. This dog was messy, but oh so good. It was so good that I am tempted to just order a couple of these on the next trip and nothing else.

The Hogzilla is a slow roasted pork shoulder that has been pulled and then pressed together into a patty. Cole slaw, pickles, and their own BBQ sauce round out this pork slider. It was very good, but not one that will have me running back there to try again. I am much more of a fan of their brisket than the pork.

That leads me to the last slider, the Chee Booger. As I stated before, this slider is so good that it is almost a staple to have on your plate each and every visit. Slow roasted brisket, cooked to perfection, is the star of the show, but everything on this slider comes together perfectly. Topped with smothered onions, pickles, American cheese, mustard and Tschirky Sauce...every bit of this slider should be savored.

The menu at Sammy Greens features different sides each week, salads, and a host of other sliders on the pork, brisket, chicken, and hot dog scale. Size wise, 2-3 sliders will have you full and happy when you walk out the door. Also, at around $2.50 a slider...they won't kill your wallet.

Not your typical lunch meeting

Usually the Chamber or Tourism luncheons are nothing to write home about. You usually get the standard "Chamber Chicken". You might get a piece of cheesecake. It is just always a lot of meh on top of meh.

Well, yesterday the Tourism Leadership Council's luncheon was at Savannah Technical College. Again...not looking promising at all. Little did we know that there is a culinary school there and they were the ones preparing our lunch for us today. Students making lunch for us? Again...the red flags went up. Got to say, outside of the pate, it was an excellent lunch.

Plenty of bread on the table is a great way to always start the meal. Especially with the olive oil & balsamic vinegar close by. The appetizer, as I stated before, was meh. I am not one for pate and that pretty much turned me off of the dish right away.

The main course more than make up for that dish with the Osso Bucco. The meat was perfectly cooked and was melting in my mouth. I could have eaten about 3 more of these, it was that good.

The dessert was a peach creme brulee tart with a side of pistachio ice cream. This was a great dish to close out the meal, other than the horrible coffee flavored syrup on the plate. I am not a coffee person and that could have been easily left off the plate.

Olives Mediterranean Cafe in Nassau

Who would have thought that conch fritters and lamb gyros would be a perfect match? However, in Nassau this is exactly the case. Olives Mediterranean Cafe is an excellent marriage of the Caribbean and Mediterranean.

Tucked away in a side alley off of Bay St. in the heart of Nassau, Olives is one of those gems you are glad you stumbled upon. We were walking down Bay St last week looking for some lunch when we saw a sign pointing us down an alley to Olives. What we walked up to was a little side cafe with a few tables and a lot of charm. Olives has a full lunch and dinner menu, plus a bar for those that want some libations. As for what I ate...

You can't go to the Bahamas and not have conch. These conch fritters were the right amount of spice and conch. A great way to start lunch and get my fill of fresh conch. The gyro took quite a while to come out. Actually, quite a while is an understatement. It actually took almost 40 min for the gyro to come out. It was worth the wait, as far as gyros go. The lamb wasn't tough and was cooked perfectly. They didn't go overboard on tzatziki sauce, which many places tend to do so often.

If you are ever down that way, check Olives out. It is a nice break from the norm and they have free WiFi. The last picture is one I took from our cruise ship, the Disney Dream, as we pulled into Nassau.

Christmas Lunch at Wang's II

On Christmas Day your options for lunch or dinner are limited when you are Jewish. They are even more limited if you don't have someones home to go to or your kitchen is being remodeled (as both were the case for us this year). The traditional Jewish Christmas is Chinese food and a movie. Both were achieved today!

Wang's II (not sure if there was a Wang's I, but there isn't one anywhere here) is some of the best Chinese food in Savannah. The second you sit down at the table you are treated to Chinese chips and salsa. This is the fried won ton noodles, duck sauce, and Chinese mustard. While these noodles are generally used in the soup, we love to dip them in the duck sauce and mustard and enjoy before the meal comes out. These things are highly addictive and there is no way to just go through one bowl. You will easily polish off two bowls, if not three.

We ordered two dishes today. The first one was my dish which was Kung Pao Chicken. They offer this two ways, one is the American version and the other is the Schezuan style. I ordered it the American way (which has mushrooms, bell peppers, and water chestnuts in it) but they screwed up and gave me the Schezuan version. The only thing similar between the two versions is the chicken, how spicy it is, and the peanuts. The Schezuan version is heavy in ginger and I am not a huge fan of that. This was still good, but I would have been much happier with the other version. I also got the Won Ton Soup with my dish.

My wife got the Mongolian Chicken along with the egg roll. Both of these were very good. She had some of mine, I had some of hers.

Later in the afternoon we did make it to the movies and saw Little Fockers. The movie was much better than the 2nd in this series and was pretty funny. As always I throughly enjoyed my popcorn at the movies.

I also put in some pics of the indoor Koi pond that greets you as you walk in the door. The fish love coming out of the water to say hi.

Chicken & Sausage Gumbo & a Greek Salad

It is cold. How cold? REAL COLD! I needed some hot soup to warm the bones today, so we went to Atlanta Bread Company and I got the 1/2 & 1/2 Combo. With this you have the option to choose 2 of the following: a bowl of soup, a 1/2 order of certain salad selections, and a 1/2 of certain sandwich selections. I decided to globe trot today with a little cajun and a little greek.

The gumbo was ok. Nothing to go brag about to someone in New Orleans, but it was good enough to get by on a very cold day. Lots of sausage, chicken, okra, and rice.

The salad was pretty basic and nothing more than that.

The Big Kahuna from Jersey Mike's

The plan for lunch yesterday was to hit up Season' of Japan and get a little express Japanese food. We got there and the line was out the door, so we instead went over to Jersey Mike's Subs. They do make a pretty good sandwich over there and the cheesesteak didn't disappoint.

The Big Kahuna has the obvious steak & cheese, but then they add mushrooms, onions, peppers, and jalapenos before finishing it off with a little mayo. This sandwich was dripping with all kinds of goodness and had quite a kick with each bite.

Chili & Caesar Side Salad from Wendy's

Been a while since I have eaten Chili from Wendy's, but I don't remember it looking or tasting like this. It was pretty good and there is a certain way to get the most out of this tasty treat on a cold day.

First you need to add the cheese and onions. The chili by itself if good, but the 2 things round out the base of the chili. Next, you add in 2 packets of the hot sauce. It isn't really "hot", but it does provide an additional burst of flavor in the chili. Finally you crumble the crackers in the packets and then pour on top of the chili. You will do this with 2 packets (4 total crackers) and then add more along they way until you have an empty bowl.

I also had a Caesar Side Salad to help round out this lunch. This is always a winner off the Value Menu.

The Sicilian Sandwich from Baldinos

Baldinos knows how to make pressed meat work! They might not have the best sandwich on the block, but they do have the best bread and that can make all the difference in the world. You are not getting the finest cuts of meat here, but you are getting the best of pressed meats put with all the fixings inside 2 deliciously fresh pieces of bread. The half order is more than enough for most people as ordering a whole is just overkill.

Japanese Food

I love me some Japanese food! I especially love me some quick "fast food style" Japanese food. The first 3 pictures are from Hiranos on Habersham here in Savannah. It is a great little place owned and operated by the Hirano family. He works the grill and she is working the front end. Everything is made fresh to order and is always excellent.

The last 2 pictures are from Sakura on Broughton in downtown Savannah. It is a good place to pop in for lunch every now and then, especially with their lunch specials. The 2 rolls for $5.75 is always a good deal in my opinion. The quality might not be the best, but you get what you pay for and with the quick Japanese lunch that is the risk always worth taking.

Hiranos:


Sakura:

The Crepevine in Tallahassee, FL

How did we end up @thecrepevine? What was supposed to be lunch at Ted's Montana Grill turned out to be lunch in downtown Tallahassee thanks to a bank robber and a bomb hoax. On our way to New Orleans from Savannah we stopped for lunch in Tallahassee. During this trek we got roped into a section of the city that was locked down and traffic at a standstill thanks to a guy who was holding up a bank and said he had a few bombs strapped to his body. Well 90 min later we were able to get rerouted out of this traffic and stumbled onto this great place before we got out of town.

The Crepevine (nice play on words)makes crepes fresh to order and then fills them with all kinds of goodness for all meals of the day (including desserts). Think wraps but so much better. The Wobbler was a great one to have for lunch. Fresh chicken, spinach, mushrooms, onions....just all kinds of awesome places inside the crepe. However, the one we had for dessert was one of the best things I have ever eaten.

This dessert crepe was filled with fresh whipped cream and strawberries. It was then topped with chocolate syrup and nutella. OMFG...this thing was off the charts ridonkulous!

If you are ever stranded in Tallahassee, or just passing through, you must eat at The Crepevine.