Tag: north carolina

Asheville Food Tour

M's Adventures
The meeting place is a cocktail place.

If you find yourself in Asheville, North Carolina, I recommend going on a food and history tour with Asheville Food Tours. It is a walking and sitting tour that includes food and drink (non-alcoholic can be requested).

Shit on a shingle at Isa’s.

In two hours, you will learn about history and try some of the foods of Asheville. The locations change so no guarantee that you will go to the same places I went.

Grilled cheese and fried okra at Blackbird.

Our tour guide, Sita (as in mamasita — which she told us to call her if we wished), was a font of interesting facts and history of Asheville. This tour is good for those who like fashion, food, drinks, and history.

Sita in front of an image of a tall building.

We had Southern food, learned about fashion history, drank pink cocktails, found out about pensioner history, ate biscuits, heard about famous people history, and something about the hill and tallest building (I was not listening).

A display at the mini fashion museum at Isa’s.

The tour costs $105 (I think) and is a great way to get to see Asheville. For example, Asheville has an old fashioned Woolworth’s. It has a community garden.

Cheerwine. It’s southern thing.

Of the places we went, two of the places were “foreign” and with the other folks on the tour — they were from South Carolina, I would have foregone the taco shop or the Indian stop (the restaurant put on a mini buffet for us so we got out dinner done on the tour!) for a barbecue or second dessert stop like a pie place. That is my recommendation. Seeing the reaction of the blonde faces and how brave they were trying the Indian food… the taco place was too much.

Funny children’s menu…

The tour started well with cocktails and “shit on a shingle” which is sausage gravy on a biscuit. The stop with the fried okra and fancy schmancy grilled cheese sandwich was also great.

A truffle at Asheville Chocolates.

Asheville is the Place to Live at the Grove Arcade

M's Adventures
The fancy mall, Grove Arcade, has apartments upstairs.

Well it would be for me if I lived in Asheville, North Carolina. But I am a city person so I would not want to live in a cottage in the woods. But Asheville has it all. I can see why this is an attractive place to live. Go on a food tour with Asheville Food Tours to find out more about this city. The Grove Arcade is on the national register for historic places.

A view of the main street.

The airport is expanding too so I have a feeling this place will grow quickly. Asheville was Cherokee land until 500 years ago. There is a lot of history in this town, but as a tourist destination, there is also more than history.

A memorial to where the drovers would take their animals to market.

The Dixie Diner

M's Adventures
Sweet tea is a Southern thing.

I had heard about this local diner in Hendersonville, North Carolina, the Dixie Diner. I wanted to go for breakfast. They are open every day except Christmas day. I heard it from the waitress so it must be true, despite what Google maps tells me. I heard that it was the kind of place where people go regularly. A true diner.

The counter.

The Dixie Diner is in the South and the word, ‘dixie’ is associated with the American South. To read some theories about this, click on this link. Driving to North Carolina, I saw at least three gigantic confederate flags. In many cities, the confederate names and monuments have been changed or removed.

The Dixie Diner.

When we entered the diner, there was no confederate flag, but there were American flags. There were other signs of the South but the decor was not too pimped out for tourists. There was one table of regular customers sitting there and they quickly got up and left when we entered. I think they could see that we would be rowdy out-of-towners.

Typical diner chairs.

The diner had a change in ownership in 2022 as the previous owner/long time waitress was murdered. We did not know about the dramatic history of this diner when we went there.

Typical chairs but clearly new.

We were greeted warmly by a waitress holding a pot of hot but weak coffee (American coffee is notoriously weak). The bowl in the middle of the table was brimming with small containers of jam, jelly, butter, and coffee creamer. We asked for milk. The other waitress skulked around pulling her face up whenever I smiled at her. Maybe she is shy.

Biscuit, sausage, home fries, gravy with sausage, bacon, corned beef hash, and eggs.

As we were in the South, we tried all the Southern specialties such as grits, corned beef hash, and biscuits. When I asked about the corned beef hash, I was told that the cook was very proud of his hash and that he had been up since 4 am making that. I asked about the home fried potatoes and asked if they were deep fried (which is what most city diners do these days) and was reassured that the cook was also proud of his potatoes and only fries them on the flat top. Phew.

Grits are made from treated maize.

The diner is quite large and apparently they also have a buffet. We ordered a la carte. We had a complicated order so it was good that there were no other customers. The food came out and it was typical diner food. Nothing grand and not piping hot but fine.

Corned beef hash made from corned beef.

By the time we were on coffee refills, other customers came in. As we took photos, one of the customers told us that we should meet the guy who’s photo was on the wall.

Famous local guy.

When we left, we were no longer hungry. It was an interesting experience eating at a local diner even if the prices were big city prices, with an omelet costing $9.95 and a short stack of pancakes costing $6.95. The breakfast platters were between $7-15 while a side of bacon cost $3.95.

The other dining room.