A Fork in the Road: Perla's (Austin, TX)

Located on South Congress, Perla's is a seafood restaurant with a steady following.  Perla's has a lovely white-washed nautical interior completed with netting, fish tanks and blue & white stripes.  I actually felt like I was dining somewhere in Cape Cod or the Hamptons. 

This was a large group dinner, but I honestly couldn't snap photos as fast as the food was going in my mouth.  What a shame I didn't get the other dishes!  My dishes, naturally, are the only photos I got.

 

Roasted beets, Cambozola cheese, pumpernickel croutons, mâche, and Aquavit honey.  It was beautiful arrangement on my plate; I don't think I've an enjoyed a beet salad nearly as much as this one.  It almost sounds like too many ingredients, but alas, it was not!

 

Thank you to my friend, Maria, who suggested (or better yet, told me) I order the Oak grilled Gulf Redfish on the Halfshell.  YUM! YUM! YUM!  What halfshell means is grilling on the skin-side without having to flip the fish.  This allows the oils to cook into the fish and it won't dry out.  You don't even need the sauces they serve to accompany it.  It is one serious fish.

Light and Luxurious Gingered Semifreddo - There is a reason this is at the top of the dessert menu.  I didn't have a bite of anything else, but I am sure nothing could have topped this.  Again, another dish with what sounds like many ingredients, was not.  This was a cold semifreddo served with olive oil cake, plum sake sorbet, pink peppercorn crisp and Greek yogurt underneath.  Be still my heart!

One awesome addition:  Our waitress was an English major and I've never heard better descriptions of menu items....ever.

A Fork in the Road: Husk (Charleston, SC)

One of the most envied reservations in town and we were lucky enough to get one on a Monday night.  Located in downtown Charleston mansion, Husk is very inviting from the moment you walk in the door.  An enormous and extensive chalkboard with the day's ingredients, and their location,  hangs above the hostess stand.  Chef Sean Brock prides his restaurant with having fresh, Southern ingredients every single day.  Complete with soft lighting and a long, narrowed dining room, simple table settings with glass jars of what else? Husks.

We each began with appetizers and I must say it was, unfortunately, the only most gratifying part of the dining experience.  

A beautiful assembly of spring colors in the Greechie Boy lettuces, roasted beets and spring berries with Asher blue cheese and wild blackberry vinaigrette salad.

Capers Inlet blade oysters with cucumber buttermilk and spring onion mignonette.  Thin, almost razor-like, oysters in a light buttermilk-vinegar mignonette topped with a sprig of dill.

Husk's staple appetizer of Southern fried chicken skins with a hot honey and garlic sauce. 

Fried green tomatoes with TN cheddar pimento cheese and shaved country ham.  This plate could have been a meal itself.  A nice, creamy pimento cheese, but the tomatoes could have used a dash of salt in the cornmeal.

I am at a loss when nothing pops out at me from the menu.  How disappointing.  I went out on a limb (my limb) and ordered the cornmeal fried NC softshell crabs, spring courgettes and onions, FL sweet corn with Husk tomato gravy.  The elements of the dish were all versatile and tasted well separately, but I couldn't seem to integrate them. 

However, the union of Adam Musick's VA Heritage pork with smoky peas and butter beans, rapini, Charleston Gold rice and collard liquor (or the liquid left from boiling collard greens) complemented one another soundly.  Husk's menu has a heavy pork presence and pork is what you want to order.  The sugary top of the pork added yet another dimension to the smoky, bitter, creamy dish.

Please do yourself a favor and order a side skillet of Smoky Benton's bacon cornbread.  That you won't regret.