Island Hopping

One time years ago, I was browsing in Joe Orlando’s excellent bookshop over in Leonardtown, and wound up in the “Local Interest” section or whatever it’s called, and my eye fell on a book with a nice illustration of work boats on the cover called “Ocracokers”.  As any wine maker can tell you, it’s what’s on the outside of the bottle that sells it, not what’s inside.  So I bought the little volume and brought it home.  Turned out to be an enjoyable memoir by a person who grew up on Ocracoke Island, which you may know is about at the southernmost end of the Outer Banks.

So we decided to spend our last full day on the OBX by going to the island.  It was probably the best weather we had, and turned out to be a great day.  One nice thing about motoring about on the island(s) is that you really can’t get lost.  Your three choices are:  Go north on 12; Go south on 12; or, get wet.  We used the second option and drove down through Avon, Buxton, to the town of Hatteras (that’s where Dinky’s is).  Of course with MFO at the wheel I have time to take shots of “stuff”, mostly food related – go figure.  If you keep your eyes open you see things like:

What caught my eye was the reference to the Osprey shopping center, but much more interesting was the sign for Buxton Munch next to it.. what the heck is “Eat Real; Bigger Place”?. 

And in the little village of Frisco there was this: 

Devout foodies and hot heads will know that the Scotch Bonnet pepper is arguably the hottest of that family, and the juxtaposition of that name with Fudge intrigued me.  If you google Scotch Bonnet Fudge the little shop pops up, and the description describes their (21 flavors of) taffy, fudge, jelly beans, T-Shirts, gifts and so on with no mention of the hot little vegetable.  I can’t imagine they haven’t been asked.

The way you get to Ocracoke Island is to take about an hour’s (free) ride on a car ferry similar to

Which leaves Hatteras and cycles back and forth to Ocracoke on the half hours.  There is more than one vessel, and each take a varying amount of vehicles and trucks up to maybe twenty or so.  Once you leave the pier you can get out and look around.  The FOJTE’s and I got out and went up on the little deck, and the first thing I saw in the epitome of the land of "local" was

sigh...

There were more than humans along for the ride

As well as other creatures who apparently would rather ride than fly.

I asked him several times to turn around but only got tail feathers.  If he would have, he would have been a handsome laughing gull like this one

Eventually we got to the island, disembarked and drove the length of the island to the town by the same name.  FOJTE had set up the schedule so that somehow we arrived just about lunch time!  Go figure… smart kid.  I did a little Yelping and we had decided on and found a little place called

A little research reveaed the name is an acronym for “Doug And Judy In Ocracoke” after the owners and chef.  Also turns out that Doug had an award winning restaurant in Lexington KY.  Tough competition in that place!! 

It had a very nice enclosed little patio

And they were kind enough to put up the umbrella for us 

because the welcome sun was warm and bright and this cancer kid favors the shade.  Our server was extremely nice, no canned speeches and took orders for welcome drinks.  FOJTE ordered one of the local (North Carolina) brews, and his wife, MFO and I went with wine.  MFOS(ister) stuck with Tea.

Their menu is an attractive tri-fold affair made with real paper, not encased in plastic

There was a interesting list of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, and heavier entrees,  which not surprisingly leaned heavily on seafood,  Carnivores would however be happy too.  Why the feeder didn’t take a picture of the selections can only be put down to the fact that after such a long boat ride he was in a hurry to order something to drink.

After some conversation and consumption of the drinks, we got around to ordering food which included a cup of chowder, a couple of salads (Roasted Beet, and the “Big Salad” which was akin to a chef’s salad) crab cakes, the appetizer of crab dip, and I got some Shrimp Tacos, being a trendy guy.

The food came out in a nice pace, starting with my clam chowder full of clams and earthy Shiitake mushrooms

Shown with the vestiges of my wine, which is not a classic pairing I will admit, however I that was remedied when my tacos arrived

with an Endless River, a Kölsch style beer brewed by Mother Earth Brewing in Kinston, NC.  Buy or rather, drink local!  Everybody enjoyed their meal, and although my shrimp were battered with that spicy mix, it was (just) within my tolerance band, which admittedly isn't very wide.  Of course eating them with your hands was fruitless, hence the fork.

After lunch we wandered around the little town of Ocracoke some, a charming little place.  On the way back to the ferry we found another clever sign... ha ha

Once back on the "mainland", we had to stop at the famous lighthouse

And then went back to Kissed by the Sun, where FOJTE prepared an excellent dinner of Grouper Puttanesca for us.  A wonderful day and meal for which we were

DFD..

+++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Off Topic post script but I can’t resist:

I know I have mentioned many times how much I enjoy Brian Ganz’s “Piano Talks” at St. Mary’s College.  And I think I have also mentioned that I heard they might be considering charging admission for what has been a free noon time interlude of great music.  I found out today there is another "talk" this Thursday, featuring not only Brian, but also the very talented Beverly Babcock which should be a great little concert.  Well, guess what?  You can enjoy the concert if you have seven bucks in your pocket to get in the door.. however students get by for a mere five bucks.  When you were a student, did you have extra Franklin’s to spend on a (in some cases) required attendance event?   I suppose in an effort to try to remedy shortfalls in other areas, this seemingly draconian decision was made by “The Authorities”. 

Somehow, as I said before it kind of changes the informality and intimacy of those concerts.  Ticket Please!  You! Over there! I didn’t see your ticket!  Security!!!!!