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Charleston Eats - Traditional Foods of Charleston, South Carolina
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Mar 24, 2025
Heading to Charleston, South Carolina and not sure what you should eat? Well don't worry! There are so many good restaurants in Charleston you won't have a problem finding some fantastic food. From Shrimp and Grits to biscuits and more! The eats of Charleston, South Carolina. Copyright Mark Wolters 2023 #charleston #southcarolina #eatcharleston Learn how to plan your travels like we do with our Travel Planning 101 Course: https://www.brighttrip.com/woltersworld Visit Our Amazon Store for Drinkware, cookingware, travel gear, and other necessities of life. http://www.amazon.com/shop/woltersworld Follow Jocelyn on Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/jocelynwoltersworld Follow Simply Jocelyn on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Simply-Jocelyn-A-Globally-Inspired-Life-100312851709273/ Follow Our Shorts Channel for quick travel tips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmSIWRrLCcqamLlTEEBLFLA
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Hey there fellow hungry travelers, Mark here with Walter's World and today we're in one of the best cities to eat in America, Charleston, South Carolina
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And today we're going to talk about some of the foods you should have when you come here to Charleston
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And I want to stick more on traditional Charleston food because honestly you can eat great food from all over the world when you're here because there's a lot of really amazing food and really you can't go wrong anywhere you go
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But I want to focus more on the traditional stuff when you're coming to Charleston. And the number one thing you have to have when you come here is shrimp and grits
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Look, if you've never had shrimp and grits, you might look at it and say, why is there shrimp on top of that porridge
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Well, grits, you know, it's hominy ground up and they cook it up and you put shrimp on top and oh my God, it looks so simple
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But it is just truly amazing. So if you want a truly southern dish that really is Charleston, start with some shrimp and grits, okay
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So shrimp and grits, that's going to be your entree you got to have. But what about a starter
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You got to start with something, right? And especially in this heat, what doesn't go well with a hot, humid environment like a bisque soup
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Yes, she crab soup. Yes, you want to have a creamy, heavy bisque soup with crab meat in it, which is phenomenal
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She crab soup, it's called she crab soup because they put female crabs in there
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That's what they make it with. And traditionally, it would have the roe as well, like the eggs as well, to give it a more distinct flavor
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And the thing is, people make it a little bit differently. Sometimes there might be some male crab in there some places
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But honestly, she crab soup, something you need to have when you're here. It is so good
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I mean, it makes a great filling starter. And if you're here in the heat, it might feel a bit much, but it's well worth it, okay
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Now, another thing you have to realize is when you come to South Carolina, and especially Charleston, rice is real
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Like, rice is a thing. Rice is a money product here. So you'll see rice pop up a lot as a side dish
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Maybe just have rice on the side, or you'll have dishes with rice. One you can get is crab rice, which is just like crab meat stirred in with the rice that's there
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That's really good. But if you don't like crab, you want it with chicken. Well, you've got pilau or purlo or purloo
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I mean, I've heard it like 10 different ways. Basically, it's chicken and rice. You can have that
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Honestly, if you're from here, please tell me the right way to say that because I went to three different restaurants and they said it three different ways, okay
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Now, another thing you're going to see a lot, especially in the historic district, you're going to see oysters on offer
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You like oysters on the half shell Well one historically Oyster in the Half Shell is not really a Charleston thing You have a cluster of oysters and you have an oyster roast Oh my God they so fun If you here and people are doing oyster roasts or there like a fair or event
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going on and they're doing that, go get the oysters from the oyster roast. It's so good
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But people like oysters. So you can actually see a lot of oyster houses here, a lot of
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places that sell oysters on the half shell. So you can get that as well. Or if you want
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to go the Walters World traditional fried way, you can get an oyster po'boy where they
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fry the like lightly bread the oysters and fried up and they put it on a baguette roll with with
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lettuce tomato and this rumela which is so good or you can get a shrimp po'boy as well instead if you
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don't like oysters because some people don't but that's another great thing to have when you're here is a po'boy to get some of that seafood tastiness when you are here and there's a lot of
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seafood dishes you can get when you're here there's all kinds of different fish you can have so if it's a seafood thing you're probably going to be okay here in charleston but probably the one of
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the seafood-ish kind of things you'll see, which might throw you off, is frogmore stew. And no
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frogmore stew does not have frog in it. That's why most of the time now you'll see it labeled as a
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low country boil, which is shrimp, sausage, corn, and potatoes kind of all cooked together with
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spices and you have that. And it's really fun if you have a group and you kind of make it with your
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friends and dump it out on the newspaper and everyone kind of digs in at the same time. But
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you can get it at restaurants too in a platter form but it's more fun in on full table length
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form but you can do that but that's something traditional from here as well and all around the
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low country and another traditional thing that i love and that liam loves and i'm actually going
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to bring some back for liam because i have one of those earlier morning flights so i can grab stuff from the store and get home are biscuits oh my god charleston their biscuits are phenomenal
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whether you have biscuits for breakfast breakfast at lunch or biscuits with your dinner you're going
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to love the biscuits get the biscuits i mean cornbread's nice hush puppies are nice biscuit
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biscuit with a side of biscuits please even the cheap knockoff biscuits at hotels are good here
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so if you get a chance to have some biscuits in charleston you're welcome okay and when i start
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talking about biscuits i guess we really need to talk that here in charleston you can have a lot of
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those southern delicacies those traditional southern foods you can get great fried chicken
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when you're here you want to start off your meal with something pimento cheese it's always really
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good or deviled eggs. Oh my God I getting goosebumps I had deviled eggs and fermented cheese yesterday So I was a happy fat man There be a lot of happy fat people here and a lot of happy skinny people that are turning fat while they here Because all the really great things
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Fried green tomatoes. I mean, you have a lot of really, truly southern things
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Because we're in the south that they do really well here. Because you have so many great restaurants
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And speaking of the restaurants, I think it's important to mention this. If you're going to be here on the weekend or you're going to be here during peak season
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you always want to make a reservation well in advance. Like I tell people, look, once you book your tickets to CHS, that's the airport here to Charleston, go online, find the restaurants you want to go to and click there, make a reservation button and book a reservation
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Because in the evening times, a lot of places book out, even on like random Thursday nights in the winter, it can happen
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OK, so make sure you're booking those reservations. And the thing is, you'll see there'll be lines
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Even if you don't book your reservation, you'll see someplace that have lines out
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You don't have to wait in lines when you're here because there's so many good restaurants
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The line's like, oh, it's a 45-hour-minute-long wait. Just walk around, see the historic homes, and there'll be another great restaurant you can go to that maybe has a shorter line
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So you don't have to worry too much about that. But anyway, let's go back to the kind of the food stuff I was talking about before
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I guess when you're walking around, if you come here on Saturday, actually, there's a farmer's market that's right here
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And you'll see people selling boiled peanuts, which are basically peanuts that are boiled in water with some spices in it, some hot sauce in it and stuff
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And you eat those and they're phenomenal, but they'll sell them in a bag for you. Really, really good
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I do recommend it as kind of like sit in the park here and chill out with your friends and have some hot boiled peanuts
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You can't go wrong with that. But I think of, oh, one thing, if you're coming here and you want to save a little money
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because I'll be honest with you, eating here is not cheap. Look for happy hours
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From 4 to 7 p.m., you'll see places, not every place, but bars, restaurants will have discounted prices on drinks
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and discounted prices on food, and that can actually help save your budget
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Also, a lot of the hotels in the historic district have like their like free drinks and light snack kind of thing
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So you can get a snack and a couple of drinks to save yourself the money when you go out. Because when you go out here, what you have to realize is Charleston makes some really good cocktails
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And the cocktails are a little more pricey than the beers when you come here. OK, and you can get like there's there's local beers you can get when you're here
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No problem. But but but the cocktails are something that's really a thing here in Charleston that you're going to enjoy
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So try some of the cocktails you've never heard of when you do come here, because that is nice
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And if you looking for kind of a drink thing to take home as a gift I recommend the Charleston Bloody Mary Mix Like Jocelyn already told me when you coming back grab a couple bottles to bring back to Illinois
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because we don't have the Charleston Bloody Mary Mix. So when you're here, grab that because it's just got like a better spice to it
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Like, they just do cocktails really well here in Charleston. And thank you, Charleston Bloody Mary Mix people
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for letting us take that home with us, okay? Now, let's get back to the restaurant talk
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One thing is you might notice some restaurants will actually close in the afternoon. Like they'll close at 3 p.m. and then reopen at 5 p.m
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There are some of those. There are some restaurants that close at 3 and don't reopen for dinner
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And there's dinner spots that only open at 5 and don't do lunch. So you need to make sure you're kind of planning out not just the historic homes you're going to visit
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but also when you're going to be eating and where you can eat at what time
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So that's important to know. And if you're going to be staying here and you have a rental or like you're at
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I'm at the NBC Suites right now and they have a kitchenette. And if you're going to be like drinking on your own to save some money
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one thing I need to remind you is you can't buy hard liquor at the store. Like you can go to the
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Walgreens and the gas station to get wine and beer, but if you want something stronger, you have to go
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to a liquor store when you're here. And if you're in the historic part, there's not a lot of options
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The best one is if you go to the Tavern, which is on the Rainbow Road Street, you know, where the
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houses are painted. Right behind there, there's the Tavern. It's a liquor store. I know the first
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time I went by, I was like, wow, that's a long line for a tavern thinking it was a bar. No, no
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that's the liquor store you're going to go because there are limitations of where you can buy stuff
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And there's no, like, hard liquor sold on Sunday at the stores, so be aware of that
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But don't worry, as a tourist, the bars and restaurants still can serve you whatever they want
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All right? So I hope this helps you know some of the fantastic food you can have when you come here to Charleston
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I know you can get some good barbecue here with that Carolina gold sauce. You can get that, too
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You know, so there's plenty of food options here, whether you want a slice of pizza after going out
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or you want some biscuits to really get your day going, Charleston is going to be a food mecca for you
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Also, you can do food tours here too. So hey, what could go wrong? All right, except maybe expanding your waistline
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Like I think I actually did move my belt one loophole yesterday But don't tell Jocelyn, okay? Anyway, I wish y'all the best and have a great time here in Charleston
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If you want to know more, we've got the don'ts of visiting Charleston Also, Jocelyn has a video on just the Eads of South Carolina in general
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That has actually more things you're going to enjoy in this beautiful state But do check those out and I'll say bye from here in beautiful, filling Charleston, South Carolina
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