In 2016 Charleston was named the #1 Tourist Destination in the U.S, Canada and the World… We do see why, with the rich culture, cuisine and historical architecture. We arrived yesterday and immediately went to McLeod Plantation. Our tour guide was a young student who had a masters in archeology, so her delivery of content was from the aspect of how the landscape and architecture could teach us about the people who once lived on this land. The generations of slaves who lived on this sea island cotton plantation were the Gullah Geechee people.
After the slaves were freed, they were each given 40 acres of land (some of which they had slaved on), and then later forced to return this land to the original plantation and slave owners. This moved these newly ‘freed’ slaves out of the era of physical and emotional abuse in to the arena of economic oppression. Progress?
One of the other stories we heard was of the slave children who had to make bricks for building. When these bricks were made, they needed to dry before they could be used. It was the turning of these bricks, which were 3x the weight of a regular brick because they were wet, that were the job of the children. All throughout the south of the U.S. you can see finger impressions in the bricks from these slave children. It was quite depressing really and a story we had never heard before.
On a high note, the trees on the property were just amazing. These pictures do not do them justice. They were HUGE
Next we decided to go for a late lunch/early dinner. One of the locals recommended Gillie’s Seafood.
Gillie’s story: Chef Sean Mendes wanted his guests to feel like they were dining at Grandma’s house…a place full of love, warmth, wisdom and a good meal for your soul! Their food is all made from scratch. We had Soul Rolls to start. These were deep fried egg rolls filled with collard greens, pulled pork, red rice and pimento cheese, served with a side of Nunya sauce. We then followed with Catfish Charleston which was blackened catfish fillet topped with a shrimp and crawfish cream sauce and served over dirty rice. As well as the Seafood Puloo which was seasoned rice, shrimp, crawfish, oysters, okra, onions and smoked sausage. It was all good ! Here are the pictures:
The restaurant itself was no nonsense and had a whole wall dedicated to the Chef’s grandma.
