Brown Motion

Pump House. Name of a dining establishment we recently discovered in South Carolina.  You ride an elevator to get to the roof of what is five story building that sits along side the Catawba River. A once derelict structure for industrial use the pump house pumped water to a textile plant from the river back in the day. As textile industry died in the Carolinas this pump house fell silent. A couple of local entrepreneur investors decided to open a restaurant by repurposing the structure with a view.  The food and service are good.  Bit pricey but you are paying for ambience too. Below some pictures from our lunch time experience.

 Our expeditions to eat and explore the south continued with a local trip to the town of Belmont NC. A neighbor suggested southern comfort food at a place called Nellie's Kitchen.  So we tried lunch.   Below is my humble assessment - after trying cajun chicken and pinto beans with corn bread Porcelain doves watch over you as you eat Cajun chicken with potato Beans and Okra For a place in the south serving southern cuisine -  Food - Mediocre (I had to ask for Cajun spice mix on the side to pour over my chicken to get the oomph).  We have had much better food in Napa County in CA far removed from the south but with chefs that have heritage from here. Ambience -  Eclectic and soothing, loft like with exposed ceilings and polished concrete floor - hardwood tables - no while cloth;  Payment is hi tech with touch less service via QR code (oddly menus are still paper which I appreciated) Service - Mediocre (honestly think our server chap was hard of hearing having got couple things wrong

 A new found friend in our neighborhood turned us onto a local day trip. An early morning drive into central South Carolina.  To visit two new locales.  One a forest along the Congaree river named for an ancient tribe that settled and lived here hundreds of years ago.  This forest named after the river and part of the NPS is the tallest deciduous tree forest in the world.   A short drive north from there is the state capital city of Columbia.  Also an impressive sight and vast to the eye but smaller than Charleston which we visited few weeks back. Decided to hike the boardwalk in the national forest in the early hours of the day so it was our first stop.   Loblolly pine rising over 150 feet towards the azure sky Mist was rising in the early heat of the day over this lake The sun was trying to pierce the broad canopy of the Tupelos and the Loblolly pines that rise over 150 feet in places.  But it was still cool along the forest floor.  That made for easy hiking.  The ground is swampland

 Made for Netflix drama called 'Worth' is based on the events of Sep 11 2001.  The movie tries to address the quintessential philosophical question - How much is a human life worth? Lead role is played by Michael Keaton as the democratic leaning Jewish lawyer Ken Feinberg, based in Washington to serve as special master - a role that determined the monetary allocation for loss of life in the attack to the victims' families.   Many a research suggests that if an average adult was fried to a crisp and its mineral and metal content weighed it would amount to a princely sum of about $5, at today's market rate. Of the 3,000 or so people that died in the attack (and likely were fried to a crisp) and the couple thousand more that suffer health issues as a direct result of that attack, the job for President Bush was to determine a solution that did not take down the American airline industry or put millions out of work as a result of this tragedy. So while the cases and situatio

 That could be the name of the show /series on Netflix but it is not.  Instead it is called 'Somebody feed Phil' for the eponymous actor, director and producer of a food and travel series created by Philip Rosenthal. A Jewish kid from NY that now is close to 60 and lives in LA and works in Hollywood was the creator of a presumptuously titled 'Everybody loves Raymond'.  I did not watch it at all and did not know that this Rosenthal was its creator. The food show features Philip visiting many hotspots on the globe much like many who came before him and harps on the cliched, predictable 'love thy neighbor' and 'food unites us' theme.  But his child like curiosity and comedic style which includes self deprecating humor are what sets the show apart including the fact that true to his Jewish roots he has decided to include his entire family in the production thereby saving lot of money. His brother Richard is lead camera and his wife and kids make cameo appear

 In my ongoing quest to satiate my addiction to all things sweet specifically in the chocolate domain I have now stumbled on another treat. Very modestly priced yet delightful with a firm bite and good balance of bitter to sweet it is a Dark Chocolate Hazelnut concoction distributed by a German grocer called Lidl. I happened on this in my shopping excursions in the Carolinas. Lidl like many multinationals has made a big push in the US grocery market and has a good foothold in the south eastern states.  It has a smaller footprint compared to US based grocers with approx. 30,000 stock keeping units per store or SKU as opposed to a Safeway or Kroger that carries twice that in each store front. But the selections and choices are different.  It is distinct enough to convey to a shopper that their product is eclectic, has more European flair (you smell fresh croissant's for example as you walk in to a Lidl) with a bakery cabinet with transparent windows doling out fresh baked items for c

 A grocery run in America or a trip to the restaurant have one thing in common.  Lots of free parking.  Because in America you drive everywhere.  Most of the times. Unless you happen to be a hippie that lives in town as in downtown and can in fact walk to places that are part of your everyday spend. Majority of America in fact lives in suburbia or in some cases the exurbs which are an even further outpost from what is considered the commercial hub of a city. Well to get from point A to point B requires transportation and given the cultural shift that began many decades ago most prefer their independence and thusly their own set of wheels to get betwixt said points. Enter the automobile part of a larger industrial revolution that began 100 years ago.  As Jerry Seinfeld put it bluntly decades ago - they have been making millions of cars but no one is making parking spaces.  So there now appears to be a constant struggle to get closest to your ultimate destination in the form of a parking