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We tried to go last year, but the festival was washed out by hurricane Florence. This year The North Carolina Seafood Festival was in full swing in Morehead City.
There was no Berry-Go-Round and no funnel cake or giant turkey leg booths every 20 feet, but otherwise the NC Seafood Festival is much like a Reidsville street festival. Of course a festival in Morehead City is lot bigger than a festival in Reidsville. Morehead City's festival goes for block after block and there were no old cars like Reidsville has. Morehead City's festival lasted for 3-1/2 days. Reidsville is lucky if people can stand one day of its festival.
A lot of booths featured seafood as was appropriate for a seafood festival, but there were also a lot of booths peddling what-nots and trinkets. Keeping with the theme of this web site, I tried to mainly photograph the seafood booths, but I often got distracted by other bright and shiny objects
America's Favorite Sweet Wine from the fine folks at Duplin Winery. This is the first booth to greet us. We didn't stop to chat, but I assume they were giving away free samples of Duplin's finest swill. This is odd since the Duplin booth was well outside the special alcohol zone of the festival. Perhaps Duplin Winery had some sort of special dispensation from Morehead City.
Hog on a Log. All things porcine related, including an adopt a pig section.
Buy all you could ever want or need because Cape Fear Rum Cake never goes bad, according to reports.
I don't remember what this person was selling, but apparently it will cure whatever ails you. I really appreciate a product that will cure my crusty heels, eliminate my body odor, and cure my high blood pressure. According to Debbie's recollection, the "it" was shea butter.
This booth represented a lot of the vendors with their seafood on display. This was the first time I had ever seen the food presented in such a fashion at a festival. I don't get out a lot.
The Hot Sauce Mall had lots of hot sauce
This Fire Ball was one of a kind on a large hot sauce display
Deep fried maple bacon on a stick. Umm...that sounds good.
This lobster was hawking a seafood menu.
Alligator is not a seafood, but there were exceptions to every rule.
Kettle Corn is big on the festival circuit. No seafood here. Anybody know what kettle corn is?
Trinkets and whatnots galore.
This is the LIDL Grocery booth. They were offering free coupons for LIDL food stuffs. Unfortunately, the coupons would have not done me much good when we returned home. I got into a discussion with the LIDL folks about why LIDL builds so many stores, but never opens them. The folks manning the booth didn't know the answer. I suggested perhaps LIDL doesn't know much about planning. I believe we saw two empty LIDL stores on our travels to Morehead City. Eden's empty LIDL is nothing special.
Fish and Chips - Morehead City style
We saw several booths selling deep fried Oreos. Apparently frying an Oreo is big business.
Debbie points out the soft shell crab burrito on the DANK BURRITO'S food truck. Debbie knows I love soft shell crab. More on the Dank Burrito later on this page.
Bob Ross was on-hand to paint portraits of festival goers.
The carnival section of the seafood festival. We did not enter.
RUDDY DUCK
For lunch/dinner we made a stop at a restaurant in the middle of the seafood festival.
This is Jessica and Lexi. Jessica was our waitress at the Ruddy Duck. Lexi is her daughter. Apparently, Jessica is not in the FBI's witness protection program. She readily volunteered to pose with her daughter. And she smiled. You can read more about the FBI's witness protection program closer to the bottom of this page.
This is my dish. It's Shrimp Pho which translates to something closer akin to vegetable soup. I make some sacrifices to do these stories about food. This dish is one of those sacrifices. There were even broccoli flowers in the pho. Debbie ate the broccoli. The menu made no mention of broccoli. I ate the rice noodles, the shrimp, the jalapenos, the carrots and some of the zucchini.
This was Debbie's more sensible dinner. It's crab and spinach flatbread (pizza). It was served incredibly hot and finished cold by the time I got to taste it. You could definitely taste the crab. The spinach not so much.
Debbie had a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and I had a Red Oak Amber beer.
Dinner cost about $46 with tax and tip.
The CAROLINA PRINCESS offered on-board dining. We later saw the Carolina Princess cruising down the inlet near the RUDDY DUCK.
The NC Education Lottery was at the festival. You can't see it in this photo, but there was quite a crowd at this booth.
These guys did not want us to miss the lumpia. The guy on the right had quite a spiel about his lumpia, including "But wait, there's more!"
I believe there were two different lumpia vendors.
This is lumpia. I have no idea what lumpia is.
Notice at the top of the sign in the center - FROSTED FLAKES SHRIMP - They're Grrreat! This booth got extra points for offering a novel dish.
Shrimp in a pita or shrimp in a bowl. You decide.
Party in a Pita or beef shawarma or tabouli or corn dog. Whatever you want, they had it...even shrimp.
This is Joe Young. Joe Young writes romance books. He seemed to be having about as much success at selling books as he would have if he had been at a Reidsville street festival. Debbie saved the day by buying one of Joe's books.
Joe is from New Bern, NC. Joe told me New Bern was the first capital of the state of North Carolina. You could tell Joe was a smart man, but he was like three out of every four people we asked if they had heard of Reidsville. Nope, Joe had never heard of Reidsville.
Debbie has started telling people that we are from a little spot in the road about 25 miles north of Greensboro. Everyone has heard of Greensboro. She no longer mentions Reidsville.
Reidsville City Councilman John Gentry and Mayor Jay Donecker may think Reidsville is the center of the universe, but it ain't.
Debbie also bought a set of king-size bamboo bed sheets from a hijab wearing woman. I'm not sure how I feel about sleeping on bamboo.
I don't remember the name of the place with this sign. I think she sold glassware such as decorated wine bottles. I do remember she was one more hateful, crazy bitch. She was dead serious about no photographs or videos of her booth. She went ballistic on me when she caught me photographing her little sign. I have no idea why she was so crazy about photographs/videos of her booth. Debbie suggested she was fearful of someone seeing and copying her work. That didn't quite make sense since she was publicly displaying and selling her work. Anyone wanting to copy her work could walk up and buy a piece and copy the hell out of it. I think she was just an ornery bitch. Anyway she definitely made the North Carolina Seafood Festival different from all the other festivals.
I can't say what the penalty was for photographing her booth. I know I got my ass scorched for photographing her sign. Probably 99.9999% of vendors would have enjoyed the publicity that comes from being photographed, but not this woman. Maybe she would have called the police on me and had my camera confiscated. I backed away quickly to avoid the full fury of her wrath.
I paid $3 to pee in a restaurant that was charging admission to use its toilets. Little did I know there was a whole line of porta-a-potties lining the street a short walk away. Notice the people sitting in the street in front of the toilets. They are in a "special" place.
This sign was behind the people sitting in the street. The people were confined to a 20' X 10' rectangle painted on the street in fluorescent orange. Inside the rectangle, also painted in fluorescent orange on the pavement, were the words FREE SPEECH ZONE. The people sitting in the FREE SPEECH ZONE were representing the Jehovah's Witness Church.
I can only assume the FREE SPEECH ZONE was Morehead City's attempt to regulate your speech by confining annoying people to a 20' X 10' rectangle. If you wanted to make a speech about Donald Trump (pro or con), you had to do it in the FREE SPEECH ZONE.
Morehead City might want to consider putting the ornery wine bottle bitch in the FREE SPEECH ZONE.
Reidsville should establish a FREE SPEECH ZONE for its festivals just for the hell of it.
Morehead City put on a fireworks display on Saturday night for the seafood festival.
OTHER EATS
DANK BURRITO
I'm guessing you've never eaten at a place called the DANK BURRITO. Maybe if you've been to Raleigh, Beaufort or Morehead City, then you possibly have.
We were back in Morehead City for a bit of R&R and Debbie hit up the DANK BURRITO for a carry out dinner.
I ordered the Pork Belly Burrito (shown above) with rice and kimchi (upper left of photo). The kimchi was pretty tame. I had anticipated a scorching hot taste of Korean cabbage.
The burrito was awesome.
DANK BURRITO is owned and operated by the guy who owns CIRCA 81. You may remember CIRCA 81 from our visit to Morehead City on a Friday in June and last year
Debbie had the Cajun Fried Mahi Mahi Burrito with rice and beans. It was pretty tasty. I barely noticed the beans. I hate beans.
Both orders came with chips and a zippy sauce.
We recommend DANK BURRITO if you're in a mood for fast food with a different spin. Don't be put off by the name. The food is really good.
Debbie world famous scallops on pasta with caper, lemon and wine sauce. Exquisite.
Blackened tuna steak with baked potato (I added feta cheese after the photo) and a wedge salad with blue cheese dressing. There was no sour cream and salsa available for the potato. Some sacrifices have to be made when you are traveling. Wine selection for the evening was 1000 Stories Zinfandel. Debbie always buys tuna when she goes to the coast.
TABLE 9
We visited TABLE 9 at Atlantic Beach for dinner one evening.
Debbie ordered the charbroiled oysters. What she got was five tiny oysters on the half-shell. They were small, but according to Debbie, very tasty.
She liked the juice that was with the oysters so much she had to order a second helping of bread to sop it all up.
I ordered the Caribbean Chicken with Shrimp. The yellow chunks were not corn, but mango. The chicken rested on a bed of wild rice. I don't like wild rice, but I ate it anyway. Somewhere lime figured into the recipe. The four shrimp were coated with a sriracha and honey sauce. I would not order this dish again. The chicken was overcooked and the menu did not specify wild rice. I should have paid an extra $4 and ordered the Outer Banks Seafood Pasta.
This was our Table 9 waiter. I have no idea what his name is. Obviously, he did not want his photo taken. Atlantic Beach wait people in general seem to be a skittish bunch. Maybe the FBI is running a witness protection program in the area.
This photo was made in the Table 9 men's restroom. This bowl of crystalline flakes with the wooden spoon sat between the two sinks. I'm guessing it was soap, but there was a soap dispenser on the wall above the bowl. Maybe somebody left their dessert in the restroom. Out of precaution, I didn't taste it or wash my hands with it.
Debbie reported there was no such item in the women's restroom.
Dinner cost about $58 with tax and tip.
AMOS MOSQUITO'S TAKEOUT
Debbie dials up AMOS MOSQUITO'S to place a takeout order. You take your chances when you place a takeout order at Amos Mosquito's. They tell you it will take 20-25 minutes to prepare your order. Don't believe them. It will take more like 10 minutes at the most. A previous experience with cold and soggy food taught us that lesson. Debbie waited less than 10 minutes and headed out for the restaurant which is less than five minutes away. Her order was ready and waiting when she arrived.
This is what $64 worth of food from Amos Mosquito's looks like. That's $64 including tax. There was no tip with the takeout. No tip means more food for us.
Here's the spread opened up.
The appetizer was an excellent box of fried Calamari with eel sauce (brown) and white ginger dipping sauce. The Calamari was turning cold, but it still tasted great. I would call it the best dish of the entire roundup. I have no idea what eel sauce is. I'll let you google it to find out.
If Debbie doesn't order charbroiled oysters, she orders Shrimp and Grits. Of course, she sops the Shrimp and Grits with the bread. Just like she did with the oyster juices at Table 9. She gave her Shrimp and Grits a thumbs up.
I ordered Sushi. I've discovered I like raw fish and seaweed.
In the upper left corner is the Liza Roll. It is fried oysters stuffed with carrot, avocado and spicy mayo. Of course there's also rice with a seaweed wrap.
The lower left is Crab Rangoon Roll. That's a fried roll with crab meat, cream cheese, scallion and drizzled with eel sauce.
In the upper right corner is wasabi and pickled daikon (radish). The daikon was excellent. Amos could have kept the wasabi for a more appreciative customer.
Both rolls had cooled, a bit disappointing, but they were still quite tasty, especially when dipped in the Kikkoman Soy Sauce that came with the dish.
Four layer coconut cake was dessert. It looked much better than it tasted. It wasn't bad, but nothing remarkable. Debbie really liked the cake. I would placed a second order for Calamari, instead of ordering the cake.
FULL MOON TAKEOUT
You takes your chances when you order take out. The above is an example of what can go wrong with takeout. Debbie ordered a dozen, drove a few miles to pick up a dozen, and paid for a dozen charbroiled oysters.
What she got was seven oysters, very tasty oysters. She was not happy. She called Full Moon to complain. They found the missing five oysters sitting in a box. They apologized, but it was a major fuck-up for a takeout order.
Debbie was told no one could deliver the missing oysters. If she wanted them, she would have to come and pick them up. That's right, make a second trip to pick up a second batch of stone-cold, charbroiled oysters.
After eating the first batch, Debbie was angry enough to drive back to Full Moon to pick up her missing oysters. Of course they were cold, but she had a point to make...I WANT MY OYSTERS!
This is one of my two dishes. Actually I ordered two appetizers. This one is Seared Tuna Bites. That's wasabi on the left and creamy sesame sauce on the upper right. I tasted the wasabi and passed it by. The sesame sauce was good and I licked the little cup clean. Oh, and the tuna was excellent. Nice and pink on the inside with a unidentifiable crust on the outside. And, I didn't have to make two trips to get it.
This is my second appetizer. It is Crawfish and Alligator Cheesecake. It's made with cheese and has a very cheesy taste, but it was nothing like the dessert called cheesecake. It was shaped like a piece of cheesecake, but that's about all it had in common with cheesecake. It was savory, not sweet. The mix of flavors made it difficult to distinguish one flavor from the other. I bit into one large piece of meat that I mistakenly identified as shrimp. It was not shrimp. There was no shrimp in the dish. I believe it may have been crawfish, but I can't be sure. A Louisiana boy should know his crawfish and his alligator, but I didn't. Whatever it was, it was damn good. If you get a chance, order this dish, whether for an appetizer or as an entree.
This is the face Debbie makes after she made a second trip to Full Moon to get the number of oysters that she paid for. Don't ever accept a takeout order without checking what's in the boxes. Failure to do so may result in a face like this one. All it takes is one airhead to screw up an entire order and ruin the reputation of an otherwise good restaurant.
Dinner cost $49 with tax.
THE BEACH BOX EATERY
Yes, it's a stupid name, but our last meal was at The Beach Box Eatery. We both ordered Eggs Benedict with Hollandaise Sauce. I had the really good home fries and Debbie had the grits. The girl really loves grits. I had coffee and she had a V8. She brought her own coffee with her.
Breakfast cost $24 with tax and tip.
THE PLACE
Our backyard outdoor pool. It was nice having the pool to ourselves. All the little kiddies were in school. It was October and the temperature was near 90. Notice the tiny quarter moon just over the condos
The indoor pool was still under repair for a month from last year's hurricane Florence. Hurricanes and glass do not mix.
The reason the repair is taking so long is because no one was actually doing any work.
A poolside condominium sales meeting breaks up. The salesman gave at least a 30 minute speech about the benefits of buying a condo. Debbie says the condos sell for $50,000-$200,000. I'm not sure Debbie knows what she's talking about. I saw one man sign some papers. I guessing he bought into the sales pitch.
Footprints in the sand. clear sky and the blue ocean at Atlantic Beach. The weather was perfect all week. Not a drop of rain in sight, something I've never experienced.
This bird loved french fries.
MOVIES WATCHED
American Beauty - A great film. Kevin Spacey is tired of futilely trying to fuck his wife Annette Benning. He goes after his daughter Thora Birch's teenage friend Mena Suvari. It does not end well for Kevin.
Attack of the Mushroom People - Japanese actors pretend to speak English. Giant fungi attack the poorly dubbed actors.
Code Name: Diamondhead - This was the MST3K version. If you don't know what MST3K means, then never mind, you won't understand. If you do know what MST3K means, then no explanation is necessary.
Master Ninja I - The title says all you need to know about this movie. This martial arts madness stars Demi Moore, Lee Van Cleef and Claude Akins. I swear I'm not making up this cast mix.
Annihilation - M16-packing, ex-marine and biologist Natalie Portman, along with Jennifer Jason Leigh and all-female team of explorers, enters a bizarre ecological quarantine zone on the earth called "The Shimmer". It gets really weird soon afterwards.
Attraction - A Russian made film that is poorly dubbed in English. A spaceships crashes in Moscow. Panic ensues. I couldn't bear to watch anymore, so I changed the channel.
Monster From A Prehistoric Planet - Stars Yoko Yamamoto. This 1967 film from American International features an all Japanese cast that speaks in dubbed English. The pith helmet explorers encounter a primitive native tribe on a remote Pacific island. An earthquake under a volcano unleashes terrible monsters. This movie has it all, including painfully dancing and singing Geisha girls and panicky citizens of Tokyo.
Mutiny in Outer Space - A black and white feature made in 1965. An astronaut contracts a moon fungus. Everyone in space station X-7 gets exposed. Newspaper headlines flash an alert to earth. Earth's military saves the day by exploding a cloud around the orbiting space station.
The Lost Missile - This 1958 black and white film features stock military footage of war planes chasing a mysterious missile headed to New York City. The missile is traveling at 4,000 MPH, five miles above the earth, and burning a path with one million degrees heat. A scientist fights off a leather-jacketed street gang to deliver a plutonium warfare to destroy the "missile from hell".
Invaders from Mars - An unusual color sci-fi flick from 1953. Martians land on earth and burrow under a boy's backyard. The film features mutants and soldiers running frantically through the tunnels, shouting "Colonel Fielding, Colonel Fielding!".
Village of the Giants (MST3K) - From 1965. Opie Taylor (Ron Howard) invents a substance called "goo" that turns teenagers into giants. Beau Bridges leads the gang of rebellious teens who torment the town's grownups. Tommy Kirk, Johnny Crawford (son of the Rifleman) and Tim Rooney (the son of Mickey Rooney) head up a cast who are the offspring of more famous actors. Opie saves the day when he invents a reversing formula. A delicious taste of 1960's teen culture.
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