Chapter 4 Columbia.. On the road again! Southern belly

Bacon Seed Beauty #4…On the road again! October 15, 2015. So it’s always hard to choose… which BBQ place to try, and what to do before and after? And it needs to be a day trip... both Linda and my schedules make it hard, so far, to do an overnight.. But soon, very soon! Linda is a good researcher ad looked up exhibits in Columbia museums.  Both of us had been to the Columbia Museum of Art for several of their shows (here we go with those billboards again… That’s how I knew about the Art Museum.), but we hadn’t been to the USC museum. Seems there was a display of the native tribes of SC as well as other southern states.  It just so happens, that part of Linda’s ancestry is Native American. I was ‘jonesin to see something at the relatively new SC State Planetarium…which is in the SC State Museum. So of course we thought we could do it all! Now, we leave about 10-11am on these trips, so lunch is often 1^st on the agenda, but this time, with so many things on the schedule, our well laid plan was to do the museum, lunch, planetarium, then other shopping! Then we look on the Trail map… the actual search for a place to for BBQ. So many listed for Columbia area, but many are chain places, that both of us agreed we could do without.  Then I see Southern Belly BBQ…just the name looks great, but wait! Heritage pigs and Organic food, What??? Kind of an oxymoron for BBQ. Definitely our choice. Southern Belly is on Rosewood drive. Not sure if it’s near any part of USC, but it’s well attended. We knew we were in the right place when we saw the big cooker right on the outside of the place. Thank God for GPS. Nice atmosphere and the weather cooperated, so we sat outside on the porch area. Inside is fine too, but dark, and sunlight was calling. They have an extensive list of sandwiches. No platters, buffet or the like, all sandwiches with fun names, like, The King Kahuna, D’jango and Southern Belly Dipper.  All with assorted mouth-watering toppings, but what we loved and wanted to try were the sauces a list of 7, count them 7, kinds to compliment your pork. So not unlike many folks, we had a sampler of the sauces to accompany our sandwiches. A tidbit to explain a little bit about me…Several years ago, I had made a decision to not eat tortured meat, if I could at all help it. I had done the research about feed lot beef, smelly pig farms, crowded chickens, and the way the factory farms often treat their animals and humans with less than ethical standards. Southern Belly’s philosophy and mine worked well together. Their pork was sublime... flavorful, like meat that has been well taken care of and cooked with care.  We took our time and savored our lunch. Nice atmosphere, nice servers and great food! And we missed the planetarium… just too much for one day.  Why rush…another trip!  But we did make it to Five Points to go to one of my favorite shops, 2 G’s on Saluda Ave. A closeout store for women’s clothing and accessories from cool catalogs, consignment boots, and an assortment of home décor and linens. So, the other trips, I took later in the year with some other friends. To the planetarium and back to the Belly we went … they were impressed as well! And loved the sauces just as much! Next time: Adventures in Myrtle Beach!