Hey everyone hope you're having an amazing day! It's Mark Wiens I'm in Charleston South Carolina And today we are gonna go on a food tour focusing on galagichi and soul food. Now the galagichi are a group of people especially along the coast of the Carolinas that have the best preserved especially West African culture and so they've preserved a lot of their traditions and music and Heritage and food. We're going to be eating some amazing home-cooked food. Today we're gonna have some okra, some stews, some fried chicken, let's try that pigtail.

mmm oh oh, we're gonna eat a lot of rice and then garlic crabs. It's gonna be a day of eating delicious food and I'm gonna share it all with you in this video right now here we are to begin this food tour and this is one of the top single restaurants I was most looking forward to in all of Charleston it's called Bertha's kitchen they specialize have been cooking galagichi plus a mix of soul food just good quality home cooking and they've received a James Beard award which is incredible and a huge testimony and statement to their preservation of quality. Again, a true honor to be here! I Love the iconic turquoise and purple window shutters. You can smell the aroma of fried chicken in the air.

It's going to be so good. We're going to go order and we're going to begin this food tour. Oh man! I Love it! Already stepped into Berthas and you really feel like you're in a home. All the food is prepared up here.

at front. you smell so good you can smell that Rice the different stews I see some pigs feed I see some red rice I see some of the chicken but man it just it looks incredible. It smells incredible foreign. Let's do the reveal the first one.

Uh well let's open it up and see exactly. Oh man that is a hearty meal. Cornbread on the top and then oh no yes it's the turkey wing. Oh look at all that spice and those onions and that pepper on top with brown rice with cabbage with yams in with cornbread on the side.

Oh man the turkey wing takes up the entire the entire tray. Look at this. it's like a V the size of your face. Oh it's beautiful.

Okay next box is the okay, let's just let's just see. Oh Fried Chicken okay we got Fried Chicken Oh this is the one Okay, this is the one with the okra Stew One of the things I was most looking forward to eating when I was here. Got white rice, okra stew, fried chicken, mac and cheese. The final box is red rice with fried fish with green beans and corn and this is another plotter that I was really looking forward to.

fried fish, red rice, green beans, corn and every dish is served with cornbread. Let's just start right off with that okra stew smothered into the rice. you see a bit of maybe pork in there. okra.

one of the greatest ingredients. Oh wow, yeah that is. Oh man. the ogre just kind of melts in your mouth.

Has this incredible texture. not too slimy, but just that perfect sauciness that has come out of it. The tomato is giving a vibrancy. It's kind of a little bit of a sweet and sour taste to it, which is marvelous.

It might as well have a bite of the fried chicken after that bite. To follow, look at the fried chicken. look at the crispiness of that the skin the batter has. It's so flaky.

Mmm oh wow. the juiciness, the flavor all the way to the Bone really crispy batter. and each one of those batteries. They're just kind of flakes like corn flakes that just fall off as you take a bite.

So juicy, so crispy, and there's a good seasoning in that batter to a little bit of pepper. I believe I'm gonna put a little bit of that crispiness onto the with that skin. onto the The Rice under that okra. you take one more bite before we proceed.

Let's try the macaroni and cheese. creamy. it's actually not too overly cheesy. Soft macaroni, great creaminess.

We got the red rice here which is cooked down rice cooked down with tomato and I'm not sure maybe some onions and celery? I'm not totally sure everything in here, but it's very fragrant. It's very fluffy. You see each individual grain of rice and then served with fried fish. I'm going to change that with some of the fried chicken.

Wow and that's the combination fried fish with the red rice. That burst of flavor from the tomato has this amazing, so aromatic, so fluffy. I Love the texture of that rice. I'm gonna scoop some of this corn over to the rice, mix in.

then you've got the extra sweetness of the Corn Then definitely taste it with some of the fried fish. oh yeah, which is crispy which flakes apart in your mouth complements your entire everything. Actually it's a delicious meal. and then some green beans with this as well.

Okay now let's move on to that massive turkey wing. I Love how you can see all of that. the rub, the spices, the pepper which is all just embedded into the skin gonna be so much meat on here are going to be so much flavor and you can see the thickness of that skin as well. Whoa.

oh wow. that even surprised me I Didn't know it was going to be that tender because it's like muscular and the skin is so thick you think it's going to be like well in my head I thought it was going to be a little more chewy. That is not the case I Can assure you. Pictures Wow.

melts apart, you sink your tooth in and that meat just like completely bites off. Oh man, the flavor of the chili, the pepper, the onions in there. while that's tasty. and if you come over here you have less skin and just that meat.

Check this out and the meat. just look at that. It just completely is ultra. Ultra Tender and so much of that skin oil fat has just probably seeped into the center of that that.

Wing to make all the meat so juicy, so flavorful, so deliciously peppery. Okay, I'm gonna set that Wing down and move into the the brown rice. Not sure sure exactly what it's seasoned with, but it does feel a little bit sticky and really kind of like has a meaty taste to it. Okay, we've got the cabbage.

mmm stewed down to the point where it melts in your mouth. definitely. Um, all the sweetness, the texture, so soft, melt in your mouth. I Love how there's no like stringy strands in it, it's just so tender and dissolving.

Everything else is salty, the spice and the saltiness of the turkey wing. The sweetness of those yams is a nice contrast. And then then lastly, every plate they serve you a nice slice of cornbread. See the thickness of that, the heartiness of that.

mmm oh that is a real deal. cornbread. So crumbly, so much texture. even if as you hold it, you can just feel it kind of crumbling apart.

Kind of like heavy, but actually light and fluffy more at the same time. Next up on this food tour we are going to Hannibal's which is known really for preserving Gullah Food: It's another cool restaurant. It's within the neighborhood. They date back to 1985 but I know the their family recipes are probably from way before that.

they I hope they have some dishes like crab rice, some of the different stews, maybe some neck bones. We're gonna see what they have for the day. We're gonna order a bunch of food here and I'm looking forward to this meal. Such a cool restaurant again.

Extremely friendly service. They have some amazing artwork and Graphics up on the walls but the indoor section is not open and they're doing quite a bit of renovations right now too. And then they do have some picnic tables outside. All right.

Go! Can't even remember all that we ordered. Let's find out. Oh yeah, that's the crab rice. Oh wonderful.

That's one of the main dishes I was most looking forward to trying here. Looks like it's sauteed with onions and peppers. De-shelled crab. Oh yeah and immediately an aroma poof of you can see like almost caramelized crab just erupted out of that styrofoam container that looks and smells delicious.

Oh yes okay here we go got fried shark, collard greens and then finally in this box that weighs that is heavy. This one is another dish that I was most looking forward to. This one is should be the lima beans. Oh yes, Lima beans with necks I Think there's some turkey or chicken necks and pig feet possibly in here all over rice.

Oh man, that looks like the real deal. Okay, and so it's not actually fried rice, it's steamed rice on the bottom. or it's boiled rice on the bottom. and then the crab is fried as a topping.

But look at that that looks beautiful and this is like real deal gulligichi. Coastal Cuisine Um oh wow. that's as good as as it smells. The sweetness, the stringiness of that crab.

oh that just focuses on the crab. There's no tomatoes in it. it's just onions and maybe garlic and peppers. but well, that's perfect over rice as well.

Oh yeah. Next one. This one is another one of their staple dishes. Fried Shark: Oh yeah.

Delicious. Firm. meaty. You see that big bone in the center there.

Battered, flowered, deep fried, really good collard greens. Looks like it's cooked down with some pork. Oh Yes please. um oh I Like the collard greens are not too salty.

amazing green flavor, that hint of bitterness from the natural collards, the softness being boiled down on them and you can tell like all of these are just like family home cooking. You can taste, you can taste it. So these are lima beans or butter beans with I Believe this is the pigtail with this is a totally different color. almost looks like some rib meat.

Some different types of meats in here. There might be some neck bones in here too, but actually mostly I believe this is Tails there's rice on the bottom. Man this is a hearty. you can tell this is going to be filling and delicious.

Oh yeah the smokiness of those meats actually. I think the Browner meat might be smoked that's giving us some flavor. Then that pig kale love the gelatinous. the skin which have been cooked down for so long was just like tender and melting in your mouth.

and then I love Lima beans are just so good. so soft, they're just kind of almost melt into the to create a sauce at the same time and it goes perfectly with rice. Let's try that pigtail. Mmm oh it's so gooey and so tender.

So Soft the skin melting into the fat. the flavor. oh it's delicious. Set it down.

we want to try some of those other that other meat with the bones in it which looks like smoked ribs almost. Um oh wow yeah that smoky. oh man and that flavor is almost in a way like sausage. What flavor? when you cook it down with something, reach down, scoop down for some more of that.

those beans. the rice. Seriously good dish. Again, this is like strict comfort really.

Hardy home cooking, take off bits of skin you eat. There's pieces of meat mixed in here. You get some of the Smoky ribs at the same time. Dig into the rice.

the butter beans and they're also not named butter beans for without a reason too. They really are buttery. Um, and I Couldn't be happier here in Charleston Great food in the neighborhood. Hannibals is an absolute must.

Another excellent restaurant. Great food. Highly recommended. We've got one more place to go to on this food tour today and it's a little ways outside of town.

They're known for seafood. It's actually a seafood market and they are known for their garlic crabs. That's exactly what we're going to order. Welcome to Ravenel Fresh Seafood And I believe this little town right here is called Ravenel Cool place, right on the side of the road and again, it's an entire seafood market.

But really, you come here for the famous home of the garlic crabs. So the menu is all written on the front plus some of the daily specials. Everything is written there. you choose what you want.

Almost everybody gets the garlic crabs here. That's one of their most famous things. but then we also saw that they have a beautiful basket of clams. They have some fish.

They have a huge variety of seafood. I Really love the artwork, the murals on the walls. Fishing Seafood boats Really cool and there's all places Ravenel Fresh seafood fried boiled. They have a great selection of seafood.

So many things on the menu that I wanted to try. You've got to see this creation it is. Are you ready? You ready for it? It's a mountain of crabs and butter and creamy looking sauce. Wow! And then lastly got one plate of there's okra should be the fried flounder.

Yeah, fried flounder red rice. Oh man, that smells really really good before digging into this mountain of garlic crabs. I Just want to say a big shout out to BJ Dennis What's up BJ Dennis This is where I got the recommendation for Ravenel Seafood From he's uh, Galagichi Chef He does pop-ups, He does events. He's been featured in so many videos and documentaries about Galagichi Cuisine and culture.

He's doing an amazing job to bring an awareness of Galagichi culture and history through food onto the Mountain of Garlic crabs. And one of the things that I'm I was surprised with is that they're served cold. This is the way they're served. They're actually cold.

It looks, it looks hot. When you look at it, it looks like melted butter and hot. But it's actually served cold. Oh man.

I Don't even know exactly where to begin but I think I Want to start right in the center where there's the most concentrated amount of sauce and butter and everything. Oh man, you smell amazing. It's about time to get your fingers really dirty. break these guys apart.

Oh all the meat in there, all the the juiciness of that like butter that's cold but starting to starting to melt onto and just seep into the crab. Okay, here we go. First taste of the garlic crabs. Oh that's delicious.

All the garlickiness I think that is butter but it's almost like a whipped butter. It's so foamy, so much flavor. there's just a Sprinkle of like a parsley on there and a little bit of chili powder. We're gonna have a lot of cracking and sucking to do on these crabs.

You can even just break them apart and usually get all the meat out of them. Don't even try to keep your fingers clean I mean a few cracks and pulling them apart and you'll just be your entire. Your entire hand will just be coated in the beautiful garlic foaminess. Oh wow, yeah, never had a quite a garlic sauce like this and it's incredible.

I do like how it's served cold even though that's not what I was imagining. It's refreshing, it's cooling, goes great on a sunny afternoon like this. Okay, let's move on to the claw section. gum and probably just crack this with my teeth.

There we go. the butter splatter. Okay, here we go here we go. that claw that Crab Claw section Really good crab.

really sweet, really fresh, really stringy. I've had a lot of different crabs but never quite one like this. I Love the love the garlickiness of it I'm gonna proceed onwards to that red rice. Love the red rice.

All the red dress is awesome. Has an amazing stickiness to it. Tomato covering every morsel and the green peppers in there. Got some fried okra that's awesome.

Love okra in every form, shape, crispiness or stew. Okay and then we've also got the the flounder. Two pieces of fried flounder here. Um oh wow, that's crispy.

That is a really soft fish. The Flounder But yeah, this plate is fantastic. But really, the Highlight here? that standout dish are those crabs. That's what they're known for.

That really is what you come to eat here. And I again, I'm going to emphasize the fact that don't even try to keep your fingers clean, just go in. Dig in. Uh, get some wet wipes handy.

But it's totally totally worth it. Utterly worth it. You might even get some butter in the eye and butter up the nose. and that's where they do.

Um, oh yeah. So good. So stringy, so nicely garlicky. Only perfect.

Oh, that's the bite. Re-dip in that sauce. It's amazing how versatile that sauce is. It doesn't melt, it doesn't seem to melt.

What a bite! What some of the flounder red rice. There's even sausage in here too. I'll just go ahead and use that crab leg to scoop up that red rice is awesome. Fingers Hands that look like this means it was successful.

So it is good to have some thank you to my wife for having some baby wipes Every place that we ate today. What I can tell you is that it's like home cooking dishes that really have a home-cooked flavor to them that come from the soul. I Will have all of the restaurants that we ate at in the description box below and I would highly recommend all of them when you come to. Charleston Really incredible food from Bertha's what a restaurant it's so good to Hannibals to here at Ravenel Seafood Three incredible places.

Don't miss them when you're in! Charleston Big thank you for watching this video. Please remember, give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Leave a comment below I'd love to hear from you. Also, make sure you subscribe for lots more food and travel videos.

Thanks again for watching goodbye from Charleston South Carolina and I will see you on the next video. Foreign.