Hotel Food, Savannah Style

Being able to travel for your job is an unbelievable perk: the flight, the hotel and the food, all free. However, it does require that a lot of your meals are more about eating on the go wherever you can fit it in your schedule. For my trip to Savannah, that meant breakfasts at the Hilton DeSoto on East Liberty Street and a lunch at the Westin on Hutchinson Island.

I must confess that Southern food is not my favorite style of cooking. Not a lover of sweet tea and a firm believer that gravy is brown, I just didn't grow up with foods reinforcing the region's take on food.

That being said, food is usually done best when it has a home field advantage. Just like how you wouldn't order Italian in an Irish pub, I see little point in stomping my feet for brown gravy in the South.

Breakfasts at the Hilton ($11 all you can eat and free for those with Hilton Honors Rewards) are perfect for travelers. Way better than what you'd get at a standard continental, the buffet had tons of fresh fruit, lox, capers, cream cheese, brie, muffins, bagels, oatmeal, cereal, french toast, you name it. The servers will even bring you eggs any style, omelets and pancakes if you ask.

Since this is the South though, I opted for biscuits and gravy, grits, bacon, home fries and some fruit to balance it all out.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

The meal varied from day to day depending on how long ago the buffet was refreshed. On day one, my home fries were hard and a bit stale and the biscuits also hard and overcooked. However, on day two they were fluffy and more like what I'd expected. I still maintain that white gravy is a little creepy, but I think I may have been won over by this classic breakfast combo.

The grits were, well, gritty, but I must say that they were way better than any grits I'd ever had before. In college, I'd get them for midnight breakfasts at the student union (like sand thrown in a watery mush) and I've sampled them in Charlottesville, Va. before (like sand creamed into butter). The mixture for these was stiff, but not watery, and the texture actually didn't seem like sand at all (high standards, I know). I didn't flavor them with anything, but perhaps if I did, I would understand this dish way more.

My last on-the-go hotel dish in Savannah was at the Westin's restaurant. Aqua Star. And I must say, this place was a steal (so glad I didn't get the concession stand crap I ate at the conference and went here instead). For only $11, I ordered the most refined meal I'd gotten yet in Savannah.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

I ordered the crab cake sandwich, served on a cheese-infused biscuit with crispy onions, tomato, lettuce and a very mild tartar sauce. Not only did this thing look amazing, it tasted great too. The crab was in that same Savannah style that I've tasted time and again on my trip, and the biscuit was perfectly moist. The onions were a little difficult to taste with all the other flavors that were happening on the plate, but they added to the texture a bit.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

One of my favorite things about this dish though was that skewered through the toothpick holding the sandwich in place was pickled okra. I'd only ever had fried okra before, but I thought it was unbelievably clever to use okra instead of your standard pickle. Just in case you forgot where you were (and how could you with the telltale Savannah trio of crab, biscuits and cheese), the okra was there to remind you. Savannah is even able to put its special touch on what is usually the hotel food battle of the bland.

Now that I'm home, check back for a post later this week on finally making that key lime pie.