Hey everyone, hope y’all had a great Thanksgiving! We enjoyed spending some time with extended family in Wilmington playing games and eating great food. We also got to do a quick getaway in Asheville, NC, which is known for its food and breweries! We were there for less than 48 hours, but I was excited to experience a town with so many different great places to eat so I booked a food tour as our main activity. We did a classic tour with a company called Eating Asheville and had such a great time I wanted to share all the places we went on the tour, plus a few extra we found along the way!

The Tour Stops

Isa’s Bistro
We started off at Isa’s, a french bistro. For drinks, we had a pineapple mimosa, and our dish was a smoked salmon dip with micro basil and a lavash cracker. The dip was amazing, and the chef explained that the salmon was the mout southern salmon in the world, which makes them have extra fatty bellies that they smoke for the dip.

Addissae
I was excited to try this Ethiopian place because Matt did a medical missions trip to Ethiopia and I had heard a lot about the interesting food! We had angera bread, which is thin like crepes and tastes sort of like sourdough bread. We used the bread to eat a variety of foods like a red lentil mix, yellow split peas, and beets with carrots. We also had some amazing Ethiopian coffee!

Blue Dream Curry House
I’m not a huge curry fan, but I loved what we had at this curry house! We started with a sweetened hibiscus tea, then tried masala curry with a tomato cream base with potatoes and green beans, and I got to eat some of Matt’s since he’s not a huge lover of Indian food. I didn’t even get a picture of this one because it looked so good!

Mountain Madre
Our fourth stop was a Mexican kitchen and agave bar, so of course we sampled some mini margaritas that were delicious! Our main dish was chicken tacos, but they were snazzed up with BBQ crema and fried shallots – so yummy!

Aux Bar
I had never really heard of Cheerwine before coming over to the east coast, but apparently it’s a big deal over here. Aux bar added it to a winter sangria which was really unique, but it was nothing compared to the complex dish they served us! The base was rice porridge topped with pork, pickled zucchini, au jus sauce and peanuts. I sadly didn’t get a picture of this one either!

Asheville Chocolate
Last but not least, dessert! We tried a milk chocolate salted caramel and stracciatella and chocolate gelato, then bought a few truffles since what we had was so delicious! My favorite was an orange cardamom truffle.

Our Finds

We also tried a few other places during our time in Asheville, all of which were amazing! It seems like you really can’t go wrong with the food.

White Duck Taco Shop
When researching places to eat in Asheville, White Duck Taco came up over and over, so we made it our first stop. They had so many unique taco combinations! I got the roasted duck with mole and a fish taco, and Matt got the BBQ pork and Bangkok shrimp. I tried everything, but my favorite was definitely the mole duck! We also split the chip and salsa trio which had a really great roasted salsa.

The Hop
I can’t go on vacation and not find the best ice cream place, and The Hop proved to be it for Asheville! Matt of course got vanilla but I was adventurous and tried Aztec chocolate which was so spicy but delicious!

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Homegrown
We went here for breakfast and I got the lemon blueberry french toast casserole with mascarpone cream and Matt got an egg, bacon, and cheese biscuit. The texture of the french toast casserole was similar to a loaf of banana bread which was kind of different, but everything was very fresh.

Chai Pani
I don’t get to eat Indian food very often because we don’t have many options where we area (also a certain someone doesn’t like it). I saw that Chai Pani had a lot of high ratings on Yelp so I had to take advantage of it! I tried the sev potato dahi puri, which was puffed flour crisps stuffed with potatoes, onions, and cilantro with crunchy chickpea noodles and sweet yogurt and tamarind chutney. It. was. heaven. Definitely one of the best things I ate in Asheville!

Red Ginger
We popped into Red Ginger at the recommendation of our Air Bnb host after we saw Knives Out (which was a great movie). We ordered chicken lo mein and pork dumplings shanghai style which were so amazing and the perfect late night snack after our afternoon food tour!

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OWL Bakery
Before we headed back home we found this bakery and I’m so glad we did because I had been craving some french pastries! I got a cardamom vanilla latte, a pear and fennel cream danish (YUM), and a financier with orange cardamom and pepper. Everything was so delicious! So much butter and sugar and flaky goodness.

Are you hungry now? I know I am after doing that recap! If you’re visiting the east coat any time soon, I would highly recommend making a stop in Asheville and trying out the amazing food.