Yemassee Shrimp Festival Extraordinaire

The 22nd Annual Shrimp Festival lured us to Yemassee this weekend, a small South Carolina Lowcountry town built by early families of shrimpers and the railroad that came through after the Civil War.

We loved it!

 

First stop: a vintage Air Stream trailer turned into the Silver Bullet Cafe with "shrimps," shrimp fried rice, fish nuggets, tilapia, whiting, and many other temptations on the menu.

 

 

 

 

 

The cafe seating was taken ...

but that was okay. We always travel prepared with all we need for a tailgate picnic.

 

We had barbecued ribs, shrimp 'n grits, and barbecue hash which is nothing like hash as I know it (that is, leftover potatoes and roast beef chopped up with some onions and fried together). This was spicy barbecue sauce, pork, corn and other vegetables made into soup. Very tasty.

 

Dessert came from this vehicle, once a utility trailer, now a homemade vehicle for ice cream and slushies sales.

Behind it you can see a hay wagon made into another food truck. A big vat was boiling onboard to cook crabs and they were served by the two men from a big cooler.

Other families set up hot dog stands, popcorn tables, and pig roasters right along the highway. There were obviously no health inspectors or safety inspectors, no vendor permits required, just home cooking.

The hottest items at the shrimp festival were golf carts being rented out for rides from someone's front yard. The carts were loaded up with families and teenagers driving all the folks they could hold all over town with great exuberance, laughter, and noise.

We didn't rent a golf cart and here's what we didn't eat. (Although now I kind of wish we had!)

There's always next year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were a few small rides, a big gospel concert, people selling homegrown apples and a few crafts, and the band was setting up for a street dance. That bright light you see above the Yemassee water tower? That's the moon.

 

Posted with Blogsy