On our sixth day, which was our last full day of vacation, we drove over to Jamestown Settlement and Historic Jamestowne to get our history on.  We had been advised by a number of people to save our appetites for Historic Jamestowne because of the great café there.  Much to my surprise, the café at the Dale House is actually run now by Carrot Tree Kitchens which has a location in Williamsburg that was actually on my list of restaurants to visit.  So while we didn’t visit the real thing, we at least got to eat at an offshoot! 

Due to time constraints and weather (we wanted to get back to the suite to play Arkham Horror), we decided to get our food to go. 

The Yorktown Onion
Tortilla wrap filled with hummus, Greek olives, lettuce, cucumbers, red onion and carrots. (sans olives)

I was in a vegetarian mood, so I opted for the hummus wrap.  Nice, garlicky hummus with plenty of veggies.  My kind of sandwich!  It came with a side of Spinach Orzo Pasta Salad and then I ordered Red Bliss Potato Salad with Dill that Art and I shared.  The pasta salad was light and refreshing and the potato salad was some of the better I’ve had. 

For dinner on our fifth day, I found a lovely little Italian place called Giuseppe’s.  Italian is one of those cuisines I’m really nervous about when it comes to restaurants.  So many places serve nothing but heavy, cheese covered pasta dishes and those aren’t really my preference.  Especially on a day that I’ve already eaten out for a midday meal!  Art loves Italian food, though, so we decided to give Giuseppe’s a try.  I’m glad we did! 

Caesar Salad
Crisp romaine with our original dressing.

I started off my meal with a wonderful Caesar salad.  The dressing was amazing, nicely peppery and garlicky.  It came with two anchovy fillets on the top which was stellar. 

On our fifth day in Williamsburg, we decided to do something slightly different for lunch.  We stopped by The Cheese Shop, which is owned by the same folks who own the previously visited Fat Canary, and got a cheese plate to go with our sandwiches. 

The woman who set up our cheese plate was pretty amazing.  She asked about our likes and dislikes and then asked if we trusted her.  We told her “we pretty much like everything except blue cheese” and she ran with that to set up a great selection.  It came on a thin bamboo plate with a bamboo knife, a small container of honey, and some dried fruit.  We also got some plain crackers and bread ends as well as two different types of salami. 

Thankfully our cheesemonger wrote down the names, and descriptions, of the cheeses, so I’m able to share them with you here. 

Robiola – sheep and cow soft-ripened cheese from Italy.  This was lovely, rich, and creamy.  I think it was my favorite of the cheeses. 

Bucheron – aged goat cheese from France.  This was a very dry cheese that went quite well with the honey and crackers.  It was probably my least favorite of the three but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it since I loved all of them! 

Bellavitano – Wisconsin cheese made in Italian style with pepper.  This was another lovely creamy cheese and my second favorite of the three.  The pepper added a nice touch! 

We also each got sandwiches (we basically grazed for a few hours while playing board games) and I won the sandwich battle this time.  Art got the Combo which had turkey and Virginia ham.  I got the Prosciutto on Focaccia with provolone and roasted tomatoes. 

The only downside of The Cheese Shop was that the people making sandwiches were unable to tell me what was in the famous “house dressing” so I had to skip it just in case there was HFCS lurking.  Otherwise, this was an awesome food experience and I’m now excited to visit the cheese shop (Cheesetique) located near one of the movie theaters we frequent.  I’ll give them my list of cheeses I’ve tried and keep track so I only get new cheeses! 

(I was also sad that the cheesemonger gave me a blank stare when we asked about “charcuterie.”  If a word is on the website, you’d think that the employees would know what it was!  But this is a very minor nitpick.)

Total price: $61.66

The Cheese Shop
410 W Duke of Gloucester St
Williamsburg VA

Phone: 757.220.0298

Indian food is another cuisine that we’re lacking in Southern Maryland so it’s always nice to get it when we’re traveling.  I can make a number of dishes at home, but some things I just haven’t had the nerve to tackle yet.  With that in mind, I found Nawab Indian in Williamsburg. 

The meal started out with spicy papadum and mint chutney.  Papadum are definitely something I can’t make at home so I love having them in restaurants.