Black Bean Co. Comes to Columbia

The Black Bean Co. from Charleston has joined the Capital City ranks.  Before I even knew they were coming here, or were already here for that matter, I noticed their Folly Road location as we were headed for Folly Beach a few weeks ago.  And lo and behold, they are here and I got to check them out yesterday with my mom and dad.

If you haven't ever been to a Black Bean Co. or checked out their website, their concept (as I saw on the back of aT-shirt) is "Diet Food is Out, Energy Food is in."  The menu consists of breakfast and lunch offerings, mainly in the form of wraps and salads featuring local and/or organic and natural foods. You choose your protein to add to their creative and vast assortment of choices.  And, that's what really hit me today.  There are times that when lunch rolls around I just think about having some kind of a good sandwich.  But if you really think about it, there aren't many places anymore that offer any sandwiches of any interest. It's all the same:  turkey with some bacon, buffalo chicken, the same-ol-same-ol chicken salad, turkey with blah, blah, blah.  You won't have that problem at the Black Bean Co.

I ordered one of the "Pure Energy Wraps" entitled the Black and Blue. It is a gigantic wrap of white meat chicken, blue cheese, avocado, mixed greens, black beans, rice and the best condiment: fig balsamic vinaigrette.  All of the components were wonderful but that vinaigrette is fantastic and just ties it all together.  I do wish the avocado were a bit more plentiful however.

The Black and Blue

The Fig Balsamic Vinaigrette rock this wrap!

 My mom ordered the Thanksgiving Joy.  As many of you know from this post, my mom is the Thanksgiving turkey & dressing-a-holic to end all holics. This one is packed full of turkey, cranberry, sprouts, mixed greens and fresh mozz.  Dad opted for the Beach Burrito.  This wrap consists of chicken, mango salsa, mixed greens, black beans, rice, sprouts and guacamole.  Both mom and dad liked their choices very much. However, once my dad got a couple bites into the 2nd half of his wrap, the ingredients dwindled down to nothing but salsa, greens and rice.  Lots and lots of rice.  Mom and I encouraged him to take it to the counter and let the staff know, but my dad isn't a wave maker.

The Thanksgiving Joy

The Beach Burrito

 We all ordered our sandwiches as a combo (wrap, side, drink) because we learned from the lady taking our order that it is more economically sensible to order it that way, as a sandwich and drink are only a few cents less.  So, it's like getting a free side.  This makes me wonder why not just feature all the wraps with a side and drink for one price?  

Potato salad is kind of like pizza...there are 5.17M+ ways to make it.  The salad at Black Bean is a pretty classic preparation with hard boiled egg, chopped red onion and chopped celery.  I really thought my mom would reject it because she's not a raw onion fan at all.  But, she ate all of hers without complaint, so that says something.  I loved the flavor, but I'm not a hard boiled egg fan which means I'm constantly teasing through mine looking for the egg slivers.  Plus, you guys know how I feel about celery, right?  I forced myself to just plow through the celery, but I truly think celery is the vegetable from hell. Somehow someone managed to convince the rest of the population that EVERYBODY just loves that foul stalk of ickiness. Not so much.

So, here's the deal.  I really like this place. The choices (choose your protein) and all the fresh veggies are more than abundant.  The combinations they've come up with make for a vastly interesting array of sandwich and salad choices.  And, they have a kids menu that makes me smile.  One thing I'd offer to the management, if they wanted my opinion, is to offer the wrap in a half size.  They are enormous.  I  couldn't even think about eating my whole wrap.  

Yea!  No styrofoam!

I do love the fact the the Black Bean Co. is using paper to-go boxes, but consider this.  If I could just order a half-size wrap, no to-go container of any sort is necessary.  Just sayin'...

M*Fresh...mmmmm

Have you guys heard about this place?  It's the newest offering to Columbia from Miyo's Queen Michelle.  I just learned about it today from my mom.  As I was choking down a "juice" I bought from a raw food joint, at first the idea going to a "fresh" restaurant wasn't sitting well with me.  Don't misunderstand me.  I like healthy. I like fresh.  I like weird.  I like flavor.  But I don't like a bowl full of raw vegetables dried, pureed, dehydrated and otherwise manipulated into masquerading as chili or spaghetti or steak.

But, that all said, I accompanied my mom and dad to M Fresh for lunch.  So glad I did.  So glad my preconceived notions subsided (I think that juice was messing with me!).  The restaurant is right around the corner from M Cafe, one of my faves.  I mean, don't even get me going on the soy salad dressing and the sizzling flank steak.  M Fresh is small, and totally hip in true Miyo's style.  We chose to sit outside so we had a great vantage point for people-watching.  Thankfully, today's weather was un-June-like and very pleasant to be outside.

The newest in the Miyo's family of restaurants

 So, on with it!  M Fresh offers teas, juices, smoothies, salads, wraps and sandwiches Monday thru Friday.  Too bad they aren't there on Sundays (you know, they are surrounded by churches.  Everybody knows people are starving after church.) My dad ordered the "fantastic flounder" sandwich with tree ear mushroom salad. 

Okay, tree ears are weird.  Even if it's your favorite food, you have to admit that!

Dad was intrigued to see what gingered flounder and avocado would taste like together.  He reported that it was good and he was really enjoying it.  The salad took a little adjustment.  Tree ears look just like those bizarre, wet, floppy, translucent fungi that pop out of wood after a lot of rain.  My dad is a big mushroom fan, but the appearance of these took him a bit aback.  However, once he forked up a bite, he was very happy with the flavor.  

Now, mom opted for the Thai beef wrap.  I tasted hers and it was really awesome.  That may be what I order next time. 

That just looks pretty, doesn't it?

This is a huge wrap of wonderfully flavored steak with tons of spinach and other veggies all snuggled up in their tortilla sleeping bag.  Mom ordered the Asian slaw as her side.  (It's not listed on the menu as an available side, but you can get it.)


I chose the Sweet & Sour shrimp salad.  It was a beautiful salad and I polished off the whole thing!  It was described a sweet & sour glazed shrimp over salad with poached broccoli, cashews, pineapple, cucumber, tomato and pea pods.  

My big ol' shrimp salad

It was indeed all that, but these shrimp weren't glazed with anything.  They were boiled or poached shrimp.  That's fine, they tasted great, but there wasn't anything sweet or sour about them.  I ordered it with the soy-balsamic dressing, which is like the heavenly nectar of Miyo's and M Cafe that EVERYONE in Columbia wishes this lady would bottle and sell to us mere mortals.  The end verdict?  Great salad.  I was very happy with my choice.


Let's back up for a moment.  When we arrived, our friendly waitress very promptly took our drink orders and presented the menus.  As she went for our drinks, another pleasant young lady brought an appetizer plate to our table.  Gratis.  Very nice touch, M Fresh!  It consisted of cold green beans marinated in a bit of roasted garlic and brown sugar.  

Marinated green beans and delightful slaw as amuse-bouche

Also, a serving of the Asian slaw, which is a little spicy, studded with walnuts and simply fantastic.  Bringing a little plate like this to your customers while they wait is A HUGE, FANTASTIC DETAIL that restaurants as a whole should note.  However, one disappointment. 


Thanks to the green crazy juice and the 400 gallons of water I'd consumed this morning, I went inside to seek out the powder room.  As I passed through the dining room, I noticed this huge specials board on the wall.  I saw delicious words like "shrimp over arugula" and "pork tenderloin."  We'd already ordered and none of this had come up.  That's right, our waitress had forgotten to tell us there were specials.  Not that any of us were disappointed with our meals, but it's always important to at least know of the existence of specials and then to have them as an option.  I did learn later that our waitress has only been working in this restaurant for about 2 weeks, and the restaurant itself is relatively new. So, I'm going to let this slide.  My salad was awesome and I'll happily return to M Fresh. 

Traveling: food nirvana or food wasteland?

Cosmo Kramer

I love to travel.  Well, to be exact, I love being somewhere else. The actual traveling, the getting-there, I could do without.  On planes, I can never sleep and I always get what Kramer refers to as "the Jimmy Legs" because my legs are too short to reach the floor comfortably. In a car, I'm a little better as long as I'm the driver.  On a bus? Well, I haven't actually been on a bus for an extended period since I was a kid riding up to Spartanburg on Trailways.  Until now.