Charleston, Charleston, South Caroliiiiina

So, I went to this big, huge, monster of a southern wedding this past weekend. It was these two UVA sorority/fraternity grads who were getting married. My parents are besties with the Groom's parents so we grew up together. I would no associated with this crowd under any other circumstances, and didn't really associate much while I was down there anyway.
But to get back to the point of this blog... brunch.
Both Saturday and Sunday morning, my family and I decided to dine in the hotel restaurant. In general, this is not always the best idea unless the hotel is known for having a spectacular restaurant associated with it. This is especially the case in Charleston, a city packed full of cute independent joints, the hotels see no reason to offer any competition. However, I was severely hungover both mornings. As such, the prospect of leaving the hotel to stand outside in the bright, humid, heat, of one of these cute independent joints while waiting for a table, was not appealing. As such the bid to eat downstairs met little resistance from me.
Mistako numero uno: Buffets are not a good idea for brunch. The food has most likely been sitting out for a while, and is therefore pretty gross. While breakfast buffets probably offer you the widest selection of choices, your giving up quality for quantity, and really how much can you eat in the morning? Ewe, and think about those eggs. They have been sitting in that crock pot so long they can no longer be described as scrambled.
However, In my bleary eyed state, I panicked. I didn't see anything on the menu appealing to me. Mostly, cause I could barely see the menu at all. And i ordered the buffet.
Mistako Numero Dos: Upon sidling up to the buffet, I spy with my little eye smoked salmon. As I have noted in the past, one should never ever ever order seafood at hungover brunch- it is a bad idea. However, I have also informed you loyal readers of my tri-yearly mistake of inevitably doing so. This was my breakdown. I loaded up my plate with a bagel, cream cheese, some fruit and smoked salmon. Why, oh why Taylor do you ignore your own rules. You know what the outcome will be, yet you persist. grrrr.
So I sit down next to my parents who have ordered, no joke, "The Plantation Breakfast." Which is some funky ham, two eggs over easy, blood eye gravy and grits. I had not heard of blood eye gravy so I gave it a try, salty and good, and went oh so well with the grits. My mom explained to me that the name comes from when you cut a bone in half it looks like a red eye in the middle.
Anyway, as you can imagine, the salmon didn't sit too well and i ended up eating all my dad's grits and red eye gravy, much to his chagrin.
The sad thing is I learned my lesson about the salmon for the next day, but not the buffet. Again I panicked and ordered the buffet. Even though I wanted the Plantation, I felt ashamed ordering it, and went of the easy way out.