What's your N.C. fantasy food tour?

The web site Grub Street has a slide show up this morning with their picks for the 52 best places in the U.S. to make a summer food pilgrimage .

It's worth a run-through if you're traveling to another state this summer, although I'll save you the clicks and tell you the Carolinas picks: Gullah Grub on St. Helena Island for South Carolina, Price's Chicken Coop in Charlotte for North Carolina.

Now, while I make no secret of my fondness for Price's, I admit I was a little disappointed. It's not that Price's doesn't deserve it, it's just that so many other places do, too.

One of my food-writer fantasies has always been to put together the ultimate N.C. road food tour (preferably by Greyhound, which feeds into my lingering country singer fantasies). I'd have a mix of restaurants and food places, stores and experiences. I'd have places like the Old Mill of Guilford, Skytop Orchards on a clear early fall morning, Mott's Channel Seafood in Wrightsville Beach and Yoder's Amish Market in Blanch.

Sure, I'd have a barbecue restaurant or two, but no more - barbecue gets as much attention as Price's.

So I'm throwing it open to you: If you were putting together a fantasy food tour of North Carolina, what would you include (Greyhound station not mandatory)?

Carolina morning: Charlie Sheen and Cheerwine

Looking around the Web this morning turns up some interesting views of North Carolina:

First, Salisbury-based Cheerwine has jumped back into the spotlight. The New York Times debates why sales of our favorite cherry soda have suddenly boomed nationally. And Grub Street, the food site for New York magazine, chimes in with its own reason: Sillies, because the New York Times ran a picture of it last year. (Something tells me it takes more than that to actually push sales. But the Times blog also has a link this morning to my story about the Hatcher Crackers. So we'll see what it takes to start an actual trend.)

Meanwhile, on Charlie Sheen Watch, Grub Street also makes a connection to The Old North State by interviewing the owner of the N.C.-based HawaiianShavedIce.com (could I make this stuff up?) about the popularity of the flavor Tiger Blood, a mix of cherry, strawberry and watermelon syrups with a hint of coconut. Sheen, of course, was shown drinking Tiger Blood and waving a machete in one of his many taped rants.

So far, there are no sightings of Sheen with Cheerwine. But if he gets hold of a SunDrop, I think it would be a good idea to duck.

Photo: The Huffington Post