Eating out for New Years? Avoid the bacteria. . .

Saw this tasty little gem this morning on the tv.

When I saw the list of items (ketchup, mustard, salt & pepper, menu and sugar) I guessed right away at which was the filthiest. 

The results should come as absolutely no surprise as people are filthy as fuck.  I can’t recall the number of times when I was in the bathroom when a customer didn’t wash his hands.  Maybe health departments around the country should mandate a sign instructing customers to wash their hands too.

A few thoughts on food trucks

Here’s a short article about food trucks by Andrea Wiegl of the News & Observer that’s interesting.

I’m a huge fan of food trucks though I don’t eat from them as often as I should do.  In fact, I’ve been a fan of them since I studied at Oxford University in the autumn of 1996 and was introduced to the kebab vans that would magically appear on the city streets around 9:00, offering up doner kebabs to inebriated students of all nationalities (my favorite van was stationed in front of Queens College on High Street).   I love doner kabobs and I miss them, but that’s a different topic.

Fortunately though I live in Durham where food trucks are allowed to operate.

As the article points out, towns and cities such as Raleigh and Chapel Hill do not permit food trucks to operate (neither do cities such as Washington D.C. and Chicago).  Often the argument goes along the line of “They can’t be regulated as easily” or “They’ll put our restaurants out of business”.  Both arguments are bullshit. 

In Durham where it seems a new food truck emerges onto the scene every few weeks or so, more restaurants have been opening than closing (at least based on empirical evidence).  In the case of OnlyBurger, there is now a brick and mortar restaurant to accompany the original food truck.  And in the case of Pupuseria y Taqueria Orellana, the food truck came second.

What pisses me off is that traditional restaurant owners in some instances have felt the need to lobby the city council to “protect” their business.  Why should regulations be written (or kept in existence) to help business owners who can’t compete or keep up with the times?

No doubt the operating costs of a food truck are lower as well as other overhead costs, but there is always the risk of the truck breaking down or getting involved in an accident.  And food truck owners have done a far better job in employing new media like Facebook in letting their patrons know where they’ll be and when, in addition to what specials they’re running.

And then there’s the symbiotic relationship these food trucks have with other businesses (and even with themselves).  Go to the Durham Farmer’s Market on the weekend and you’ll likely see several food trucks with long lines.  Outside of Fullsteam Brewery in the evenings there are often two or three food trucks peacefully co-existing outside their doors, not to mention the “brunch” served up on Sundays by Farmhands Foods.  And about once a month or so in Durham there’s a food truck roundup, usually on a weekend afternoon, where several of the trucks get together in one location so that folks can sample as many different flavors as they can.

Nobody here is suffering and in fact we’re all better off for having more freedom.  If traditional restaurant owners can’t compete, then they should go out of business rather than manipulating local governments to protect them.  As a consumer I’m not a big fan of having my choices limited.  Sometimes I like a burger or hot dog on the run, other days it’s nice to sit down and be waited on.  What I don’t want is some bureaucrat always deciding what’s best for me.

Worth mentioning

The last three times Erin and I have eaten out we’ve ordered a cheese plate or cheese and charcuterie plate.  Two of those three times the server failed to mention what the cheeses and/or meats were upon delivering the dish to our table.  And one of those times, the chef was sitting at our table with us.  At least he clued us in, but seriously the server couldn’t be bothered to do her job.

This has really become a huge pet peeve of mine.  Generally we’re able to figure it out on our own (or make pretty educated guesses), but we shouldn’t have to do this.  And I don’t mind a little back story when the plate or board is brought to the table, like:  this is Ossau Iraty, a raw sheep’s milk cheese from the Basque region of France.   People generally like to know:  A) what their eating; B) what animal it’s from; and C) where in the world it’s produced. 

One would think that in an occupation where attention to detail earns you a larger wage, you’d take the time, but alas, this is apparently too much.

Scratch Bakery

I have no idea what’s going on with the NY Times, but here’s yet another piece about a Durham establishment, this one being the recently opened Scratch Bakery.

We’ve been a couple of times, mostly for the donut muffins, but this past weekend we also got the pigs in a blanket.  Nate enjoyed both greatly.

I could fast see our Saturday morning ritual consisting of a trip to the Durham Farmer’s Market and then walking the 2 blocks to Scratch for some yummy breakfast items.

I just hope that all these articles from the NY Times doesn’t bring an influx of New Yorkers; I’d really hate to have to move again.

Tramonto leaving Tru; EVOO will now have meaning

Rick Tramonto, dick extraordinaire yet talented chef,  has left Tru according to the Chicago Tribune.  No surprises there, as he hasn’t been there for years because he was up in Wheeling at his Italian restaurant and steakhouse.  Apparently the de facto executive chef for all these years finally got his promotion.  I wonder if he’ll be getting back pay?

Gale Gand is still staying on though, though I’m not sure what influence she has on the restaurant’s operations these days.

In other terribly exciting news, the federal government will begin regulating olive oils come this October.  This is  just what we needed as  I couldn’t figure out the meaning of “cold pressed” on my own because I’m such a fucking idiot.  I hope that buried deep within the regulation is a clause that includes a ban on Rachel Ray saying E-V-O-O.  That would actually be doing something of value to our country.

While they’re at it, how about doing something about the other kind of oil that’s still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, killing everything in sight?  I guess this is easier and the olive oil producers of the world don’t have as much political pull and money as BP.

The best restaurant in the Triangle?

As I wrote about in my previous post, my in-laws were in town this weekend and night we dined at Herons at The Umstead Spa & Hotel in Cary.

Our friend Dean had staged at Herons last fall and written about the experience in a three part post (Part I, Part II, Part III, so I was looking forward to the experience of dining there, to say the least. 

While this area of the country isn’t thought of as a hotbed of culinary activity, we’ve had the pleasure of having had some pretty darn good meals down here.  However none of those meals matched the level of craftsmanship of what we ate two nights ago.

We opted, as always, for the chef’s tasting menu, which included five courses (six if you count the amuse) as well as wine pairings (an additional $30 which is a great bargain).  So a six course meal plus wine pairing runs you $100 plus gratuity and tax per person, a pretty reasonable cost in my eyes.

The amuse bouche was pretty straightforward – a pheasant rillette with a sun-dried strawberry puree and pistachios, garnished with a microgreen.  I wanted more, but that’s the point of the amuse, to whet your appetite and build your anticipation for the meal ahead of you.  It worked.

The second course was nothing mindblowing or necessarily all that creative – it was tuna tartar with avocado puree, iced radish, lemon-soy and kanzuri juice, that had a sesame seed tuile sitting on top.  The only real complaint we had was that the citrus elements and avocado actually over powered the delicate flavor of the tuna, though the tuile added a nice contrast to the sameness of the texture of the avocado and tuna.

Our third course was poached halibut (according to our server poached in olive oil), white asparagus, melted onion, herb puree and crab butter.  The halibut was cooked perfectly, and really my only complaint (a very minor one I have to stress) is that the halibut could have been seasoned a little bit more.  No doubt this is a function of poaching the fish (garnishing with a flaky sea salt would be one solution), and the rest of the dish was seasoned perfectly.  Like I said, I’m nitpicking here.

The fourth course was pheasant confit ravioli with cauliflower puree, brown butter, hazelnuts and truffle broth.  Simple, straightforward and delicious, everyone should get to try this dish once in their life.  The truffle was there but not overpowering and pouring the broth tableside was much appreciated.  My only wish for this dish was that it be bigger – I could have had 10 ravioli and a bowl full of broth, but then that would have been the end of the meal, and that would have sucked.

Course five was 48 hour beef short rib with rosemary polenta, elf mushrooms, baby vegetables and natural jus.  Again, this course was perfect and I could have had more, but admittedly was getting a little full by now.  The short rib was still pink in the middle yet was tender enough to cut with the fork, a product of sous vide cooking done well and not done just for sake of cooking something sous vide.

Dessert was next with a poppy seed cake with huckleberry compote, lemon-poppy seed cream and quark cheese.  This course showed restraint and was the perfect amount to enable us to enjoy it without feeling stuffed.

To conclude we enjoyed some coffee with the mignardises that were brought, all of which were executed perfectly.

In all, each course was executed really well, and I think the meal got better as it progressed.  The food wasn’t overly fussy (I don’t think you could get away with that down here) but demonstrated great craftsmanship and skill.  Not one of the courses was overly complicated (again, you can’t really get away with that too much down here, people like there meat and potatoes) but each packed a lot of flavor.

My only wish is that the tasting menu offered more courses, as when we go out to eat that’s pretty much the sole purpose of us going out and we don’t mind spending 3 or 4 hours eating (this one came in at just shy of 2, and that’s because we lingered towards the end).

Service wise, everything was fine.  Our main server was friendly enough but not overly so, certainly not as stuffy as I’ve had at similar restaurants in the past and didn’t appreciate. 

One major complaint though was that when we arrived there was a table directly behind us that had a child about the same age as Nate.  Sure, the baby was well behaved, but when you spend $100+ for your meal you don’t expect to have to hear it (not to mention I listen to Nate 7 days a week and was looking forward to not hearing baby sounds for just a few hours).  Fortunately the restaurant got noisy enough as the dining room filled up and it wasn’t too much of an issue.  But for about the first half of the meal we had to listen to a 7 month old occasionally squealing.

Here’s hoping Chef Crawford stays for a while, becuase we’re looking forward to going back whenever budget and babysitters allow.

San Diego – Days 4 & 5

Day 4

My plans for Wednesday in San Diego consisted of cooking dinner and watching the U.S. vs Spain Confederations Cup match.

I woke up pretty early, had some breakfast and got to work on dinner while Wimbledon was on the television.  In the hour or so that I worked in the morning, I ensured that our afternoon was essentially free to do whatever we wanted to do.

Once Steve arrived back from a morning of work, we caught the first half of the match before heading over to Ocean Beach during half time, where swung by his office before getting lunch and catching the second half.

We had lunch at South Beach Bar and Grille, a restaurant that claims to be the “home of the world’s best fish taco”.  We both had the shark taco and the wahoo taco and split an order of mozzarella sticks (for some reason I saw these on the menu and became pretty excited).  The fish tacos were excellent and yes, quite possibly the best in the world, though I have to confess that my knowledge and consumption of fish tacos is pretty limited.

Josmer Altidore and Clint Dempsey - the two goalscorers against Spain

While we were there we caught most of the second half of the match, and I was as stunned as anyone when the final whistle blew and the U.S. had beat Spain (the number one ranked team in the world) by a score of 2-0.  Go figure.  Just a week ago I was so dismayed and embarrassed that I didn’t even pack a U.S. jersey with me.  Now the U.S. had kept a clean sheet to beat Spain to get to the final versus Brazil (though we wouldn’t know the opponent until the next day).

After the tasty tacos and a couple of pints of beer we took a stroll on the beach, up to the dog beach and back, before heading back to the car.  We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around Point Loma, checking out Sunset Cliffs and some really expensive houses. 

Steve at Sunset Cliffs on Point Loma

Once we were done sightseeing, we headed back to Hillcrest to the Whole Foods to get some arrowroot – exciting I know, but the stock that I’d doctored up didn’t extract enough collagen from the veal bones and when reduced with the sherry didn’t thicken enough, so I needed something to thicken it.  Given that I’d already reduced the sauce way down in the hopes that it would thicken, making a roux wasn’t an option and I really don’t care mcuh for cornstarch, so I was left with arrowroot, which worked out just fine.

After procuring arrowroot we checked out a record store just around the corner and then headed over to Wit’s End, a pub that Steve had yet to go to despite its proximity to his house.  We entered into what was like an episode of The Office, with maybe 10 or 15 sales people having a meeting. We enjoyed two pints of some tasty draft beer before going back home and cooking.

For dinner that night I made the following:

1. Heirloom tomato salad with a sherry gastrique, goat cheese, toasted pine nuts and microgreens
2. Sea scallops with warm crab, cherry tomato and basil salad with romesco sauce
3. Sweetbreads with sherry/veal jus, pearl onions, asparagus and sugar snap peas
4. Foie gras with cherry/shallot compote, braised frisee and polenta croutons

I’ve made the salad before and it dates back to my time working in Chicago, when my dinner one night became the special the next day:

Heirloom tomato salad with sherry gastrique, toasted pine nuts, goat cheese and microgreens

 The tomatoes are the ones we got at Chino Farms and were really, really good, quite possibly the best tomatoes I’ve ever had.

The scallop dish per se I’ve never made, but it’s origins date back to the same restaurant I was working at in Chicago:  we stuffed whole trout with a crab stuffing and served it with a romesco sauce, so I knew the flavors would work.  The romesco sauce went even better than I thought, with a mild tanginess from the sherry vinegar and just a little hint of spiciness to it that played off the sweetness of the scallops and the saltiness of the crab.  I used this recipe from Jose Andres as a guide, though I didn’t read the recipe before making it and thus had to take a few shortcuts.  (I didn’t take a picture of the dish because the scallops didn’t sear as well as I’d have liked).

The sweetbread dish I know well, which is pretty similar to what we used to have on the menu where I now work, and have made at home before.  Everyone seemed to enjoy this, though by now I was getting pretty damn full.

The foie gras course was also relatively new to me.  I could have made the polenta croutons a little crispier on the outside, but overall I liked it and think everyone else did as well.  Not to mention that Eric cut foie gras “steaks”, so everyone had an ample portion of what we started referring to as “meat butter”:

Seared foie gras (aka meat butter) with cherry/shallot compote, braised frisee and polenta croutons

For dessert we had ice cream and “killer” cookies from Uncle Biffs.  The cookies are really good though it seems as if Uncle Biffs isn’t doing too well, which is a bit of a shame.  Hopefully things turn around soon for them.

After dinner we were stuffed and I quickly fell asleep on the couch while attempting to watch Top Chef Masters.  I still don’t know who won, but I remember being really put off that Cindy Pawlcyn kept pronouncing offal “awful”.  It still really bothers me, now that I think about it.

Day 5

I awoke on my final morning craving true breakfast food, but didn’t know where to go, so I ended up at the Whole Foods at the end of the block buying eggs and breakfast sausage.  I think the guy at the checkout was envious, because it was painfully obvious that this was going to be my breakfast in just a few moments as my hair was still wet from showering.

After a last go at Wii – I got up to professional level in tennis in less than an hour – we headed over to Coronado island once again, where we enjoyed overpriced food and salads (yes, a salad because dinner from the previous night was still sitting pretty heavey) at the Hotel del Coronado.  Afterwards we took another stroll on the beach and up to the dog beach before heading back to the car.

Our next stop turned out to be fairly memorable.  Steve wanted to show me downtown a little bit before I left that night, so we headed to Basic, a bar he apparently used to frequent quite often.  A few things made this place pretty memorable, but the first was probably the most unlikely scenario of Steve getting the bartender’s phone number, though I can’t recall if that was before or after she bought us both a round.

The next memorable thing that happened here was discovering that Michael Jackson had died – and here it is a week and a half later as I type this and he’s still not buried.  The manager walked over to the DJ booth and put on Billy Jean and the fifteen or so of us had a laugh at that one.  My initial comment was something like “the world is now a safer place for Cheeto”.  If you can’t tell I’m not and never was was a fan of the self-proclaimed “king of pop”, whatever the fuck that means.

And the final most interesting thing about this place (aside from the possibility that you could get a pizza topped with mashed potato and meatballs and the fact that Steve knew that it was delicious) is the ceiling fan, which could seriously fuck you up if it were to drop from the ceiling:

The guillotinelike ceiling fan at Basic

After packing my shit up we headed to Point Loma once more to meet up with some folks at the Wine Steals there, which happens to be in old military buildings that have been converted to public use:

View from the Wine Steals in Point Loma

There I met two of Steve’s colleagues (or employees as the case may be) and we had some wine with the two half platters with everything (which included various cheeses, sausages and fruits).  Even though I knew we were going to dinner afterwards I was so hungry I couldn’t resist eating too much and ruining my appetite.

And sure enough, when we got to Roseville’s for dinner, three of us were stuffed.  I’m sure Eric, who didn’t join us at Wine Steals, was thinking to himself “What the fuck?”, but then again maybe he knew.

I would have really wanted to try an appetizer such as the foie gras torchon or the ricotta gnudi , but was all too aware that an appetizer would take me over the top.  So instead we all ordered our mains and I went with the braised pork cheeks with carrot-cardamom tian, crispy parsnip, candied kumquat & citrus vincotto.  What I was able to eat – about half of the dish – was delicious, and I really wanted to try some more stuff but that wasn’t in the cards.  And none of us had dessert, which all looked pretty good as well.

And from Roseville’s I went to the airport and flew home, to where it’s taken me a week and a half and some issues with WordPress to get this all posted.

I’m not sure I could ever live in a place like San Diego, because I’d probably just hang out and enjoy the weather and never get anything done, but it’s a nice place to visit.  And it turns out there are more food options there, despite what various message boards would have you believe.  Maybe the fine dining scene is lacking some, but you can get that in so many places, and I’ve really become disenchanted with it anyway.  I just want some good food on a plate with good company and a glass of beer, and I was able to find that in San Diego.

San Diego – day 3

Day 3

Tuesday morning represented a lot of Wii tennis for me, waiting for Steve to get home from a few hours of work.  I ended up playing so much that I needed to rest my arm the next day.  After playing tennis until I got to pro level I started to prepare the sweetbreads and roasted the veal bones with some mirepoix so I could bulk up some store bought beef stock.

After Steve got back, our plans for the day were pretty simple – go back to Chino Farms to get some produce, and then see where the day took us. 

The only sign at Chino Farms

We arrived at Chino Farms in the late morning – maybe even early afternoon at this point.  The produce they had was amazing – the greenest haricot verts I’ve ever seen in my life, the most colorful tomatoes, etc. 

Me at Chino Farms

We ended up buying cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes and a melon that smelled really good, though we never did eat that while I was there.  The reason we didn’t get more produce is because Steve and Eric belong to a CSA and I wanted to use a lot of that product up for the meal on Wednesday.

It seemed that we’d arrived at just the right time too, because just a few minutes later there was a line full of what appeared to be some pretty impatient rich women.

On our drive back Steve pointed out all the fennel growing on the hillsides, something I’d failed to notice just the day before.  It kind of made me wonder why anyone buys fennel in southern California; why not just sneak around and take it off the hillsides?

We headed to Coronado where we planned on getting some lunch, though we weren’t sure where from.  We parked and walked around a bit before we settled on eating at Candela’s, a Mexican restaurant featuring food in the style of Mexico City versus the Mexican food we’re all familiar with such as taco’s.  We opted to eat outside, where we were seated in the sun.  At first this presented no problem, but since we were seated in a corner that was surrounded by protective glass, the heat from the sun became magnified after a short while and we roasted (despite the fact the temperature never left the low 70′s).

Steve perusing the menu options at Candela's

 

 To start, we both ordered cocktails – I got a mojito and can’t remember what Steve ordered – which were both too sweet.  I guess the bartender went a little crazy with the simple syrup.

The food however was delicious – we split 3 appetizers:  tostadas de tinga de pollo, tacos de pato, and the ceviche of the day which featured snapper.  Both the chicken and the duck were really good, and I’d go back any time to have the duck tacos.  The tostada itself was nice and crunchy and the shredded chicken was well seasoned with chipotle chili.

I think that we could have sat there for another hour or two sipping on drinks, but ultimately the heat got to us so we took off to find Erin a prize, which we found next door in the form of a puzzle.

We bid Coronado farewell for the Whole Foods in Hillcrest to buy everything needed for the next night’s dinner, and then visited Steve’s neighbors, for whom I had brought a bottle of Duke’s mayonnaise.  Apparently they had just run out and were forced into that “other brand” which nearly made them cry, so I was given a hug like I was some sort of hero.  Surprisingly I’ve never had Duke’s.  I’ve heard mixed reviews of it; it seems if you’re from the south you love it, and if not, then you don’t.

So we  sat with the neighbors for a while, discussing video games and some fucked up doll that they had in their living room.  The doll was pretty freaky and I wish I had a picture specifically of the doll they had, but to get a general idea, here you go:

Fucked up, freaky ass doll

Hopefully you enjoy the full size of that as well, because in person it’s even freakier.

After visiting with the neighbors we headed out to dinner at Ono Sushi, where interestingly I had octopus for the first time.  It started off fine, but by the time I stopped chewing my brain, which I had successfully tricked, now was fully aware that it was ordering my jaw to chew on octopus.  Ultimately it wasn’t that unpleasant, and much like snails to me, I won’t go out of my way to eat it again, though I didn’t find it so offensive that I’d never eat it again if it was served (I’d just never order it myself).

We had some other tasty rolls and such, but to me sushi is sushi.  I’ve had it a number of times and can’t really tell what’s great about one place versus the next.  Raw fish to me generally tastes like, well, raw fish, though I can appreciate the craft that goes into making the rolls.

After sushi it was more Wii for the 3 of us, and then Steve and I left to go Wine Steals to meet up with Zach (and his girlfriend), who is a reader of this blog and who is going to culinary school in a few weeks.  We sat outside, each had a couple of glasses of wine and talked about food, cooking, San Diego restaurants, and more importantly, what to expect by quitting your day job and going to culinary school.  Hopefully I didn’t scare you too much – I don’t think I did – and good luck with your career Zach.

Next up was some more Wii (where I kicked Steve’s ass in some tennis) but was embarrassed by Wii Fit, and then bed time.

Days 4 & 5 to follow (they would have been here but this took over an hour to write because WordPress kept dicking me over).

San Diego – Days 1 and 2

Day 1

Upon landing in San Diego around noon on Sunday I was given 3 options – bar food, Mexican, and an option I can’t remember (possibly seafood or sushi).

I opted for bar food which seemed to make everyone happy.  After dropping off my bags at Steve & Eric’s Hillcrest condo we ended up at Hamilton’s Tavern, where I would learn just how bad I am at shuffleboard.  For food we ended up getting the chili cheese chips along with an order each of spicy wings and bbq wings.  Had I noticed the hush puppies on the menu I probably would have added that to the order. 

In addition to the food, we of course were sampling some tasty brewed beverages, but sadly I can’t recall what they were.

After some rounds of shuffleboard (I did show some improvement, most likely due to some strong beer on a pretty empty stomach), we opted to leave and check out Toronado.  Apparently this is the second location for Toronado, the first being in San Francisco.  Hre I had the Blind Pig IPA by Russian River Brewing Company while we sat outside, enjoying the cool breeze and mildly warm, but not too warm, sun.

Eric and Steve at The Tractor Room with empty glasses and a clean table

For dinner on my first night we walked over to The Tractor Room, where we sat outside and enjoyed some pretty tasty beverages and some fine tasting food.  With our first round of cocktails we enjoyed the meat plate as well as the artisan cheese plate.  The sausages on the meat plate were well selected and the portions were decent size, served with a fruit compote which was really delicious (cherry I believe); the cheese we had was local goat cheese and was served with honeycomb and I believe a rhubarb compote with a good amount of bread.

For our main course we split the bbq lamb shank, cornbread and smoked Wisconsin cheddar mac and cheese.  The lamb shank was good, apparently not as tender as it had been in the past for my hosts.  The corn bread was good, but since I live in the south now it’s going to take some really great cornbread to amaze me.

After three cocktails and with full bellies we called it a night and headed home.

Day 2

The next morning I awoke with a pretty crushing headache due in large part to the alcohol combined with a lack of sleep and dehydration.  I took care of this with 3 tylenol tablets and a couple of glasses of water.  We headed up north up to Chino Farms to see what they had, and also so that we could get some produce for a dinner that we were going to have later in the week.  (The previous afternoon Eric had ordered a lobe of foie gras from Hudson Valley for later in the week).

Steve with the Monterey at Pizza Port in Solana Beach

Naturally when we arrived at Chino Farms we discovered that they’re closed on Mondays.  Mildly disappointed we drove over to the coast and had lunch at Pizza Port in Solana Beach where we ordered the Monterey pizza which comes with pepperoni, mushrooms, onions and artichoke hearts, which we each washed down with two different IPA’s brewed on the premises.  The pizza was fucking awesome and we agreed that the beer I ordered was better than the one Steve ended up with.  Stuffed, we headed back south towards San Diego and on a quest to get sweetbreads.

Our first stop was a market called Pancho Villa’s.  Despite their wide offering of offal, they had no sweetbreads and were at a loss to recommend a place to us that might.  We then drove out to El Cajon for Steve to conduct some business, and on our way back I recommended we check Iowa Meats, a place I’d read about on various food forums as having decent products.

Iowa Meats

Lucky for us they had sweetbreads in stock and they’re located on our way back into San Diego.  We browsed around and I was amazed that Steve, who’s lived in San Diego for nearly 10 years and lives within just a few minutes, had never been to this place.  They had duck fat, veal bones, rabbit, quail, a lobe of foie gras (which was overpriced but I guess saves the bother of ordering it online), not to mention dry aged prime beef.  Steve’s find was scrapple, which he’s never found off the east coast and misses dearly.  This is the exact type of place that everyone needs.  And they were super friendly.

We left with some veal bones, sweetbreads, sherry vinegar and scrapple.

Our stop for dinner Monday night was Baja Betty’s where we met up with Jung, a long time friend of Steve and Eric.  Here I had my first fish taco which was beer battered cod and which was pretty tasty, different from the other fish tacos I’d have a few days later.  We sat there for a while and had a couple of drinks each, then called it an early night, where back at the condo Steve and I played some Wii and enjoyed some home brew before calling it a night.

Days 2, 3 & 4 to come.

Two meals with Dean in a day and a half

This past Monday we were invited to the enjoy some red beans and rice at Dean’s house, along with a host of other people in the restaurant and food industry.  Apparently some well known but possibly strange man name Pableaux is travelling around the south cooking red beans and rice for large groups of people.

I’ll accept any invitation so as not to cook on my days off, Dean and Erin hadn’t seen each other since Thanksgiving, and additionally, I had to pick up my paycheck in Raleigh anyway, so it worked out perfectly.

The red beans and rice were delicious – click on the link above and you can find Pableaux’s recipe.  Some folks brought some side dishes, but I didn’t bother with them for two reasons – 1) I really just wanted the red beans and rice, and 2) I needed to save room for all the desserts I’d seen.

My favorite dessert was a brown sugar pie (think pecan pie minus the pecans and extraordinarily rich) that was provided by Bill Smith, chef at Crook’s Corner.  I only had a small sliced of this because I made a tasting plate of all the desserts.  The chocolate pudding was really good but should have been consumed prior to me eating the brown sugar pie.

The next day then Dean had to be in Durham, so we decided to go to lunch at Watt’s Grocery, a restaurant neither of us had been to yet.  As he was still feeling the effects of the night before, Dean wisely opted for the grease of the burger and fries along with a cup of the soup du jour which was some sort of white bean soup I believe.  I started with the farmer’s cheese hush puppies with basil mayonaisse followed by the chicken salad sandwich with a small side salad.

The hush puppies were well seasoned and delicious, but I mostly enjoyed the basil mayo as an accompaniment.  And my chicken salad sandwich was really good, with grapes and toasted pecans and served on toasted sourdough bread.

As good as the lunch was, I really want to go back for the dinner menu which includes duck rillettes and pork belly.  Shit, I could just eat my way through all of the appetizers as I sit here and look at the menu.