Amazing Restaurants

A Foodie Birthday

Posted on Oct 19, 2011 | 13 comments

Last night’s festivities were so.much.fun. I just wish the evening didn’t have to end so quickly. Poor Matt had to stay at the library, so my mom & dad picked me up for a progressive birthday celebration.

My dad planned an evening in Carrboro to ensure that there wouldn’t be any repeat restaurants. I love trying new places!

Our first stop was the Milltown patio for the extensive beer list. I had the Bosteels Tripel Karmeliet and boy was it heavenly. Apparently the beer is based on a recipe from 1679. It’s made with three grains, including oats, so it must have been good for me!

M + D had pilsners!

The next stop was an adorable wine bar that made me feel like I was back in the city!

I had 3 oz’s of spicy tempranillo that went down really fast

And we got the cheese plate! Which also went down really fast because my family loves cheese and we are competitive eaters:) This was a soft blue with cranberries, a semi-soft sheep’s milk cheese from spain with pine nuts, and a sheep’s semi-firm from Wisconsin with honey. I liked the spanish the best, but all were awesome.

Our last stop was ACME, a southern gem that I’m so happy I got to experience.

I got the Aviator October Beast, which again, was fabulous! I ordered all the right things last night.

And then, I discovered peanut butter barbeque sauce – thick and full of salty peanut flavor, but balanced by tangy bbq. Served (on the bottom of) flash-fried NC shrimp and local okra. Holy moly was this good.

And just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, I ordered a spot-on entree of blackened salmon with green tomato salsa over cheese grits with black beans. Little did we know that ALL entrees are only $12.95 on Tuesdays. Steal.of.the.century.

Thanks for picking awesome restaurants, dad!

My mom and I LIVE for good cake, so we were pretty excited to return home to meet Matt for dessert.

I had a simple and delicious white buttercream cake from the new Daisy Cakes. Thanks Matt!

The cake was quite different than others I’ve had. The cake part was thick like cornbread and the icing was so buttery that it almost tasted more savory than sweet. But, in a good way.

I had three pieces like the one below to top of the night.

I also got a few gifts…

I’m so sad that the day is over, but so happy it happened. Thanks for the birthday wishes, friends. Goodnight.

Pumpkin Sampler

Posted on Oct 16, 2011 | 11 comments

This weekend was just fabulous. I couldn’t have asked for better weather and I did a lot of relaxing. I wasn’t able to go out Friday night because of a stomach ache, but I got a great night’s sleep and was feeling energized on Saturday morning. I went to the mall to run some errands and eyed some things I might like if I’m lucky enough to get any birthday cash:) I made some last minute plans to hang out with my friend Meredith and discovered she had never tasted a pumpkin beer! What? I was in shock, so I drove directly to Sam’s Quick shop and prepared for a tasting.

I picked Cottonwood and Dogfish Head because I know they are good ones, but I’d actually never tried Big Boss’s Harvest Time. All three were delightful. Too bad they don’t make Pumking in smaller bottles or I would have added that to the line up. I believe the intervention was successful.

I said goodbye to Meredith and joined Matt for our anniversary celebration at Guglhuph. Ever since we ran into the chef back in July, this place has been on our list. We set aside $5′s and $10′s here and there and finally sat down to dinner in the adorable space last night.

The restaurant is German, so naturally I ordered a German beer – The Ayinger Celebrator which was divine. It was thick, sweet, and perfect for a chilly night.

We sampled a mushroom soup with plenty of bread. The soup was on special and we ordered it last minute, so I cannot remember any details, but it was very good.

Matt and I split two entrees. The first was German dish that I would describe as the cross between a ravioli and a dumpling. These were stuffed with butternut squash, mushrooms, spinach, and smoked gouda and served in a herb cream sauce with spicy walnuts

This was AMAZING. Seriously, the waiter came to take our plates and I had sopped up every last bit of the sauce with my bread because it was that good. I just wish there had been more than three!

The other entree we split was a slow braised all natural pork shank with potato dumplings, green beans, and a whole grain mustard sauce. Again, amazing. The portion was huge! I spent about 20 minutes eating this and there was still a ton of meat left. The potato dumplings balanced the meat perfectly.

We had trouble with the dessert menu and, despite not being huge chocolate cake people, we ordered the Duck Rabbit milk stout cake. BUT, the waiter came back and said that he thought we would prefer the special pumpkin sampling platter. How did he know?

Spiced pumpkin cake with homemade marshmallows and pumpkin compote, house made pumpkin ice cream, and pumpkin brittle.

Everything was delish, but I loved the pumpkin brittle and was surprisingly very impressed with the marshmallow.

I cannot even express how wonderful this dinning experience was. And the service was excellent. I’d say it has my vote for best Durham restaurant experience thus far.

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Today, I went for a jog, drove to UNC to watch Matt’s sister’s soccer game, and I just finished Pride & Prejudice (the movie). It was a fantastic day.

What’s the best dining experience you’ve had in your current city or town?

Weekend of Eating & Drinking, Part XXXII

Posted on Oct 2, 2011 | 3 comments

Last winter, I had one sip of Southern Tier’s Choklat stout and nearly died. Aside from Pumking (also a Southern Tier beer), this is one of the greatest substances on the planet. Both beers taste just like cake!!! What you see below is actually the Choklat stout mixed with Southern Tier’s Jahva imperial coffee stout. Surprisingly, this is a spring release and my sister gifted it to Matt over the summer.

We’ve been waiting for the temperature to drop to drink it. Matt and I were totally in awe over this beer and we sipped in silence for the first five minutes. Love.

After The Experience, we make the trek to Chapel Hill to use a Living Social deal at Queen of Sheeba. I’ve had positive experiences with Ethiopian food in Boston, so I was pretty excited to try a new place. We only wish our Boston friends could have joined us this time around:( I had hoped to try an Ethiopian beer, but they didn’t have any, so I ordered a South African Cab.

The Injera (sponge bread) at Queen of Sheeba was a lot darker than the others I’ve had – perhaps it was wheat?

I was quite excited to see local, pasture raised grass fed beef on the menu – seems rare for an ethnic restaurant. We got the beef in a sauce similar to bbq and tilapia in a curry-like sauce. The sides were mixed vegetables in two different sauces. I was a little disappointed that we couldn’t choose the sides, but they were still really good. The portions were much smaller than our Boston place, but the flavor of the main dishes was outstanding!!! The beef nearly melted in my mouth and the fish was perfectly seasoned. I was very impressed.

We obviously cleaned the platter.

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This morning, I finally got around to making some pumcakes. T’was exciting to kick off the Autumn season.

With peanut butter and hazelnut butter!

I would like to say I sat around all day and enjoyed the fall sunshine, but I had to work. It wasn’t too bad though and I earned some comp time, so I’m happy. I’m in bed and ready for the week. Night.

Home for Dinner

Posted on Sep 13, 2011 | 2 comments

When I lived in Boston I used to think: it would be nice to just get in my car and drive home.

That’s what I did today! I headed to Hillsborough after work for a mother-daughter dinner at one of Churton Street’s cute cafes: The Gulf Rim. Though there are only a few restaurants in Hillsborough, I think I’ve only eaten here once and now I love it! I’m on a big southern food kick and Gulf rim is creole meets Caribbean.

I had totally forgotten that I’m beered-out from this weekend and Iordered a dark brown ale. Whoops. The flavor was great, but I kind of wish I’d ordered something light and Caribbean-ish on such a hot night.

Dinner was the cobb with cajun shrimp, blue cheese, egg, avocado, bacon, and cilantro lime dressing. The seasoning on the shrimp was amazing and the chunks of bacon and bleu made this salad fantastic.

I also had some of my mom’s flyin’ mayan’ – a huge burrito stuffed with seasoned sweet potatoes and topped with guac and red sauce.

Our amazing dinner ended with a stop in Matthew’s chocolate shop for a bite of dessert.

I savored a peanut butter crunch truffle.

My mom and I took a quick walk and then I sat around for a while. It was hard to leave because going home still feels like I’m on vacation. I had to remind myself that I live here now and needed to get home and get ready for bed. I’m aiming for 6:15 spinning in the am.

g’night.

Blast of Beer & Bread

Posted on Sep 12, 2011 | 4 comments

Charlottesville was a blast.

Hi Kanz.

Saturday, we drove straight to Great Harvest. This was the first time I’d had seen the bakery and the final product is very impressive.

I started drooling immediately upon seeing the sweets. I could not work here because I would eat all the products!

As much as I love sweets though, the bread really is the best part. I had half of a sandwich and split a snicker-doodle and blondie with Matt

Both were moist and heavenly. And I’m not just sayin that!

I tried a.ton.of.beer. My taste buds were sooo overwhelmed with all the different flavors that I had a hard time tasting the low gravity, lighter beers by the end. I think that’s why only the really dark beers and belgians stood out to me.

My favorites:

Blue Mountain Brewery – Dark Mild Ale

Brouwerij Het Anker – Grand Cru of the Emperor

Chimay – Grand Reserve Blue

Devils Backbone – Vienna Lager & Wintergreen Weiss

Heavy Seas – Red Sky at Night

Legend Brewing – Fifteenth Anniversary Belgian Quad

New Holland – Dragon’s Milk

Tallgrass Brewing – Buffalo Sweat Stout

Uncommon Brewer – Siamese Twin

Yard’s Brewing – Thomas Jefferson’s Tavern

Port City Brewing – Optimal Wit

By the end, we were all tired of beer (well, most of us)…

After 3+ hours of drinking, I was ready for a big meal. Kath & Kanz took us to Orzo, a swanky new age Italian restaurant. I miss places like this and was so happy to enjoy such a delicious dinner in an urban atmosphere! Our mouths were craving water, but we ended up with a bottle of red!! It tasted phenomenal after all the beer.

Complimentary pitas and hummus (?).

We shared a sweet ricotta bruschetta for an appetizer – tasted like dessert!!

My entree was outstanding – some sort of white fish baked with local mushrooms and a cheesy cilantro risotto. Not sure what the sauce was, but it was excellent – def. one of the best entrees I’ve had in a while.

I slept like a baby on Saturday and was thrilled to be naturally awakened by the sunlight shining through the window. I miss the morning sun and window breezes…

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I went for a jog and a bike ride with Matt on Sunday before visiting Kath’s new house. We got to enjoy another round of sandwiches at the bakery before heading back to Durham. And we came home with lots of day-old bread!

Horray for a fun-filled weekend.

Cake for Dinner, Cake for Dessert

Posted on Aug 21, 2011 | 6 comments

My goodness, I packed a lot of fun into this 48 hour vacation.

Matt and I brought a bottle of wine from home, so yesterday evening we headed to the little gazebo on the marsh to enjoy cocktail hour at dusk.

We’ve been saving this bottle of wine since 2007! I believe the bottle is from my sister’s wedding weekend, so there’s some significance behind this very peppery zin.

Mmmm…it was delish!

Unfortunately, bugs love Matt’s scent, and we had to leave because he couldn’t stand the gnats. Luckily, there are many beautiful scenes to be enjoyed on Bald Head, so we walked over to the harbor to continue the festivities.

Not a bad view, eh?

We couldn’t quite finish the bottle because we had to get to dinner!

We strolled over to the River Pilot Cafe, stopping to admire Old Baldy of course.

The River Pilot is a small restaurant and it’s only open during the summer, so I had never had dinner there before last night. We usually come to Bald Head in the off season or cook – it was nice to try something new.

And, it FAR exceeded expectations!!!!

After drinking red wine, I just could not decide what I was in the mood to drink. I debated a cocktail, more red, I then decided I needed a flavorful thirst quencher. I ordered my first Octoberfest of the year (Sam’s). I thought it would feel too early, but as soon as it hit my lips, I knew I had made the right choice. It was much lighter than I remember and tasted great with my spicy food.

The ball you see above is a crawfish beignet – fried dough stuffed with crawfish meat, corn, and peppers. They were a tiny bit burned on the outsides, but the insides were splendid. We also took down a basket of scrumptious cornbread and biscuits with sweet butter instantly upon sitting down.

But this beauty, this is what MADE by night. I ordered the shrimp and grits and was basically imagining a creamy bowl of seafood risotto. When this enormous ball arrived, I was thrown off.

Upon cutting into the ball though, I found the most delicious grits in cake form. And soaked in a spicy sauce with andouille sausage and shrimp, this was pure heaven. I mean, in the running for entree of the year good. The collards were great too.

Oh, and the portions were HUGE. Matt’s paella was the biggest portion I’ve ever seen outside of the Cheesecake Factory. We started to panic half way through our entrees, because I had my heart set on dessert, and after the cornbread, biscuits, beignets, and entree, I didn’t think it would happen. So I did something I’ve never done before, I stopped eating my entree and had it packed up so that we could order two desserts.

First, peanut butter pie. Again, something I wouldn’t usually order because it always sounds a little generic, but this was far from normal. Thick, creamy, and loaded with pb flavor.

If you know me at all, you know that dough and cake are all my heart desires. Umm, red velvet cake balls with cream cheese icing for dipping? This restaurant is insane.

They were raw in the middle. Need I say more?

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I slept wonderfully in my little house and headed to the beach club in the AM for a quick workout. Only the elliptical was horrible and I couldn’t bare to stay in the tiny, sweaty room. So, I went to the pool to swim laps! Only sixteen minutes into my swim, this happened:

I spent about an hour reading The Help under the protection of the porch. I was a little sad, but it was actually relaxing to just read and listen to the rain.

And the sun was out again in no time. Matt and I took a quick walk, and then realized it was time to go:(

I had planned on eating lunch at the beach club, but decided it made more sense to eat the leftovers from dinner. To ease the sadness of leaving, we split an Avalanche Ale by Breckenridge. It was mighty tasty and surprisingly summery.

And my leftovers were amazing.

Bye, bye Bald Head.