Durham Restaurants

Crostini

Posted on May 15, 2012 | 1 comment

I can’t breathe! It’s been a while since I’ve had a cold and I forgot how suffocating it is! The upside is that I feel like all the sinus pressure that has been building up all spring is now being released, if ya know what I mean. The rest of me feels great though, so I’ve been itching to get out of the house. Luckily, Matt and I had a dinner date last night at the Italian sandwich shop, Toast. We’ve been making our rounds, saying goodbye to Fuqua friends, and it was nice to spend time time with Rachel + Ross over this fabulous meal. It’s so strange that we’ve gotten to know so many people in Durham who will be all over the country for internships this summer. Did I already say that? I’m excited for fall reunions!

I’ve obviously been really into soup these past few days, so I got a big bowl of spicy lentil. Lentil is always hit or miss, but this once was a hit. Kinda reminded me of refried beans.

My favorite thing at Toast is the crostini sampler – you pick three kinds with a big pile of greens. I tried the herb pesto, mozzarella, roasted tomato; the sicilian caponata, goat cheese, pine nuts; and the avocado with spring peas. All were totally unique and simple delightful.

Today has been simple – gym, babysitting, leftovers for dinner. And I’m aiming for a 9:30 bedtime. Sweet dreams.

Shard of Glass

Posted on May 13, 2012 | 3 comments

My weekend didn’t exactly go as planned. After all that talk of de-stressing (thanks for your comments, btw!), I totally de-stressed on Friday, and then woke up with a bad cold on Saturday. Sadly, I wasn’t up to doing all the things I had planned:( But I did eat soup and sleep for 12 hours straight!

Rewind to my relaxing Friday – I had given my Mom a coupon last Mother’s Day for a fancy lunch out in Durham, and she just got around to redeeming it! I took her to the cafe at the Nasher Museum of Art for lunch on the patio.

We shared:

the yogurt curried chicken salad with grapes and walnuts along with dill quinoa salad. The food was absolutely perfect – so fresh and bursting with flavor. Matt and I have eaten at the Nasher once before and I think it may be my favorite place for brunch/lunch.

After lunch, my Mom redeemed a gift card I had given her for her birthday for a manicure. I got my toes done for the first time since last year! It felt wonderful to be massaged. And then I took a brief nap before meeting one of my friends for live music at the American Tobacco lawn.

We watched the crowd of dancers in the front,

sipped wine,

ate fried pickles,

and saw a cat at the bar!

All night, I felt like I had food stuck in my throat and I just couldn’t get it out. I woke up around 2am with a horrible sore throat. It seriously felt like there was a shard of glass in there. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep well. When I woke up though, the rest of me still felt ok so I went out on a bike ride. I felt horrible by the time I got home, but I was too sad to cancel brunch with friends who were just in town for the weekend.

We tried the new Another Broken Egg Cafe and it was great! I had a shrimp omelette with pesto sauce and really enjoyed it.

I thought I might be able to rally for a trip to the pool and a fun girls dinner with my good friend from high school, but just couldn’t do it:( I watched Sarah’s Key (read the book this year) on Netflix and slept.

The shard of glass is thankfully gone today, but I’m still feeling under the weather. I got chicken noodle and corn bread from Whole Foods, which was fun. Matt just got home from his high school reunion in Maryland, and he’s gonna help me make a mother’s day meal for my Mom.

Happy Mother’s day to all the Moms!

Magnolia

Posted on May 7, 2012 | 1 comment

So last Friday, I mentioned that we went to the famous Magnolia Grill. It’s closing at the end of the month, and it’s THE restaurant that put farm-to-fork southern cooking on the map. We had a gift card…I knew we had to go.

The restaurant was packed to the brim, but we were seated at a small two-top in the corner of the bar. The waitress rushed over to us several times while we were looking over it to inform us that multiple appetizers and entrees had run out. When we realized how quickly food was disappearing, we just picked three things and got our order in as quickly as possible.

First, we had the signature twice baked grit soufflé with wild mushroom ragout, aged sherry mushroom emulsion, and shaved confit foie gras. Talk about different! The mushrooms were fantastic and the sauce so unique. I wasn’t crazy about the texture of the soufflé (too egg-like), but the flavor was so awesome that I still loved the dish.

Probably our favorite dish of the night was the grilled confit pork belly on Carolina rice grits with warm butterbean salad, cider and creole mustard glaze, and watermelon rind pickle. WOW. Who knew this combination would work so well? The warm sauce, fatty meat, and cold sweet salad were PERFECT together.

Our entree was the spice-crusted Trout in spring onion pesto sauce on creamy lemon grits (I know – grits three times!) and field peas with shrimp, apple bacon, and local pea tendrils. The lemon grits and bacon were by far my favorite part!

Dessert ended up stealing the show, though, because Matt and I love fruit crisps! This one was enormous! It was a pear crisp with vanilla ice cream and a salted caramel drizzle. Luckily, the dessert was so big we didn’t have to fight over it, but I could tell we were a bit competitive while eating this:)

This meal was obviously heavenly and I feel so lucky that we got to eat at Magnolia Grill before it’s doors are closed. Thanks so much to our friends Lauren and Evan for the gift card that pushed us to get there!! I still salivate just thinking about it.

And that was Friday, which was wayy more exciting than my Monday. Typical:)

5th of May

Posted on May 5, 2012 | 1 comment

Good Saturday morning to ya. Sorry to go MIA on you Thursday night. I haven’t been dealing with stress well lately (well at least my body is telling me that) and decided to skip blogging when I got home late. We went to see Wicked at the Durham Performing Arts Center!!

We dined al fresco with two of our friends who also went to see the show, and kinda lost track of time over dinner! We hurried to the theater, but I ended up missing the opening act because Matt and I got separated in the crowd. I saw the original in NYC though and wasn’t too confused about the plot. It was an awesome performance and of course I loved the music the second time around.

Yesterday, Matt and I tried to have a leisurely day together, but that didn’t really work. We went to the Eno River park for a hike, but since we got a late start, we only had time for a one mile loop. Not much of a hike, but those 30 minutes were still very peaceful, as we don’t slow down and appreciate nature too often these days.

I had to rush to two grocery stores and the liquor store to prepare for a last minute Cinco de Mayo party we decided to throw, and then attended my first happy hour with my new school co-workers. And I had to rush home from that to make it to dinner by 5 o’clock – you see we just found out that the famous Magnolia Grill is closing. Not only did we want to try this gem before it closes, but we had a giftcard to use!! The restaurant is booked like crazy, and since this is the last weekend we have free in Durham, we had to go early to try to get a table! We got a table all right and it was PHENOMENAL. But that’s something for another post. I’ve got to get cookin’ for tonight’s party – can’t wait for margaritas, enchiladas, sangria, and guac.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Funtastic

Posted on Apr 22, 2012 | 4 comments

This weekend was so.much,fun. I know I say that every weekend, but really, this one was just one of those go-with-the-flow, eat, see friends, and relax in between kind of weekends.

Not many people showed up to Fuqua Friday, so we ended up going out to dinner. Sometimes Fuqua Friday can be overwhelming because there’s soo many people to talk to, so it was nice to just eat dinner while chatting with two of our good friends. We tried the new G2B Gastropub and enjoyed the contemporary, but funky vibe. They had an awesome beer and wine list on tablets and colored lighting (thus, the weird pictures).

We split this bottle of wine with our friends – a recommendation from the bartender after I described my taste in wine. Oh my goodness, this was one of the best reds I’ve had in a loong time. It was so full with a smooth, velvety finish. Tons of flavor, but not too peppery.

I had a grilled salmon filet with sunchoke puree, sauteed spinach, and chili oil. The fish itself was one of the best filets I’ve had in a while, as it was perfectly cooked (medium instead of well) and practically falling apart. The flavor was great too, although there could have bit a bit more bulk to the dish.

On Saturday, we joined friends at Fullsteam Brewery for a birthday party.

Though I’ve been to Fullsteam before, this was the first time I’ve gone and just spent the afternoon hanging out at their picnic tables. I probably spent about four hours there and it’s such a great place to go with a group (or babies or dogs!)

The girls! Thanks to Rachel for the picture.

We all drank way too much and ended up at the Federal for a late dinner. Though we scored a perfect table on the patio, we had to run inside just as our entrees arrived due to a thunderstorm. I got the veggie sliders again and they are still fabulous. We also shared some of the fresh cut fries among the table and I’m still thinking about them.

We rounded out the weekend with lunch with my family in Hillsborough, as my sister is in town for a wedding.

My mom made a great spread of food and we sat around the kitchen chatting. It was a nice way to fill this cold and rainy Sunday, as I don’t feel like doing much except sitting around.

I did manage to put some laundry into the washing machine. Though it’s only at the end of the hall, I struggle with the task every single week. If that’s the worst of my complaints right now, I’d say the weekend was a giant success.

PS: I’ve been feeling a zillion times better since taking those antibiotics, so I’m thinking something was up. It felt amazing to feel normal these past few days.

Highlights

Posted on Apr 15, 2012 | 2 comments

Hey, hey. Hows it goin?

The weekend is over, but for once I’m a bit relieved. The event I’ve been putting together took place over the weekend and I’m happy to say that everything went pretty smoothly! The other co-chairs and I have been working for a few months to plan the programming for the partners of students who have been admitted to Fuqua. I really believe in the support that the partners organization provides and was excited to be involved in such an important event for the partners of admitted students. It felt great to be able to interact with the incoming partners and calm their nerves about the transition. And I didn’t even mind having to work on a Saturday.

Other highlights of the weekend included a margarita enjoyed with friends by the warmth of the fire pit at Alivia’s

And amazing tacos at Nana Taco on Saturday during our lunch break: I got broiled fish, pork butt, and garlic beef and loved them all.

When Matt and I got home from Duke on Saturday evening (he volunteered for the admitted students weekend too), we decided to relax and unwind with a bottle of wine outside on our deck. We always talk about doing this and rarely do. The bottle was a gift from my dad and was just right for a sunny-n-seventy Saturday.

Excited to have a Saturday night with no plans, Matt and I walked over to Rue Cler (a french restaurant) for dinner with a soon-to-expire Groupon. We were able to get a table right away and the service was great. Matt had the beef gnocchi to start and stared bites with me. Perfect pillows and fabulous flavor!

I had a mahi-mahi with lemon and some sort of white sauce. It was served over lentils, picked beets, and cabbage I think? This was tangy and very light and summery!

For dessert, we shared the thin-mint ice cream and a crepe stuffed with strawberries and fresh whipped cream. OMG, the ice cream was amazing! There were huge chunks of thin mint cookies and the consistency was so thick and chocolatey.

The crepe was just ok. It was really thin and didn’t have much flavor, so this dessert was basically just strawberries with whipped cream. While I like that combo, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

Our waiter confused our order and actually brought us a creme brulee, so we ate that too:) It was a pretty standard creme brulee and tasted good with bites of the crepe.

And that’s my weekend. Short, but oh so sweet.