Croall Under the Bridge

Thai and more

2009-02-22T11:14:00.001-08:00

I didn't think I was going to have anything to write about for a while. I've been busy with all kinds of work and my eating out has been sporadic at best. It wasn't until Saturday that I found myself at a new-to-me restaurant Thai Villa. I loved it, but more on that later.

First I want to write about something I saw rather than something I ate. On Thursday Dan and I went to see Anthony Bourdain give a talk to a sold out crowd at the Durham Performing Arts Center. He was exactly as you would expect - witty, snarky, intelligent and humorous. After covering everything from the Food networks crimes against food to Bobby Flay's recent career of humiliation to the evils of the mass marketing and resulting rising prices of organics. Although I love to hear him talk about food. My favorite part came when an audience member asked him who he would cross the street to do harm to. His answer -writer James Frey. The scorn and contempt he had for one of the most widely know liars of our time raised my esteem for him. If there was a downside to the evening, it was the signing. It was very formal and regimented and faced with such unexpected rules I froze up and found myself unable to say anything at all to Bourdain when he signed my book. Bummer.

And now for the Thai Villa. I have a tendency to judge Thai restaurants on one dish - Tom Kha, Thai Coconut Soup. The best soup has layers of flavor, from the sweet coconut, refreshing lemongrass, chicken and spices. Now last night the waitress suggested the soup with shrimp rather than chicken, but one of the things I love about the soup is how the little bits of fat cling to the chicken so i went my old reliable. It was fantastic. So good in fact that I had no room for my entree, which is now sitting in my fridge and although it was a good entree - sort of like a Thai beef and broccoli, all i really want is more soup.

It's a small place, with close packed tables and booths, but it's homey and pleasant instead of being crowded and noisy. the service is fantastic and the food is wonderful. I'll be back for more soup and maybe even for something else...maybe.

Rooting for the home team

2009-02-15T14:25:00.000-08:00

Dan and I have a restaurant that we love to go to and to take people to for any special or not-so-special occasion. Now, we didn't discover this place ourselves, we were introduced to it by a friend who just so happens to be related to the chef by marriage. I've never been introduced to the chef, only watched him work and tasted the results, but having eaten there frequently, I feel like I know at little bit about him.

Vivace is a trendy-looking Italian place nestled under swanky apartments in Raleigh. It has a very cool looking bar I'd love to hang out in sometime and a rather impressive wine list, which I also have yet to try. This isn't shaping up to be a very informative review yet, I'll try to get to the good stuff. What I have tried are countless salmon, hanger steak, duck, scallop, veal, lamb and pork dishes. I've tried panna cottas, semi-fredos, tiramisus fried olives, gnocchi and I've loved it all. There is no dish that I haven't enjoyed although there are some that stand out more than others.

The menu changes seasonally which is both good and bad. The good is the ever expanding variety, the ability to fall in love with something new and wonderful every time I go. The bad is the realty that I will get my heard broken by the absence of a favorite dish. For the last year when we've gone to Vivace we've ordered the gnocchi with apricots, pancetta and kale, if memory serves me. It was a treat, sweet, salty, chewy and crisp all at once, it was quite simply a dish worth dreaming about. It was absent from the menu this time. There was a gnocchi dish but it wasn't THE gnocchi so we didn't order it.

Which turned out to be just fine. I ordered the bone-in pork chop with brussel sprouts, pancetta over polenta with a cider reduction. It was perfection. The pork was crispy with just the right amount of fat and the polenta was smokey and sweet all at the same time.

I hope I'll be able o make it back up there before the menu changes again, but if I don't at least I have faith in the chef I almost sort of know to keep me coming back, no matter how much the menu changes,

Second Empire

2009-02-08T17:51:00.000-08:00

Most of the time I'm a pretty casual girl, but every so often even I like to get a little fancy, pretend I've got some table manners and find a classy restaurant for a "grown-up" night on the town.

Last Friday was such a night. Earlier that week Dan, Melinda and I were looking for someplace to go out to dinner and Dan found the website for Second Empire. One look at the menu and I was sold. (www.second-empire.com) I really advise you to check it out, its a beautiful thing.

The restaurant itself is beyond fancy - old school style. Built in a historic house in downtown Raleigh, it really reminded me of places I used to go when we lived in Macon, very southern. The staff was attentive and proper without making me feel like I didn't belong there, which can happen at the wrong kind of fancy place. It's a rare thing for me to find a comfortably elegant place devoid of the kind of snobbery that is designed to elevate the status of a place when the food alone won't cut it.

Second Empire doesn't need faux snobbery. They could serve their food on sheets of bark underneath a tree and it would still be fine dining. I ordered truffle risotto as a first course, it was the special, and found it to be so earthy and rich, I had to stop myself from licking the bowl. For an entree I ordered grouper. Now I love grouper and order it whenever I can so I was expecting a lot out of less than 6 ounces of fish.

It was perfect.

Not sort of perfect, not perfect for that meal on that day, this was a meal I would eat anytime, anywhere any day.

Now Second Empire is not an every day kind of place. It's expensive. It's close to a three hour meal. It's heaven. Go as soon as you can. Spoil yourself.

Long Distance Cravings

2009-01-31T04:34:00.000-08:00

It's been a rough week. The kind where I barely remember what I did much less what I ate. It's not the idea situation for me, moving through each day frantically finishing each task as efficiently as I can, eliminating distractions and breaking to eat meals on auto-pilot in order to get back to work as fast as possible.

But its over now, or rather, its over for now and I finally have some time to sit and reflect on the few great meals I had this week.

I started this week with wicked pizza craving (thanks to an episode of Man Vs Food) so when Wes, Dan and I ended up at Babymoon Cafe I jumped at the chance to try their Chicago style Deep Dish pizza. Before I go into detail about the perfection of their pizza, a few words about Babymoon in general. It's a humble-looking no frills Italian place with a small staff and a very visible kitchen. They were packed when we arrived, so we sat outside in their very charming heated patio. Which was, despite the chilly wind, the perfect temperature.

And not for the food, the simplicity of the decor only highlights the caliber of dishes on the menu. From sophisticated pasta to grilled sandwiches, everything looked good Were it not for my craving I probably would have been more adventurous in my ordering and gone for a spicy pasta dish.

Which brings us back to pizza. The problem with a food craving is if its not satisfied, it grows. And the only thing worse that trying to ignore a food craving is trying to subdue it with an imitation. So, when I started dreaming about deep dish pizza while living in North Carolina I figured I would have to start learning to cook it on my own.

Then came Babymoon.

The last time I has pizza this good was when a dear friend send us some actual made in Chicago pizza packed in dry ice. Babymoon's version was a cheesy, spicy delight. It was everything I wanted. The only problem was by the time I had stuffed myself with salad, a couple of stuffed mushrooms and a couple slices of pizza, trying out their desert selections wasn't an option.

Oh well, guess that means I'll have to go back for seconds.

Tasu Asian Bistro

2009-01-25T08:44:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been feeling a bit bored of Asian restaurants. It's not the quality of the food, the places we go are all excellent. It's the sameness of it all. Same rolls, same decor, it all starts to blend together after a bit. So, when Melinda and Rich wanted to go to Tasu, a brand new Asian bistro in Briar Creek, I was less than thrilled.

Walking in the lobby I was afraid that my worst fears were confirmed. The decor screamed cliche' and bar we waited in was poorly run to say the least. But it was their first month of operation and there were a few wrinkles.

Once we were seated and I had a chance to peruse the menu I was thrilled to see some things I hadn't seen on the menu. I ordered my old standby - chirashi with a pickled plum roll. The chirashi did not disappoint. It was loaded with huge slices of salmon and white tuna, shrimp, crab, clam and other fish I've forgotten about. The highlight however was the two slices of omelette tucked into the side of the dish.

The picked plum roll was an unexpected delight. The combination of sweet cucumber paired with sour plum was so fantastic and refreshing. I was hooked after the first bite.

Just from a culinary perspective there's lot to like about Tasu. The rolls are interesting, with some great flavor combinations and the rest of the menu looks really solid. But what made the night special was the newness of it all. The awkwardness of the staff only improved the experience and it felt like we were figuring it out together.

I encourage you to go to Tasu before they become they well-oiled perfectly run restaurant they are destined to be. Enjoy the growing pains knowing that all too soon the human touch will be replaced by the ever churning restaurant machine.

Happy Ordering

2009-01-20T08:13:00.000-08:00

It's getting harder to find great places to write about. I've been out a couple of times this past week, once to a rather standard mexican place, nothing really worth writing about there, although is someone out there does know about a mexican place worth talking about please let me know. Then on Friday night I went with Rich, Melinda and Dan to the Edwards Mill Bar and Grill for some tasty, if not exactly world-shattering, bar food.

Although the rib-eye sandwich I ordered was delicious and huge, I was much more interested in my friends selections, Rich ordered chicken parmesan, Melinda ordered the chicken tenders and Dan got sweet and sour pork. The interesting thing about the dishes was the difference in size. Compared to Rich and Melinda's chicken and my enormous sandwich Dan's sweet and sour pork plate was tiny. He liked the dish, but I could tell that there was a bit of dismay at the appetizer-like size. My meal was big enough to share so no one went hungry but it got me thinking. Every other dish we saw in the restaurant had overly generous portions, but it was all bar food, was the size of the dish relative to the comfort of the chef cooking it? After all it was a bit of an anomaly compared to the burgers, wings and fried goodies.

I love to see a cook take risks, and I think it's great that the menu at a place like the Edwards Mill grill could expand and grow, but I'm always going to order bar food at a bar. Limiting maybe, but it is a good way to make sure I'm getting the best meal possible.

Vin Rouge

2009-01-13T15:04:00.000-08:00

I'm a little behind on the blogging, having been sidelined by a bad cold which has killed my taste buds. The cold itself is annoying but not being able to taste is just demoralizing.

So the last place I visited was a charming French bistro in Durham called Vin Rouge with Rich Melinda and Dan. It's not a big place and it filled up quickly, which also meant it got very loud quickly. This wasn't exactly a bad thing, the four of us are occasionally not fit for public appearances. Rich was at one point concerned we wouldn't be asked back, but since our rather stoned-looking waiter vanished halfway through our meal, there were no witnesses to our antics.

And now for the food. We started with a dish of truffle macaroni and cheese. It was fantastic, creamy and earthy at the same time. I love truffles and I was afraid that the cheese would overpower them, but it was such a great combination. I could have easily finished the entire dish, except for the whole sharing with the table thing.

For dinner I got a braised duck leg over potatoes with cheese and vegetables. The leg was fantastic, perfectly cooked. The potatoes however were more cheese than potato and almost too rich for me. The vegetables, mostly carrots and onions managed to retain all of their flavor and texture despite swimming in the cheese/potato mixture.

For dessert I ordered the chocolate torte and was treated to a rich, dense and moist cake. It was a prefect dessert although probably a poor choice after the rich starter and the heavy duck.

Melinda, Dan and Rich seemed pretty happy with their choices. Rich got a cassoulet, Melinda ordered pork and Dan got steak au poivre. The steak was excellent, not overpowered by the spices and the pound of fries it came with were crispy, salty and addictive.

Dan and Melinda got the apple bread pudding for desert and Rich ordered chocolate mousse. The consensus on the pudding was that it was good, but there were a lot of flavors going on. The mousse seemed to make Rich very very happy.

So it was a successful dinner from a culinary standpoint, but emotionally? It was a nice place and no one threw us out. I had a good time, but there weren't any "to die for" moments. So it's kind of an odd situation. Although I liked the place, I'm not sure if it hit that chord.

The best restaurants are the ones that feel so comfortable in some way. The ones you can see yourself returning too, night after night to either experience the same dish or see what new creations the chef has placed on the menu. Vin Rouge is clearly that place for a great many people in Durham, and I have to admit, I'm envious of them. It's a sophisticated place with the kind of decor that says "I don't have to try hard, I just am." Well, I have to try hard and I always feel like in places like that everything that's awkward and goofy about me screams "I don't belong here".

I'd like to be the kind of person who is at home in the classiest places and the greasiest diners. I'm working on it. Really.

Smokey's BBQ Shack

2009-01-06T16:02:00.000-08:00

There is something about the words "roadside" and shack that really make my mouth water. Perhaps it's because they are usually associated with the best of all words "BBQ". I've made no secret of the fact that I'm a fan of BBQ ribs but honestly I'll take any BBQ. Shredded pork, wings, brisket, chicken you name it, and if you serve it in plastic baskets with giant bottles of unlabeled sauce next to a roll of paper towels on the table, I'm pretty much sold. Of course the added bonus is if you do it all in a shack that looks like a strong breeze could do significant structural damage while maintaining the integrity of the meat.

So today I found myself at Smokey's BBQ Shack. The building was small and looked mostly homemade, but it wasn't exactly a shack. Wes, Dan and I drove farther than usual slogged through the muddy parking lot and waited in line for what I can only describe as brain-meltingly good ribs and shredded pork smothered with sauce from a mysterious red bottle. The ribs were falling off the bone and had the great flavor combination of spice, meat and wood smoke. The smoke makes all the difference.

The shredded pork was equally flavorful although it did pale in comparison to the ribs. But really, what wouldn't? It did have the advantage of being cooked dry, allowing me to drown it in as much sauce as I wanted, which is as it turns out a fair amount of sauce.

The sides were ok, I got fried okra and baked beans. The okra was a little flavorless, but ok. The baked beans were really interesting though. Rather than the standard beans and bacon it was a melange of different kinds of beans and onions. It was nice to see something different, sadly, I didn't love it. Maybe it's because of the lima beans but most likely it was just that meat overpowered everything else.

It's got to be difficult trying to scrape together side dishes at a BBQ joint. You have to have them, but no one is actually there for them. Why would they? I mean I guess it's possible that a BBQ joint could make collard greens compelling enough to compete with brisket, but it seems incredibly unlikely. So do they serve them so we don't feel bad about eating massive quantities of meat? or is it that the BBQ experience just isn't complete without the little paper baskets of fried or boiled veggies.

I think for me it's the guilt. I would never go to a restaurant and just order protein. Even if I have no intention of eating the vegetables they must be on the plate. It's sort of shocking how much guilt rules what I order. I spend countless hours looking up nutritional info on places I like to eat, picking out the best menu combinations or at least the ones that make me feel best about myself. I bargain, rationalize and compromise all to feel ever so slightly better about myself at the end of the day. Until I started this blog I never really though about how much I enjoyed eating out. (Of course since this blog is the ultimate rationalization, that might explain my sudden surge in guilt-free meals. )

Hopefully as I cut back on junky meals I'll be able to enjoy the times I do eat out more.

Breaking The Chain

2009-01-01T11:15:00.000-08:00

For me the horror of the corporate chain restaurant is only eclipsed by the horror of encountering the corporate chain Italian restaurant. I love Italian food, when its not a mass produced pile of limp noodles, overcooked protein and runny reheated sauce served in dishes that closely resemble troughs. These chain restaurant strips away the individuality of the chef and presents a false impression of an entire country worth of cuisine. Of course, you can say the same thing for any chain restaurant, Chinese, Mexican, French, whatever, but for some reason the Italian ones seem to offend me the most.

So today when I found myself planning to visit Brio, the new "Tuscan grille" by Crabtree Valley Mall, I was looking forward to ripping into them and writing my first really negative blog. I was quite surprised that there were quite a few things I actually liked about Brio.

Upon entry the leading chain assaults you musically with That's Amore and other Americanized Italian classics. I don't remember the music at Brio, which is a good thing. I've been in too many restaurants where the atmosphere was carefully designed to distract from the food. Brio has a nicely neutral palate with the most noticeable thing being the smell of the brick oven. It's a comforting campfire type of smell and it certainly helped put me as ease.

Following my rules I ordered the fish special, grouper with a lemon butter sauce served with sauteed veggies and potatoes. For a starter I got the soup of the day - tomato bisque. Dan tried the crab cakes with a lobster bisque.

When the soups arrived I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a reasonable cup of soup, rather than the bucket I had been conditioned to expect. It was creamy and tangy at the same time, rich and satisfying. The lobster was equally creamy with chunks of lobster and a nice spice on the end of it. Lunch was off to a good start.

The grouper arrived shortly after and once again it was a nice filet. The perfect size for the preparation of the dish. The sauce was drizzled lightly over it with most of the plate being occupied by the sauteed vegetables. The fish flaked easily and was complimented, but not overpowered by the sauce. The vegetables however, slid back into chain territory. Bland, oily and flavorless they did little other than look pretty.

The fish was good enough to encourage me to check out dessert. I was delighted to see their presentation, tiny espresso cups filled with creme brulees, chocolate cake, cheesecake and other tiny treats. I ordered the chocolate, Dan got brown sugar brulee and neither one of us was disappointed. The brulee had a nice subtle brown sugar carmel finish and the cake really gave the feeling of eating fine truffles.

So can a chain ever overcome their bland mass-produced nature? They are, after all, designed to offer the same quality at every location, individuality be dammed! Brio almost overcame it's chain roots by bucking tradition and serving meals small enough to be cooked properly giving the feeling of individual service, but was ultimately done in by ignoring the details. Vegetables are not a garnish and deserve to be treated as well as the entree!

Also an odd note - we ordered peach iced tea and were rather surprised to see it delivered to the table in plastic bottles. Not cool. This isn't a cheap place and tea isn't hard to make. Grow up and brew your own!

Always Get the Special

2008-12-30T11:57:00.000-08:00

How do you judge the quality of a cuisine you've never had before? It seems like the one thing professional critics excel at is knowing how a variety of foods are supposed to taste, measuring their authenticity almost. While that's sort of the thing I'm trying to stay away from, I do feel a bit at a loss discussing today's restaurant Cool Runnings - a local Jamaican place.

I'm not familiar with Jamaican food and I've only been to Cool Runnings twice but both times I was blown away by the food. The first meal there was lunch with Wes and Dan. The guys ordered jerk pork while I decided to be adventurous and get the curried goat. The jerk pork was fantastic - spicy with a rich sweet sauce without loosing any of the flavor of the meat. Accompanied by crisp sauteed veggies and fluffy rice it was a great introduction to Jamaican foods.

The pork was good, but the goat left me speechless. I didn't know what Jamaican curries were supposed to taste like and I had no concept of the flavors in goat meat. It was so rich and gamey. Sort of like lamb if the lamb had spent his time knocking over convenience stores Even though I had no frame of reference, I knew that this was the way goat was supposed to taste. Almost like tasting the culinary history of the dish. Combined with the curry and rice it was just about the perfect meal.

Which brings us to today, Dan and I returned to Cool Runnings for what I thought would be a second helping of goat, but my #1 restaurant rule is "always order the special" and today's special was BBQ Ribs.

I used to be a rib fiend. My dad would make them for me every Sunday pretty much all summer long, I would seek them out at restaurants. Dry, wet, pork, beef, didn't matter. I could eat some ribs. When I moved to Phoenix it got hard to find good ribs, I stopped eating out so much, and my beloved ribs were forgotten.

So, do Jamaican BBQ ribs live up to the home-cooked ribs I remembered? Well, does anything live up to our favorite childhood recipes? Yeah, sometimes it does. The ribs were hot and sweet, messy and tender, fall-off-the-bone good. I lost track of the spices in the sauce other than cumin and some kind of sugar. I think I went through a couple stacks of napkins, always a good sign for ribs.

The older I get the more I looks for those foods that take me back to the best parts of childhood. There's nothing quite like the joy of being covered in BBQ sauce and not caring and as an adult there are so few opportunities to experience that. Sadly BBQ ribs aren't on the menu at Cool Runnings, but every time they're on special I'll be getting them. So if you see me walking around with a huge grin and a swipe of sauce on my cheek, don't say anything, most likely I'm just too happy to care.

Holiday foods

2008-12-29T04:04:00.000-08:00

I'm back from a nice long stay with my folks in D.C. and ready to write! While in Washington I was able to visit the Carlyle a bustling and comforting if unspectacular restaurant. If you've never been to Shirlington, its basically a row of restaurants surrounded by hotels and office buildings. We usually stop off there after doing the tourist thing in DC or the shopping thing at Pentagon City.

We had been to the Carlyle before and it's a good place, the food was nice and the desserts were really good. But the whole time we were there I was thinking that we should have gone to Bistro Bistro, another restaurant we had visited previously. I'm not going to go into detail about Bistro Bistro, I'll save that for an actual visit, but I will say that it has a quiet elegant charm that is the opposite of the Carlyle's busy carnival atmosphere.

So, the food was good, and the decor cheerful but I'm at a loss for anything to say about the Carlyle. I'm suffering from food envy. No matter how good the crab cakes were, and they were pretty fantastic - full of fresh crab with a light sauce -I chose the wrong restaurant. It's impossible to truly loose yourself in a meal when your heart isn't in to it. Then it just becomes eating for the sake of eating, which is the one thing I'm trying to stay away from.

Now I'm very grateful to my folks for taking us out for lunch, but what I enjoyed most about the Carlyle is just being out and about with my family - oh and the flourless chocolate waffle with the molten chocolate inside. That was killer.

Wasabi for lunch

2008-12-20T03:15:00.000-08:00

Now that the migraine fog has passed I realize I'm a bit behind on my blog. Two restaurants behind actually, which probably means I'm eating out a bit too much. I'll try to get caught up this weekend, but since I'm headed home tomorrow for a week of Washington DC treats and home cooked meals I'm not sure if I'll stay caught up.

On Thursday between doctors appointments Dan and I stopped in to our favorite sushi place here in Cary, Wasabi. Wasabi is a Thai/Japanese restaurant with beautiful bamboo accents dim lights and unobtrusive music. It looks, feels and smells authentic. My cousin introduced Dan and me to Wasabi and in our own version of paying it forward we love to bring new friends there to celebrate what occasion calls for a sushi dinner, and really what occasion doesn't?

But today we weren't celebrating, just pausing for some comfort food. I settled in to my old favorite Chirashi- the chef's selection of fresh fish over rice. The fish was wonderful. Cool and flavorful, beautifully arranged but as I was eating I realized that I viewed the fish as almost the opening act to the dish. The real reason I order the Chirashi almost every time we go is for the rice.

See while I'm nibbling away on salmon all the flavors of the white tuna, lemon, whitefish, and the sauce that goes with the eel has been soaking into the rice. By the time I'm done with the fish that rice is a smokey, spicy, sweet, roe-covered desert. It's nothing that could be prepared in a kitchen, there is no recipe for it. Chirashi rice is unrepeatable, as every time I order it the chef uses different fish, but every time it gives me that same amazing feeling. It's like knowing the secret to the dish. Any maybe that more than anything is the appeal.

The other day I was at dim sum with a group a friends and the topic of strange food preferences came up. No one was able to think of any or at least, no one wanted to volunteer any of theirs. Maybe it's because we all eat lovely normal things, or maybe it's because what are strange eating habits to others are our very own own secret dishes. These recipes we have discovered through snacking trial and error, or family traditions handed down are personal private things.

Being the only one who eats them makes them all the more special.

There are plenty of recipes to share with friends, to prepare as a group and cherish together. But I'm going to try real hard to remember to cherish the foods I eat alone, they are just as worthy of thought and recognition. And in the end spending a little more time thinking about what I eat when I'm alone probably isn't a bad thing.

Carmen's Cuban Cafe and Lounge

2008-12-16T10:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Wes Dan and I went to Carmen's. The food was good, although the plantains are better at Cool Runnings, a little Jamaican place I will eventually blog about. I ordered a steak sandwich, which was in retrospect not very smart of me. The sandwich was good, but it wasn't very Cuban. Dan ordered this wonderful roasted pork and lime dish that was not only tender and flavorful it tasted authentic. The combination of the salty pork and the fresh lime was so natural I can't imagine pork any other way now. If I'm going to really get into the heart of food, I'm going to have to be a little bit more adventurous with my selections.

But missed opportunities aside, what really struck me about Carmen's is the decor. There is another Cuban place that Dan and I frequent.The Havana Grill is a bright open place that looks as Wes put it, like a house converted into a restaurant. The service is casual cafeteria-style with more outdoor seating than indoor and the emphasis on the food seems to be more homestyle than anything else. The food there is great and comforting and I recommend it to everyone but I'll be going back to Carmen's before I return to Havana Grill.

See, and some part of me realizes that this makes me a superficial person, but Carmen's looks like a Cuban place should. The bar is covered in dark wood rafters and the whole place is dimly lit. There are fabric wall hangings and fancy lights that project dim patterns on the walls. It's moody, mysterious and romantic.I'm prone to flights of fancy and I have a tendency to let my imagination run away with me. When I have the opportunity to slip away from a hectic day, sit in a romantic Cuban cafe , sip an Ironbeer, (not actually a beer) and indulge in a 30 second vacation fantasy, the comfort of that beats comfort food any day.

The other highlight of Carmen's was the Tres Leches cake. I loved it, but better than that was watching Dan try it for the first time. I hope he doesn't mind me writing about this, but I sort of have a love hate relationship with food. I mean I love it, but since I'm always struggling with my weight and balancing portions and all that tiring stuff sometimes I get so sick of it, food, weight, the whole thing. But Dan, he can enjoy food like no one else I've met. Totally guilt-free. When he enjoys food, especially when it's food I've cooked, he looks so appreciative. Every cook should have a customer like Dan and I really wish who ever made the Tres leches cake could have seen him try it. They would have continued on baking happily for the rest of their lives armed with the most rewarding kind of job satisfaction.

Abbey Road Cary, NC

2008-12-11T13:56:00.000-08:00

What makes a burger go from good to amazing? What makes one of the most available foods not only satisfying to hunger but also emotionally. High quality beef? A patty the size of my head? Cold, crisp lettuce and pickles? I can go to MCDonald's and have a meal in under 5 minutes. It will be hot and after eating it I will no longer be hungry, but I will not be satisfied. So, today we (Dan. Wes, Karen and myself) went in search of the elusive the burger and fries that will satisfy hunger and my soul.

Now, when I say "went in search of" I really mean it. Abbey road is probably about 10-15 minuted from the office, but since we had never been there Wes took care of directions. Twenty minutes later while cruising around deepest darkest residential Cary we realized that Wes had actually googled the directions for Abbey Lane the road not Abbey Road the restaurant. By the time Dan and I had stopped laughing, Wes had corrected out course and we were back on track. What would have been an annoying detour turned into a bizzard trip through a campy Christmas wonderland when we had to turn around in a cul-de-sac where every house was covered from foundation to chimney in garish inflatable Christmas decorations somehow made tackier by the presence of pouring rain.

By the time we found the bar I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a separate non-smoking section. I had been warned that although the food was good the place was smokey. Nothing kills the impact of good food like cigarette smoke. The walls of Abbey rod are covered in 45's, posters, magazine covers and pictures from the 60's and 70's. We were seated immediately by an efficient and pleasant if not overly friendly waitress and given enough room to peruse the menus. They do have a decent lunch menu with sandwiches and wraps, but we were there for burgers so the poor wraps got ignored.

All of the Beatles named burgers looked good, but I settled on the George - bacon and cheese with a side of onion rings. I haven't had onion rings in months and couldn't resist. Dan and Karen were much more disciplined and got salads while Wes committed 110% and went with cheese fries. I don't remember what burgers they ordered.

When the food arrived I was both pleased and dismayed to see that the patty was the size of my fist and just as thick. The first bite is always the best part, the most telling and the George did not disappoint. I got bun, lettuce, pickle, cheese bacon and burger all together but I could taste each element separately. The meat was perfectly cooked, medium rare and I got that wonderful dribble down my chin. It was a mess and I loved it. I don't usually think of myself as a tactile person but for some reason I need to feel my food. The crunch of vegetables, the tear of a steak the snap of an apple that's what is satisfying about food. That's what is missing, for me, from the mushy flat Quarter Pounder- the feel of it. This burger felt great, it felt satisfying.

And now , sadly, a word about onion rings. They should be rings. Circles of perfectly fried onion, easy to hold, easy to dip in ketchup and able to deliver onion napalm directly into the mouth, a painful but necessary part. They are not strips, the batter should not be hard and they should never EVER arrive in a clump.

I will happily return to Abbey Road when I get a burger craving but I'll be sticking to the fries.

A different take.

2008-12-09T18:06:00.000-08:00

Hey

Perhaps a little explanation is necessary. I started this blog to talk about things I care about and found out there are really only two subjects I'm actually qualified to discuss - horror and food.

I could go on at great length about horror movies, books, webisodes and the like, but the problem with that is I tend to love them all and that doesn't make for a very interesting review, does it? Now, food and restaurants, that's a different story.

I am not a foodie. I'm not really interested in the origin of the food or how expensive or rare it is. What I care about is how food and the environment I eat it in makes me feel. I'm looking for that instinctive reaction that was so wonderfully portrayed in Ratatouille when Ego takes that first bite of Remy's ratatouille and flashes back to a vivid comforting childhood memory. I am in search of the foods that give me that powerful a reaction good or bad.

So today I began my search for those foods with a Turkish place we had never gone before. "We" for the purposes of this discussion is Myself, my husband Dan and our friend Wes.

And now the review:

Bosphorus in Cary is a pretty pleasant place to eat. It's small and cozy with big posters of Turkey on the walls. The menu is a good size with plenty of sandwiches and platters so just about everyone can find something they like. Right off the bat the most interesting thing about the place was the waiter. He discouraged us from ordering an appetizer, saying it was too big and we didn't need it. Okay. Sure. No appetizers for us.

I ordered a lamb pita, Dan got a mixed grill plate and Wes got gyro meat on bulgar rice. The lamb was good, spicy but still recognizable as lamb and the bread was fantastic. Covered in sesame seeds it had a crispy crust and such a great feel to it. Dan and Wes has nothing but good things to say about their food, although Wes did say that he was expecting a sandwich instead of just meat on rice. He said it tasted good, but would have been better with the bread. Of course I can't think of anything that wouldn't have been better on the bread.

The other really impressive part of the meal was the hot tea they kept serving us. It showed up in tiny glasses on beautiful saucers and smelled like hot tea. Strong and comforting, it made the whole meal seem less like coworkers on their lunch hour and more like friends meeting for a relaxing weekend lunch.

So while the food was good the tea was the big experience of the day. Maybe it was the tiny tea spoons, maybe it was the saucers or maybe it was as simple as a perfectly brewed cup of tea with some of my favorite people. I'll need to experiment more before I can draw any conclusions there.

Sick again for the first time.

2008-11-13T04:05:00.001-08:00

Lately it seems like I've been getting sick, getting well and getting sick again. So after much persuasion from Dan and a dear friend who kept mentioning I might have pneumonia, I take myself to the doctor thinking what I have is some pesky cold. Two hours later I'm leaving with four prescriptions, a shot in the ass, an appointment to return next week and a lecture on going to the doctor when I feel bad. The worst part is the appointment next week is to make sure I don't have pneumonia. HA. I feel a round of I told you so's is coming, but at least I have an reason for my poor performance in TKD last night.

So today holds for me a lot of sleeping and maybe some working from home. I have some documentation I need to finish for Icarus that I think I can do from home and a script to finish tonight. I hope i can do it, typing this has sort of work me out.

Got my @$& Kicked.

2008-11-12T03:52:00.000-08:00

I had Taekwondo last night, most of it was practice for the test on Sat. If i haven't mentioned it, I'm testing for 9th Gup Saturday afternoon. I've got my forms, blocks and kicks down, so I think I'll be okay That part was a lot of fun even.

Then we did target sparing. I was not ready.

I was training with Master Kim. He is amazing, always happy and helpful but I really think he just felt sorry for me last night. There were only two of us in the line, ever other line had three or four people. so we had to keep going. It was so intense and I am so out of shape. Master Kim even asked me if I was okay. I felt so out of place - everyone else looked like they were doing just fine. Dan told me later that one of the other student had to stop while sparing to take a break. I know I'm supposed to be going at my own pace and not paying attention to other students but that made me feel so much better.

Tomorrow night is another hard class, Tues and Thurs are the Adult classes. They're pretty serious, the all ages classes focus more on technical style. I actually really enjoy both classes.

I was really scared when we first signed up for White Tiger. I didn't know what we were getting into, if my knees were going to take it, but I'm starting to feel like I can't live without it.

www.whitetigertkd.com

Day of Nothing

2008-11-08T13:57:00.000-08:00

I had big plans for today - get up, go to the Duke Lemur Center, write all day, play Rock Band with friends all night.

What I actually did is get up, go to Lemur Center, play Fallout 3 and sleep. Ugh. I hate wasting time. So now to make up some lost time I have a fabulous cup of tea (Teavana's Sour Cherry Serenade) and Bizarre Foods on the TV (for future reference I call my TV Big Pretty. It's big and goes very well with the PS3) so I should be able to settle in with ease.

I've discovered that to do my best writing I need the distraction of comforting TV. Law and Order works best for me second only to a food network special or trashy VH1 reality shows. I've tried to work to Sci-Fi Original movies but I get way too sucked in.

Well, that's enough procrastinating.

I'm a horrible blogger

2008-11-07T03:55:00.000-08:00

I sort of forgot I had this blog. Oops. Well I guess it'll be ok, since I'll ive done this week is work and work out. Taekwondo on Sun Tues Thurs and Tonight, Gym Thurs and Sat for lifting. I really hope this gets me in shape. I'm tired of being fat.

I'm working on a new freelance project thats taking up all my reserve brain power. It's not my normal genre - about as removed as you can get actually. So i think my nerves are getting the better of me. I know I can do this...but...I'm writing a sequel for a beloved award winning family movie - If i get the dialogue wrong i might not recover.

Happy Halloween!!!

2008-10-31T16:03:00.000-07:00

So we had our big halloween party at work today and it totally rocked! I made part of the costumes for my team and they were a big hit, so much so we won second in the costume contest.

I'm totally happy with that - the guy who won first really had a killer costume, full armor, cloak and everything.

My friend Mike went as Altair from Assassin's Creed -that was an awesome costume too. Really, everyone did a great job, it was really impressive.

I think the best part was the impromptu dance off between Alex - who came as Rocky and Bullwinkle and Josh who was a homonculus. I was planning to dance with them but I stared laughing with delight so hard I had to stop. It was a really great party.

Then I found out I got a freelance job I really really really wanted - more info on that soon - and on top of that I had a great Taekwondo class.

Since this day can't get any better I'm going to take a bath and go to bed!

I am a bad daughter

2008-10-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

So, I got an email today from my Mom. Apparently I had forgotten not one but two birthdays, my mom's and my dad's.

The thing is normally I'm really good at the whole birthday thing. I like shopping for cards and sending them out early - complete with witty sayings. I was shocked, not just that I had forgotten, but that it took an email to remind me.

Needless to say, there was a phone call with much apologizing and groveling. After that my mom and I had a great conversation, up until she told me one of my favorite uncles had a stroke. He's doing ok, but it's scary. He's this great big bear of a guy, native Alaskan. The kind of guy who's always laughing and getting in trouble. I can't really imagine my aunt without him. It looks like he's going to be ok, so maybe I won't have to for a while.

The Bandwagon, I am on it.

2008-10-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

I think I'm the last person in the world to start a blog. See this whole time I've been telling people that I don't think anyone would care what I had to say, of course the truth is I'm a lousy typists and I'm totally afraid of people judging me.

But a dear friend of mine started a weight-loss blog, and while I'm totally not that brave I figured I could at least share my opinions on the important things, movies, TV, my cats. Maybe that wont go horribly wrong.

Wish me luck.