Eat at Joe's!

Oops

Well, I lost access to the e-mail address I use here.  I removed it from the blog sidebar, but I'm not looking forward to fixing other stuff.  OTOH, I don't write here anymore anyway, right?  :(

Lost Spirits "Navy Style Rum"

First impression on taking out the black plastic stopper: brown sugar, even before the alcohol shows up.  On further sniffs, I start to think molasses instead of brown sugar, but I'm not sure what my nose thinks the difference is.  Bottle is tall and slender-ish, with a long neck and no punt to speak of, just a minor concavity below a really thick bottom.  Label is a parchment color with dark blue and black writing and ornate ornamentation, including a skull, a naked young boy, and a sailing ship.  :)  It's quite attractive, and states 68% ABV.  

Spirit (maybe two teaspoons in an open-form glass) is dark brown in the bottle and glass, but not devoid of transparency.  More brown sugar on the nose, with a hint of maple.  Swirling brings out some smoke on the nose and drops spilled on my shorts.  :)  Now that I get the smoke, I get a lot of it.  There's a sharp smell I'm having trouble putting my finger on, or (again) it might be the alcohol fooling me.  If I said it was something chemical, you'd think I meant it negatively, and I don't, so let's just move on.  :)

First sip: I think my blood pressure just went up about five points.  ;)  This spirit is not meek.  The brown sugar/molasses is right up front with the alcohol, and lingers.  Something like the saline/black olive I mentioned in my St. George post previously wants to come out here, but reminds me more (and again, I risk turning someone off by saying something I don't mean as a negative at all) of iodine, perhaps?  There's a lot of stuff going on in here, as one would expect.

Risking hell and damnation, I thin the spirit out with drops of cold filtered water, and approximately double the volume of liquid in the glass.  If anything, it smells sweeter than before.  On tasting, the rum doesn't change too much with the water.  It's obviously weaker, but about the only other generalization I can make is that the organic-y flavors are damped down and the mineral-ly flavors are exposed a bit more.  

I really wish it were easy to get some of this, or any other Lost Spirits products.  The North Carolina ABC WWW site shows zero products by this distiller.  You'll have to venture out of the state to pick this up if you live here.  

http://www.lostspirits.net/

St. George "California Agricole Rum"

First impression on taking out the stopper (an artificial cork set in a wooden enlargement): saline black olive. There's a green note under the olive that I assume on further exploration will resolve into the grassy notes this style of rum is known for.  There is of course alcohol in here too, but it doesn't blow the back of your head off.

Spirit is perfectly clear in the bottle. The bottle is also perfectly clear glass, styled like some sort of apothecary container, and a little more squat than the average liquor bottle. Label looks like old currency or certificates, and states 43% ABV.

Poured a couple teaspoons of the spirit into an open-form glass. After a few minutes, the same black olive note is still predominant, with the earlier green note slightly subdued. The beginnings of a sweet smell peek out from underneath. On swirling, a few tiny legs peek out; more swirling brings out lots of very thin legs. The spirit wants to stick to the walls of the glass more than I would have expected.

On first taste, the alcohol and black olive are still there, but the olive is less present than I would have thought.  It's an unaged spirit, but with not quite so much burn as I was expecting.  Maybe my small sips help.  :)  A hint of brown sugar may have just been my mind playing tricks on me.  But some sweetness does come forth, along with a little pepper that I'm having trouble making sure isn't the alcohol burn.

Adding a little cold, filtered water, diluting my remainder down about half-way or a little more: More sweetness comes out, and mouth-filling... well, something pleasantly oleaginous (without any actual fat or oil being present, of course).  Letting it roll around in my mouth, I get more of a drying sensation at the top of my mouth that I noticed before and now realize I was ignoring.  There's a new, pleasant mineral note to go with the drying sensation.  As I finish the last few drops, I realize I'm really looking forward to having a decent amount of this in a real drink.  :)

Edit:  For the North Carolina folks, I unfortunately have not seen this company's spirits at all in local ABC stores (the bottle I have is a gift brought from out of state).  The State ABC site shows three other St. George products, but all of them are gins.  

http://www.stgeorgespirits.com/

Dashi Is Open

Dashi is open:

Dashi Ramen

It's just inside the loop, on East Chapel Hill Street between Rue Cler and Mangum Street.  Coincidentally, I ran into this story today, and since Durham now has an izakaya: 

6 SIGNS YOU LEARNED TO DRINK IN JAPAN

N&O Best Restaurants In Triangle

There are a lot of great places on the N&O's list of best Triangle restaurants, which was published yesterday:

We find the best Triangle restaurants for 2015

I was particularly pleased to see Aaron Benjamin in a photo of the front of his new restaurant, Gocciolina.  Aaron won best restaurant in the Triangle as a newcomer of sorts: it's not the first place he's worked, but the first restaurant he's opened.  Congratulations are due, I think.

The N&O's article continues with listings of gold and silver medal winners, a list of "best in class" winners by cuisine, and a final list of best new restaurants (where Aaron also landed).  

I think it's clear that the Triangle has a lot of good food to offer.  I haven't even eaten at half or more of the places on this list (particularly the Raleigh restaurants).  I imagine most of us have a lot of exploring to do, and then a lot of arguing over the results to enjoy.  :)  At least it's a pleasant, first-world-problem type of argument.  So go read, go eat, and have fun.  And congratulations to the scores of other restaurants listed.  You have a lot of competition, and you came out ahead.  

Just Another Day At The Grocery Store

I do wish the Plugra had been on sale.  Although it's 8 pounds of butter, I still left some for the next person though.  ;)

By the way, it's November.  You know what that means....

Heavenly Buffaloes, Or Why I Love Durham, Part 23

I'll be straight-up with you: one of my worst predictions ever was about Dain's Place.  I went in there not long after they opened, and told a friend I'd give them about 6 months before they closed.  I figured they wouldn't make it through the summer.  But years later, they're doing well.  And I'm glad for it, because I enjoy going there.  I was wrong, big-time.  So what.  I'm wrong a lot.  :)

Now about a block away, Dain of Dain's Place has opened Heavenly Buffaloes, a takeout (and delivery) wing place that sells... well... (oh come on, guess!)... wings, waffle fries, and beer.  Ok, so he's got a few other small things like sodas, brownies, and celery, but the three core items are... well, you can look back about as easily as I can type it.  It's that simple.  He's a block away from Dain's Place, and less than a block off East Campus.  Open 6 days a week (currently closed Tuesdays), with some nights being open until 3 am.  

I think it's going to work.  :)

Seriously, one thing Durham could stand is more late night food, so there's one reason this might work.  Another: Dain has a proven winner already with his focused approach at Dain's.  No real seating might be a problem, but on the other hand, who enjoys going to the Cosmic Cantina and sitting down?  Nevertheless, the Cosmic has done well too with a focused, close-to-Duke model, and I love them, even though their dining area has about as much charm as a barn.  So why not no dining area at all?  One possible negative indication: several other businesses have failed in the same spot in front of Books Do Furnish A Room on West Markham.  But I think it's going to work, and I haven't even been there yet.  :)  We'll see.  Early indications are that it's good food.  If you have an opinion, let us know.  

Durham is fun.  :)

Heavenly Buffaloes

1807 West Markham Avenue

Durham, NC  27705

Phone: 919 237 2358

http://heavenlybuffaloes.com/

 

I Scream, You Scream

Would kinda like to try this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/02/dining/the-only-ice-cream-recipe-youll-ever-need.html

especially with some of these variations:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/01/dining/the-master-ice-cream-recipe.html

 

North Durham Gets Aaron Benjamin's Gocciolina

It's been pretty hard hoeing for anyone trying to do nice food in Durham north of I-85.  The last I remember was Patrick's in the old Ole NC Bar-B-Que spot at North Duke Mall, which died an unnatural death at the hands of its landlord.  The farthest north I currently think of as decent food in Durham is Watts Grocery, which isn't even north of Club Boulevard.  

Enter Aaron Benjamin, who used to be chef at both Pop's and Rue Cler near downtown.  Aaron spent a year or so studying his craft in Italy; I also remember seeing Aaron working at both Pizzeria Toro and the now-departed Rockwood Filling Station by Scott Howell.  I heard a few months ago that Aaron was planning something, but very quickly thereafter Gocciolina opened, earlier this month.  Hours are currently Tuesday through Saturday, 5:30 to 10 pm for dinner.  Gocciolina currently has beer and wine, with a liquor license still pending.  Aaron told me there was a restaurant of some sort there before he opened, so that made it easier for him to get going, which is nice.  

Durham has an interesting history with Italian restaurants.  On the one hand, we've had Pop's for a long time now, and been very happy to have it.  On the other, we don't have a lot else:  Both of the chains Olive Garden and Romano's Macaroni Grill have bailed, leaving us to go all the way to Southpoint and Maggiano's Little Italy, and that's just for chain Italo-American.  Old local places have also fallen by the wayside.  Suddenly now, we have Gocciolina in north Durham, with The Boot scheduled to open before fall in Rockwood, and The Rollout somewhere, but currently operating in pop-up mode out of Tom Ferguson's Rise at Southpoint.  (N.b.: all these non-chain restaurants are linked in the sidebar.)  It should be self-evident that Durham could use more good Italian food.  And I guess location matters, which is what I'm scared about with Gocciolina.  Are people going to drive up Guess Road past Carver Street to go to Aaron's place, or are they gonna order a delivery pizza and call it a night?  It's not hard to get there.  On the other hand, Honey's just gave up its long, tenured existence for a McDonald's and a BP convenience store (I'm not saying Honey's was fine dining, but it was often not bad diner food, and it was open 24/7), and it was just barely north of 85.  So, Durham, what gives?  We've been friends for a long time now.  Are you locals gonna come out of those adjoining neighborhoods in droves?  Are you folks farther away gonna get on 85 and drive less than a mile north up that nicely widened Guess Road to get there?  If you need help getting there, it's just to the right of the Guess Road ABC store.  ;)

I'd like to say it depends on the food.  And it does, somewhat, but I'm not so stupid as to predict Aaron's success on just that.  It seems like Aaron is making his pasta, which is a tribute to dedication if I've ever seen one (I love working with flour, but I hate rolling things out).  I hear rumors of curing meats in the future.  The word is getting out: I've seen news stories, and they have a Facebook page.  Gocciolina's WWW site is bare bones [edit: website upgraded now], but gets you their phone number, and a picture of what looks like some pretty good spaghetti carbonara.  The menu I saw looked tripartite: appetizers up top, most of which will come to table almost immediately; a second course of pasta in the middle, and I do mean a pasta course, somewhere between an appetizer and a main course in size; an entrée at the bottom, also a bit smaller both in size and price than what I imagine most Americans will be expecting.  There are also a small number of Italianesque desserts, and homemade grissini on the table.  

I say give it a shot.  They're still in shakedown mode, in my opinion, so things are gonna change.  Contact info is below.  

Gocciolina

3314 Guess Road

Durham, NC   27705-2106

Phone: 919 973 4089

http://www.gocciolina.com/

Of course if any of my current army of readers has already made it there, you're welcome to leave comments with tales of rapture, indifference, horror, or just plain yeses and nos.  All are welcome.  

Mother's/Graduation Day In Durham

If you have any sense today, you'll stay out of just about any restaurant in Durham and Chapel Hill, and probably Wake County too.  If you had the foresight to make reservations a year ago, well, congratulations.  

Ten Years

Kinda hard to believe:

First post, ten years ago

Pompieri Pizza Open

Pompieri Pizza is now open for business.  They've been moved into the "Newly Open" section in the sidebar.  Go check it out.  

Interesting tidbit: they make their own tonic for bar drinks.  :)

Another Day, Another Social Media Platform

"Life is short, but the days are long."  Somehow, that seems to mean that we should get our mittens into every possible crevice, in case we miss anything while we're in a hurry, sticking our mittens in other crevices.

Ahem.  Anyway, I have a presence on Google+ as Joseph D. Eater.  You will find me there on occasion.  You may find me there more than you find me here, or maybe not.  I certainly prefer G+ to FB.  It's certainly easy to drop items of interest there.  

I stuck a link in the top section of the sidebar.  

Bad Doughnut!

Ladies and gentlemen:  From Rebel Donut in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Breaking Bad doughnut!

"This 'Breaking Bad' Blue Meth Doughnut From New Mexico Is Perfect And Everything Is Wonderful" at BuzzFeed

This Is A Real Thing: Fifty Shades of Chicken

I read a little bit of it today and it's... um... saucy.  :)  The recipes looked fine, but I didn't look closely.  

The link above is to Random House, but the book itself has its own WWW site: 

Fifty Shades of Chicken

"Fowler"?  Really?  :)  Also, how come this has been out for 10 months and I'm just now finding out?  

Turkey

I think fall has come early this year.  It smelled like it to me a few weeks ago, and it smelled like it again today.  Not much in the way of tomatoes this year, but at least there was rain, and relief from the punishing heat.

But fall means Thanksgiving — and Thanksgiving is an entire 84 days away — but I've already started thinking about turkey.  Thus prompted, I pulled out a grilling book to look up a turkey recipe, and found the following amusement:

 

WILD TURKEY I

If it hasn't already been broken, crack the government seal and lay the bottle over a moderate fire.  When just warm, sit on the back porch and serve with cool branch water, sardines, and saltine crackers.  Leave some in the bottom of the bottle for tomorrow and stay off the telephone.  

(From The Grilling Encyclopedia by A. Cort Sinnes, used w/o permission.)

 

Fall also makes me think about brown liquor.  :)

Ugh

I just put away over 1000 unread pieces of e-mail.  If I missed you, I apologize.   I should go back to just letting people leave me comments.