Eat at Joe's!

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/

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.  

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.  :)

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.  :)

Lost And Found

Long-time readers of this blog will remember when I occasionally used to post a comic or three, often from Chris Onstad's Achewood.  Chris's output has fallen off, unfortunately, but I still check by occasionally to see what's going on.  Still no Achewood, but further searching revealed a couple things:  Chris and his wife have apparently split up, which is enough to screw up anyone's creative juices.  But Chris's have oozed out in another direction, as he's now the resident food critic for the Portland Mercury.  This is good: those of you who keep up with the guy know of his increasing interest in food, and of course understand that he writes well and is funny.  This all collides pleasingly in his reviews.  Even though I'm probably not going to be going to Portland any time soon, I still enjoy the reviews, and see the humor and agile mind behind the words.  Thanks, Chris.  Good to hear from you.  :)

Mystery Meat, Vegetables, And Fruit Juice?

I realize this article has a hysterical edge to it, but still:

"Food Fraud: Labels on What We Eat Often Mislead" at National Geographic

Rat meat and mountain zebra?  I guess that's fine if you want it; if you think you're getting goat or beef, it's not.

Bob Fowler, R.I.P.

I was really sorry to read today in the N&O that Bob Fowler, the last family proprietor of Fowler's, died earlier this month:  

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/07/10/3020680/robert-l-fowler-jr.html

I liked Bob, and liked talking to him when I went in Fowler's.  He told me once there was never any telling what he might be doing in the store at any particular time — helping customers, writing up an ad, or "swabbing out the john."  

There was a long time in Durham where there was not much in the way of resources for food geeks.  The big exception was Fowler's.  Bob was the one who successfully took a small family grocery store through the transition to a gourmet resource, with (at one time) the best wine selection between DC and Atlanta, and maybe beyond.  

Bob, I still miss your store, and we'll miss you.  

De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum

When I was a kid, I had a problem with being easily sucked into magazine polls: the type article where you answer 17 questions, then find out that you'll turn into a serial killer, have tooth cancer, Socialist tendencies, a liking for cheap frozen pizza or maybe just cheap beer....  

That tropism crops back up occasionally, and I think this Deadspin ranking triggered it:

36 Cheap American Beers, Ranked

It's not a poll, per se — actually I don't know how they came up with it — but it caught my eye because regular Coors is ranked 3rd out of 36 "cheap American" beers.  I've never had #1 or 2, or really a lot of them.  But I've had a lot of cheap Coors in cans, especially when I could get 18 or 24 cans for, say, $12.  Michael Jackson — no, not that dead one, this dead one — kind of agreed with me, giving the lowly beer two stars in one of his beer books, which was better than most any other widely available American "premium" lager I could find listed in there.  

But almost everyone I know hates Coors, even when they prefer, say, PBR or Bud or whatever.  I don't get that, but it's ok.  De gustibus non est disputandum.  If you like something, good.  If you like it and it's cheap, or good for you, or easy to make, great.  If all of the previous are true, you should find a way to live off whatever that substance is.  ;)  

Hope you all had a great 4th of July, and had plenty of cheap beer.  :-D

My Newest, Hottest Kitchen Appliance

... isn't an appliance at all.  It's a woodworking bench:

I'd really gotten tired of trying to find the right sideboard/work table for the kitchen.  So I gave up and bought the wrong one.  http://www.harborfreight.com/60-inch-workbench-93454.html was about $160.  It's mostly oak, 60"x20", and counter height, which fits well where it needs to go.  The drawers are small — they're really meant for small tools — but they'll still be useful.  

Now if I can figure out what, if anything, I want to do about the bench dog holes, I'll be set.  I figure I can use the tail vise to crack walnuts.  ;)

No, It's "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees"

"... Now it's time to turn my attention to developing Rise #2.  If you or someone you know is a developer in the Cary area..."

God bless Tom Ferguson.  He knows Cary needs something, and he's going to try to give it to them good and hard help them out.  Maybe some culture will be just what they needed [for my extensive out-of-town readership, the following might help explain the situation in North Carolina's Research Triangle: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Cary, and I'm not bitter.  ;-) ].

Alcohol: It's Not Just For Breakfast Anymore

Pretty much everyone and their mom has posted this article by Eric Asimov, featuring Michael Maller's smiling face behind the bar at Mateo (behind the NYT semi-paywall again).  It's not so much about NC wine, which isn't even mentioned.  It's about our food and wine culture here in Durham and the Triangle, one that has taken off like a rocket in the past 30 years.  I love it.  

But I did feel a little sad that our own beer and winemaking areas aren't given more notice (that's not going to be Asimov's focus for this article in the NYT, so no criticism to him).  All legal wine and beer production in the country had to start from scratch after Prohibition was over in 1933, but the Great Depression and WWII kept the industry down until the 40s.  When it did, it was largely the industrial producers—the ones who could serve an entire country—who took off.  A lot of smaller rivals were left behind in the dirt.  They stayed behind.  Not too long ago, Weeping Radish had a brewery off the corner of Duke and Morgan Street.  They didn't make it (which may have had more to do with their not-so good restaurant than anything).  Wineries like Duplin Wines have been going since the 70s, but with their focus on inexpensive wines appealing to what they feel are local tastes, they're not likely to see much more than local recognition.

But it's better now.  Durham itself has three breweries, and seems to have no problem supporting them all; North Carolina has over 60 breweries and brewpubs.  Wineries are doing well too, with three American Viticultural Areas currently recognized by (and I can't believe I'm saying this this way) the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.  The AVAs are all west of us, near the Yadkin River valley, but wine and beer are made all over the state.  So, just in case you can't find a North Carolina producer of beer or wine:

NC Brewers Guild brewery map

NC Winegrowers Association wine region map

The beer map has a list of breweries on it.  For lists of North Carolina wineries, you'll need to pull down a menu or two from near the top of the page.  But for both beer and wine, find someone in the state, try them, and see if you like them.  When you find a match, tell us about it, will you?  :)

Preventing Celiac: You Might Be Doing It Wrong

There seems to be an epidemic of celiac disease going on.  I keep running into more and more people with the disease, and more and more products are proclaiming themselves gluten-free, as if gluten were some kind of plutonium.  It's not: it's a complex of proteins found in wheat, and possibly in other foods based on wheat-like grains.  But to some celiac sufferers, it might as well be plutonium, because that's how strongly they need to stay away from it.  Others not as much: it might be worth it to them to eat an occasional slice of pizza or a doughnut.  But the disease does seem to be on the rise.

It turns out to be complicated.  There's a genetic marker, but most people with the genetic marker don't have the disease.  The current, easier test is to look for certain related auto-antibodies.  (Grabbing a villi sample out of someone's gut and seeing if the villi are impaired, along with other characteristic gut problems, will also tell you if there's a problem.)  But there seems to be an environmental factor.

Lately, some people have been avoiding gluten due to a non-specific feeling that eating too much gluten might be a problem.  This disregards the fact that folks have been eating wheat and related grains for thousands of years.  But who knows: some folks have similar sounding problems with lactose and milk, except that's a totally separate type problem (some folks lose the ability to generate lactase, some don't, but it's also partially dependent on how much lactose you have to deal with).

Now, guess what?  Someone says that withdrawing gluten, especially to children, might be exactly the wrong thing to do: 

"Who Has the Guts for Gluten?" at the NYT (semi-paywall: sorry)

The upshot is that, well, it's complicated.  :)  But it may have to do with gut bacteria, breastfeeding, and not withdrawing gluten from kids' diets.  The good stuff in the article is down toward the bottom, where they start talking about a veritable epidemic of celiac in Sweden in the 70s, and what probably caused it: a decrease in breastfeeding coupled with a decrease in gluten fed to infants immediately post-nursing.  So less gluten caused more gluten intolerance.  

The jury is still out, but getting rid of gluten willy-nilly doesn't seem like a good idea anymore.  That's not much help for current sufferers, but more knowledge about disease is always a good thing.  

Salsa Assousa, or WWRE #3

When I started the "What We Really Eat" category, I intended it to chronicle things I really ate or thought people really ate, but was too ashamed to list as something I'd actually made.  Now I notice I've screwed that category all up.  Oh well.  

Anyway, I'm not much of a Mexican food person, and I sure as hell don't know how to cook it properly.  But I've eaten it a lot of this, er, "salsa" with bags of tortilla chips since my friend, Special Agent "Ass-O-USA," taught me how to do this.  My friend Maura says it's the only thing that makes jarred salsa tolerable.  It also makes me feel better about hauling a bag of tortilla chips to a party, and you can usually find some sort of cream cheese and salsa at whatever grocery store you stop at.  

So....  Salsa Assousa:

• 1 container salsa, pico de gallo, picante sauce, homemade salsa....  The possibilities are endless here
• 1 container cream cheese
• 1 bag tortilla chips

1. Find decent-sized clean bowl.
2. Put some or all of cream cheese into bottom of bowl.  If it's soft, that'll make it easier to grub it out amidst the salsa.  You can buy whatever kind of flavored cheese you want to try, or use some spuriously-generated fat free cheez, or screw this up however you like: you're eating a bunch of stuff out of bags and cans here, so I say go for whatever floats your boat.
3. Pour as much or as little tomato product over the cream cheese as you want.
4. Open bag of chips.
5. Dig in.

If you eat this, I'm wondering what you ran out of first — chips, salsa, or cheese?  Of course you can always make more....  :)

My First Recipe

... aaand my first post of the year.  I've also never shared a video before: its about the first thing I ever learned to cook, and something my girlfriend taught me how to do 53 years ago.  I'll never forget it.  It's particularly easy, and you probably have the stuff around to make it with, in case you're stranded at home during the current spate of bad weather:

 

Hope you enjoyed that, and enjoy your weekend.  Don't stay out too late tonight.  ;)

Merry Christmas

Only three foods, two sauces (one of which came with the ham, but wasn't horrible), one more person, and a partridge in a pear tree [click to embiggen]:

But it was special.  :)

Merry Christmas.  Hope it was great.  

How Not To Have A Happy Thanksgiving

Probably not Happy Thanksgiving fare, whether you eat their soon-to-be vanished products or not: 

Innovation long in mix for Hostess Brands at the San Francisco Chronicle

Apparently folks are running out to clean stores out of Ho-Hos, Wonder Bread, and other Hostess products.  Or perhaps the unfortunately-named Bimbo Bakeries will buy Hostess trademarks and other IP, and continue to make, um, stuff.  :)  Happens all the time, fortunately or unfortunately.

Since I'll likely be occupied tomorrow, let me take this time to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, and tell you that I seriously do miss you.  I hope you don't have to work tomorrow, but whether you do or not, I hope you enjoy yourselves.  

Beaujolais Nouveau Time

Beaujolais nouveau was released about 1 hour 45 minutes ago by my watch — damn, I'm running behind.  :)  My understanding is that it's generally released worldwide at 12:01 am Thursday morning.  So tomorrow night, for those of us in the US, is time to get your drink on of the stuff, if that's your bag.  I do usually use it as an excuse to go eat at either of Durham's French-oriented restaurants: Rue Cler and Vin Rouge.  Enjoy yourselves, or not, as you choose.  After that, it's the damn holiday season thing which I will not yet mention, which will bring more opportunities for food and drink.  I hope you enjoy as many as you can.  

It's Magic

Click on the image to see the comic at a reasonable size.

Reliable Cheese Closing

The downtown food scene just got a little less bright:

Reliable Cheese closing

Dammit.

Paleo-Strangulation

At the Washington Post, Dr. George F. Will opines on the gagging of North Carolina blogger Steve Cooksey and his opinions on the "paleolithic" or paleo diet:

"Bureaucrats declare war on free advice"

More Wine

A new wine store downtown — how can that be a bad thing?  :)

 "New wine shop opening downtown" in the Herald-Sun

One of the partners in the downtown store is Nathan Vandergrift, who ran the bar at Rue Cler for a while some nights shortly after they opened, probably because his brother John made him do it.  ;)  Seriously, I really enjoyed being able to talk to Nathan during that period, and really appreciated his depth of knowledge about wine.  I'm hoping this will be good.  Downtown pretty much rocks now, doesn't it?  :-D

The store should be open around the middle of October. 

From Tybee Island, Georgia

Got out a bit this past weekend (click to embiggen):