Christmas Gifts (for others and for yourself)

Back in the good old days, when I was writing a weekly column for The News and Record, I always posted a recommended gifts column about this time every year. Since I don't have that venue anymore, I'll provide a general recommendation here: my favorite place for food and cooking related purchases is The Extra Ingredient in Friendly Shopping Center. If they don't have it, you don't need it! Also, take a look at Chad Smith's website, GuilfordHillSpice.com. He blends salt-free spices, which are sold at The Extra Ingredient as well as online, and he is an excellent waiter at Salvino, one of my favorite area restaurants. Consider a gift certficate from a local restaurant as a gift!

Pimiento Cheese

Local product, highly recommended: Howling Good Pimiento Cheese, from Wolf Daddy Foods (wolfdaddyfoods.com). This comes from Amanda and Richard Lucas, who formerly owned a restaurant that I really liked. Go online, or pick up in person from Amanda at the Greensboro Farmers' Market on Yanceyville Street, Saturday mornings.

Christmas Season at Butcher and Bull in Winston-Salem

I wrote about a meal at Butcher and Bull (in downtown Marriott) in June (see "Older Posts" below). Starting today (December 3) through the end of the year, the restaurant is displayng Christmas decor developed in collaboration with Miracle pop-up bar. In addition, the bar and kitchen are introducing a new menu of Holiday cocktails and small-plate entrees.  (Photos below provided by restaurant.)

Here's the Snowball Old Fashioned drink on display.

This is Jingle Balls Nog.

And here's the Christmapolitan cocktail

Holiday food items include festive small plates such as crisp Elf Ornaments of fried macaroni and cheese balls topped with tomato jam, Reindeer Food charcuterie plate, Christmas in Hawaii wagyu beef sliders, and North Pole Steakhouse bistro steak and fries.

The Katharine Brasserie in Winston-Salem

The Katharine Brasserie & Bar (401 North Main Street, Winston-Salem 27101, (336) 761-0203, katharinebrasserie.com) is located in the historic Reynolds Building, now the Kimpton Cardinal luxury hotel. Ambience is unique- an art deco French brasserie, the concept chosen in homage to and named after Katherine Reynolds, who loved her travels in France.

Dining Room, photo by Amber Renea Photography

Executive Chef Adam Barnett, who trained under illustrious names such as Eric Ripert and Patrick O’Connell, introduces new menus every quarter. Additional, special menus will be in place for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The fall-winter menu is stellar. This restaurant is hitting its stride. I now rank it among the elite.

Executive Chef Adam Barnett, photo  by Amber Renea Photography

(Food photos below by John Batchelor, just cell phone shots from table.)

My wife and I started a tasting meal with a cheese plate. French styles are sourced in the US, from Georgia and North Carolina. These are all pleasantly mellow in flavor. The arugula salad in the center is lightly dressed, the toasts crisp.

The Crab Salad is flavored with preserved lemon, herb aioli, and celery root. It is light, the taste of fresh crab subtly undergirded by chives, sharpened by the lemon. This is really special!

Mussels Mariniere are delightfully fresh and tender, no grit, no muddy taste, resting in broth of white wine, garlic, and creme fraiche, with slices of celery and fennel. Seriously flavorful!

(Note that the entrees below are part of a tasting menu, therefore small portions; 

if you order as a main course, the serving size is larger.)

Salmon is sauteed, its crisp crust giving way to tender interior. It is surrounded by melted leeks and celery, red and purple potatoes, all accented with a mustard buerre blanc.

Trout is served with its crisp skin side up, over horseradish creme fraiche, braised greens, and sweet potato hash. The trout itself is moist and tender; it picks up a subtle accent from the mild horseradish.

Ricotta Gnudi combines tender duck confit and gnudi- similar to gnocchi but based on ricotta cheese- plus greens, butternut squash, and hen of the woods mushroom on top. The mushroom looks weird and tastes great!

Creme Brulee is both light and rich. Couldn't wait to take that first bite!

LSU Press

LSU Press is launching a crowdfunding campaign to  support their academic publishing. They published one of my books, Race and Education in North Carolina: from Segregation to Desegregation. (Let me know if you want an autographed copy. I sell for $35, which is $10 off list price of $45.) This is one of the best academic publishers in the US, and LSU's football team is pretty good, too! What a game with Alabama! Go to link above to join me in contributing.

Taco Mama

Had dinner at Taco Mama (2168 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro 27408, 336-790-1987, tacomamaonline.com), a very casual, college neighborhood feeling sort of place. You order and pay at counter, then they deliver to your table. It's a chain/franchise operation that started in Alabama.

It's a no-risk experience. A long list of margaritas made me indecisive. Server said, "No problem." I told them I just wanted a simple, traditional margarita, not one of the fancy variations on the list. "Try this," she replied, handing me a little taste. The frozen margaritas come out of machines that constantly stir the ingredients. I did not like them. Everybody at my table identified a chemical aftertaste. So we all opted for beer, and that's easy to choose. (They had also provided a little taste of the wines.)

But we did like the food. It's simple and inexpensive. Deliveries come out fast. I got The Hippie Fisherman, a burrito filled with flounder, shrimp, ancho chile slaw, avocado chunks, tomatoes, and a poblano pepper tartar sauce. My wife tried the ground chorizo sausage tacos, and we both really liked those. Thin chips, not heavily salted, and tomato salsa round out the servings.

I'll go back on occasion to try other things. Taco Mama seems to be a good choice for an inexpensive, casual meal. 

Sokol Blosser Wine Dinner at Cafe Pasta (updated after event)

On November 5, I hosted a wine dinner at Cafe Pasta and Grille (305 State Street, 336-272-1308, cafepasta.com), featuring selections from Sokol Blosser, an Oregon winery. This is one of my favorites! Their wines are enjoyable by themselves, but they are especially food friendly, and not expensive. Wines were available to order at the end of the dinner. (PS- at a great VALUE !)

Here is a link to a Sokol Blosser winery video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVK1ihsr0YM

Cost for dinner, including wines, was $50. Watch this space for future such events!

First course- Artichoke and Spinach dip, with Pinot Gris wine.

 

Second course- Chicken Piccatta over linguine, with Evolution white. I love this wine!

We moved on to Seared Salmon and mixed fall vegetables, with Dundee Hills pinot noir. This embodies the unique qualities of Oregon pinot noir.

Dessert was cheesecake, made by Ray Essa's mother. 

My favorite cheesecake with a wine that is really special.

Triad Margarita Wars

How I Spent Saturday (9/21/19)

My wife and I judged the Yes! Weekly margarita wars on Saturday afternoon. For us, this was a blind tasting. Personnel from the newspaper brought margaritas from each of the sixteen restaurants that entered the competition, and we labelled them by number. At no time, until the end, did we know who made what. We did not try to drink all of sixteen full sized drinks- a recipe for disaster. Instead, a sip or two established a clear initial impression.We marked each number on our score sheet with two ratings- one from my wife, the other from me. As it turned out, we agreed each time (unusual for us!).

Two criteria emerged right away. Some were just too sweet for our taste. And others just did not taste like a margarita. Drinks with upfront cucumber flavor might well be very good drinks, and we thought they were very good, but we just did not consider cucumber the appropriate primary flavor for a margarita. This Round One sampling eliminated ten of the sixteen entries. We tasted the other six in more detail, and that left us with two clear finalists- number 3 and number 10.

But both were getting a little watery by this time, especially number 3, since it was one of the first to arrive, vs. number 10, which was served to us about 15 minutes later. Ice melts. So we asked for a second serving of those two. Both were quite good. But halfway into this tasting round, a clear winner emerged. We found out after we turned in our scorecard that The Treasure Club had landed in second place, and Frida's, a new Mexican restaurant in Kernersville, had won.

It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

The lineup!

Aqua, in Morehead City

Aqua is one of my favorite restaurants. Most of the menu is tapas and other small portions, plus several full sized entrees. The gnocchi (potato dumplings) are coated in basil pesto. The tomato pie exudes a rich cheese flavor. As you might expect from the location, this kitchen has an especially good way with seafoods. The scallops pictured below are U10- really large sized. Triggerfish is my favorite, in season only a few months in the year. And, in case you tend to visit the coast in summer, fall, winter, and especially spring are the best seasons! Moderate temperatures, low crowds. (Of course, you have to avoid hurricanes in fall!)

Gnocchi with Pesto Sauce

Seared Scallops

Tomato Pie

Pan-Seared Triggerfish

The Undercurrent

Another exceptional dinner at The Undercurrent (327 Battleground Ave., Greensboro, 27401, 336-370-1266, undercurrentrestaurant.com). Photos below. You can combine this with an earlier visit to Zeto, just a couple of doors down, and try small samples from their portion controlled wine dispenser. A great way to spend an evening!

Seared Sea Scallops

Cornmeal Dusted Trout

Grilled Angus Ribeye

Roasted Rack of Lamb 

The Chef and the Farmer

Another dinner at The Chef and the Farmer in Kinston. Chef-owner Vivian Howard and husband Ben are featured in the PBS series, "A Chef's Life," which is expanding to an hour, nationwide, in the next season. This is a really special restaurant- casual in feel, not too expensive, with truly original dishes based on local ingredients. Photos from dinner below:

Fried Collards

Gordon Street Corn Salad

K-Town Red Rice

Tempura Okra with ranch ice cream

North Carolina Tilefish

Pork Porterhouse- one of the best pork dishes in my life!

Baked Carolina

Figs in a Blanket

Tiramisu Eclair Cake

Play With Your Food

I judged the cupcake competition at Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art recently.

This was part of the "Play With Your Food" exhibition, featuring various forms of edible or consumable themed art. A live cake decorating presentation came from The Fresh Market's bakery, a display of cakes made from shredded or otherwise formed plastic bags, and still life paintings joined other varied works.

Photos below show the cupcake entries, divided into two categories- entrants over and under age 18.

  Chelsea Vann, Young Bakers entry

Hope Carter Davis, Young Bakers entry

Judah Tucker, Young Bakers entry- special commendation for graphic design 

 Micah Tucker, Young Bakers entry- special commendation for graphic design

Victoria Davis- winner Young Bakers division and Best Overall

Elizabeth Hardy, winner over 18 entries 

Erica (no last name on entry form), over 18 entry.

Eastern Music Festival

If you are not attending EMF concerts, you're really missing out on a great experience. All events are held indoors, which sets this series apart from most other summer orchestral programs. The student orchestras (Thursday and Friday nights) are amazing. You are listening to the next generation of major symphony musicians. The professional orchestra (Saturday nights) is conducted by Gerard Schwartz, retired after over 25 years as Music Director of the Seattle Symphony, winner of myriad awards for numerous recordings. These are world class performances! Just Google Eastern Music Festival for a schedule- something is happening every day of the week. Series runs the rest of July.

NC Food Truck Championship

I was one of the judges last Saturday for the North Carolina Food Truck Championship, held each year in Randleman. It's a fun way to spend an afternoon. In addition to a lot of good food, I am amazed at how good the music always is.

The Shrimp Truck won a tie breaker for first place, for their Shrimp Tamale  with garlic cream sauce. I was impressed with the scratch preparation and the flavor, as well as the fact that they were able to deliver perfectly cooked shrimp under such difficult circumstances. They almost won last year.

Ghassan's, another perennial finalist, initially tied for first place, but subsequent discussion among the judges moved them to second. Their entry was Chicken Schwarma. This is one of my personal favorites. The food at Ghassan's just tastes so good, due to their Middle Eastern enhancements.

Third place went to Bulkogi. They served chicken and beef Korean barbecue topped with a fried egg and spicy aioli. Once again, I was impressed that these folks could deliver a perfectly fried egg under such circumstances.

A couple of general observations, based on this and numerous other competitions I have judged. I would urge participants to think, above all, about what ingredients can be prepared and served under the circumstances. Participants who make everything from scratch using fresh ingredients, including (especially) French fries, score higher. Frozen or any other type of prepackaged ingredients erodes scores. The other factor that often hurts entries is presenting more than one dish- often three or four. If they are all equally good, maybe that helps. But in my experience, one is almost always better than the others, and if the entry had been based on that one dish, scores would have been higher. Multiple dishes risk pulling down scores for the best dish. Hope these comments help future competitors.

New Book: All About the Burger

I like hamburgers. Most of the time, in most places, I would actually prefer a hamburger over a steak. Lower cost, more flavor. That's not always the case, of course, but the conditions hold true in most restaurants, most of the time. And when I'm cooking at home, I cook burgers about a hundred times more often than steaks.

A new book, All About the Burger (Coral Gables, FL: Mango Publishing, 2019) by Sef Gonzalez, is especially welcome, therefore.

He provides a history, with interesting stories about how fast food burgers became popular. I would rather read about these than eat them. The chapter about really good burger specialty restaurants is interesting, and provides a bit of a travel guide. The "Better Burgers" chapter describes restaurants that sought to provide higher quality while still holding prices down. Five Guys is a case in point. This list is a bit Florida-centric.

Branching out, Gonzalez covers places all over the USA, and includes ethnic variations, closing with a chapter on "La Frita Cubana," which originated in Cuba, then made its way into Florida though the exile community. He introduces you to places in and around Miami where you can get the real thing. Morro Castle, in particular, caught my attention. He closes this chapter with an authentic recipe.

The last chapter lists burger competitions.

Order from Amazon or any Google search. It's a fun read.

Butcher and Bull in Winston-Salem

This reconceptualized restaurant in the W-S Marriott, downtown, is now a steakhouse. At first glance, it's just another hotel restaurant- austere and sleek, with hard surfaces reflecting sound. When food arrives, however, impressions elevate.

I first became acquainted with Chef Richard Miller when I was judging Competition Dining. I did not know who prepared the dishes, but when identities were revealed, I found that I was consistently rating his creations quite high. His imagination is fertile, his executions formiddable.

Since this is a steakhouse, my wife and I stuck to traditional dishes for this first visit. A Wedge Salad is appropriately trimmed and chilled, with a mellow gorgonzola dressing, lardons added for extra bite. Pictured below is a half portion- we shared.

The Wagyu Shoulder Steak is served sliced, joined on the plate by roasted tomatoes. We added horseradish sauce on the side. It arrived cooked just as ordered.

The Boston Cut Prime Strip (Certified Angus Beef) bears a richly flavored crust. The texture is akin to a NY Strip, with concomitant depth of beef flavor. Gorgonzola cheese on the side. This is flat out the best tasting steak I've ever had!

Grilled asparagus. As these photos show, the kitchen doesn't do much with presentations.

Foccacia and cornbread with herbed butter.

Custard Pie. The center is fried pound cake, flanked by custard cylinders, vanilla ice cream on top. 

Butcher and Bull goes well beyond the usual hotel restaurant. In Europe, the best restaurants are often located in hotels. That has not been the case in the US, but a few Triad properties are making a name for food as well as accommodations.