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.

Painted Plate

Painted Plate catering, under the helm of Brad Semon, has moved to a new space, with full event center capacity. It's the two story building just off Battleground and Westridge. Lots of open parking, covered entryway for bad weather. PP has catered in our home, with stellar performance. Highly recommended!  Go to www.paintedplate.com or call 336-230-2433.