Dining In: Durham, NC - Broad Street Cafe

I would consider Durham a great place for casual dining. Dotted throughout the city are great little places that you can pop in and have a great meal with friends over beers. I have no idea what took us so long to head over to Broad Street Cafe, especially since it's so close to Duke, but we are definitely regretting not finding this gem earlier.

Assorted wings: Sweet Chili, Buffalo, and BBQ

The Mediterranean Pizza.

Shrimp and Applewood Bacon with Pesto Pizza. 

The wings were decent, but you don't come here for the wings. Rather, pizzas at Broad Street are wonderful. Chewy, light crust and flavorful toppings served piping hot from their brick oven. They have so many pizza options that you can head there several times without exhausting the list. 

The Sister had the star of the show, which is unfortunately not pictured here because we devoured it too quickly. She had the lamb burger, which was super flavorful, tender, and juicy. If you are in search of a good (yet less gamey) lamb burger in the area, I would suggest you try this out. I will definitely be heading back for that dish and the pizzas. 

Which restaurants would you like to try in the Triangle, but just haven't gotten to yet? 

Hope you have a great (hump) day!  

Soupe Poireaux Pommes de Terre

Since Hurricane Irene decided to wreck the East Coast, we stayed in all day Saturday to hide from the rain and strong winds. Luckily, we were spared the severe wreckage that some other states received. An earthquake and hurricane in one week is just too much weather drama for my temperate-inclined nature.

While hiding out at home in the dreary weather, I remembered that we had some leeks and potatoes sitting around waiting to be next week's trash. Jacque Pepin made this recipe on his "Fast Food My Way" show on PBS, which is where the inspiration came from. The specific recipe came from here.

Soupe Poireaux Pommes de Terre
Potato and Leek Soup

Ingredients
4 potatoes, peeled and cut into small pieces
2 leeks, sliced in quarters length-wise to clean and then chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
6 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
2 tablespoons of sour cream (optional)
Salt and pepper
2 strips of bacon (optional)
5-7 mushrooms (optional)

Directions
1. (Optional) Slice your bacon into 1 inch pieces and cook over medium heat until crispy. Remove bacon and reserve on side. When cooled, crush to crumbles. Leave the bacon fat in the pan – this will give your soup a deeper level of flavor.

2. Saute leeks and garlic in the rendered bacon fat, if you used bacon, or some olive oil until soft. (Optional: Reserve some leeks for garnish).

3. Add potatoes to the sauteed leeks and pour in the chicken or vegetable stock.

4. Bring to a boil and then lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are falling apart. If preferred, reserve some pieces of potato if you want some texture and return to soup after blending.

5. Optional: Add your two tablespoons of sour cream if you prefer a thicker, creamier soup (you can choose to blend first, see what the soup looks like and then add the sour cream and blend again). Add some salt, if necessary, and pepper.

6. Using an emulsion blender or traditional blender, puree the soup. Add in mushrooms and simmer until mushrooms are cooked.

7. Serve in bowls and top with some crumbled bacon and sauteed leeks. We added some thin parmesan shavings (just because).

This will now be added to my arsenal of warming winter soups. Super creamy (with no cream or sour cream added) and flavored with crisp bacon garnish that rounds out the indulgent and comforting flavors of this soup.

Hope your Monday is focused and productive!

Dining In: Myrtle Beach - Landry's Happy Hour

The last beach trip of the year is always a sad time when you realize that the long summer days and backyard bbqs will end in a few months. Although with the heat wave in NC this year, I have to admit that I'm looking forward to fall. 

Myrtle Beach is a quick 3.5 hour drive and makes for a great weekend getaway. Not only that, it is in SC, which has entirely different happy hour laws (thank goodness). My friend had been talking about the Landry's happy hour for a while so we made a point to head there on Saturday evening. All the food is anywhere from $3-5 per portion and they have a generous list of beers and cocktails that also range from $3-5. 

If there is something to indulge in for an affordable price at the massive Broadwalk on the Beach in Myrtle, it would be this place. Bring some good company and enjoy the food and drinks from 4-7 pm. A three hour HH is what I'm talking about. 

Crawfish Queso (Oh, how I miss texas). 

Crab Stuffed Shrimp with Bacon.

Fish Tacos.

We also ordered Fried Sweet Pickles and several of their drinks, which all were quite good. I would recommend the Mango Mojito. If you are headed to Myrtle Beach any time soon, go take advantage of this gem, but get there early as the bar seating does tend to fill up quickly around HH. 

See ya Landry's until next summer! 

Pasta with Creamy Leek and Garlic Pesto

A few weeks ago Mark Bittman share this recipe on the NYTimes, which The Husband had to try. It's actually quite rare for us to buy leeks because as The Sister likes to say, "Leeks just look like scary green onions." However, if cooked enough they are quite sweet and flavorful.

We recently watched Jacque Pepin make a Leek and Potato Soup on PBS, where he quartered the leeks length-wise to wash. You'd be surprised how much dirt comes out of the tightly wrapped layers of leek. So make sure you use this technique and wash thoroughly!

Pasta with Creamy Leek and Garlic Pesto

Ingredients

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, or as needed

4 ounces bacon, chopped

4 or 5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

About 1 1/2 pounds leeks (2 or 3 large), trimmed, well rinsed, and chopped

Salt

1 egg * The Husband adds 2 to make it super creamy

1 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves, plus more for garnish

Black pepper

8 ounces any pasta

* Parmesan cheese is added on every pasta dish at our house

Directions

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat; add the bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until just beginning to crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon and drain it on paper towels.

2. Turn the heat to medium. Add the garlic and leeks to the skillet, along with another tablespoon or so of oil if needed to keep things from sticking, and cook, stirring occasionally, until very soft, 20 to 30 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Transfer the garlic and leeks to a blender or food processor with the egg, parsley and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Process, stopping to scrape down the sides of the container if necessary. Return the purée to the skillet, off heat.

4. Cook the pasta in the boiling water until it’s tender but not mushy, then drain, reserving some of the cooking liquid. Turn the heat under the leek mixture to medium, add about 1/4 cup of the reserved cooking liquid to thin the pesto, and toss in the pasta, adding more liquid as needed. Taste and adjust the seasoning, garnish with the bacon and more parsley, and serve.

We are always descending on this dish so quickly that I forgot to take the picture while it was plated! This dish is super simple and you can see how easy it is on Mark Bittman's video demonstration. 

Hope you have a great weekend. Next week, I'll be sharing pictures and posts from the Bizarre Food Challenge that is tonight. Stay Tuned!

Durham Food Trucks: Part 3

The Husband found a deal for Slippin Sliders, which is a food truck that occasionally parks in Durham near Fullsteam and MotorCo on Rigsbee. We found them on a hot afternoon next to Fullsteam, just as they were opening for the night. 

We got everything on the menu except the Teriyaki: 4 sliders for $10.

The Diablo. 

The West Coast. 

The Texas. 

The Turkey Apple Jack. 

Overall consensus was that the sliders with bacon were quite good. They also had some pretty tasty aiolis and remoulades. The bun is quite soft and the meat is thin so every bite is a little mushy with all of the sauces and veggies. My favorite was the Texas (naturally) and the West Coast had a great sauce. 

While I understand that sliders are "mini" burgers, I'm just not quite a fan yet because if I wanted to eat a great burger, why would I want it to be "petite-sized"? At $10 for 4 sliders, it's not a bad deal if you find a coupon or a daily deal. Unfortunately, I'm still not quite convinced that the genre of sliders is a bona fide food category. 

I hope Durham continues to attract food trucks, as it's great to see this movement growing in the midst of the locavore, foodie crowd in the area. 

May your food truck trekking continue this week! 

Week in Austin, TX

Just got back from PR and after an ordeal of losing my luggage for a few days, I'm back and resting. The Fam is here and we're cooking up a storm of traditional Taiwanese dishes - more on that in future posts.

In the meantime, I wanted to share our recent (or not so recent since it was 3 weeks ago!) trip to Austin, TX - home of The Husband and our favorite city in good ole' Tejas. 

Late night trip to Taco C: A tribute to one of my graduate school class's old haunts on Greenville Ave after some cervezas.

The In-Laws treated us to a 7 lb lobster at Ho Ho (great name...) Restaurant. Imagine mouthfuls of lobster with every bite. Heaven. 

Bananarchy: "There's money in the banana stand!" Frozen chocolate-covered bananas layered with crunchy confections.

   

      

Smitty's Market BBQ. We still prefer Saltlick BBQ. 

Food Trailers: Odd Duck and Gourdoughs. Yes, the last 2 pictures are of doughnuts...

Torchy's Tacos: Fried Avocado and Trailer Park. (Never forget to make it "Trashy"). 

Austin has become a crazy food truck mecca since we left college. Hopefully, the Durham food truck scene will also continue to grow in the next few years. I'll definitely be tracking that evolution while we're here. 

Have a fabulous weekend and enjoy your local food scene! 

Feast on Brunch

Last weekend, The Husband and I helped to plan and cook a 20+ person brunch for a departmental gathering. It was fun to plan the menu and then prep the whole meal, as we've never cooked for that many people before. Note to self: Caterers must work really hard.

Here was the menu:

 

The Start. 

The Middle. 

The End. 

I must say the Candied Pepper Bacon glazed with maple syrup and then flambéed to perfection was the crowd favorite. 

Not the best pictures because I was running around cooking, but just wanted to give you a taste of our Sunday brunch. Time to plan our next. Who wants to visit??? 

Have a great weekend and perhaps brunch! :)

Linguine alla Bolognese

The Husband found a great way to use up the ground pork in our fridge by making this delicious pasta dish. He claims that he improvised this recipe and then figured out later that it was called ragu alla bolognese. Either way, it was scrumptious. This was his "improvised and estimated" recipe.

Ingredients:
linguine or choice of pasta
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 lb ground pork
3 thick slices of bacon, chopped
1/2 jar of your choice tomato sauce
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp onion powder
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1.5 tbsp dried basil
pinch of whole mustard seeds
2 tbsp granulated sugar
salt + pepper
parmesan cheese
1 tbsp olive oil

Directions:
1. Mix pork with soy sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Set aside.

2. Boil salted water for pasta.

3. Render bacon in pan until bits are browned and crisp. Add pork and cook until pink is gone. Add mushrooms and cook pork till browned.

4. To the pork, add minced garlic, tomato sauce, mustard seeds, and basil. Simmer on low heat until desired thickness and flavor has had a chance to develop. (The longer, the more flavorful).

5. Add salt and pepper to taste and grate in as much parmesan cheese as you'd like. Add olive oil and stir in right before serving for some earthy, grassy flavor.

6. Serve immediately over hot pasta.

Some mache lettuce with smoked salmon doesn't hurt either!