newsobserver.com blogs -- food

Greg Cox gives 3 1/2 stars to Weinberg's deli in North Raleigh

amweigl — Fri, 25 May 2012 07:08:11 -0400

Greg Cox visited Weinberg's, a Jewish deli in North Raleigh for this week's review.

And his Cheap Eats column offers a "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" tour of the Triangle.

Food Truck Friday lunch outside the N&O on June 1st

amweigl — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:09:54 -0400

The News & Observer and triangle.com are hosting a Food Truck Friday event for lunch June 1.

Head over to our downtown Raleigh office at 215 S. McDowell Street from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; our parking lot will have food trucks Chirba Chirba Dumpling, KoKyuBBQ and Sympathy for the Deli serving food.

While you're here, you can play cornhole with triangle.com or spin the prize wheel to win various goodies, like gift cards, prize packs or other swag.

This will the first of three events on First Fridays this year. We'll keep you posted on details of future Food Truck Friday gatherings.

Triangle Restaurant Week starts June 4th

amweigl — Thu, 24 May 2012 12:01:17 -0400

Just a reminder: More than 80 restaurants across the Triangle will be offering prix fixe lunch and dinner specials from June 4-10.

Participating restaurants may offer a $15 lunch special or a $20 to $30 three-course dinner special. Some of the restaurants include Little Hen in Apex, Blue Mango in Raleigh and Carolina Brewery in Pittsboro and Chapel Hill.

For details, go to blvd.tv/trw/restaurants/

Get your reservations sooner rather than later!

16 chefs will compete in Iron Chef-style contest starting June 11 in Raleigh

amweigl — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:31:55 -0400

Chef Jimmy Crippen, owner of Crippen's Country Inn and Restaurant in Blowing Rock, has brought his Iron Chef-style cooking competition to the Triangle starting June 11.

Crippen is the force behind the annual Fire on the Rock competition, which started seven years ago in Blowing Rock. This year, Crippen teamed up with the N.C. Department of Agriculture's Got to Be N.C. campaign to take the competition statewide. So now there are four contests across the state: Fire on the Rock in Blowing Rock, Fire on the Dock in Wrightsville Beach, Fire in the Triangle in Raleigh and Fire in the Triad in Greensboro.

Sixteen chefs have signed up for the Triangle contest starting June 11 with Four Square's Shane Ingram going up against The Twisted Fork's Adam Jones. The complete list of pairings was announced today at a press conference in North Raleigh.

Here's how it works: Two chefs with the help of two sous chefs each prepare three courses for about 100 people using a secret N.C. ingredient that is only revealed on the day of the competition. The chefs, whose cell phones are confiscated, have about six hours to plan their menus and cook their courses. That evening, the diners and a panel of guest judges will choose the winning dishes, not knowing which chef cooked which course. The winning chef moves onto the next round. The overall winner takes home $2,000, while the runner-up wins $500.

The public can buy tickets to the dinners. The cost is $49 excluding beverage, tax and tip for the preliminary rounds, and $59 for the semifinal and final rounds. Go HERE to purchase tickets. All events start at 6:30 p.m. at Rocky Top Hospitality's catering event space, 1705 E. Millbrook Road, Raleigh, which is the original Michael Dean's location.

The preliminary contests are these:

June 11: Shane Ingram of Four Square in Durham vs. Adam Jones of The Twisted Fork in Raleigh.
June 12: Adam Rose of Il Palio in Chapel Hill vs. Josh DeCarolis of Jujube in Chapel Hill.
June 13: Ryan Payne of Weathervane at Southern Season in Chapel Hill vs. Chris Harris of Fork and Barrel in Raleigh.
June 18: Scott James of The Midtown Grille in Raleigh vs. Matthew Hannon of Ashten's Restaurant & Pub in Southern Pines.
June 19: John Childers of Herons at the Umstead Hotel and Spa in Cary vs. Chad McIntyre of Market Restaurant in Raleigh.
June 20: Reto von Weissenfluh of Mia Francesca Trattoria in Raleigh vs. Serge Falcoz-Vigne of 518 West Italian Café in Raleigh.
June 25: Michael Lee of Sono in Raleigh vs. Dean Wendel of Flights at the Renaissance Raleigh North Hills Hotel.
June 26: Christopher Hill of The Oxford in Raleigh vs. Jimmy Reale of Chapel Hill Country Club in Chapel Hill.

The quarterfinals will be July 9-10 and July 16-17. The semifinals will be July 23-24. The final competition will be July 31.

A portion of ticket sales will be donated to N.C.'s Office of the State Fire Marshal to support local fire fighters because cooking is the number one cause of house fires.

Barbecue sauce winner, Mac-n-cheese winner and grilling cookbooks

amweigl — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:27:55 -0400

We announced the winner of our Great Carolina Sauce Contest: Nathan Kalons of Charlotte. Richard Perry of Carrboro and Rebecca Dorminey of Raleigh were the runners-up. Congrats to the winners!

(Photo above from staff photographer Juli Leonard.)

We also announced the winner of our N&O reader recipe mac-n-cheese contest: Sarah and Liz Greene, two sisters from Raleigh.

Kathleen Purvis and her editor Roland Wilkerson offer a round-up of the latest grilling cookbooks.

Suzanne Havala Hobbs' On the Table column discusses the UK's food revolution.

Kathleen Purvis' Cook Q&A is about basmati rice. If you have a cooking question, please send those to kpurvis@charlotteobserver.com.

We share a store from Slate.com about roasted brussels sprouts.

We share a Washington Post story about the booming craft beer market.

We share a Los Angeles Times story about scones.

14 Great Summer Reads for Food Lovers

amweigl — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:54:13 -0400

The James Beard Foundation's book awards committee released a list of 14 Great Reads for Food Lovers for the 14 weeks between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Full disclosure: I'm on the book awards committee and this list was a lot of fun to produce. What is great is that there are books on here that I've never read and now can dig into this summer. Happy reading!

"The Art of Eating" by M. F. K. Fisher (John Wiley & Sons)
"Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris" by A.J. Liebling (North Point Press)
"Blood, Bones & Butter" by Gabrielle Hamilton (Random House)
"Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love, and War" by Annia Ciezadlo (Free Press)
"A Debt to Pleasure" by John Lanchester (Picador)
"An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace" by Tamar Adler (Scribner)
"The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food" by Jennifer 8. Lee (Twelve)
"Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany" by Bill Buford (Vintage)
"Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen" by Laurie Colwin (Vintage)
"The Man Who Ate Everything" by Jeffrey Steingarten (Vintage)
"Oranges" by John McPhee (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
"The Oysters of Locmariaquer" by Eleanor Clark (Ecco Press)
"Simple Cooking" by John Thorne (North Point Press)
"The Tummy Trilogy" by Calvin Trillin (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux)

Southern Season adds coffee bar, changes hours

amweigl — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:33:43 -0400

Chapel Hill's Southern Season has opened a coffee bar and changed its hours to open at 8 a.m. instead of 10 a.m. six days a week.

The store's new hours are 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday.

The new hours allow customers to take advantage of the store's new coffee bar, which is located just past the coffee and tea sales counters. The coffee bar has 20 different coffees, many from local coffee roasters: Durham-based Counter Culture Coffee, Carrboro Coffee Co. in Carrboro and Raleigh-based Stockton Graham & Co. Plus, they have more than 20 different teas available for brewing.

Coffee bar supervisor Reiko Tanaka explains that they offer drip coffee as well as individual cups of coffee brewed using fresh ground coffee and a coffee filter cone. For the latter, a customer can request any of the dozens of coffee sold in the store. The price difference is $1.65 for 12 ounces of drip coffee versus $2.25-$2.95.

Southern Season became the gourmet food, housewares and mail order behemoth that it is today by starting out as a small store selling gourmet coffee. This may indicate a return to its roots but it also may be responding to a nearby coffee competitor. 3CUPS has been offering coffee brewed to order since it opened several years ago on South Elliot Road.

Southern Season was sold last year to an investment firm, which has plans to expand the business to other markets. Go HERE to read a story I wrote about that last year.

Rise, a biscuit and doughnut restaurant, on the horizon in Durham

amweigl — Tue, 22 May 2012 11:09:48 -0400

Chef Tom Ferguson of Durham Catering Co. is looking for a space in Durham for his latest business venture, Rise, a doughnut and biscuit restaurant.

Ferguson was inspired to start this new business venture by several eateries across the country: Pine State Biscuits and Voodoo Doughnut, both in Portland, and Doughnut Plant in New York City. He wants to do something similiar: using good quality, local ingredients to make doughnuts and biscuits.

Ferguson says he's looked at two spaces: Magnolia Grill's location on Ninth Street and a space on Foster Street near Geer Street Garden. But he hasn't settled on a location yet.

He has settled on his staff: Brian Wiles, a former sous chef at Nana's in Durham, and Jim Johnson, an alumni of Magnolia Grill's kitchen.

Here's where it gets fun for you: Ferguson has purchased $30,000 in doughnut making equipment. And so, he's turned part of Durham Catering into a "doughnut laboratory." While they do their research into what makes a great doughnut, they'll be occasionally giving away free doughnuts. Check out their Facebook page for details as that gets going.

Cookbook giveaway: Simple Weeknight Favorites from America's Test Kitchen

amweigl — Mon, 21 May 2012 06:00:00 -0400

I'm giving away a copy of America's Test Kitchen's "Simple Weeknight Meals: More than 200 No-Fuss, Foolproof Meals." This recipe helped inspire my recent Mother's Day article about getting dinner on the table more easily during the week.

Leave a comment below this post before noon Friday, June 8.

Good luck!

Reader looking for gluten-free baked goods at local farmers markets

amweigl — Sun, 20 May 2012 19:37:00 -0400

A reader sent in a question last week about which local farmers markets have bakers selling gluten-free goods. I know about Abilicious Bakery, which sells at the Chatham Mills, Saxapahaw and Pittsboro markets.

If you know of any markets with such goods or bakers who sell gluten-free baked goods at local markets, please leave a comment below and share your knowledge. Thanks.

UPDATE: Here are a few responses from readers:

TJ Martin writes: I recently discovered Sarah Cecilia Good Food Company (www.sarahcecilia.com) at the Western Wake Farmers Market. She does not provide baked goods, but does make delicious food from local ingredients and has gluten free options. I emailed her just yesterday to order a dozen gluten free steamed dumplings that I will pick up Saturday morning at the market.

Another reader writes: The Cary Downtown Farmers Market has a gluten free baker. Glutey Tooty is at the market most Saturdays, 8-12:30. We are now located at the corner of Academy and E Park Streets in downtown Cary, across from the library. Thanks.

And a third reader called to say: Imagine That Gluten Free is selling at the Carrboro Farmers Market.

Greg Cox gives 2 1/2 stars to Fish House in Durham

amweigl — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:10:57 -0400

Greg Cox gives 2-1/2 stars to Durham's Fish House, another restaurant by Charles Meteesatien, who owns the popular ShabaShabu in Raleigh. To read his review, go HERE.

Greg Hatem to open catering kitchen in West Raleigh

amweigl — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:07:23 -0400

Go HERE to read the story from business reporter David Bracken about the Empire Eats owner's latest projects.

Empire Eats owns The Raleigh Times, Sitti, Gravy and The Pit in downtown Raleigh.

Strawberry crop expected to last into June

amweigl — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:39:47 -0400

We got a note from Deborah Weschler with the N.C. Strawberry Association that farmers are predicting the strawberry crop will continue into June. Here's what she says:

"Several growers have reported that plants are flowering nicely and they expect to harvest on into June. Jim Warenda of Dean's Farm, on farm which sells at the market says, "volumes have dropped but we should have berries through June 2."

Check out http://www.ncstrawberry.org/growers.cfm to find a farm near you.

And remember to check out instructions HERE on how to make strawberry ice cream.

Guide to Farmers Markets, Farmer Foodshare and more

amweigl — Wed, 16 May 2012 09:48:20 -0400

Here's what is in today's paper in case you missed it:

I have the annual guide to the Triangle's farmers markets. (There are now more than 30.)

I have a story profiling a few bakers at the farmers markets: Annelore's German Bakery, The Cookie People and Chicken Bridge Bakery, whose loaves are show to the left.

My column is about Margaret Gifford and Farmer Foodshare's efforts to get local food to those in need.

Linda Gassenheimer's Quick Fix column offers recipes for Mediterranean Steak and Minted Couscous.

Suzanne Havala Hobbs' On the Table column is about the obesity epidemic.

Kathleen Purvis' Cook Q&A is about freezing wine for cooking. To get an answer to a cooking question, send those queries to kpurvis@charlotteobserver.com

We share a wire story with a recipe for Dark Chocolate and Hazelnut Skillet Blondies.

Oro restaurant in downtown Raleigh to open Sunday night

amweigl — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:42:54 -0400

Oro Restaurant and Lounge, a new tapas place in downtown Raleigh's RBC Plaza building, will open Sunday night.

I got to walk through Oro yesterday afternoon with co-owner Cara Zalcberg Hylton. I have to say it is beautiful inside: sleek white leather chairs, a 17-foot wooden wine carousel in one corner and two huge light fixtures dangling from the ceiling that dominate the space. The lights are these bronze cylinders decorated with circles. (I can't do them justice so go to the restaurant's website and there are photos on the front page.)

The decor will make you feel like you are enjoying a sophisticated adult evening but with more reasonable prices. The tapas cost between $7 to at most $15. (To see the menu, go HERE.)

The restaurant is for evenings when "you want to feel like you are in a big city but with Raleigh prices," says Cara Zalcberg Hylton.

They offer six local beers on tap and 16 wines on tap. The wines on tap allows you to "taste wine that you wouldn't otherwise buy by the bottle," she says.

Hylton's husband, Chris, is the chef and worked most recently at The Mint restaurant, which has since closed in downtown Raleigh. (Go HERE to read an earlier post about his background.) He's joined in the kitchen by Lauren Smaxwell, who most recently worked at The Pit with barbecue legend Ed Mitchell.

Another cookbook giveaway: In My Kitchen by Ted Allen

amweigl — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:23:25 -0400

You know the drill: Leave a comment below this post to be entered to win a copy of "In My Kitchen: 100 Recipes and Discoveries for Passionate Cooks," by Ted Allen. (Allen, the host of Food Network's Chopped recently won James Beard Foundation's best media personality.)

You must leave a comment before noon Friday, June 1. I'll choose a winner at random. Good luck!

Cookbook giveaway: How to Cook Everything, The Basics

amweigl — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:53:56 -0400

If you have a recent high school or college graduate in your life, this would make an excellent gift: "How to Cook Everything: The Basics, All You Need to Make Great Food," by New York Times writer Mark Bittman.

You must leave a comment below this post before noon Friday May 25. I'll use random.org to pick a winner. Good luck!

Occupational hazards

ctmiller — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:41:07 -0400

I cooked with -- and feasted on -- whole milk and real butter Sunday on behalf of fans of our Wednesday food section.

You see, food writer Andrea Weigl and I are testing macaroni and cheese recipes we solicited from readers. The best one wins this set of baking dishes that, as you can tell by the snowman design on the box, has been waiting for a home for a while now. So while we're trying to slim, the two of us have a journalistic explanation for extra pounds. We're making sure the winning entry is yummy!

On Sunday, I made a decadent version of mac and cheese with tons of Jarlsberg and a bechamel sauce. Dirtied more bowls and pans than I care to count. And downed too many heaping spoonsful trying to accurately discern whether it was the thyme or the nutmeg that made this dish special.

This was my second mac and cheese recipe-replicating experiment for the contest, and I followed the instructions to the letter, using whole milk, high-fat cheese and butter instead of the skim milk, low-fat cheese and cooking spray that are staples in my kitchen.

Weight-loss tips lists often recommend low-fat, no-fat, sugar-free alternatives to real food. But recipe testing reminded me that I long ago squeezed all the benefit I could out of such lower-calorie ingredients, and anyway, they seem to be the subject of much debate. Some research has suggested that, for instance, the sugar substitutes in soda make you crave other food and drink that will pile on the pounds. And some critics say that no matter how caloric, natural food trumps faux.

No matter what, if there is a speck of fat in the recipe, it will find its way efficiently to my hips and thighs if I don't work it off just as efficiently.

The recipe testing will continue. With small spoons (and walking shoes).

Another week of strawberries: make ice cream

amweigl — Sun, 13 May 2012 22:05:51 -0400

Farmers at the State Farmer's Market in Raleigh are predicting about one more week of strawberries. So when you head out to get your last pints or buckets of strawberries, consider making strawberry ice cream.

Bill Garrabrant, 80, of Raleigh, invited me over to his Raleigh home last week to taste some of his strawberry ice cream. It was delicious. No wonder Garrabrant's ice cream recipe was featured in a 1976 story in The Raleigh Times. His recipe requires an ice cream maker but it's fairly simple and easy to make.

Here are Garrabrant's instructions: Remove stems and slice three pints of strawberries. Place in a bowl with 2 1/4 cups of sugar and let sit for a hour until sugar dissolves. Place sugared berries and juice in the blender and puree until smooth. Pour strawberry puree, three pints of half-and-half and 1 tablespoon vanilla into your ice cream maker. Make ice cream, per your machine's instructions.

Garrabrant's only adaptation is for peach ice cream: substitute five pounds peaches for the berries and a dash of almond extract for the vanilla.

Greg Cox gives 4-1/2 stars to Mandolin in Raleigh

amweigl — Fri, 11 May 2012 07:12:09 -0400

It's rare that Greg Cox hands out 4-1/2 stars so you will want to read this review of Mandolin, a modern Southern restaurant in Raleigh's Five Points neighborhood.