Downtown Raleigh Farmers Market

April 27, 2010 • Locations, Product • by
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I didn’t realize the capital building was so….square? And I know there are a lot of white people in Raleigh, but damn! Just kidding, that’s actually a king-kong style view of a downtown model from the Raleigh City Museum. Relevant how? Like so:

Today is the opening of the Downtown Raleigh Farmers Market including tons of local produce, products, bbq, music, and most importantly Vesta! We’ll be on site and selling our super spicy condiment all afternoon while sampling the porky offerings of The Pit, swaying to some local blue grass, and spreading our love of fresh chiles to the Raleigh masses.

If that wasn’t enough, our summer’s chile crops are starting to perk up and it looks like we’ll be up to our eyeballs in exotic chiles come July! Among the mix are wild chiles from Peru, Italy, India, and Africa, on the grow and ready for one fiery season!

Make sure to stop by the new Raleigh Plaza at the South end of Fayetteville Street between 10 and 2 for all that our local producers have to offer. You’ll find me and Hankito setting the mouths of Raleighwood ablaze (with Vesta, ofcourse…) with our new Shaker Jar of Vesta for only $6. To the Market!

Booze of the Month: Beerfest!

April 25, 2010 • Booze of the Month, Locations • by
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Technically I haven’t chosen one distinct Booze of the Month, but any of the beers listed below are worthy of the title. Considering the odds, I’d say if they stuck out amidst the 100+ I  tried, that’s saying a lot.

I look forward to Beerfest as tho it were a holiday. Over 100 brewers from around the world pouring you beer after beer for 4 hours straight, it’s actually better than all the other holidays! You may have to buy your tickets months in advance and wait on line for an hour or more, but before you know it that warm, fuzzy feeling has you swimming adrift a sea of top class brews surrounded by 2000 more than friendly folks all sharing in the stoke. There’s nothing else like it, just ask Jesus!

Our crew of sauced-up scallywags included Kyle, myself, Colin, his gf Crystal (who held her own like a champ!), and Doug (a home brewer and beer enthusiast).

Pretzel necklaces on the ready, we set sail thru the first tent and were off on a bubbly adventure. Among the first tents bounty were the following mentionables:

Kind Beer’s Belgian Red (Charlotte, NC): A great beer with a rosy brown color, full bodied flavor but light as a lager.

Holy Mackeral’s Black (Ft. Lauderdale): Black as night, sweet and high powered, like molasses diluted with beer. Delicious, but you couldn’t drink much more than the 2 oz sampling glass.

Bison Brewing’s Organic Honey Basil (Berkley, CA): The most memorable beer of the entire day, this aromatic, perfectly balanced ale brought out the romantic in all of us, Kyle exclaiming in pure joy: “It tastes like summer!” What a moosh.

Left Hand Brewing Co’s Good Juju (Colorado): Bright and refreshing with a sweet, ginger taste.

Saigon Beer (Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam): A super crisp rice beer that held one of the largest lines of the event, I was as shocked as you are!

BeerLao (Laos): Right next door to Vietnam but in no way related to the Saigon Beer, this light brew had a surreal flavor thanks to the Jasmine Rice they use to create the golden beauty, easily one of my personal favorites.

Bateman’s Combine Harvest (Lincolnshire, UK): Another phenomenal brew, rich and earthy, a collection of barely gave this beer a unique, almost oat-like flavor. Killer.

Tent 1: Complete! It may have taken almost 2 hours, but our band of brewsters were feeling great, dancing from line to line and laughing at just about everything. After a not-so glamorous stop at the shipyards, aka the forest of portapotties, we were on to tent 2. Quick stretch….Ok, leeeees’go!

Kona Brewery (Kona, HI): I love this beer! It may be my affection for all things Hawaiian, or the fact that I visited and enjoyed these brews at the Kona Brewery itself, but their Wailua Wheat and Long Board are flippin fantastic. The Wailua is a wheat beer made with passionfruit for a subtle taste of the islands. Long Board is an all-around great lager, blonde and smooth…filthy!

A Slew of Raleigh Brewers: Big Boss, Boylan Brew Pub, LoneRider, all great!

Mother Earth’s Endless River Kolsch (Kinston, NC): I had just seen this beer at Whole Foods for the first time days before Beerfest. Having fasted the week prior I was stoked to give this new Eastern NC brew a try. I’m not really a fan of Kolsch style brews but this beer was excellent. Tangy, light, with a very subtle hoppyness, I was so excited I bought a shirt!

Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter (Ohio): A rich, complex beer with chocolate malt and a light brown crema. A great change of pace after 20 or more lagers and such.

Bittburger Premium Beer (Germany): One of our crews top rated brews. A golden delicious brew with just the right amount of everything –  bubbles, alcohol, hops, barely, etc…Awesome!

Avery’s Ellies Brown Ale (Colorado): A deep, nutty brown ale with lots of malty goodness.

As the tents went on my photographs grew more out of focus (by no fault of my camera!), the detail of my ramblings decreased simultaneously with their legibility, and pretty soon we were fumbling out of the gates to plunder downtown. Our bellies, rumbling and swooshing like a storm-bound frigate, were in need of some hardy grub as we laughed our way to and frow downtown Raleigh. The city was alive with buzzy chatter as our fellow beerfesters crashed every establishment in a 3 block radius.

We landed at Raleigh Times, stalking tables like a pride of lions, until finally we were able to sit down, unwind, drink copious amounts of water, and enjoy a much-needed burger. We disbanded a bit, but Colin, Crystal and myself kept the ship afloat with more brews and even more shuffleboard, discussing worst and best beers with a bar full of fellow brew nuts.

It was, indeed, a glorious day. Time to start training for the Durham Beerfest this fall…I better pop this Big Boss and start stretching!

Pasta 202: Tagliatelle

April 21, 2010 • Product, Recipes • by
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Welcome to another pasta course, today’s topic: Tagliatelle. This is pasta at it’s most simpistic: rolled out thin, cut into uniform strips, and topped with a very basic condimento or sauce. Tagliatelle is a style of pasta used all across the Italian Peninsula, but I was in the mood for some Roman flavors so, with out further ado:

Tagliatelle Cacio e Pepe

Four the Pasta:

1 Cup AP Flour

1/2 Cup Semolina Flour

2-3 Eggs

Tepid Water

Pinch of Salt

Splash of Olive Oil

For the Condimento:

1/2 Cup Grated Pecorino Romano

1/2 Cup Whole Milk

Generous Black Pepper

To create the fresh tagliatelle, sift the flours and salt together and combine with the wet ingredients using either the well method or a food processor adding water slowly if needed. Once a sticky dough has formed transfer to a board and knead with additional flour for 3-5 minutes until a firm ball develops. Wrap in plastic wrap and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes.

Once well rested, roll your pasta out as thin as possible. I used my nan’s righteous pasta machine but you can also use an attachment to your stand mixer or even just a rolling pin if you’re really talented.

Place each rolled-out sheet of dough on a kitchen towel and allow to dry for 10-15 minutes, this will help keep the pasta from sticking to one another.

To cut the tagliatelle (little cuts) simple roll each pasta sheet up like a sleeping bag and slice width-wise into 1/4″ slices. If you’ve allowed your pasta to dry thoroughly it should unwind easily, but if it’s still moist simply roll each pinwheel out and dust with some additional flour.

Create nests of pasta about the size of your palm and allow to dry again until you’re water is at a full boil.

For the condimento, combine the cheese, milk, and black pepper in a large bowl. Many Romans will request you add enough black pepper to turn the mix grey, but it’s up to you. For me, the more the merrier. Megs, not so much…

Once your water is boiling, add a big pinch of salt and drop in the pasta. Since the tagliatelle are so thin they will take barely 2-3 minutes to cook. You’re looking for that perfect Al Dente (to the tooth) where the pasta is tender but still has a little bite left. Once cooked, strain the pasta into the condimento and toss to coat. If the sauce is too thick or sticky just add a ladle of pasta water, it’s a great binder for sauces and the key to a well-made condimento.

Finish with another grind of black pepper, maybe an extra sprinkle of Pecorino, and a great glass of red.

The pasta is light as a feather, like golden ribbons of semolina coated in a milky bath of sheeps milk cheese. It tastes like grown up Pastina, but this dish has its roots in sheep herding. Pecorino Romano is a sheeps milk cheese (hence the name Pecorino from Pecora – Sheep). Cacio e Pepe is more or less a way to exonerate the shepherds hard work and gorgeous product: a salty, dense cheese made with the grass-fed sheeps milk.

To put things back in perspective: Cook the pasta, toss with cheese, milk, pepper, and call it a day!

If you only have Parmigiano the dish will still work out fine, but you’ll most likely be transported to some overwhelming cafe in Parma rather than the green hills of Lazio (not a bad thing, just something else entirely).

Poole’s Diner

April 20, 2010 • Locations, Review • by
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After 15+ years in North Cackalacky and countless years of restaurant employment I’ve never come across a chef or restaurant so synonymous with NC cuisine as Ashley Christensen of Poole’s Diner.

You can almost hear the internet chatter. Almost every Triangle based food blog has some post devoted to Chef Christensen, whether at Vin Enoteca, Raleigh Times, or her most recent establishment: Poole’s Diner. Her biography in Ann Prospero’s book Chefs of the Triangle convinced me I was missing out on a local dynamite, so Megs and I waited almost an hour for a chance to sit at the bar and dig in. Well worth it! But me and the Channel 4 News Team had a meal this weekend that requires thorough explanation.

Rolling 6 deep we were greeted at Poole’s by the gracious host and seated within 10 minutes. This may have been due to our in-the-know friend, but either way we were sat and ready to devour. First: drinks. Poole’s beverage list is expansive: wines, local beers, classic cocktails, but most importantly a slew of mixologist-inspired concoctions that beg to be tried one by one. I myself enjoyed one of the finest Mojitos ever, and I’m a man who loves his Mojitos (only good picture I scored too). I later tried a glass of the Garnacha, a great red from Spain that tastes similar to a Primitivo and goes with just about anything.

Once a diner (hence the name) Poole’s has been transformed into a classy retro hot spot. The setting is ideal for dining: high-shine ceiling tiles, light customer chatter, low lighting, comfortable seating, and unpretentious decor. The menus are written on a series of chalkboards scattered across the dining room: Apps, Salads, Mains, and Sides. You have but 4 of 5 choices per section, my kind of eating. Screw the 10-12 options of mediocre grub most restaurants flaunt, give me 4 dishes executed with nothing but love and finesse.

More mouths are better at Poole’s. I’m not talking orgy stylee you sick monkey, but the more mouths and tummies you bring, the more dishes you get to try (if your friends share that is). After almost no time at all the apps were flying around the table:

Homemade Pimiento Cheese and Crostini

Fried Oysters with Creamy Tomatoes

Chicken Liver Pate with Crostini and Cornichons (fancy french pickles)

Boom, out of the gate! The Pimiento cheese is a cheddar wonderland, strong and pungeant. The oysters tasted as fresh as the half-shell version. Corn meal crisp and floating atop a bed of creamy tomatoes and scallion slaw for added acidity. The liver pate was like a musky cloud spread across crunchy crostini. Topped with a Cornichon and brown mustard it was a new taste sensation (for me atleast). My tastes buds were awake and dying for more, on to the mains:

Mussels in a white wine tomato broth (I think) with Ricotta Gnocchi.

Pork Meatloaf with Spinach

Fried Flounder with Tomatoes and what appears to be Homemade Tartar Sauce (sorry if that’s wrong, Matt ate it too fast to remember!)

Roast Chicken with Creamy Polenta

The Chicken tastes too moist not to have been brined, tender and juicy. The flounder was fried to perfection and doused in a creamy tartar sauce of diced pickles. The fresh tomatoes added just the right amount of acidity, similar to squeezing lemon over a flounder cutlet.

The meatloaf was a revelation. It reminded me of Finochionna, a fennel rich salumi from Tuscany. Little did I know, and later explained by Ashley herself, the pork for the loaf was braised in black tea giving it a subtle anise flavor. The pork belly mixed in didn’t hurt either. Topped with sauteed spinach this is a dish I’m going to have to try and recreate somehow.

My Mussels were cooked with the utmost care, as though they had opened only moments before they arrived on the table. Sweet and briny, all smothered in a bright wine sauce with Ricotta Gnocchi floating inbetween. The Gnocchi tasted just like mine from a couple months back. I’m not saying I’m cooking up food like Chef Christensen, I’m saying these Gnocchi made me very happy. With just as many mussels as Gnocchi, each bite was a complete representation of the dish, brava!

And just for the hell of it, a couple sides:

Garlic Bok Choy with Bacon

The Famed Poole’s Mac & Cheese

The Bok Choy was uber garlicky, just the way I like it, with small bits of bacon imitating really porky bread crumbs.

What can I say about the Mac & Cheese. I’ve never once in my life desired a bowl of Mac & Cheese, it’s easily one of my least favorite items of all time….except for Poole’s (and my mother in laws). This gratin of oozing love comes out boiling, smothered in shaved cheddar. Ironically, it’s not the Macs over the top character that wins me over, it’s the opposite. For something so decadent it’s actually surprisingly light, the sauce tasting similar to a thinned out besciamella.

We were defeated. No dessert could be had, we’d never make it thru another round of brewskies if we kept eating, but after meeting Ashley in person post meal all I can say is that this place is exactly what Raleigh needs. Steeped in Southern cuisine history, Poole’s varying menu is a relevant example of just how great Southern cuisine can be. Cheers to the Poole’s staff and Ashley Christensen for absolutely slaying the competition and transforming this states bounty into something otherworldly.  The Verdict:

Poole’s: YUP!

City of Oaks

April 18, 2010 • Locations, Uncategorized • by
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More like the city of beers (zing!). If there’s one thing Raleigh has no shortage of it’s bars, and a lot of quality ones at that. Sure, it’s hard to escape the hipster crazed hop fest downton on First Fridays, but you gotta love just how devoted this town is to it’s local breweries like Big Boss, Lone Rider, and Boylan Brew Pub to name a few. Boylan is my first choice when deciding where to enjoy a cold one on a boiling summer afternoon. The huge patio, although often packed (below), is the ideal place to sit back and soak in the downtown panorama while sipping hoppy summer ales, floral lagers, and powerful stouts.

The title picture sums up a fun filled weekend in one epic photograph, except for that damn crane, but there is one thing missing….Poole’s Diner. Talk about epic, stay tuned tomorrow for a full review of Ashley Christianson’s outstanding establishment and one of the best meals I’ve ever had in Raleigh.

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