T h e F o o d L i f e

Despite it’s name, Poole’s can only be loosely characterized as a diner; the top-notch ingredients (all local and sustainable) and high end cooking ensure that the restaurant goes far beyond any run-of-the-mill greasy spoon joint.  That said, the elements of a diner that are retained are some of the best: the inviting counter seating, the easy informality, the simplest of platings, and the loud bustling ambience.  Indeed, it is a dark, small space that fills up quickly.  If I had to liken Poole’s to any other triangle restaurants, they would have to be Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill (for the elevation of simple American cooking) and Lilly’s Pizza in Raleigh (for the rollicking atmosphere).

The menu at Poole’s is scrawled on chalkboards that line the upper reaches of one side of the restaurant.  Depending on where you’re seated, you may be able to study it easily, or you may have to get up and find a better vantage point.  Everything is a la carte, but side dishes are large and meant to be shared.  Service can be slow at Poole’s, but the food is worth the wait.

To begin with, the bread that came out first was heavenly.  A salad with pomegranate seeds was nicely dressed and refreshing.  My chicken and mashed potatoes dinner entree was starkly simple but perfectly executed.  And what of the restaurant’s famed macaroni and cheese?  It was creamy and decadent – borderline sublime.  I can’t recall better iteration of these classic comfort foods.  Similarly magnificent was the royale with cheese – a squashed tennis-ball size open face burger on brioche.

If dinner was nearly perfect and reasonably priced (although I can’t recall the exact figures), a recent brunch visit was a small step down and downright expensive.  I ordered a pimento cheese BLT ($12) and Michelle opted for an omelette with squash, chevre, and basil ($11).  We ordered hash browns on the side for $4.  A blueberry hotcake looked extraordinary (complete with a giant pat of butter), but for $12?  A biscuit with blueberry jam for $5?  To be fair, my sandwich was enormous.  It was stacked about 6 inches high, primarily on account of two half-inch thick tomato slices.  And it was undeniably delicious, although I felt the cheese/bacon ratio was too far in favor of the cheese, which  was verging on overwhelming with its very strong taste.  Moreover, the sandwich was not served on challah bread as the menu described, but on simple toasted white bread.  The omelette was also quite good but relatively unremarkable.  The hash browns were fabulous as chunks of softened pan-fried potatoes with a nice charry, smoky note.

Since moving on from the excellent Enoteca Vin, chef Ashley Christensen has garnered widespread acclaim and growing stardom, and found even greater success with Poole’s.  It’s the best restaurant in Raleigh, in my opinion, and one of the top handful in the entire Triangle.

Note: seating is limited, and Poole’s does not take reservations.  The menu changes frequently and therefore is not posted on the restaurant’s website.

Rating:  * * * * 1/2

Photo by Molly Hayes

The 5th Annual Eastern Triangle Farm Tour is coming up on Sat. & Sun. Sept 18 & 19, from 1 to 5 PM.  This is a great way to learn about regional agriculture in general, and in particular about where some of the best local food comes from.

From the organizers: This year there are a record twenty-four sites on the tour, including eight new farms!  We will be showcasing ten farms with sustainable and humane livestock operations, getting the word out about healthy, local meat options.  Several are Animal Welfare Approved and all have beautiful animals!

On the urban scene, we are happy to welcome an urban mini-farm in Durham (Two Ton Farm sponsored by Bountiful Backyards) and the farm of the Inter Faith Food Shuttle in Raleigh.  These farms, along with the SEEDS Garden in Durham, highlight how to grow a lot on small acreage in the city and how youth can be engaged in the movement.

Another newcomer to the tour this year is Durham County’s newest goat dairy; located in Bahama, Prodigal Farm has 65 goats and a brand new milking parlor and cheesemaking building.  We will have mushrooms again (Spain Farm) and honeybees for the first time (Betsey’s Bee Farm.)  And, of course, the tour includes a strong collection of vegetable, flower and fruit producers, where foodies and growers can learn about organic and sustainable horticulture practices.

Buttons are $25 per carload in advance and $30 the day of the tour.  Single farms are $10 per carload. More information, including the tour brochure, an interactive Google map of all the farms and ticket information are available at the following website:

www.carolinafarmstewards.org/etft2010.shtml

Several weeks ago, I had some friends in town from Washington, DC.  We were making plans to go out for dinner, and I was asked where we could get good pizza in the area.  “There’s really not any great pizza in the Triangle,” I replied.  That was before I knew about Bella Mia, which, with its ultra-hot coal-fired oven, has been hailed as the long-awaited arrival of “real” pizza in the Triangle.  A recent visit confirmed this for me.

Upon entering the restaurant, I felt a little under-dressed in shorts and sneakers, but the space is nicely balanced between the casual and the upscale, save for perhaps the outdated dance music playing on the radio.  The interior is sleek, with dark wood tables and an open kitchen.  It’s a fine place for a nice date or for bringing a 2 ½ year old (as we did).

We ordered a margherita pizza ($9.50) and a “Canal St” calzone ($11), which was stuffed with ricotta, mozzarella, and sausage.  I understand that good pizza is primarily about a good crust, and this crust was delightful, but it must be said that the toppings were what kept this pizza from being extraordinary.  They were actually too sparse: there was a very limited amount of sauce, which was perfectly fine, but the mozzarella slices were alarmingly thin – borderline paltry – and there were only a few small basil leaves on the whole pie.  Furthermore, there was a lot of vacant space between the toppings and the edge of the pie. As a result, all I could really taste was the crust.  Flecked with char spots from the coal-fired oven, it did have a great flavor and texture.  It was poofy on the edges and quite thin, but not crispy, in the middle.

The calzone, on the other hand, was phenomenal.  The ricotta was creamy, the sausage was cut into nice big chunks, and it was stuffed to the edges in the same great crust as the pizza.  Served with a judicious amount of tomato sauce, it was addictive – one of the best things I’ve eaten in the Triangle in quite a while.  The one improvement that could have been made was the plating: the calzone was crudely cut into three large pieces, with a little tomato sauce strewn on the middle section.

The rest of the menu was tempting too.  Bell Mia offers house-made pastas (the lasagna special almost won me over, but I was there, like many I suspect, to try the pizza), and I’ve heard good things about their lemon-rosemary roasted chicken wings, stuffed mushrooms, and nutella dessert pizza.

A note on ordering: the pizzas are about 12” in diameter, but, being thin and not overloaded with toppings, might leave you a bit hungry if split in half.  Most people I observed were ordering individual pies.  The calzone was decidedly more substantial and could probably serve two.  But don’t worry about it too much: any leftovers are not going to go to waste.

In the end, like many other recent commenters, I’m thrilled to have Bella Mia in the Triangle.  Now I know exactly where to go for good pizza.

Rating:  * * * *

I’d been looking forward to making peach ice cream since early this summer, and now’s a perfect time to do it.  Peaches from your local farmer’s market are ripe, plentiful, and delicious this month.  The recipe I used is custard-style (9 egg yolks!) from The Craft of Baking, but you can find countless recipes online, with or without eggs.

The aisles are lined with STP motor oil and Seventh Generation soaps.  The coolers are stocked with Gatorades and Goat Lady Dairy’s local organic cheeses.  The freezers are full of frozen Snickers ice-cream bars and Cane Creek Farm grass-fed meat.  The shelves offer Starburst candies and The Accidental Baker’s artisan crackers and granolas.  This is the Saxapahaw General Store, the gas-station gourmet food mart and restaurant that is generating lots of buzz in the Triangle food world and beyond.

Located in the tiny town of Saxapahaw, on the banks of the scenic Haw River, this might be the greatest gas station a hungry traveler could ever stumble upon.  Off of Highway 54 well south of Graham, NC, it’s about an hour drive from Raleigh, or less than 30 minutes from Chapel Hill.  But it’s a worthwhile foodie destination, and I’m looking forward to my next visit.

We went on a recent Saturday for lunch.  Scrawled on a chalkboard sign were the day’s specials – meatloaf sandwich, crabcake on croissant.  I opted for the brisket sandwich on ciabatta, with lemon-garlic aioli, swiss cheese, and caramelized onions ($8).  While we waited, I strolled around the sun-filled store and browsed the wide array of local, organic food offerings, nestled among the usual suspects of a gas station convenience store, without regard for incongruity.

The store has an extensive menu, ranging from delicious sounding breakfasts (“house-made biscuits with cane creek farm sausage and homemade gravy”) to southern brunch staples (shrimp and grits, which looked fantastic on a neighboring table) to homemade pizzas (on homemade dough, with homemade sauce) to a wide array of sandwiches, including local goat and local beef burgers.  From what I’ve read, the dinner specials are likely to feature whatever’s fresh and on hand, and generally comprise a menu that you’d be more likely to find in a high-end city restaurant such as Piedmont, Watt’s Grocery, or Poole’s Diner.

It took quite a while to get our food, but it was worth the wait.  The sandwich appeared to be served on grilled focaccia, not ciabatta (either way it appeared to be homemade), but that proved to be irrelevant.  It was exquisite, with tender, falling-apart beef and perfect proportions.  Duck fat fries ($3) on the side were not as expected – they were “home-style” fries – but they were undeniably delicious and perfectly seasoned with very coarsely ground pepper.

Also available at the front counter were a variety of homemade pastries, cookies, and other desserts.  The pastries looked great – everything from a blackberry turnover to lemon ginger scones to cranberry-white chocolate cookies.  A chocolate-pecan pie ($4/slice), on the other hand, looked a little sad, and, I confirmed later, tasted rather unremarkable.  I also sampled a chocolate chip cookie ($1.50) and the blackberry turnover ($4), both of which were respectable, if not brilliant.

Still, this place is a real gem.  Your meal can be taken inside, at a decidedly unglamorous booth, or outside on nice patio (as charming as can be, considering it’s situated 20 feet from some gas pumps).  Prices are generally on the higher side, but reflective of the top-notch ingredients employed, and worth every penny.

Rating: * * * *

Note: see their facebook page for more information

What do you do when it’s 100 degrees outside and your daughter, told she can pick a fruit from the grocery store, selects a huge bag of clementines?  Make clementine sorbet, of course!  It’s easy ice-cold refreshment.

Here’s how you do it: Dissolve 1 1/2 cups sugar in 2 cups water to make a simple syrup.  Allow it to cool completely.  Stir in 2 cups fresh clementine juice and some clementine zest (a tablespoon or so).  Freeze in your ice-cream maker or make it into popsicles.

Growing herbs is one of the simplest and best ways to improve your home cooking, practice sustainable eating habits, and save money at the same time.  We grow [pictured, from left to right] rosemary, mint, chives, basil, thyme, sage, and [not pictured] cilantro and oregano.  At one point we had some dill and parsley going too.  We use these in countless dishes on an almost daily basis.  The use of fresh herbs brightens the taste of almost any dish, from savory to sweet to salads.  And, by growing your own, you simply pick only what you need.  It’s easier and more economical than dealing with the rest of that huge bunch of grocery-store cilantro after you’ve used a handful in some guacamole.  Growing herbs doesn’t require much outdoor space; you can even grow them in pots.  So go for it!

Some restaurants try so hard and come up just short.  Lucky 32 is one of these places.

The interior is nicely appointed, with an understated, sophisticated feel, and there is a pleasant outdoor patio, but the size of the place is off-putting: it is enormous.  You kind of feel like you’re in the most elegant Ruby Tuesday’s you’ve ever seen.  Unfortunately, the food, despite its focus on local, seasonal, and sustainable ingredients, reinforces this impression.

The menu is nice, if a bit extensive, with a center section that changes seasonally.  On a recent lunch visit, the choices were appetizing: grilled peaches with chevre and country ham, local grass-fed burger, cornmeal crusted Carolina catfish (for the alliteration-minded), and a host of other traditional southern classics.  It must be noted here that the phrase “voodoo glaze” was associated with a disconcerting number of dishes (six) on the current menu.  In fact, the restaurant, which has a sister campus in Greensboro, has always focused on regional southern American fare, with a bent towards Cajun cuisine; this was made official with the recent name change to Lucky 32: Southern Kitchen.

The problem is that while the food is respectable, it never goes beyond that.  I have dined at the restaurant a handful of times over the past few years, and I have to say that there has been nothing memorable about any of the dishes I’ve tried. Among the dishes I can recall, I’ve had a nice fried green tomato appetizer and a very pedestrian “Russian River” chicken (with seemingly frozen vegetables).  Most recently, a dish of shrimp and grits was well seasoned and had a perfect level of spiciness to it, but the shrimp were better suited for popcorn frying, the andouille sausage was mediocre, and the grits were swamped by too much sauce.  I wondered how different it tasted than the restaurant’s rendition of jambalaya.  The prices for lunch were generally reasonable, although the burger was priced at a substantial $11.  The shrimp and grits, $12 at lunch, jumps up to $19 for dinner with the addition of one side item.  While the portions are significantly over-sized, the relatively high costs are unfortunately not reflected in the quality of the dishes.

Speaking of over-sized, beware of ordering desserts at Lucky 32 – they are gigantic.  A slice of chocolate peanut butter pie was absurdly large, and a “miniature” complimentary birthday brownie was almost as big.  Each of these was easily enough to feed an entire party of four.  A simple vanilla ice cream dish was more reasonable with three smallish scoops, and while the fudge sauce was good, I did not care for the ice cream itself (from Homeland Creamery in Julian, NC), which suffered from poor texture.

On the plus side, the wait staff is very well trained, with good knowledge of the menu and a seemingly genuine interest in food.  In the end, however, I’d prefer to take my money elsewhere.  Yes, the food and experience are far superior to any Ruby Tuesday, but they also fall well short of a place like Watts Grocery in Durham, where this kind of cuisine (at similar prices) is executed superbly.

Rating:  * * *

It was a weekend of good food at my house:

Blackberry-mascarpone puff pastry treats

Pear-taleggio-local honey panini on Yellow Dog Bread rustic multigrain with farmer’s market sweet white corn on the cob

Buttermilk biscuits with local organic maple sausage gravy

Homemade pizzas including taleggio-mushroom-caramelized onion-rosemary (one of the greatest pizza topping combinations ever) and spinach-garden tomato-feta-basil

Cantaloupe sorbet (courtesy of Matt & Tanya Andrews)

Since Greg Cox is issuing his review of Cantina 18 this weekend, I thought I would too.  However, a disclaimer is warranted: I visited this restaurant around 3 weeks after its opening, and this restaurant, perhaps more than others, apparently had some kinks to iron out at its inception.  But on to the review:

I was excited to try this new place in Cameron Village, and could not have been more disappointed.  An off-shoot of 18 Seaboard, a restaurant which I visited once and did not especially love, Cantina 18 is a more casual affair that aims generally, but wildly, at southwestern inspired fare.  There are tacos, yes, but they tend to have exotic fillings like duck confit-pineapple-asiago, or chicken-apple-cranberry-goat cheese.  In fact, all of the flavors profiles seem badly construed.

To start with, there were chips and salsa.  The salsa was virtually saltless.  We ordered guacamole, which turned out to be a big mistake.  It was nearly inedible, with a mayonnaise-like consistency (and taste!).  The tacos didn’t sound that great to me, and I wanted french fries, so both Michelle and I wounded up ordering sandwiches – an avocado BLT for her, and a pressed shredded pork one for me.  You’d think the avocado BLT would be an easy win – how can you go wrong? – but the avocado was mysteriously similar to the guacamole.  The sandwich was awful.  Perhaps worse still was mine, with a kind of pickled cabbage slaw and finely shredded pork.  The pepper jack cheese and lime crema were components of the sandwich that I could scarcely distinguish.  It just tasted bad.  The fries were no better, as the lemon zest and seasoning were again off the mark.  We did not want finish our meals.

A few positive notes: the service was generally attentive, the the chips were limitless, and the outdoor patio seating is a nice option.  But overall, based on our experience, I’m glad I didn’t try the crazy sounding tacos, and I’m not so sure that I ever will.

Rating:  *