Terry’s Country Kitchen

One of the many great things about Durham is that even on the most routine trips, you’re likely to find something new. Last week I drove by the Quick Lube on Roxboro and Cornwallis and noticed that it shares a sign with a place called Terry’s Country Kitchen. According the Herald-Sun, Terry Grey, the assistant food director of the School of Science Math, opened the restaurant back in May, and the food is so good that it’s no surprise that she’s been cooking for 25+ years.

They do breakfast from 7 to 11 am six days a week (FYI - this is the second place I’ve come across that serves liver pudding) and lunch and dinner in the afternoons.  The lunch menu includes “fast food” (burgers, BBQ, chicken, wraps, and - seriously - Steak-Umms) and a revolving menu of dinner plates.  Today they had meatloaf, whiting, and a turkey leg, but other items include BBQ, pork chops, beef stroganoff, and ribs, all of which come with two sides and hushpuppies for $6 to $7.

The turkey was cooked in a tasty white sauce, and the whiting was great but not quite as otherworldly as the tilapia at Leo’s, but the real standouts were the sides.  The fresh fried okra was almost greaseless and full of body, the black eyed peas and collards were both phenomenal, and the yams were perfect - it’s amazing how much flavor comes through when you don’t drown them in sugar.

Sometimes they have sweet potato pie, and if the yams are any indication, it should be good, but to top it off we had a slice of yellow box cake with chocolate icing. The only disappointment was the limited selection (I really had my heart set on ribs - can I put in a bleg for good ribs in Durham?), but everything else was great, from the cozy decor to the service. Terry and the guys she had working the register were all incredibly nice.

One of these days I’m going to get up early and get the “Pigg-out Special”: 2 eggs, home fries, grits, a pancake, sausage, bacon, and a salmon patty.  Mmmmm.

Terry’s Country Kitchen (map)
Monday - Thursday: 7 am - 5 pm
Friday - Saturday: 7 am - 7 pm 

What’s Spanish for “hubris”?

There’s a new taqueria on Hillsborough in the Kroger shopping center that’s called (really) “The Best Burrito”. They’re not claiming to have the best split pea soup in town. They’re saying that they make and sell the best burritos in Durham. I was expecting a stomachful of schadenfreude after my lunch of justice, but although they’re guilty of shameless false advertising, they do have some pretty good food.

The interior actually reminds me a lot of Guajillos, if they tried to make it look appetizing, and the guy running the place could not have been nicer. The menu is varied without being gimmicky, and the prices are expected, if a little inflated - $7.50 for a big burrito, $2 for a taco. We went with the “super special” burrito - rice, beans, beef, chorizo, sour cream, guacamole, and salsa - and a couple of tacos (al pastor and barbacoa). I was happy to see some flour tortilla chips (at least as good as the ones at Carburrito’s), and the house salsa was better than most.

The burrito itself was good, but a bit overwhelmed by the condiments and chorizo, which is so intensely flavored that it’s almost unidentifiable as pork (unlike the subtle chorizo at Chubby’s). The tacos were huge and tasty, especially the barbacoa, which tasted a lot like the carne guisada I’ve had at other taquerias. The owner was also talking up his mushroom quesadilla, and it looks like almost everything on the menu has a vegetarian counterpart.

Like Chubby’s, The Best Burrito is more “accessible” than some of the other taquerias in the area, but it’s certainly authentic, save some strange menu options (chicken fingers?). If anybody tries their mushroom dishes be sure to let us know!

The Best Burrito (map)
Sunday - Saturday: 9.30 am - 9 pm

Crawfish Boil at Papa Mojo’s Roadhouse

It turns out the best thing about Sarah’s Empanadas is its proximity to Papa Mojo’s Roadhouse, a Cajun creole restaurant in Greenwood Commons in RTP. 

On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, in addition to the extensive menu, they have a crawfish boil, and thanks to the Triangle Brewery tour earlier in the day, I felt up for anything, including tearing apart some crustaceans.  Thankfully we had enough people to sample the entrees and desserts.  The yardbird and sausage gumbo, cochon de lait (andouille sausage and slow cooked pork, served with very sweet BBQ sauce), and especially the incredible garlic butter green beans were all great.  The real stars were, of course, the crawfish and desserts.  Crawfish season only lasts until the end of July, so be sure to go in the next few weeks if you want to suck some heads.

After finishing off 6 lbs of wondrous crawfish, we ordered buttermilk pie with blackberry sauce, pecan pie a la mode, and bread pudding with whiskey sauce.  Everything was good, but the bread pudding was probably my favorite dessert I’ve had in Durham.  We even ordered one to take home with us.  

Most of their ingredients are either brought in from Louisiana or purchased locally, and the owner is both a Cajun chef and a Zydeco musician, so not only is the food awesome (and, according to my friends, authentic) but they also have live music on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

Papa Mojo’s Roadhouse (map)
Monday - Wednesday: 11 am - 9 pm
Thursday - Friday: 11 am - 11 pm
Saturday: 4 pm - 11 pm 

Brewery Tours This Saturday!

Big Boss brewery in Raleigh is having a tour at 2 pm on Saturday, June 14th.  Check out the website for more info.  No reservations needed - just show up and drink free beer.

Triangle Brewing Company is also doing a tour on Saturday at 1 pm here in Durham - according to their website, they have a new Belgian-style white ale, and they’re also selling growlers, cash-only. (Thanks to awesome commenter Melanie for the info!)

I have seen the top of the mountain. And it is good.

Blue Mountain Catering (map)
Tuesday - Friday: 11.45 am - 2.30 pm

Sarah’s Empanadas, boiling plantains since 1988 (and a reminder)

You can imagine my excitement when I found out about Sarah’s Empanadas, a popular Bolivian lunch place in Greenwood Commons in RTP, since empanadas are amazing. Although the empanadas themselves are okay, they’re not quite enough to make up for the painful sides.

We got there right at noon and it quickly became packed. The RTP crowd obviously comes for the empanadas, which are $2.50 apiece and are priced from $5 to $7.50 based on whether you get one or two empanadas and one or two sides. They also have fruit drinks, desserts, huge paintings, and llama paraphernalia.

We went with a beef empanada and a chicken and cheese empanada, and a special they called “pollo loco,” which is Bolivian for frozen stir-fry and Zatarain’s yellow rice. The empanadas, on the other hand, are definitely good, especially with the slightly sweet salsa that comes with them. The picadillo (beef, peas, olives, raisins, and potato) and the chicken were tasty, but the real star is the pastry crust. I’m pretty sure the mango drink was Jumex, but the apple empanada and churros were great.

Forgetting the crazy chicken, everything was alright (it’s hard to screw up fried yucca), but to our amazement the fried plantains were so gummy and flavorless they were borderline inedible. My friend guesses that they boil their plantains to save some time before giving them a cursory fry. Is this how they do it in Bolivia?

Since writing about disappointing restaurants is as much fun as reading about them, you guys have been to Pupuseria y Taqueria Orellana, right? It was the subject of one of our earliest posts and is, in fact, holy. The yucca frita con chicharron is out of this world, and if you’ve only had it at El Cuscatleco you’re really in for something (and notice the 100.0 sanitation score!).

Sarah’s Empanadas (map)
Monday-Friday: 11 am - 2 pm

Pupuseria y Taqueria Orellana (map)
Sunday - Saturday: 11 am - 9 pm

Opening Day at The Picnic Basket

Today was opening day for The Picnic Basket’s new location in Durham (and Carpe Durham was their very first customer!). They’re the biggest caterer in the Triangle, and their restaurants (this location, next to Thai Cafe and Wine Authorities on University Dr., and one in RTP) don’t stray far from what you’d expect.

Which is not to say that good catering for lunch is a bad thing at all - their sandwiches and salads are fresh, and there’s a lot of variety, with about 10 cold and 10 hot sandwiches. The interior is cute but not overdone, and the lady who seemed to be holding the place together was really nice. I got what amounted to a turkey club with some “baked potato salad” (an amalgam of sour cream, potato, bacon, and sour cream) and some skewered pieces of fruit, which was a nice touch. The lunch combo includes a drink and, like everything on the menu, will run you about $7 to $8. The side salad bodes well for the full salad, but avoid the super-sweet sundried tomato vinaigrette.

They have some above-average baked goods from Sweet Jane’s (a wholesale bakery in RTP), a full-scale coffee and tea bar, and best of all, Wi-Fi. Once they start serving dinner later this week, they may start attracting the erstwhile Sips crowd. Overall, it’s good catering with wait staff, with lots of fresh salads, sandwiches, wraps, and a number of attractive vegetarian options.

The Picnic Basket (map)
Monday-Friday: 11 am-3 pm (dinner soon)

Fresh out of breakfast at Five Points Cafe

Besides pastries at Ninth St. Bakery, there isn’t much breakfast to speak of downtown (unless you guys know where to get it!), so I was excited to stop by Five Points Cafe (right next to Toast) see what they had to offer.

Unfortunately, Five Points Cafe isn’t quite the Foster’s lite experience I was hoping it would be. When I showed up at 8.30, the only items on the menu (which includes omelets, a mushroom fritatta, baked french toast, pancakes, and biscuits) that were actually available were omletes and french toast, which is to say they had eggs and bread in the kitchen. I asked what kind of bread they used for the french toast and he said “whatever they had on hand” - including rye (?) - which turned out to be bagged and presliced.

The bacon and swiss omelet ($7 with a muffin) was pretty rudimentary, served with a big wedge of underripe honeydew melon (YAR’s favorite!), and it took about 15 minutes to come out, which is a long time considering I was one of two people there. They have scones and muffins too, but I’m absolutely certain the corn muffins are made with Krusteaz mix.

Judging by a single breakfast trip on what may have been an off day, Five Points Cafe has some issues to work out, two months after opening. I get the impression that it’s more of a lunch place, but for the time being the style of breakfast they’re offering, especially for the price, isn’t much competition for Nosh or Foster’s.  Can you guys vouch for their lunches?

Five Points Cafe (map)
Sunday - Saturday: 7 am - 3 pm

Pound Cake at Bull City Bakery

North Durham’s Bull City Bakery (right across from Kuts ‘n Kurls on Guess Rd.) has been around for about two years, and although they don’t have much for walk-in customers, their pound cake alone is worth a visit. 

The bakery seems to get most of its business from whole cakes (wedding cakes, business and school events, etc.), but in-store they have several kinds of pound cakes (chocolate, lemon, and orange ginger this time around) and 8 or 9 different varieties of cookies.  All their other items, including pastries, have to be ordered ahead of time.

Dean, the owner, is a great guy - after ordering a slice of lemon pound cake and an oatmeal butterscotch cookie, I mentioned the blog (since I was taking some photos) and he gave me a cranberry orange oatmeal cookie on the house.  I can also appreciate the “cake rules” from their website:

1. Frosting should never come from a bucket.
2. Cake Mix may be homemade, but is never scratch.
3. Yellow and White are not Cake Flavors.
4. Friends don’t let friends eat bad cake.
5. Good cake makes parties better.

Amen to #4!

They haven’t gotten a lot of traffic at their location, but they’re one of a few bakeries that fill Durham’s underrepresented southern bakery niche.  Dean also mentioned that he hopes to pair up with Maple View Farms and sell ice cream sandwiches at Duke football games, which would add up to about 1000 calories of delicious.  

The cranberry orange oatmeal cookies are terrific (they sell out pretty often), and the pound cake is some of the best I’ve had in the Triangle.  But really, with a name like Bull City Bakery, how could it be bad?  (Also, in case you were wondering, the restaurant next door - Cafe Latino Deli - unfortunately closed a few weeks ago.)

Bull City Bakery (map)
Tuesday - Friday: 10 am - 5 pm
Saturday - Sunday: 10 am - 3 pm

Asanga’s Cafe at Ninth Street Bakery

Ninth Street Bakery, as the name suggests, used to be on Ninth Street, where Elmo’s is currently located.  One of my earliest memories is of walking there with my mom and getting a bear claw, a slashed chocolate croissant laced with frosting.  I tried one earlier this week to see if it lived up to my memories, but sadly their baked goods just can’t compete with Guglhupf. However, I found out that on Wednesdays they serve a vegetarian Sri Lankan lunch at their current location in downtown Durham.  Although it sounded amazing, I was pretty skeptical about whether it could trump the $5 vegetarian plate at Bahn’s.

Technically, “Asanga’s Cafe” starts at noon, but we got there about 15 minutes early to get a table.  They only make the dishes once, so make sure you get there before 12.45.

The basmati rice kottu (rice, green beans, raisins, sliced almonds, carrots, scallions, and tons of parsley) is served with a few slices of buttery toast, arugula, and lentil soup, and it’s phenomenal - slightly sweet at first and a lingering spiciness later, with tons of complementary flavors.  The toast was perfect, and the lentil soup got the job done, although it suffers from being so close to Toast. My only complaint was that I could have eaten about four plates of kottu and still want more, but $6.50 is a fair price for one of the best lunches in downtown Durham, vegetarian or otherwise.

Ninth Street Bakery is sort of hidden - it’s basically a loading dock across the street from Toast, where Main and East Chapel Hill St. split.  As long as you can find it and make it there in time, you should make every effort to try it out.  By the way, has anyone tried their pizza?

Asanga’s Cafe at Ninth Street Bakery (map)
Wednesdays at noon sharp