Help Wanted! Summer guest bloggers

We are all headed out of town for the summer to do internships, and thus our ability to post will be sporadic at best. We are hoping to find a couple of guest bloggers to keep the cause alive until we return in August.

If you are willing to try new places and write about them at least a couple of times a week, please shoot us an email at carpedurham -at- carpedurham.com with a little bit of information about yourself. I think I speak for everyone here when I say that working on this site has enriched our lives in a very considerable way by motivating us to get off our butts and experience wonderful parts of Durham that we would otherwise not. Our ideal person would like a wide range of foods and styles, and be willing to try everything (anywhere).

*UPDATE: We received an overwhelming response to this request. Thank you to all those expressed interest! Your summer bloggers should be starting soon.

exam period food cravings

During exam period, I become really weird and idiosyncratic about food.  I don’t like to eat dinner, have pregnancy-like cravings for really unhealthy things, and overload on caffeine.  I have to add the disclaimer (my co-bloggers already know this) that I am the non-slumming one.   I have extravagant tastes which will probably put me in the poor house sooner or later.

Here’s my list of sins for 2L spring exams:

beignets from Rue Cler (a dozen might last me maybe 2 days).  It’s also my motivation to get up before 10:30am.

Blenheim hot ginger ale.  Unfortunately, Blenheim only sells wholesale, but I hear that Parker & Otis is working on it.  I might order a case for finals. 

Dolly Mama chocolates.  I visited their stand at the Farmer’s Market again the other weekend.  They come out with slightly different flavors every week.  A VERY expensive addiction ($12/box of 6). 

fried eggs.  Not so much for breakfast as for a late night snack.

Escazu dark chocolate bar with sea salt.  I hoard these at Parker & Otis.  Apparently, Escazu will being doing a limited edition chocolate bar just for Parker & Otis.

So to the study bunnies out there, what’s your exam period poison?

Brooklyn Pizza: Beautiful Soul, Deformed Body

A guest-blogger!

I’m always on the lookout for pizza that does not make me want to vomit. I’m a Randy’s fan since back when, but lately their pies have seen a significant downturn in quality, and their delivery times are starting to border on comical. Also, all recent pizza I have ordered from there has arrived at my house with the temperature and texture of Jello.

Anyway, with Randy’s sucking, I was intrigued when I spotted Brooklyn Pizzeria (2812 Erwin Rd) recently opened next to Six Plates Wine Bar in Erwin Terrace. A little research described a relatively long-standing North Carolina pizza chain with locations in mysterious backwoods locales such as “Fayetteville” (that sounded like a made-up town to me, but sure enough it’s real). A smattering of reviews - mostly by New York emigres - paint a picture of authentic thin-crust pizza.

I was feeling pretty lazy and hungry last night - and I had drank four beers - so I and two other tasters decided to give Brooklyn Pizzeria a shot. After a fairly reasonable thirty-minute wait time (interspersed with several panicked, direction-seeking phone calls from the driver) the pizza arrived, and I could feel the heat radiating from the bottom of the box. A good sign.

Feeling pretty excited at this point, I laid the box on the kitchen counter, opened it up, and…

OH SWEET MERCIFUL CHRIST WHAT HAPPENED TO IT?
Seriously. Dude. Wow.

There are only three reasonable explanations for this horrorshow:

1. They are now using fighter jets as delivery vehicles, and the driver was pulling enough Gs to cause complete molecular disruption of the pizza..

2. The driver carried the pizza in the fashion one would carry a large book or framed picture, or he just stuffed it into a messenger bag.

3. The slice on the bottom left is an evil murderer, and the slices on the top right literally crawled away to cower in the corner.

Whatever happened, it was a hideous gargoyle of a pizza. A grotesque, Boschian parody of what should greet hungry people upon opening a pizza box. Brooklyn Pizzeria, I am angry with you.

HOWEVER. As you can see in the above tableau of mutilation, there are two pieces missing. This is because we were so ravenous that we couldn’t take the time to rearrange the pie into something resembling palatable food. We just grabbed the first two generally unspoiled slices and crammed them into our slavering maws.

The verdict, and the general point of this entire story, is that Brooklyn Pizzeria’s pizza is awesome. The crust is crispy and flaky, the cheese/sauce ratio balanced and satisfying, and the mushrooms…well, they were definitely picked by cheerful nymphs in some Hibernian wood, that’s how happy they made me.

Screw you Randy’s. You’re done.

By Nick Williams

For Banana Pudding Lover (it’s not in Durham though!)

This post is for that special banana pudding loving co-blogger out there.  I went to Crooks Corner in Chapel Hill the other night for some fancy Southern cuisine (had an out of town guest).    This is apparently the home of the shrimp and grits.  And yeah, the shrimp and grits were great: unlike a lot of places, Crooks gives you a ton of big meaty shrimps.  Anyways, onto the big find relevant to banana pudding lover: Crooks serves a pretty decent “Good Banana Pudding.”  Big enough to share, the banana pudding is *drum roll* topped off with a thick layer of fresh meringue.    The custard is slightly tangy with a consistency reminiscent of the custard in an ile flottante.   The bananas are neither too ripe nor too green.  And oh yeah, there’s the meringue.  I am a HUGE meringue fan, so I was totally loving it.  The only bad thing I can say about the pudding is that it’s somewhat miserly with the vanilla wafers (or maybe the person with whom I shared the dessert hogged it all?).    Sorry about the quality of the picture, it was taken with a camera phone.

Nouveau Durham: Watts Grocery

We’ve been told that we slum it too often, so today we have a very special post regarding a fancy local restaurant!

I’ve heard lots of mixed reviews regarding dinner at Watts, so I was nervous when my friends decided to dine there after learning that Piedmont was overrun by the hipsters in town for Full Frame.  I am pleased to report that my dining experience at Watts was overall positive:  the service was not bad, the food was very good, and the atmosphere was just fine.

When we walked in, we were quickly shown to a table in the bar area once the host learned that we did not have reservations.  The server was mildly overattentive, but still managed to make a mistake with my drink order.  This put me a little more on edge.  Fortunately, it was then cocktail time!

A word about cocktails

Their cocktail menu was kind of boring, but claims to use fresh fruit juices and purees.  This got me excited, so I ordered a salty dog (grapefruit and gin, salted rim), which is always a favorite drink of mine.  It was a pretty shade of pink and good tasting, but not that special for the $9 price tag.  I would have to say that for cocktails, i would always choose Piedmont, which is creative enough with its cocktails to justify paying more. 

Appetizer

I ordered the asparagus and mushroom hash with poached egg as a starter.  When it first came out, I was a little surprised because it gave the appearance of a stirfry, not a hash.  I always associate hashes with potatoes, and this contained none. Despite this dissonance with my expectations, I liked the dish.  The mushrooms were extremely flavorful and well-seasoned without being too salty, the asparagus was al dente, and the egg, while a touch runny, had a bright, beautiful yolk bespeaking a nice local egg.

The Main Course

Next, we split a vegetarian plate and a steak.  The vegetarian plate was well-composed compared to many I’ve had in upscale restaurants, and was very well-presented.  A few snowdrifts (this is really how they were shaped.  for those of you from warmer climates, think sandune…)  of pureed cauliflower were interspersed with little piles of quickly sauteed vegetables including some kind of greens, some red peppers, and florets of cauliflower.  The protein component was an excellent mushroom custard–that’s what the server called it, anyway; I’d call it a boudin.  The steak was very well-seasoned and cooked exactly as I had requested it.  It was accompanied by a few spears of grilled asparagus and red bell pepper, plus some kind of special chipotle seasoned pinto beans.  I was impressed by the number and quality of sides since this is one aspect of a meal that is often overlooked.

Closing Thoughts

I told my coblogger about this meal, and she expressed reservations again.  We agreed that we really want to like Watts, but we are not yet comfortable putting a full CarpeDurham seal of approval on it.  Her reasons are that she has had some spotty experiences with the food, though she loves all of the servers.  My main concern relates to the balance of flavors in general.  The plates are just not well-composed in the way that I would expect from a restaurant that charges that much in Durham, and that bills itself as a sort of nouveau/southern cuisine type of restaurant.  Rather than melding the two approaches–nouveau and southern–seamlessly, which is what I’d ideally expect, the menu jumps from one to the other.  For example, I liked the beans that were served with my steak, but they did not seem like either a natural or a (pleasantly) surprising fit.  They seemed like a southern or southwestern add-on. Similarly, the vegetarian plate was quite delicious, but very nouveau-oriented.  I did not see the south represented at all.  Additionally, it probably should have included some kind of carboydrate-based component.  If nothing else, the “southern” half would seem to connote a hearty meal.

I think that this is why we normally like to eat and and review ethnic restaurants in the area.  We know that it’s really difficult to invent a perfect menu, and it’s usually cheaper and easier to find at a Mexican or Vietnamese place where the cooks are just working to recreate a menu that has already been perfected through tradition.  That said, we will return to Watts, and definitely have an open mind about it. 

Toast has Wine

That’s all!

We’re it

Ok, we are officially part of the “blogosphere” now–we’ve been tagged in a “blog game!” Thanks to The Durham Bull Pen for appreciating our awesome name.

We’re supposed to post 10 random things about ourselves and then tag 5 others to do the same. We’re trying to be good sports, but we are a young blog, new to the blogging community (”blogosphere”), and can’t think of 5 blogs to tag. So we’re just going to do the first part.

1. We love hops.

2. We can eat a lot.

3. We have gained weight since we started this blog.

4. We blog instead of doing school work.

5. We never blog while in class though.

6. We’re not sure whether we like food or beer more.

7. If it is possible to go to the Federal too much, we do that.

8. Same with drinking Diet Coke.

9. We are kind of obsessed with Latin American foods.

10. We ain’t no joke.

Biryani

Thanks to one of our very special readers (Britt) we were tipped off to the fact that Little India, an Indian grocery store behind Target, sells home-made chicken biryani on Thursdays (and Fridays, it turns out). When I went on Thursday I got there right before closing (9pm) and the biryani (packed in to-go containers) was no longer warm, but was still quite good, especially with the yogurt sauce. Not that it would take much, but it was far better than the level of Indian I expect around Durham. Apparently it was even better when my friend happened to get there for a fresh batch (around 8pm) on Friday.*** They also have fresh samosas—by 8:45 there was only one cold sad one left, but it would be worth checking out to see if they’re better earlier in the evening.

***(From the friend) Actually, I picked mine up at Spice Bazaar, which is in front of Target. (Random aside/tip for those of you with wheat and gluten allergies: check out Spice Bazaar’s great selection of flour, much cheaper than you will find at some yuppie health food store).

I had never been to Spice Bazaar before, and by happy coincidence was there at the same time that they had received a fresh shipment of the biryani, still hot. The guy at the counter pressured me into buying it. He said that it was homemade by his friend. Anyway, I was weak with hunger and had no will to resist. They had chicken curry and biryani, plus samosas. The guy said that I absolutely should go for the biryani since it involved special rice that I couldn’t make at home. (Nevermind that I would have no idea how to make chicken curry at home.) The biryani consisted of some streaky-looking yellow rice mixed with little bits of dark meat. There was also a chicken leg in there, and the rice mixture was topped off with cashews, some unidentifiable green herb, and caramelized onions. Finally, there was also a little container holding some kind of yogurt and onion sauce. The guy insisted that I pour this over. That turned out to be a good choice–the biryani was very flavorful, had a little kick, and I really liked being able to stir all of the condiments on top into it. 

So yeah, it’s definitely the same biryani at both stores, maybe one is only Thursdays and the other only Fridays?  They’re basically around the strip-mall block from one another so if one doesn’t work out, try the other. 

Cheap alcohol!

I heard a rumor that Parker & Otis, our favorite (the only?) fancy grocery store in Durham, is having a giant sale this Saturday. I guess everything is on sale, up to 50%, including beer and wine. Sounds like a big deal to me. And they have those free wine tastings on Saturdays (12-3) so you can drink while you shop. There is really nothing better than that.

P.S. It does get better.  Apparently the wine tasting will be from 11 - 4 this week.

Bleg!

If you don’t know, “bleg” is blogosphere for “request for our blog readers.”

My friend told me that Super Taqueria used to sell great potato tacos. Then they stopped, and told her when she asked that it was because she was the only person who ever ordered them. So if you go, you should casually ask if they have any and act surprised and mildly disappointed if they don’t. Maybe they’ll make a comeback.

Also, if you know of somewhere else with good potato tacos, let us know.

Thanks, readers.