Recovered...in the tropics

Sorry to have been away for so long. I was recovering from strep throat and then went to Hawaii (Big Island) to dive and to hang out with my parents who were there for a conference.

The Big Island is an outstanding place with diverse climates and gorgeous natural wonders like the volcanoes, waterfalls, and a reef system. It has been on my list of places to go for quite some time. Apparently it is more laid back, more low key with fewer tourists, and less expensive than the other islands. I've heard that Maui is basically McBeach nowadays but I cannot say from personal experience.

The Big Island was still expensive and Kona is kind of an eyesore with places like Hooters and Bubba Gumps. Who travels 5,000 miles to eat at Bubba Gumps? When I go on vacation I don't want to see the stuff that I can find a mile down the road from my house.

We ate lots of good things. We went to local farmers' markets to pick up fresh fruit whenever we could. We ate a lot of tangerines, bananas (small finger bananas), rambutans, passionfruit, and macadamia nuts. I like the Hawaiian word for passionfruit: lilikoi. Passionfruit juice, tea, and sorbet are everywhere. It's so good! Rambutans are like lychees. My favorite dessert was some rambutan ice cream!

The best food we ate was grilled chicken that we picked up at a roadside stand. It was also inexpensive, by Hawaiian standards, at $7/plate. We ate great Korean food too in a little strip mall restaurant in the town of Waimea. The food at the resorts was fairly forgettable and outrageously expensive.

Two places are worth mentioning. One is Cafe Pesto and the other is the Harbor Grill. Both are located in the Kawaihae harbor area. The food at both places is imaginative and delicious using local ingredients and fresh catch. Neither place has much of a view unless you consider a dock for container ships a view. So all you pay for is the food and service. At Harbor Grill I had pan seared mahi mahi in a citrus beurre blanc. At Cafe Pesto I had a fish called walu in Hawaiian served over a salad of mixed greens. Walu is a delicious buttery fish from the tropics.

The Big Island would be an exciting place for a home cook. The diverse climate offers everything from fresh tomatos, berries, and greens to durian, taro, and pineapple. People can even grow their own coffee! I wonder what it would be like to grown and roast my own coffee.

If you dive and ever head out to Hawaii, I highly recommend Kohala Divers in part because they are not affiliated with a resort , in part because I could drive my car right up to the boat dock and throw aboard my 50lbs of dive gear, and in part because one of the dive leaders is a young woman in what is still a very male-dominated field. GIRL POWER!

I tried to take surfing lessons too, but the waves were not suitable for beginners so the lessons were cancelled both days I went over to the surf school. Maybee next time.

So that's it. I'm home. My cupboards are bare except for Kona coffee and mac nuts so I'd better head to the store. Wonder what I should cook...

Kelly's Durham Dining Guide

I made this list of good, local places to eat for some newcomers to town. The list is not meant to be comprehensive although I think it covers most of the good places. If not, let me know what I've forgotten.

Barbeque:

Q-Shack, 2514 University Drive
Excellent NC style BBQ as well as ribs and Texas style brisket BBQ. Delicious sweet potato fries, collards, and macaroni and cheese. On the lighter side, they have a great Cobb salad. The best comfort meal in town is their Texas pie: brisket chili served atop fritos or fries with onions, cheese, avocado, lettuce and scallions. Serves beer.

Bullocks, 3330 Quebec Dr off of Hillsborough
A Durham institution for NC style BBQ. Delicious hush puppies. Fried chicken is good too. No beer. Baptists don’t serve beer in their BBQ joints.

Mexican:

Cosmic Cantina, 1920 1/2 Perry St
This hole-in-the-wall upstairs on Perry St has simple but great burritos and quesadillas. It’s usually full of Duke students. Get your food to go unless it is warm enough to sit outside on their patio.

Toreros, 800 W Main St
Standard Mexican fare but better than other places. Good vegetarian options like the bean tostado and spinach enchiladas.

Tonali, 3642 Shannon Rd Ste 1
Gourmet Mexican cuisine using fresh ingredients. Menu changes often. Warm and inviting décor. No velvet sombreros or bull horns hanging on the walls. Delicious fish Veracruzana.

Cafes and bars with good food:
Foster’s Market, 2694 Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd
Great for breakfast or lunch. Foster’s has a lot of outside seating when the weather is nice. Good coffee and a selection of wines, candies, bakery items, and other sundries. Very good ginger cookies, scones, and macaroons.

Guglhupf Bakery and Café, 2706 Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd
Bakery sells fresh, artisan breads and pastries daily. Delicious croissants, foccacia, and muesli bread.

Federal, 914 W Main St
Great selection of beers on tap and in bottles. The food is much better than standard bar food. The daily specials are always excellent and a good value. The fries are great and seasoned with garlic and parsley. The grilled cheese sandwich cannot be beat, especially with a side of fries.

Asian

Thai Café, 2501 University Dr Ste 10
The first Thai restaurant in Durham opened only a couple of years ago. Warm, inviting décor with full bar. Crab angels are a yummy starter. Good Pad Thai, tom yum, and all dishes can be made with tofu.

Pao Lim, 2505 Durham Chapel Hill Blvd
Pan-Asian, Pacific rim cuisine served. Delicious dal soup as a starter and very good salmon dishes.

Twisted Noodle, 4201 University Dr
Another Thai restaurant that opened a few months ago. The food is better in quality and value than Thai Café but the atmosphere and bar are not as inviting.

Sitar Indian Palace, 3117 Shannon Rd
Best Indian restaurant in Durham. Indian buffet served on weekends.

French:

Rue Cler, 401 E Chapel Hill St
Coffee shop and bakery items served throughout the day. Go for beignets and coffee for a very unhealthy but tasty breakfast. Weekends brunch is served. In the evenings Rue Cler offers a fixe prix, three course menu for $25. It changes often. The standard menu features traditional French bistro fare like steaks frites.

Vin Rouge, Ninth Street and Hillsborough
Love the croque monsieur and escargot! Pricey but good menu. Dark, sexy atmosphere.

Italian and pizza:

Pizza Palace, Guess Road
The oldest pizza restaurant in Durham moved to a new location on Guess Road, but it is still a dive. The pizza is great though, especially the ones with white sauces and garlic. The crusts are thin and crisp.

Cinelli’s Ristorante, 607 Broad St
Atmosphere is not great and neither is the service, but the pizza is good and so are dishes like the carbonara tortellini, pasta with vodka sauce, and pasta Cinelli with white beans and escarole.

Pop’s, 810 W Peabody St
Upscale Italian in an old warehouse space serves delicious mussels, gourmet pizzas, inventive pasta dishes, and meat dishes like chicken cooked under a brick. Good wine list and tasty desserts. Generally the service is very good.

Satisfactions, Main St in Brightleaf Square
A large beer selection and good pizza. It's a fun place to go watch some hoops, drink a beer, and have some pizza with friends.

Nouveau Southern:

Piedmont, 401 Foster St Ste B2
The chef is known for his preparations of pork and beef. The portions are huge. For brunch on the weekends order shrimp and grits or the pork chops with eggs.

Watt’s Grocery, 1116 Broad Street
The newest upscale restaurant in Durham. The chef uses fresh, local ingredients for preparing updated North Carolina cuisine. The atmosphere is modern and warm. Brunch is served on the weekends.

Alivia's, Main Street and Gregson
The best coffee in town thanks to a very impressive Italian coffee machine and a supply of great beans. It's good for breakfast and lunch. Dinner is pricey but usually pretty good. Service isn't exactly stellar. Brunch on the weekends is a small menu but good.

Fine dining:

Magnolia Grill, 1002 Ninth St
The crown jewel of fine dining in the Triangle region. Go if you parents are paying or for a special occasion. Ben Barker, the head chef and owner, is most competent with starters and fish. His wife Karen is the pastry chef who does wonderful creations. The service is very good.

Nana’s, 2514 University Dr
On par with Magnolia Grill as one of the leading restaurants in the region, Nana’s has been a Durham institution since 1992. The chef and owner, Scott Howell is a top chef in the Triangle. For a special dinner, order the chef’s tasting menu and the wine pairings. It’s also fun to sit in the bar for a glass of wine and a salad or a dessert. Also good service.

What's good for a sore throat?

Sorry for not blogging of late. After returning to Durham from spending Christmas with my family, I have succumbed to strep throat.

I've been using it as an opportunity to eat Hagen Dazs. I found a great flavor I've never tried before: Sticky Toffee Pudding! It is vanilla ice cream with brown sugar cake and toffee swirls. MMMM.

I have also been eating soup but I am too tired to fix it myself so I've been running down to Thai Cafe for tom yum. The broth is not only tasty but it feels good on my throat. Unfortunately one symptom of strep, besides sore throat, is lose of appetite. I wasn't hungry enough to eat all of the shrimp in the soup, but my cats really enjoyed it as a treat!

Hopefully I will feel like cooking and eating again soon.

New Year's Eve: slow cooking Italian

Happy New Year's! I hope 2008 is a good one for all.

Yesterday I made a slow cooking meat ragu to go with pasta for a dinner party last night. A dinner party is my favorite way to herald in another year. Nothing beats good food and good company.

The meat sauce turned out great. Three hours of cooking turns simple, fairly inexpensive ingredients into a rich, luxurious sauce. I had to go to three stores to find pancetta. Kroger over by Home Depot off of 15-501 had it. You can substitute bacon for pancetta in a pinch. The pancetta and proscuitto are the most expensive ingredients. While they do add a lot of flavor, they could be omitted or replaced with bacon.

I adapted the recipe from Italian: Slow and Savory. I doubled the batch in order to feed a crowd. I think this would easily serve 10.

6 T butter
6 T olive oil
2 stalks of celery chopped
2 carrots chopped
2 onions chopped
2 cloves of garlic minced
4 oz dried porcini rehydrated in 1 c water and chopped
1 lb beef chuck or brisket chopped
1 lb pork shoulder chopped
4 oz pancetta or bacon
4 oz proscuitto
4 T tomato paste diluted in a bit of water
1/2 c. tomato puree
2 c. red wine
2 c. beef stock
2 c. milk
salt and pepper to taste
unsalted butter
Parmesan cheese

Cook the veggies and garlic in the olive oil and butter until they are golden, about 10 minutes. Add the meats and cook until they are no longer pink, about 15 minutes. Add tomato paste, tomato puree and wine. Cook about 15 minutes until the wine is mostly absorbed. Add milk and stock. Simmer on low heat for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Stir occasionally and add more stock if needed. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over pasta and garnish the sauce w/ a pat of butter and some grated Parmesan cheese.