Dinner at Vin Rouge

Tonight I had dinner at Vin Rouge in Durham on Hillsborough Road just by 9th St. I'd not been there in a very long while. I used to go there for brunch and I went to dinner a time or two but the service wasn't very good and the food was hit and miss.

I was pleasantly surprised by the service tonight. I began to wonder if I have come to expect so little from wait staff in Durham that my standards are just remarkably low. Who knows. Anyway, the staff at Vin Rouge were attentive tonight. Our water glasses were kept full, our napkins nicely folded, and our wine glasses full. The waiter gave an excellent recommendation for my salad.

We ordered a 2000 St. Julien Bordeaux to drink. My companion informed me that this is a good wine to hold. Well, we were not holding, we were drinking. It was good but it tasted somewhat thin. I think a few years on the shelf will round it out and give it body. I like big reds but they need to be smooth and full for me to love them.

We shared some escargots. They were in a delicious butter, garlic and basil sauce that I really enjoyed soaking my baguette in! For the main course I had the frisee salad with fried egg, potatoes, and crispy lardons (thick cut, unsmoked bacon pieces). Frisee, aka curly endive, is not to everyone's liking. One of my friends said it was like eating twigs. Well, I've never eaten twigs, but curly endive is better than that. It is very fibrous and probably full of good things being a leafy green and such. I broke the yoke of the fried egg and mixed it in with the salad. After gorging myself on bread, melted butter and escargots, this salad was all I needed. I enjoyed it and it was very French. The French seem to eat a lot of endive both the curly and the Belgian varieties.

My friend had trout amandine with green beans and mashed potatoes. The beans were crisp and the potatoes were creamy and mixed with sour cream. YUMMY! The trout was perfectly done.

The other thing I like at Vin Rouge is the croque madame with fries. It is grilled cheese sandwich par excellence. I was intrigued that they have macaroni and cheese on the menu too. I will try that at some point. So far my fav mac 'n' cheese in town is from Q Shack although it always needs a bit of salt and pepper for my liking.

No room for dessert. We were full.

Fresh corn salad

Now that the season for corn is coming up, I highly recommend that you try this salad. It is so good and only fresh corn will do!

Corn salad

6 ears of fresh corn, cooked and cut from cob

small red onion, diced

3 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

3 Tbsp. olive oil (use really good olive oil for this)

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste (about 1/2 tsp of each)

1/2 cup chopped basil leaves

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

Crab and grapefruit salad

Here is a recipe very healthy and refreshing salad for spring:

1. Peel a grapefruit and put 4 or 5 sections on a plate
2. Arrange a mound of cooked, lump crab meat on the plate w/ the grapefruit
3. Dice half an avocado and sprinkle over crab
4. Make a vineagrette of 1/4 c. olive oil plus 1/2 t. lemon juice and 1/2 t. lime juice and drizzle it over the crab, avocado, grapefruit
5. Sprinkle with snipped chives and salt and pepper

On a hot day, this requires no cooking and it takes about 3 minutes to prepare start to finish. I would have never put a grapefruit w/ crab meat but it tastes great! The original recipe I saw had orange juice added to the dressing and had asparagus instead of avocado in the salad. I'm sure that would be great too. I love asparagus but I love avocado even more. And I never keep OJ around. Empty calories. Peel and orange instead...or a grapefruit.

An easy spring salad

It's been unsually warm this past week in North Carolina. When the temperature is above 80 degrees, the idea of hot food is kind of repellant to me. Instead I opt for salads. Unfortunately salads can be labor intensive but here is one that is almost as quick as a bowl of cereal with milk (another standby dinner on a hot day).

Throw a handful of baby greens or other lettuce from a bag onto a plate. Slice four rounds from a baguette. Drizzle bread slices w/ olive oil and put under broiler until one side is browned to make croutons. Take them out of oven and put a piece of cheese on the unbrowned side of crouton. I love this w/ goat cheese or brie. Then put back into the oven until the cheese starts to melt. Keep a careful eye on it so it doesn't burn. Make a vineagrette by combining with 1 part Dijon mustard and 1 part white wine vinegar. Add two parts olive oil and whisk until combined. Put the croutons on the lettuce and drizzle w/ vineagrette. Season w/ salt and pepper. Pour a glass of white wine and call it dinner.

I learned this recipe when I lived in France.