Poole’s Downtown Diner 426 McDowell Street Downtown Raleigh Website Entrees: $19-22 This highly praised foodie haven from Raleigh celebrity chef Ashley Christiansen was Number #1 on my must list for places to try before leaving the Triangle. And I am super glad I did. It’s a foodie haven for a reason. But I was surprised
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24 July, 2013
Fire in the Triangle: Battle Market vs. New Southern Kitchen
Posted in : Events, Restaurants, Spirits, Vodka on by : The Gourmez Tags: basil gin syrup, battle, bloody mary sauce, chad mcintyre, chef, crab, distillery, fire in the triangle, gin, got to be nc, heirloom, heritage farms, judging, lobster, market restaurant, nc competition dining, new southern kitchen, north carolina, pork belly, raleigh, review, round 1, sheepshead, sokum slama, tilefish, tomato, tomato cheesecake, tomato chocolate pie, topo, whiteville, wralI was thrilled to again judge a Fire in the Triangle battle, having judged my first last year when NC Competition Dining premiered in the Research Triangle. If you love food and live in the area, then you simply must make next year’s series—it’s too late for this year’s. All the battles have been sold
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19 July, 2013
Broadslab Legacy Reserve Hand-Crafted Liquor
Posted in : Moonshine, Whiskey / Whisky on by : The Gourmez Tags: broadslab, charred oak, corn, distillery, johnston county, legacy, moonshine, news and observer, north carolina, popcorn, reserve, review, spirit, stale, whiskeyBroadslab Legacy Reserve Hand-Crafted Liquor Johnston County, North Carolina 45% BV This Broadslab liquor comes from a legacy of moonshiners according to the label. It’s corn heavy for a whiskey, but that moonshine history likely plays into that. Yellow corn is the coloring and it smells like corn, too, which either means that corn dominates
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17 July, 2013
Counter Culture Coffee Cupping
Posted in : Coffee Shops, Coffee Shops in Durham - NC, Events, Travel Guide for Durham - NC on by : The Gourmez Tags: break, brightness, coffee cupping, counter culture, dulce nombre de jesus, durham, finca magallanes, finca nueva armenia, free, friday, open to the public, research triangle park, smell, steep, taste, toscana blend, training facilityCounter Culture Coffee 4911 South Alston Avenue Research Triangle Park Website Free! Durham has several notable coffee roasters–Joe Van Gogh and Bean Traders make my list–but none have as large a profile and the nationwide distribution that Counter Culture does. The company is headquartered here and Durham hosts one of their several training facilities. Counter
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15 July, 2013
Dishcrawl Durham
Comments : 2 Posted in : Dining in Durham - NC, Events, Restaurants, Travel Guide for Durham - NC, Travel Sponsored Stays and Tours on by : The Gourmez Tags: american tobacco district, avocado, chocolate tiramisu, chorizo, croquette, crostini, cuban revolution, cubano, dishcrawl, downtown, durham, five points, goat cheese, hayley teater, l'uva enoteca, revolution, smoked salmon, steak tuna tartare, taberna tapasDishcrawl, based in San Jose, has spread its food-tour wings throughout the US and Canada. Their expansion into the Triangle is new, with the first Dishcrawl being held in Raleigh last February. Durham’s Dishcrawl debuted last week over two separate evenings due to high demand. I attended the first night on a press pass (which
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10 July, 2013
My Aha Moment and a dramatic reading of “Sardines”
Posted in : Announcements, Writing on by : The Gourmez Tags: cannery row, fourth grade, haunted whale, monterey bay, mutual of omaha, my aha moment, overfishing, poem, raleigh, sardines, WritingA few weeks back, I recorded my aha moment. How does one record an aha moment? Funny you should ask, because I didn’t know either until the aha moment team asked me to come in and do a little video session with them for their national campaign. The “they” in all this is Mutual of
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8 July, 2013
Triangle Foodie Happenings
Posted in : Coffee Shops, Events, Restaurants on by : The Gourmez Tags: american seafood, blu, coffee cocktail, competition, dishcrawl, durham, Events, five points, food, foodie, foundation, hope valley bottle shop, larry's beans, moore square, raleigh, red white and blue, seafood, the gourmez, tomato dinner, triangle foodie happenings, zely & ritzIt’s time for another Triangle Foodie Happening post, in large part because Dishcrawl is going crazy in the Bull City this week! What is Dishcrawl? It is a nationwide company that puts together one night events with the goal of focusing on a city or neighborhood’s cuisines. If you are thinking food tourism, you are
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3 July, 2013
Summer Menu at the Washington Duke Inn
Posted in : Dining in Durham - NC, Restaurants on by : The Gourmez Tags: american red snapper, blackberry shortcake, bobby gorham, bull durham bar, cottle farms, deana marrell, deviled egg, dining, duke university, durham, fairview dining room, fine dining, gazpacho, goat cheese, goat lady chevre, inn, jason cunningham, johnston county prosciutto, kaffir lime, kale, menu preview, mustard greens, niman ranch pork, pistachio frangipane, prehistoric presentation, review, smoked paprika serrano ham, washington dukeOver the past year, I’ve had the pleasure of previewing the seasonal menus at the Washington Duke Inn multiple times. I am absolutely biased at this point, because the staff at the Inn has been amazing each and every time, from the waitstaff to the executive team (that means you, Don Ball, Danielle Kaspar, Wendy
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2 July, 2013
Tweat-Up at An
Posted in : Dining in Cary - NC, Events, Restaurants on by : The Gourmez Tags: almond financier, an, asian, bloggers, cary, chawan mushi, chef, cuisine, event, food, francisco almaguer, green tea, hamachi tartare, lamb slider, lemon ginger cocktail, mai tai, media, north carolina, restaurant, review, spicy, steven devereaux greene, sushi, tamarind, togarashi, triangle, yuzu lemon tartWhen An’s (2800 Renaissance Park Place, Cary) promotional team invited me to a blogger night to sample some cocktails and appetizers, I was thrilled. An’s beautifully presented dishes, photographs of which are always on rotation at the RDU baggage claim screens, have tempted me for years, but I had not managed to visit the restaurant
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