Varmint

I had lunch today at Scott Howell's "The Q Shack." Scott Howell is the owner/chef of Nana's, one of the region's top restaurants. He, much like Danny Meyer in New York with his "Blue Smoke", always wanted to open up a barbecue joint. When space became available just a couple of doors down from Nana's, he turned it into a barbecue joint. For those of you looking for traditional NC barbecue, you'll be disappointed. For those wanting to experience pretty damn good smoked meat, you'll want to try this place! Four types of meat are served: Hickory Smoked Pork Butt, Chili Rubbed Beef Brisket (Mesquite smoked), Mesquite Smoked Turkey, and St. Louis Cut Pork Ribs. I had a plate consisting of half pork and half brisket. I chose mac & cheese and fried okra for my sides, along with a jalapeno deviled egg. The brisket is incredibly tender and juicy, smokey, but not overpowerfully so. The brisket was coal black on the outside, but wasn't at all "charred" -- just lots of smoking action going on. I had "My Sauce" with that, which is a slightly sweet/sour tomato based sauce with a chipotle bite. The pork was excellent pulled pork -- some of the best I've had in the state. It's not chopped as you often see in North Carolina -- much more of a Memphis style. I had this with "His Sauce", which is close to a Western North Carolina style: spicy, vinegar base with a touch of tomato. All the sides were done extremely well. The mac and cheese had a solid cheddar flavor, with a touch of a mustard tang. The okra was very crisp. The jalapeno deviled egg was a nice little Carolina version of tapas! I got to tour the kitchen and their smoking unit. It's a fairly standard commercial set up. Nothing is pit cooked here, unfortunately. When the counter lady opened the smoker, it was filled with fillets of salmon, which were to be used at Nana's that evening. Sounded like a good, symbiotic relationship to me. The counter lady couldn't tell me where the Q Shack sourced its ingredients, unfortunately. The Q Shack also serves burgers, brisket chili, a "Q Cobb Salad" that contains the smoked turkey and brisket with a chipotle blue cheese dressing, and for dessert, fried pies. Because this was lunch and I had to get some work done this afternoon, I passed up the fried pies. I hear they have live bluegrass music on Friday evenings, too. Scott Howell now has the upscale Nana's, the casual trattoria Pop's, the down home Q Shack, and will be soon opening a steak joint in downtown Raleigh. He's obviously doing well for himself. The Q Shack 2510 University Dr. Durham, NC 27707 919-402-4227 (edit to add address & phone)

That would be La Residence (or "La Rez") Website. That was one of the South's cutting edge restaurants 20+ years ago. It still maintains some of its relevance, but it's not the first choice among better restaurants in the area. As far as mogsob's comments that things are grim in Durham, nothing could be further from the truth. Even though I'v lived in Raleigh for the last 8 years and in Chapel Hill for 11 years before that, I'd say that Durham has the best high-end dining scene in the Triangle, followed closely by Chapel Hill. Raleigh, unfortunately, is not quite as good as the other cities in the region. Between Magnolia Grill, Nana's, Four Square, Pop's and others, you'll find something great in Durham. The Angus Barn is a damn good steakhouse and a local institution. Because of the way the cities sprawl around here, you may end up being pretty close to this. If you're looking for something more creative, however, you have lots of other options.

If you can tell us the general location of the hotel, we can let you know about your distance from the Magnolia Grill, which is really in the heart of the city. Many hotels are in the outskirts of the city. As far as reservations are concerned, if you try to get a 6:00 slot, they should have some availability. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I do it a couple of times a year at my in-laws' house. They have a house that was designed around the kitchen. In addition to the commercial range, they have 3 ovens (one is a tile-lined bread oven), 2 dishwashers, a commercial espresso machine, a good wine cellar, and lots of space. Plus, their dining room table can seat 18. To me, it makes great sense to have my larger parties there. When I do my big "cooking school" meal for my firm, we can have 20 people in the kitchen at a time, doing prep work. It's a lot of fun.

And he'd make you muck more life-like, of course.

I made dinner that was inspired by recipes from the Babbo cookbook. Roasted Shiitake mushroom salad Monkfish piccatta, but I used much less lemon and added a lot of grapefruit. Good twist. Hazlenut cake, soaked with Frangelica, served with coffee ice cream.

Whipped!!! S Guilty as charged.

Mrs. Varmint, of course.

The late Bill Neal's Southern Cooking, published in 1985, introduced many of us to the history of southern cuisine. He later published a couple of other books, each with a verty strong sense of history. If not for his untimely passing, I have little doubt he'd be the leading sage on our fine culinary traditions. If you want a southern cookbook that really tells a story, try to find a copy of Coastal Carolina Cooking, by Nancy Davis and Kathy Hart. Mrs. Varmint's grandparents were featured in a segment of this book, so I'm a bit biased. Nevertheless, some of the recipes in this book include the following: Squirrel and Dumplings, Coon Hash, Pickled Figs, Squash Cakes, Old Drum Stew, Molasses Gunger, Stew Fried Corn, Shad Roe with Sweet Potatoes, and Mullet & Watermelon. It's an amazing book.

Both good choices, but Crooks has lost some of its relevance over the years. It's certainly not fine dining, but it's quite good and was one of the major forces in bringing southern cuisine to the attention of the rest of the country. Fearrington is still a delight and is a lovely place.

There are a few threads about Durham restaurants in the South & Southwest boards. However, the top choices in the area are Magnolia Grill, Nana's and Four Square in Durham. There are a number of other fine places in Raleigh and Chapel Hill, so you shouldn't have a problem finding good places to eat. Of course, you also have a number of barbecue and country cooking places to choose from!

Our local paper has a good story about boning shad in today's edition: Click for the Boning Trick

You should have seen us scatter 2 minutes later when someone launched a batting practice homerun right over our heads.

Here's another crabcake photo with a genuine Baltimore beer. Some fish from Lexington Market: Vengroff, Holly, and the Mummer formerly known as Charlie: Vengroff and his rally cap (this was obviously not operational this evening):

When I get back home, I'll post a couple of non-food pictures, including the first ever photo of Holly Moore to be posted on the internet. The food at Camden Yards was fairly standard, with a few twists. Vengroff didn't post a picture of the pork barbecue sandwich that I got from Boog's Barbecue, owned by the Orioles' former first baseman, Boog Powell. The sandwich rated about a 3 on a 10 point scale. We were a bit taken aback by the fact that beers were being sold at $5.75 a pop; we recognized that for the price of 2 of those, we could buy a case -- A CASE -- of Miller Highlife at Lexington Market. Vengroff also failed to mention that I was robbed in the Fan of the Game contest, as when my image came up on the Jumbotron, I clearly got the most applause and laughter (although I'm sure I caused several small children to scream in terror). Anyhow, some kid wearing a popcorn bucket (see, this is food-related) won the competition. I demand an investigation into this conspiracy! A good time was had by all. hjshorter is a true fan of the game (and lots of music trivia) and knows where to find the best peanuts outside the stadium. Holly Moore told us great stories of his gastronomic wanderings. Vengroff is indeed a wild professor. And Charlie, Holly's friend from Philly, won the prize of the day, as he came along even though we didn't have enough tickets for him. He bought a seat 5 rows behind us and slyly moved up to sit with us during the course of the game. Seeing there were only 18,000 people in attendance, that wasn't a hard thing to do. Baltimore may not be a great restaurant town, but it's a good food town. There isn't necessarily the level of creativity here that you'll find in other big cities, but there is a strong sense of tradition and pride in what they do. I wish I had more time to explore the culinary scene, but I'll leave that for another trip. Plus, I'm hopeful that Holly will be calling me shortly with a lunch idea before I head back to NC.

Ah, the healing powers of baseball and crab!

The pics are on an analog camera and would need to be scanned in. I'm not home, so it'll be awhile to do that. Collards are pretty damned ordinary in these parts, Brig! Good, but common.

And that's a good thing, too! We're not sure who he looks like, as both Mrs. Varmint and I have very brown eyes. When he was born, my mother-in-law said, "I didn't know there are still milkmen!"

Nana's is owned by chef Scott Howell, who previously worked with Ben Barker at Magnolia Grill. Nana's has been around for many years -- at least 5 or 6. It is an excellent restaurant and 1 of the 3 "destination" restaurants in Durham, along with Magnolia Grill and Four Square.

Lots of folks have posted about high end Charleston restaurants, but there's a fine, off the main drag place that does a great job of traditional Southern cooking. See Wee Restaurant is in Awendaw, SC, just a few minutes north of Mt. Pleasant on Highway 17. This is a very family friendly place that looks like an old country story/fish house. Sodas are served in glass bottles, seafood is fresh, collards are cooked perfectly, red rice is loaded with sausage, and the desserts (over 10 different ones each day) are baked daily by local church ladies. We sampled 6 different desserts, and with the exception of the surprisingly dry coconut cake, all were winners. Oh, and to go to the bathroom, you do have to go outside first. Here's a photo of L'il Varmint #3 with some liquid refreshment: If you're staying in Charleston, I doubt you'd ever get this far north. But if you're driving through, or headed to Bull Island, it's really quite a nice, simple diversion.

Push the two prongs in the stem end, along side the pit. Then twist -- either the cherry or the pin, doesn't matter. Remove pin, squeeze cherry lightly, and out pops pit. Doesn't work for olives, though. God, that reminds of the time 10 years ago when I went cherry picking in Wisconsin. I had never picked the sour red Montmorency cherries that are common in pies, but I happened upon a farm where the picking season had just begun. It took me less than an hour to fill up a 5 gallon plastic bucket with cherries. I got home and realized I had to pit them. Armed only with a hair pin, I managed to get them all pitted . . . . by 9:00 the next evening. My hands still ache from that event. I also ate more cherry jam that summer than in the rest of my 39 years. Next time, I'll have the farm pit them for me, which would have cost me only 5 additional dollars!!!

C'mon, A.W., I have 4 L'il Varmints. I'm all over those issues!!

A stunning couple indeed! By the way, I particularly like the kiddie toy accessories Gibson's used as table decor!

Of course, you can serve it with "sweet tea," which is the only drink that truly goes with NC barbecue.

I actually had to draft a patent application during a summer clerkship regarding a novel device that puts toilet paper on the cardboard tubes. Now, why didn't I go into patent law?