Varmint

The Carrboro Farmers Market has the best selection of produce. They're open Saturdays and Wednesday afternoons. There's two good Asian markets, and I can't recall the name of either. One is in South Hills Mall (Grand Asia, I believe) and one is on the Raleigh side of Garner on Highway 64. I think there's a good number of Indian shops in Cary in the Chatham Square area, which is a set of strip malls at the corner of Chatham and Maynard. There's also a German grocer in that area. The best breads are at Gugelhupf in Durham and La Farm in Cary. La Farm's breads are also available at the NC State Farmers Market in southern Raleigh. This farmers market is open every day and also has some good sources of beef, rabbit, and poultry.

Thanks for the offer of the fryer, but we've got what's needed.

I get the pig directly from a Niman farmer. Cut out the middleman, you know! We'll get a good sized pig, plus I'll do a bunch of shoulders for Western style. On top of that will be a goat and chickens. The chicken comes from a local organic farmer. All smoked over pecan, of course. Don't worry about quantity, as I've done this plenty of times for very large crowds.

Yes, you will soon see heirlooms at the State Farmers Market. My friend Jim Currin will have his multiple varieties available shortly.

Fresser, folks are thinking about you, but no one's come up with a graphic for you yet. Someone did submit the following in your honor: This is what they had to say about your suggestion: Someone up to the challenge???

A writer friend of mine is headed to Charleston to conduct research on the city's best examples of shrimp and grits and she crab soup. Where must she go? Where should she go? Thanks in advance.

I'm totally enjoying this thread and will rely on it out of complete necessity when I'm shacked up with my family, my parents, and my 3 brothers (and their families) for a week at Dauphin Island, AL at the end of the year. I will NEED to maintain a steady level of intoxication during this week to maintain my sanity. And Dave, I can send you my autographed copy of Dale DeGroff's cocktail book if you need to borrow something. It's pretty damn good.

It sounds like I need to visit Soby's for the, ahem, great view. If you had to describe the current "vibe" of the Greenville restaurant scene, how would you? What about Spartanburg? These restaurants sound great, and I'm fascinated by the value offered by 33 Liberty's value. Thanks a ton for the report.

The deadline for entries will be this Sunday, June 26th at 11:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time. We have some solid choices, but we always want more options. And isn't there anyone who can help poor ol' Fresser with his idea???

Beurre fondue is just butter that has been emulsified into boiling water. I learned about it in one of Tom Colicchio's books. The technique is simple: Get about half to 3/4 of an inch of water boiling in a small saucepan. Whisk in cold, unsalted butter about a tablespoon at a time. Continue adding the butter until you've added anywhere from 12 to 16 tablespoons. If droplets begin to form, add a bit more water, as that's a sign you've evaporated too much of this off. Now, take some asparagus, peas, fish, mushrooms, whatever and poach it in this ultra-rich sauce (transfer it to a wider skillet). You'll end up with the most delicious, decadent (but seemingly light) dish you can imagine. I think many chefs just keep a pot of this on their stove top, using it to finish dishes. It's old school, I guess, but I'm just learning about its wonders.

I poached some haddock, chanterelles and peas in a beurre fondue on Saturday, and I'm wondering why the hell have I failed to cook with this method more often??? Yes, it's a ton of butter, but I may start cooking all my vegetables in a beurre fondue. It's so easy to do, the flavors are amazing, and it's actually a pretty light way of preparing food. Plus, if you serve the beurre fondue with the dish, you end up with lots of good soppin's for your bread! Granted, it's not the healthiest way to approach things, but this simple technique is remarkably overlooked.

Damn, I forgot to take pictures of my Saturday dinner. We started with artichoke hearts that were "poached" in EVOO, mint, garlic, shallots and thyme. Homemade linguine with raw tomato, mint, green garlic, and sea salt. Crab cakes on a salad of greens, roasted beets, avocado, pea tendrils and a key lime vinaigrette. Haddock and chanterelles poached in a beurre fondue with sweet peas and sweet pea ravioli. This was one of the best dishes I've ever made. Why don't I cook more often with a buerre fondue??? Dessert was blackberry, blueberry and peach cobbler with homemade cinnamon ice cream. This was a pretty darned good meal.

Heh, heh -- there will be cute little goats and bunnies on the menu, too, so we could go very sicko and pull something straight from Beatrix Potter!

Another entry! These are great, y'all. I'm going to leave the deadline open for now, but this WILL end no later than the last day of June.

We received another entry today. Here's the front: And here's the back (if anyone can fix the translations, the designer would appreciate it!):

Do a variation of the classic southern (U.S.) coastal breakfast dish of shrimp and grits. Fry the bacon, then cook onions, mushrooms, and tomato in the grease, followed by the shrimp. Serve this mix along with crumbled bacon on polenta, preferably mixed in with aged cheddar. Those smoked prawns could be mighty tasty in this dish.

Hmmm, as good as mine?????? I'd volunteer for a second smackdown to go with the fried chicken, but I'll just focus on the pig, thank you very much.Good idea. I wouldn't want to send you cryin to your momma. ← Heh, you come down here and show me what you got, Sistah. You ain't got nuttin'. And if you do, well, cool.

Here's a new entry: The front. The back. Keep 'em coming!!! I knew y'all had it in you. And if you've already submitted one entry, don't worry, you can enter as often as you like. Send me those entries to dmccord@egullet.org.

You can, or the burgers could be cooked under the broiler as well. ← And I'll take 'em in a cast iron skillet any day!

Whoo hoo. California is in the house (although you're not the only one coming from your great state!). So far, we have the following states represented: North Carolina Georgia Maryland West Virginia Illinois California Louisiana New Jersey New York Pennsylvania and Ontario, Canada, for the provinces. Let's see if we can't get 20 states represented this year!

I had a great sweetened hibiscus drink at a taqueria yesterday. As I discussed with my friend, I'd think that this flavor could be used in a lot of exotic cocktails. I'm surprised it hasn't caught on more.

Heck, yeah, you can toot your own horn. This is one place where restaurant management can interact with its customers. Lots of folks in the business solicit advice, too. I had the pleasure of looking at Grasshopper yesterday (it'll be finished soon), and it should be a fun place to visit for drinks and a casual bite. We'll get a new discussion started as you get closer to opening day.

We're going to extend the deadline a bit because, frankly, we haven't received a ton of entries. C'mon, folks, let's get to it. Here are the entries submitted so far: These are two solid entries, but we need some more, y'all. I know there are a lot of creative minds out there, so please help us out here.

Kopp's! sniff, sniff, sob -- How I miss thee!!! And we're not even talking about their custard!

Men don't eat this kind of thing. Burgers are made from beef (it's what's for dinner!). That's the way that it works. You will have to start a new thread. You could title it, " These burgers aren't really very good, but I have convinced myself that they are" ← When your wife don't eat no mammal meat, you take what you can get. So, I make do with these. When I want a good burger, and I mean a REAL burger, I grind my own meat, homie.