Varmint

I still do that. Plus, I leave one of the cookies half-eaten. I eat the other 11, though.

Thanks for that info and for saving me a trip to try it out.

First, thanks for the great report. Please fill us in with more trendy dining reports. And have your parents join in, too! By the way, that mug of Paul Simon on the family website is absolutely priceless.

The real question is whether it's the Fowler's of several years ago, with great food and service, or the one of the more recent vintage. Hopefully, the former.

Marshmallow Fluff Peanut Butter Hot pepper flakes EVOO Wine Beer Thai curry paste Coconut milk Dried pasta Grits Flour (AP, Bread, Self Rising) Frosted Mini-Wheats Pop Tarts (brown sugar cinnamon -- frosted and unfrosted) Maple View Dairy Heavy Cream Coffee!!

My sister-in-law has been taking wine labels off of bottles for the past year and then lacquers them onto plates. She gives away a dozen wine label plates as Christmas gifts. Pretty cool idea, although I don't see many Petrus or Tua Rita "Redigaffi" labels on the plates.

Rockford's a great lunch place, too. I wish I was drinking one of those martinis at lunch, that's for sure.

For any smug scientific bastards out there who have used the Press 'n Seal, how does this stuff differ from the laboratory gold standard of sealant films, Parafilm, which has been around for ages?

Yeah, I just bought my 4 year old son an Emeril t-shirt for his birthday coming up. Help me. But then, Mrs. Varmint bought him some Incredible Hulk Hands.

We didn't do the steamed, big-ass tamal. There was another recipe for a simple baked tamal. It was easy: in a pie plate, layer half the masa, then spread the filling, top with the masa and bake. Serve with kick-ass mole.

Buttermilk potatoes are the norm in my house. I love the tanginess of the buttermilk. Of course, I supplement that with lots of ultra-heavy cream and butter!

Check out this thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=30794 I'm the master of the under $5 wine!!!!

There are multiple versions of hoppin john, but all of them have black eyed peas and rice in them. Mine has tomatoes, scallions, and cheese, too. I've never seen collards in hoppin john, but I always serve collards with my hoppin john on New Years Day -- the black eyed peas are for luck and the collards are for money!

Also, let's focus on the topic of this thread, which is the Triangle food scene. I think that it'd be a great new thread to discuss some of the issues we've raised in the past dozen posts or so. But if we want to do that, please open a new thread for such discussions. Thanks!

Atlanta -- "the most sophisticated city in the South". You might get a lot of arguments there! Anyhow, I still think that many of the South's culinary problems are geographic ones. Not in the sense that Southern geography is not conducive to fine dining, but most of the South's city's are hopelessly designed, leading to substantial urban/suburban sprawl with insufficient concentration of population to support lots of fine dining establishments. Sprawl leads to strip malls and traffic problems. Both of these problems make the creation of top notch restaurant desirable. Even when you do find a decent restaurant in a strip mall -- such as Raleigh's Fins -- the owners usually wish they were downtown or in an area that was more active at night. These dead downtowns are slowly -- very slowly -- starting to go through a rebirth. The restaurants will follow.

I was stuck in the Rocklin area, northeast of Sac-town, so my options were limited. The reception to the funeral was held at this B&B that had a citrus orchard. I think I ate about 8 tangerines off of one tree. I've never eaten freshly picked citrus fruit before, and damn, it was awesome.

Hopefully, phlawless will be able to answer your questions. The one thing that I'll add is that you need to make the fritters fresh -- thus, if you're at home, no problem. Get the oil good and hot, and fry away. But if you're at someone else's home, make sure they're comfortable with you making a nasty mess. The goat cheese ice cream really brought this dish together in my opinion. It had a rich, earthy taste to it -- slightly salty but not to the extent that you'd say, "This is a salty ice cream." Plus, the mouth feel of the ice cream was different -- it had a bit of that somewhat chalkiness found with goat cheese, but it helped with the dish. However, eating this ice cream by itself is an endeavor that is overly rich. Having the various textures and flavors in the same dish make it much, much better.

I did try Zarape and had an In 'N Out Burger for the first time in my life. Both places were very favorable -- three tacos from Zarape: asada, adovada, and carnitas. The adovada was my favorite as the marinade gave it a ton of flavor. I think I had the carnitas on a day where the meat was a day too old. It just lacked the freshness that I'd prefer. The asada was nice and porky! The salsas were fine, but not nearly as piquant as I suspected. The burger was quite good, but the meat of a single was overwhelmed with the lettuce, tomatoes, grilled onions and bun. I should have ordered the double double. I will say that the grilled bun is a major plus. Oh, I also went to the Olive Garden for the first time in my life. My parents only wanted to go to chain restaurants, and because I was there for a funeral (my Mom's younger brother), I wasn't going to fight that battle. I'm glad I waited so long to visit an Olive Garden, and I know it will be some time until I visit again (although the mussels I ate weren't that bad).

Thanks for the tip. Will try it soon. Do you know how they cook the Q?

I think robyn was referring to $200 meals anywhere, not just in the Triangle. If a couple is to get apps, main courses, and dessert, along with a good bottle of wine, you're going to get in the mid 100s at nearly any decent restaurant -- even in the Triangle.

Hey, I'm sippin' on some of Katie's limoncello right now.

JJ- Welcome to eGullet. First of all, get on Carolina Wine Company's email list. That's the only way to learn about their excellent specials. Plus, most of the wines CWC sells are unavailable elsewhere in the area. You could also check out Total Wine, simply because of the size of their inventory. As far as the best places for cocktails, you don't want to go too far away from your base, which is Durham, right? Because I know nothing of the Durham nightlife, hopefully others will chime in. However, if you were to go to Raleigh, Five Star would be a good choice, as the Chinese restaurant becomes a happening nightclub as it gets later. Another great option would be the Vertigo. Damn, they have really cool cocktails. Bogart's makes all different kinds of martinis. Good luck, and congrats!

I love having a Jewish take on the South. Gosh, this'll be fun!!!

They ask you if you'd like to supersize your order.

Thanks a ton! I'll be northeast of town for most of the time (Rocklin?), but will head into town if we can.