DTBarton

A couple other ideas. Austin's seafood in Nags Head has a good reputation. I haven't been there personally in a long time, but should be worth checking out. http://www.austinfishcompany.com/history.htm In Grandy NC on the way down on highway 158 is the Grandy Greenhouse, a large produce operation. Not the cheapest, but I like their practice of putting out samples of the produce. Last time down (last week) they had great peaches, pretty good melons, so so tomatoes (we had our own) and the corn we got was no good. They also sell bags of shelled fresh lima beans and field peas which are delicious. I also like Lang's barbecue on highway 158 across the road from the Tobacco Barn store south of Grandy. Not the best BBQ I ever had, but good and the woman who runs it is a hoot.

This time of year, the local fresh shrimp from Pamlico Sound are in abundance. There's a place at the mainland end of the Wright Memorial bridge that usually has them. Risky Business Seafood with locations in Hatteras and Buxton on Hatteras Island has them also, but there must be places further north that have them as well. I'm just more familiar with Hatteras Island. The local shrimp have a little darker color when they're raw, almost a grayish tint. Ask the purveyor if they're fresh and local as opposed to frozen. If you decide to make a day trip to Hatteras Village, check out Jeffrey's seafood. They are in the back of the fish cleaning house at Hatteras Harbor Marina. Just walk back there and ask someone what they have. They usually have very fresh fish from either that morning or the day before for reasonable prices. Over the last few years I've gotten beautiful tuna, wahoo, dolphin, flounder, spanish mackerel and king mackerel there. Bring a cooler, they'll give you a shovel of ice. If business has been slow, occasionally the fish is frozen, but it's still only a couple days old.

I read these in the Post yesterday and tended to come down on Phyllis Richman's side on most of them. Obviously restaurants push drinks, wine, and bottled water, they're major cash cows with markups routinely in the 200% - 300% range. The water scam comes when people have just sat down and are jabbering and the waiter asks if they want water. If someone says yes, they bring bottled water. I think some folks don't realize what they're being asked. Other annoyances to me: Huge wine glasses and big pours so that the wine you bought is poured in 4 or 5 glasses before the appetizer comes so you feel like you need another bottle. We usually have a cocktail and tell them to bring the wine before the entrees. And, like Phyllis, I've been asked to wait in the bar many times and I've never been offerred a free drink. but I still like going out, just nit-picking.

Is this place in a strip shopping center? I've seen place from 301 in a shopping center, haven't tried it.

I like to marinate chicken breasts in olive oil, garlic, worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard and ground pepper. Try to get the marinade so you can taste all the ingredients and not be dominated by any one. Grill and finish with fresh lime juice and cilantro if you like.

Maybe go to a good cheese shop and ask for some good stuff that doesn't need refrigeration in the short term.

There was an episode of the Cosby show years ago where Claire puts Cliff on a diet that includes rice cakes. Cosby's comment: "The air in my mouth tastes better than these." My favorite food commercial lately is one from Boston Market. It shows a gleaming stainless steel range, like a Viking or something in a very ritzy litchen. Woman walks in and drops a big Boston Market bag on the fancy range and yells "Dinner's ready!" I think that art imitates life in a lot of McMansions.

Thanks for more good barbecue detective work busboy. Have to make a trip to try those places out, not too far from me, actually. Saw this in the Post food section this week. Anyone got an opinion on Jammin' Joe's? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5080900287.html

I got a free copy as well. After an admittedly cursory look, it seemed a little thin to me as far as interesting cooking content. But, nowadays, armed with egullet and Google, I find I don't buy many food magazines or cookbooks any more. Also, we get 3 newspapers, so every Wednesday (today!) there are 3 food sections to peruse also. Can't keep up with what I've already got access to!

I'm generally against any system that takes away the incentive for people to perform better. It always leads to a uniform level of low mediocrity. Two specific examples. My first engineering job out of college was with Newport News shipbuilding. In the first 4 years I was there, it was well known that the raise pool was very narrow, everyone got between 2% and 3% per annum. This, as expected, did two things. One, everyone slumped towards that low mediocrity as there was no incentive to excel. Two, the good people who wanted to excel and be comensated for their efforts started leaving the company in droves for greener pastures. I had one foot out the door when the company announced that the top 10% of performers (as rated in their annual reviews) were going to be recognized financially. I got a 23% raise the 4th year and stayed on for few more years. Second, and more applicable to the restaurant situation: My neighbors belong to a local yacht club, the most prestigous one. They have a policy in their restaurants of automatic 18% gratuity added to the checks. The service routinely stinks, inattentive, uncaring servers. We are good friends with the former executive chef, and he tried to change the policy to motivate the servers, couldn't do it.

I agree with the notion that you might need to cut back the amount of sugar in your rub, or cut back on the amount of rub on the ribs. I also like to "finish" my ribs before I serve them to soften up the texture just a bit. I take a big foil lasagna pan and put about a cup of barbecue vinegar in the bottom. Then I put in the racks of ribs (uncut) and cover the pan tightly with foil. Put in the oven at about 180 degrees until ready to serve, I like to give 'em at least an hour that way and at 180 covered, they hold pretty much indefinitely. Barbecue vinegar (I use same thing to mop) can be whatever you like, but I do this: 1/2 gallon white vinegar 1 quart cider vinegar 1 quart water add the following spices to taste (i.e. how salty and/or spicy do you like it) salt fine ground pepper paprika chili powder dry mustard powder dry crushed red pepper For serving, I like to use more of the vinegar and Texas Pete rather than sweet BBQ sauce.

I like 'em steamed with thin wrappers. You should be able to see the filling through a nice, thin translucent wrapper. I'm partial to a filling of ground pork, finely chopped shrimp, diced green onion, ginger, cilantro and a bit of garlic. Sauce a mixture of soy sauce, brown vinegar, touch of fish sauce, touch of hot bean paste, diced chili peppers and cilantro. Make the sauce several hours ahead of time and stir it periodically, it really gets better with a little time.

Hopefully we'll hear back from the vertical chicken tasting person. Our local Giant just started getting Smart Chicken (must not be the organic version because comparably priced to the regular factory chickens, maybe a little more, but the whole bird I bought was $7). It's very tasty, a big step up from Perdue/Tyson. And, the Giant's close to home, don't have to make the trip to Whole Foods for the Bell and Evans, which we also really like (actually, we like the B&E better than the more expensive free range chickens at the Whole Foods). Guess I'll have to do my own side by side comparison.

That sounds great but worchestershire sauce isn't vegetarian. It's got anchovies in it. Some vegetarians eat fish, but a lot don't. ← No problem, use soy or whatever else you like.

Some of our favorites: small to medium zuchinnis and yellow squash. Cut in half, brush with olive oil, salt and pepper and grill. Serve with fresh basil. Vidalia onions. Peel onions and cut a cone shaped hole at the root end. Fill the hole with butter and Worcestershire sauce and pepper. Wrap in foil and bake in the oven for at least an hour at 350, until onions are getting soft. Finish on the grill with more butter and Worcestershire to get nice grill brown. You can cut these in half (a whole one is a big serving) but it's harder to keep them together on the grill. You do get more browning area, though. I think grilled corn is worth the trouble if you have good sweet corn. Roll the shucked ears around over hot coals until they get nice and toasty brown at the tips of the kernels. Serve immediately with melted butter, lots of salt and pepper, and crucially, fresh lime wedges to squeeze over. The more adventurous might like chili powder as well. Fresh tomatoes. Cut small to medium tomatoes in half and gently get out some of the juice and seeds without mushing the tomato halves. Brush with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Grill to get nice browned places and serve with chopped basil, grill toast and fresh mozarella

My first real job (started on my 16th birthday) was night shift in a Gino's in Newark, Delaware in 1976. Fast food burgers and fries plus Kentucky Fried Chicken. Paid the princely sum of $2.05/hour. Meals were provided (burger, fries, drink or 2 pieces chicken, fries, drink). KFC seasoning mix came in premeasured bags that you mixed with 25 pounds of flour. No ingredient lists of the Colonel's secret recipe! Cooking the KFC was demanding, hard, greasy work and brutally hot in the summer since we used old timey pressure cookers. You had to wear these polyester shirts (red with blue zippered "V" at the neck) and they accentuated the heat. Cleanliness was important, the chicken room was scrubbed down nightly as it was the greasiest spot. Behind the counter in the burgers and fries area was a lot less hot and greasy, scrubbed down every other day. The grease rotation was interesting. 50 pound blocks of shortening (animal/vegetable combination in those days) were started in the french fry vats. The oil was run through a filter once a day. When it got too dark to cook fries, it went to the crispy chicken vats, open vats where the extra crispy (twice dunked and breaded) chicken was cooked. When it got too dark for crispy chicken it went to the vats that held the oil for original KFC, which is cooked under pressure and served much darker brown. We were the last KFC cooking outlet in Delaware to use actual pressure cookers on a gas range instead of free standing vats with hinged lids. Each pot held 18 pieces, or 2 whole chickens (KFC cut their breasts in to 3 pieces instead of two) It was a fun job, the night shift was almost all high school kids with a manager who was usually early to mid 20s. Things got pretty crazy after closing with hot water high pressure hose attacks and such. You haven't lived until you've had a KFC fight in the parking lot at 1 AM (a fried chicken thigh makes a very satisfying splat on a car window). Hey they're gonna throw it away anyway. Burgers were cooked to order late at night, but the chicken room closed a couple hours early for cleaning, so the manger had to guess how much extra chicken to cook, had leftovers a lot. We also had special sauce attacks. They had just introduced the heroburger, a rectangular thing that had a Russian dressing type sauce on it. We had sauce guns that dispesed the proper amount. With a hard squeeze, the proper amount could be hurled quite a distance. The other popular trick was pulled on a worker serving his or her first shift at the french fry vats. When they weren't looking, someone would sneak a handful of drink ice in to the vat which causes a fairly violent bubbling reaction. Everyone else would come running in yelling "What did you DO!!!" "Get the fire extinguisher!!!" "Geez, we can't leave you alone for a minute!" Ah youth.

I mentioned this a while back in another thread, but it bears repeating in this context. I was living in Charleston, South Carolina in 1981. We would often travel across James Island to Folly Beach. On Folly Road on James Island was an old Kentucky Fried Chicken place that had a huge old neon sign that looked like this: KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN Well, night would fall and it turned out that some of the letters were burned out. The sign stayed this way all summer. UCKY FRIED ICK I couldn't make that up!

I've found that any good homemade buttermilk biscuit works nicely, don't skimp on the butter in the biscuit dough. More important is the texture of the ham. Some folks just slice right off whatever country ham they have, or use packaged ham. To get the best texture and flavor (not so dry and salty) take the time to wash the ham a couple of times, then soak it overnight. Change the water and soak it overnight again if you're so inclined. Then braise the ham in barely simmering water for several hours until it is tender. This is a common way to do it, but it yields less salty, very tender ham slices (as thin as you can cut them). And butter the biscuits a bit when you put the ham on.

In my experience, I've found that with respect to wood, larger pieces or chunks don't need to be soaked, but they need to be pre burned or started slowly to prevent too much "raw" smoke from tainting the flavor and color of the meat. This is why you see many pit cookers shoveling already burning wood in to their pits. Chips, which I use for items that are cooked more quickly in a hotter grill (like barbecued chicken, total grill time 60 - 90 minutes depending on size) seem to me to work better soaked, they burn away too quick and hot if you put them on the fire dry. I've started meats (mostly ribs and shoulders) from cold and from nearer room temp and not noticed a huge difference in smoke absorption (flavor or color). I must say, the first few posters in this thread get kudos for the length and breadth of their posts!

I haven't tried Metropolitan (or Lemongrass) yet. The Aussies are taking over West Street, let's hear it for down under. I do have to say that as for Capital restaurant reviews Terra Walters never met anything she didn't like! And describe with lots of exclamation points! Doesn't mean Metropolitan isn't good! But best to try yourself!

As mentioned above, most of my bad experiences have come from incorrect measurement of ingredients when doubling or tripling recipes. My sister in law was trying to make gazpacho for a large group and in tripling the tomato juice she way over tripled and came up with, well, lumpy tomato juice. It happens to me mostly when making batter or dough for some reason (Why is this so stiff? Why is it so runny? Why is it so sticky?) Forgot to double all the ingredients. My neighbor was making a big pot of beef vegetable soup last winter. For some reason he decided to strain the meat and veggies out. Forgot to put a pot under the collander and dumped all the stock he'd been simmering all day down the drain.

I'll do the obvious and refer you to the web site of Holly Moore, frequent egullet poster: http://www.hollyeats.com/ Check out the Carolina barbecue page for ideas refernced to I-95.

I like J. R.'s meat, I've posted about it in other threads. They serve the meat unsauced and ask if you want hot or mild sauce. In my opinion, the sauce (and the beans as well) are way too sweet and thick for my taste. Get the sauce on the side! So, I like the ribs and chicken but we take it home (about an hour's drive on the way home from VA or NC) and use our own vinegary sauce concoction. Side dishes mostly forgettable, haven't tried the potato salad. Also haven't tried the pulled pork. You gotta like the run down, mossy roofed shack atmosphere.

Getting off topic as far as Nags head north to Duck/Corolla, but I just got back from Hatteras Island, my family's had a house there for almost 30 years. We mostly cook ourselves as restaurants on Hatteras are spotty. I do have a couple of recommendations for good eats. Risky business seafood at Oden's dock in Hatteras village will steam you fresh local shrimp in season. Go sit on the dock, peel and eat, get a cold beer at the marina store next door. http://www.odensdock.com/seafood/ On this last trip, I tried a pulled pork sandwich from Lang's barbecue. Lang's is on the left as you head south on Route 168 roughly 5 miles north of the Wright Memorial bridge. The sandwich was very tasty with lots of slaw. They had ribs and brisket which I didn't try. Also in Hatteras village, try Jeffrey's seafood. This place is in the fish cleaning house at Hatteras Harbor marina. They sell whatever their commercial boat catches that day. Usually only one or two species to choose from, but impeccably fresh and nicely priced. It's your lucky day if they have tuna, but I've had excellent dolphin, flounder, and king mackerel from there also. But, you have to cook it yourself!

I was a co-op student in 1979 and making the princely sum of $275/month. Rent was $175 (utilities included). This will teach you to economize. I did a few things repeatedly. 1. Go shopping on Wednesday. Supermarket sales start on Wednesdays. There will be free sales flyers in the store as well as signs on the sale items. They change each week, so it instills some variety. 2. For meats, I'd go with whole chicken, whole turkey, ground beef, and cheap long cook cuts that are on sale. Others have mentioned good ideas like rice, beans, and eggs, I include peanut butter in that category also. Canned tuna goes on sale often for very cheap. 3. For veggies, once again, follow the sales and think seasonal. 4. I learned to make bread during this time. Homemade bread is a pleasure and really cheap. Get some wheat and rye flours to add some variety. My standard deal was to buy the smallest whole turkey I could find when they're on sale. Roast the turkey and have it with potatoes and veggies for a couple of meals. Cut meat off for sandwiches on homemade bread or to freeze for later meals. Leave some meat on the carcass and roast it. Use roasted carcass to make stock, onions and celery are cheap! Use stock to make gravy to jazz up bread or rice or make soup. I ended up eating a variety of good meals for very little money. Oh, yeah, and turkey omelettes! People at work were constantly jealous of my roast turkey sandwiches on homemade bread. Just economizing, I told them!