Category Archives: North America

Posts about countries in North America

I Gar-on-tee That’s Good

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Cajun Food

I was undecided what to do this week for the blog and decided to browse Google Maps along likely routes to see what might be new in the area and came across a new location of an established Charlotte restaurant.  Cajun Yard Dog in Fort Mill was the just what the doctor ordered.  For those anyone who might not know Cajun cuisine has influences from France via Canada plus cross pollination with other Louisiana cultures so it has an international flair as well as the straight out of the bayou ingredients.  The title of the post comes from my favorite TV cook of all time, Cajun chef Justin Wilson.  You should check him out on YouTube.

Anyway back to the food.  Cajun Yard Dog is on a corner of a shopping center and easy to spot from the road or the parking lot.  When I arrived there was only one other table with diners and the waiter was working on table set ups.  He told me to sit wherever and he’d be with me in a minute.  They have a lot of window (heavily tinted) tables being on the corner so I grabbed one that had an awesome view of the bank across the parking lot.  There are a good number of tables in an open area plus a bar.

I was presented with a one page, front and back, menu that actually had a lot of different dishes on it.  It was cool because the guy asked me if I’d been there before and when I said no he spent some time giving me a tour of the menu, pointing out some popular items and explaining the difference between the Crawfish Creole & Crawfish Etoufée (tomatoes vs roux).  He also pointed out the chalkboard wall that has daily specials plus the catch of the day, desserts, wine list, and beer list.  Thorough and helpful.

Since it was lunch time and I had some football watching ahead of me I didn’t want to get too much so I ordered a fried oyster po’boy with jambalaya for a side.  To drink I decided to try one of their New Orleans beers, Dixie Blackened Voodoo Lager.

We’ll start with the main attraction.  The po’boy was served on a warm baguette that was nice and crusty on the outside and soft on the inside.  The fried oysters were atop a bed of lettuce and tomato.  There were four to five good sized oysters on each half that were fried crispy in a light batter.  The first half I ate as presented and the second I gave the oysters a few shots of Tabasco each to spice it up.  The sandwich was quite good and they had a list of a dozen or so different po’boys.  Next up was the jambalaya, which I actually thought was the better of the two dishes.  The jambalaya had a good quality andouille sausage and a generous amount of chicken in the stew of rice, tomatoes, onion, celery, spices.  Interestingly I didn’t see any green bell pepper but I’m also not complaining about that.  It had just a little heat but there several hot sauces at the table to dial up the temperature if you wanted to.  I really liked the jambalaya and am glad I popped for this premium side dish.  The low point of the meal was actually the beer.

The Blackened Voodoo Lager had a nice caramel color, as you can see in the photo, which looked promising.  The first sip was a bit of a surprise.  It tasted almost sour and then got really sweet with a little hops at the end.  The sour taste dissipated as I drank, probably my taste buds just shutting down in self defense.  The sweet was there until the end though and overall it was not an experience I would like to repeat.

So I liked the place, people and food and will definitely go back to try some of the other things on the menu but definitely with some other beverage.

 

Kaaaaahn!

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DragonCon Edition

I guess that should have been Connnn!  Well, nerds gotta nerd.

This past weekend I carted the old culinary passport to DragonCon 2017.  In addition to all the great pop-culture, geek, gaming, educational, art and cosplay available there is no shortage of food options in downtown Atlanta.  In the host hotels and at the Americas Mart buildings you can’t swing a dead Pokémon without hitting a pizza or sandwich stand.  If you walk a bit further the Peachtree Center food court offers a ton of variety all jammed together and offers plenty of opportunity to make new friends as any empty chair at a table is gold and sharing tables is pretty much obligatory and sitting in the floor, back against the wall is not unheard of.  If you want to enjoy a bit of downtime from the crowds you can find some of the restaurants that aren’t totally overwhelmed with con goers.  I visited three while I was there.  One was a revisit and two were new.  They are truly international in theme as one was Italian, one Turkish and one a Pacific rim themed restaurant.

The first of the trio was Amalfi Pizza on Andrew Young Int’l Blvd.  The entrance opens to a wide set of stairs in a decorated foyer that take you into the restaurant proper.  There was plenty of seating and I was shown to a table by a smiling young lady.  I decided to have one of their house specialties, Pizza Amalfi and a Jekyll Brewing Hop Dang Diggity to wash it down.

The pizza was great.  First off it’s from a wood fired pizza oven so you get that little bit of char that adds that extra touch to the pizza.  The pizza itself had fresh mozzarella, spicy sausage, crushed tomato sauce, peppadew peppers, caramelized onions, and their own bacon jam.  The toppings weren’t piled on like a lot of franchise pizzas so the flavors might vary from one bite to the next.  When you got a bit of the bacon jam it gave the pizza an almost barbeque sauce flavor with the sweet and smoky flavor.  The sausage wasn’t very spicy in my opinion but did have a good Italian sausage flavor.  The beer was an IPA, nothing special amid the glut of IPAs in the craft brew world.

Next up was Truva for lunch.  I did a blog entry for Truva last year that you can find in the archives if you choose.  Truva is a Turkish restaurant and is a dimly lit place on a second floor and out of the way enough that only the people from the con who truly want Turkish food show up so it’s a great getaway spot.  This year I decided to have a couple of their appetizers instead of an entrée as I figured it might be a little less heavy.  I got the Etli Borek and Karniyarik.  I loved the menu description of the etli borek, cigar shaped meat pastry.  Karniyarik is stuffed eggplant.  While I was waiting for the apps I was provided with a metal basket of warm bread with black sesame seeds and olive oil & balsamic vinegar to dredge it through.

That bread was worth the trip.  Trying to be mindful of the calories I only ate a couple of pieces and felt like that was showing heroic restraint.  Fortunately my meal of starters showed up.

The stuffed eggplant was partially peeled in sections to provide a decorative presentation and it was stuffed with a ground, spiced lamb and beef combo.  It was ok but honestly I think it could have been spiced up a bit more and the eggplant was a little rubbery.  Not my favorite dish from Truva to date.  The cigar shaped meat pastries were better although it was essentially the same meat mixture.  It benefitted from the pastry dough and the yogurt sauce which tasted like it had some mint in it.  They could have doubled the sauce and made the dish twice as good as far as I’m concerned.  I wrapped it up with a Turkish coffee.  I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get the fancy cup like I did last time but the coffee was good.  I’d have to give this visit only 4 stars.  I’d have gone as low as 3.5 but the waiter was very good so that kept in the very good range.  Oh yeah and the bread, I finished that basket before I left.

Last but certainly not least was the Pacific Rim Bistro on Peachtree Center Ave.  It covers a wide span of Asian cuisines including sushi.  This place was packed with con goers so I was seated at the sushi bar and even though I didn’t order any I got to watch them make it as I waited for my food.  In addition to seating at the sushi bar they have tables inside as well as outside and both high tops and regular tables.  The staff is also very attentive.  I was checked on by at least three people aside from my server but it wasn’t annoying.  I was torn between the Malaysian curry chicken and the Lamb stew in coconut curry and my server was helpful enough to let me know the lamb stew had been extremely popular so that tipped the scales.

The stew came with big chunks of vegetables; peppers, broccoli, potatoes, and cauliflower, all sharing the coconut curry bath with a healthy portion of bite sized lamb.  The menu indicated it would come with black and jasmine rice but they only had jasmine by the time I ordered mine.  That wasn’t a problem though as this was fantastic.  It was one of the best things I’d eaten all week.  I even like the cauliflower, which is a vegetable I’ve never really cared for.  I’d definitely recommend this dish to anyone that didn’t have an aversion to something a little spicy.

Overall I was quite happy with my international dining experiences while enjoying DragonCon.  If you’re in downtown Atlanta don’t hesitate to check one of these places out.

 

Mofongo? Sure

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Dominican Republic

Image result for dominican republic passport stamp

This weekend I was feeling like I needed to hit the Caribbean scene and specifically the Dominican Republic since they were on my “not yet done” list.  As the surrogate for the DR I found Punta Cana in Charlotte.

It’s easy to find from the road as it is a stand alone building of good size.  Inside is a large main seating area and also a sort of sun room area with more tables.  Dominican maps, flags and other memorabilia adorn the walls including these interesting masks.  There were two more on the other side of the TVs.  I forgot to ask the significance but they were pretty cool.

They’ve got several flat screens mounted on the walls and a poster for live music so there is certainly an indication of a busy evening spot.  When I entered I was greeted with a smile and seated quickly as there were only a couple of other tables occupied.  By the time I left though the place was three quarters full.

Once I’d had a chance to look over a pretty extensive menu I had a couple of questions and the waitress patiently answered them.

Sidebar – Kudos to the wait staff for continuously circulating and answering questions with good grace.  I overheard the conversation between the server and a lady behind me and the server had to explain this was not a Mexican restaurant and they didn’t have burritos and tacos and then patiently asked the lady some questions and made a couple of recommendations to her that totally worked based on more overheard conversation.

Anyway I settled on the mofongo with chivo (goat) after my Q&A with the helpful young lady waiting on me.  She did kind of look at me and asked if I’d had goat before and liked it and was satisfied when I assured her I had and did.  As the “keep them busy” course they provided a basket of garlic bread.

Thin sliced, lightly toasted and fairly garlicy. I had one piece while I was waiting because I had a feeling this was going to be a substantial lunch and I wasn’t wrong.

As you can see it came in two separate dishes and my first instinct was to ladle the goat over the mofongo but I figured I’d ask so I didn’t commit some culinary faux pas that would get me banned for life from Dominican food.  When I asked the waitress if you were supposed to eat them separately or combine them or what she went politician on me “however you want is OK”.  She was a bit more definitive when I asked “How would you eat it?”.  “With the gravy all over” the mofongo (that’s just fun to type) was the answer so I felt good about my instinct.

Okay by now if you haven’t Googled it or didn’t already know you’re probably saying to yourself, “What the heck is mofongo?”  Well what it is happens to be fried green plantains with butter (oil is also apparently acceptable), garlic, salt and little bits of crispy pork mashed into a dome shaped mound.  They use this as the base and have a lot different partners to serve it with.  As I said I got the goat because I like the rich taste of it and you don’t get it just anywhere.  The goat stew was bony, as it can be, so I made sure to take care when spooning it on the mofongo.  The mofongo had and interesting texture, in a good way, and soaked up the gravy like a good starch.  The chivo was cooked pretty tender but did require a bit of chewing.  It had a great flavor being cooked with just a few onions and peppers plus spices.  The combo was really very tasty and oh my goodness so filling I couldn’t quite finish it all.

The waitress asked me how I liked it and seemed to be genuinely pleased I enjoyed it so much.  It’s nice when the staff seems invested in the success of the dishes.  I’ll say the Yelp ratings are just above average for this place and I don’t understand why.  My experience was way above average in quality of food and service.  I’d say they were a good proxy for the DR and would definitely recommend them.

If you are interested in know more about the Dominican Republic check out the Tell Me More page.

 

BBQ Time

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American South

Not finding any restaurants representing an untried country and with food trucks on deck for next week I decided to add another variation to the theme and look for restaurants that represented regional American cuisines.  So I might not need a passport to visit their home area (unless SC doesn’t update their drivers licenses then I’ll have to use my passport card) but it’s still from outside the area.  Figured it made sense to start on the home turf with some pork BBQ from a local establishment.

In this case I decided on 521 BBQ in Tega Cay just up the road from me.

There are in a little strip mall and don’t have an outdoor pit or big smoker outback with guys shoveling in coals or anything but I understand they do smoke their own meat.  When you go in there are some tables and the bar up front and then down the left side of the restaurant there is a fair amount of additional seating.  The bar area has a few flat screen TVs showing sports and a nice selection of craft beer.  As a side note it amused me that the bartender had to go look in the back to see if they had any Michelob Ultra when someone asked for it.  Since it was right there in my face that’s how I started my visit, with one of the craft draft beers.  Specifically it was a DuClaw Sweet Baby Jesus.  I know that might sound like a questionable name and it didn’t provide salvation but it was tasty.

As you might have noticed this is a darkish beer.  That’s because it is a chocolate peanut butter porter.  When I picked up the beer the foamy tan head gave off a distinctly peanut butter scent and the first sip backed that up with a peanut buttery taste.  I didn’t get much chocolate from it but the slight bitterness expected from a porter was there along with the peanut butter.  It was smooth and delicious but really kind of heavy for the lunch I had planned.

I ordered a combo tray that came with two meats and two sides.  Chopped pork and ribs were the meat selections while baked beans and collards were the sides I settled on.  While I waited on the entrée they provided a complimentary basket of hushpuppies to keep me occupied.

They came with some honey butter spread that I’m sure would have been good but I just ate a couple plain.  They were slightly sweet with just a vague hint of onion.  Not my Granddad’s hushpuppies but acceptable.  It was just a few minutes though and the main attraction was delivered.

If it looks like a lot of food that’s because it was.  I started with a small taste of each of the sides before digging into the meats.  The baked beans were made with a smoky, sweet thick bbq sauce that was the predominate flavor.  They had some bacon and onion as well to balance the sweetness a bit.  The collards looked great and you could see they had added some pork in with them.  I can’t lie, the first bite had an sort of fishy taste that almost made me quit it right there.  I don’t know if it was just some weird combination of the aftertaste of the sweet smoky beans and the savory collards but man the initial reaction was not cool.  I waited a second and tried them again and didn’t get the same taste so I could proceed.  They were ok, texture was good, not mushy like some and the pork was ok but smoked, salted meat would probably have been a better flavor choice.

The ribs on the other hand were great from start to finish.  There were two ribs in each of the pieces and they were generously coated in the sweet, smoky sauce.  They were not fall off the bone ribs but the meat came away from the bone cleanly as you ate them.  The chopped pork was delivered without sauce just the smoked, chopped meat and you had three options of sauces at the table.  The previously mentioned smoky, sweet sauce, plus mustard based and vinegar based sauces made up the choices.  The pork itself had a mild smoke flavor with salt and was edible plain but much better with sauce.  Being from an eastern NC family I loaded mine with the vinegar sauce after segregating a couple of small portions to sample the other two.  It was a bit sweeter than I prefer but not bad.  The mustard sauce was nice and tangy and the other sauce was ok in the beans and good on the ribs and decent on the chopped pork too.

Final verdict for me is the place is solid but nothing exceptional based on what I had.  After the beer I’d say the ribs were probably the next best thing.  If you’re in the area and feel like getting some BBQ you’ll do okay if you stop in.

MRE Showdown pt 2

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USA

Welcome to part two of the MRE showdown where we focus on US meals ready to eat.  These are individually packed meals rather than a full day in a package.

These were also purchased from Amazon and depending on where you buy them can cost as much or as little as 40% for three meals as the Russian ration pack.  I did like being able to read what the meals were so there weren’t any big surprises on the entrees.

First up was the Chicken Pesto Pasta.  You can see below the contents packaged and then unpackaged with the associated accessories.


The contents of this meal were the chicken pesto pasta, Italian bread sticks, cheese spread, patriotic cookies, cinnamon bun, lemon lime drink mix, powdered red pepper, coffee and accessories, toilet paper, matches, moist wipe, gum and the chemical heater.

I used the supplied chemical heater to warm up the entrée and it worked very well.  The contents are that visually appealing but when I added some of the ground red pepper it tasted fairly decent. The chicken looked and tasted like chicken and the pasta wasn’t mushy and there was a pesto flavor so it lived up to the billing but didn’t really exceed expectations.  The Italian bread was soft, dry and broke up easily.  It had some specks of herbs and made a decent platform for the cheese spread.  Oh the cheese spread.  It was essentially cheez whiz in a pouch instead of a can so if you like that you’d love this.  The patriotic cookies were like sugar cookies in shapes as the name says; Statue of Liberty head & torch, Uncle Sam’s face and hat, the flag and the letters USA.  They were tasty.  Last but certainly not least on the food front was the cinnamon bun.  Another casualty of preservation by limiting moisture.  It had a good flavor but was very dense and dry with a very thin liquid layer of cinnamon in the middle.  The drink mix made a Gatorade like drink that wasn’t bad and provided some electrolytes and carbs.  The coffee was standard instant coffee, nothing notable.  Overall I’d say this was a pretty passable meal not something I’d want daily but certainly something I would complain about if I was out in the field.

Next up on the hit parade was the cheese tortellini in tomato sauce.  In the spirit of balance I decided to try a vegetarian option because they exist.  As you can see from the picture it also wasn’t going to win any prized for presentation.

 

The meal had the tortellini, soda crackers, peanut butter, an energy bar, mango-peach applesauce, grape drink mix, the accessory pack with hot sauce and powdered raspberry drink mix and the highlight of the MRE and hearkening to their roots a pack of M&M’s.

The tortellini tasted just like you’d get from a can in the store and benefitted greatly from the addition of the packet of hot sauce, which was from Louisiana was not Tabasco.  The crackers were a bit like the bread from the previous meal in that they were dry and fragile but didn’t have snap like a crispy saltine cracker does.  They were passable with though when covered in the peanut butter which had a nice peanutty flavor.  The mango-peach applesauce was a sweet mush that had a vaguely mango taste if you didn’t think about it too much.  The energy bar was one of those chewy sort of chocolatey bars that you feel like probably had some other kind of good for you stuff but didn’t care bad enough to check the label.  It was typical for its type.  The grape drink tasted like an artificially grape flavored Gatorade wannabe.  The M&M’s were of course melt in your mouth, not in your hand delicious.  Final assessment of this one is that even if it was vegetarian it was very edible and honestly quite filling.

The final entry in the US MRE lineup was Mexican Style Chicken Stew.

 

Although it did not look pretty it was my favorite of the 3 meals.  It had a surprising amount of chicken and it was spicy enough to justify the Mexican label.  In addition to the stew there were “vegetable crackers”, Cheddar cheese pretzels, cheese spread, applesauce with raspberry puree, a lemon lime beverage powder and oh yeah! M&Ms again.  The vegetable crackers were dry and a bit odd but I crumbled half in the stew and cheesed the other half so they were edible.  The cheddar cheese pretzels were simply cheese Combos.  The applesauce did have a faint raspberry flavor but otherwise it was unremarkable.  Of course the M&Ms need no additional detail.  It was a very edible meal that definitely fills you up.

In the final tally I have to give the win to the US MREs for taste and overall quality.  If you’re looking to grab something for your next camping trip grab some MREs and remember to pack out your garbage.

 

 

 

Seafood Sunday

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USA

I kept it domestic this weekend and decided to visit a place I’ve been meaning to check out since I moved up here from Augusta. Captain Steve’s.  As the name and the post title suggest this is a seafood restaurant although they have steak, chicken and pork as well.  I had seafood on my mind however so I thought I’d give them a shot.

When I moved to Fort Mill the parking lot, which is huge, was gravel and dirt and the exterior had the look of a fish camp.  One of those places that has a ton of seating in an open area with lots of plain tables and chairs designed not to be too comfortable because they have a high volume of people to serve on any given weekend.  That’s what I imagined anyway passing it countless times without ever going in.  Over the years they’ve obviously been successful and the parking lot has been paved and the exterior got a facelift and based on what I saw I’d say the interior got a boost as well.

The parking lot was about half full when I arrived and I was seated immediately.  They do have efficiency in mind because they have two lanes for you to get seated, one for parties of 4 and under and one for larger parties.  Being Sunday after noon the attire of the crowd was everything from me in my shorts and t-shirt to the guy in the 3 piece suit and family all dressed in their Sunday best at the table next to me.  As you can see from the menu they’ve got a pretty good selection so it is a place you can bring just about anyone.

Going against my southern DNA I decided to get broiled instead of fried and chose the 2 item Create a Platter with the Greek style flounder and sea scallops.  As a side note here my server was a very pleasant young lady who’s name I didn’t get but I liked that when I asked a couple of question she didn’t know the answer too she admitted it and offered to let me try an item or she could ask someone else.  The question she did know the answer to, “What’s Greek style?”, she led with “Do you like feta?” and when I said yes she completed the rest of the ingredients.  She only checked in a few times but they were are the right times and my tea didn’t get empty and I didn’t have to wait long when I was ready for the check.  Ok, back to the food.  The platter came with a house salad and side which I elected to be potato salad.  Along with the salad, which could have been a meal by itself, a basket of hushpuppies was served up.


A nice thing about a place that’s really busy is you can count on the stuff being fresh and this salad tasted fresh and I’m not even really a salad person.  I tried a couple of the hushpuppies and they were decent as well.  Then came the seafood.

The flounder fillet had feta, tomatoes, celery, onions, carrots and herbs, all finely chopped, on top and the generous portion was cooked just right.  The flounder had mild fish taste as you’d expect  and the feta was in fact the strongest flavor in the mix.  The potato salad was ok but I only ate a couple of bites because I had to prioritize at this point and the scallops were going to be priority one.  The scallops were about the best I’ve had in a long time.  They were tender and had a great scallop taste a subtle salt flavor like they were just pulled from the sea unlike at many places where they are rubbery and almost tasteless.  I’m not sure what seasoning they used on them and at first I was afraid it might overpower the scallop taste but it didn’t.  I finished the scallops and most of the flounder but I could not clean my plate today.

So lessons learned, either don’t eat the salad or go for a one item platter otherwise something gets left behind.  I definitely will be going back to Captain Steve’s and trying something fried just to keep things in balance.

 

Super Edition

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Super Bowl

This being Super Bowl weekend I decided to pack away the passport and do a home version.

In keeping with Super Bowl party traditions I’m having finger food for dinner and a suitable half-time snack and either a drink for a celebratory Falcons victory toast or one to drown my sorrows at a Pats win.  We’ll see at the end which it was.

For Super dinner the entrée is whole wings marinated in Hunter’s Caribbean mustard sauce from Kingoffoods.com that I picked up at the Charlotte Farmer’s Market just yesterday.  Popped them on the grill and enjoyed the last of a beautiful sunny day while they cooked.  End result was pretty good accompanied by the requisite vegetables and some dipping sauce.

Of course you have to have a little beverage to wash it down and the choice for that was a localish brew from the Catawba Brewing company.  It was their King Winterbolt Winter Ale and as you can see it was a nice dark ale.  It’s a higher than average alcohol beer at 7% and it’s also reasonably smooth and paired nicely with the tangy mustard sauce of the wings.

Half time and beyond snacks were corn chip, cheese & sausage nachos.  The cheese medley included Carolina Hoop Cheese from Ashe County Cheese and the sausage was hot sausage from Wadesboro, NC based Rayfield’s Meat Center, also picked up at the farmer’s market.  I love the ingredient list for the sausage was only four items long; pork, sage, salt & red pepper.  Mighty tasty.

And to finish off the evening since my team didn’t get crowned I had to have a consolation Crown.

And congratulations to Jay Verellen for winning the Blogaversary contest.

 

 

 

Plea Deal

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Brew Pub International

This week the Culinary-Passport visited a local brewery / restaurant, Legal Remedy Brewing.  I’d had a couple of their brews before at the Friday Food Truck events downtown in Rock Hill and it was recommended by a random guy I struck up a conversation with at the Korean food truck.

The place is in an old auto dealership building and they use the space well.  Lots of seating both inside and out as you can see in the following photos.

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Since I was at a brewery and they had such a good selection of brews I opted for a flight of 4.  My selection were: Deposition Dulce de Leche Porter, Sequestered Blueberry Saison, Sequestered Saison & Scintilla Sweet Tea Ale.

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I’ll start with my least favorite and that was the tea ale.  It had a vaguely tannic taste added to an ale and just was not my deal.  The Sequestered Saison is a Belgian Saison with a citrusy taste and a hint of spice.  The Blueberry Saison is also Belgian style with a distinctly blueberry taste that was quite refreshing.  My favorite was the Dulce de Leche Porter.  It had all the body of a porter with the addition of a creamy caramel flavor.

As for the food I went with the recommendation of the Korean food truck patron who was effusive in his praise for the schnitzel.  The menu calls it the Pork Schnitzel Holstein and wow that thing was the size of a cow.

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Along with a schnitzel that was pounded to fork cutting tenderness there was a very thin slice of country ham and a fried egg on top with a mustardy brown sauce and pickled onions topping the lot.  The green beans I believe were roasted and were crisp but fully cooked with some light seasoning.  What you can’t see is underneath the huge schnitzel is a pile of skin on mashed red potatoes.  I know the country ham and egg seem a bit odd but they actually went well with the whole dish.  The only thing I would have liked is a little more of the sauce.  This was such a ton of food and drink I didn’t get to try a couple of menu items I had my eye on.  I guess I’ll have to try the Recess Break Root Beer (non-alcoholic) and the fried Moon Pie another time.

Aside from requiring a post lunch multi-mile walk to reduce the impact of such a big lunch I have to give this place a big thumbs up both on the beer and food.

Breakfast in Bern

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Not-Switzerland

This weekend had me hauling the culinary passport to the northeast.  Ok it was North Carolina, the eastern part, but still northeast of Rock Hill.  The occasion was a family celebration with great home cooking and would have been worthy of a blog entry on its own but I forgot to get pictures of the food ’cause I was busy eating it.

After that great lunch I didn’t want to settle for some old fast food biscuit for breakfast on the way out of town.  I was in New Bern (named by the Swiss settlers for the Swiss capital and there’s a bear on the city symbol so there’s your connection with the title) and their downtown has a number of little restaurants and a few serve breakfast.  I chose Baker’s Kitchen on Middle St and I’m happy I did.

The restaurant is in an old storefront and they kept some of the brickwork exposed as you can see below around the second story windows and wall.  The cozy little corner they put me in was warm and homey as you can see from the shot over my shoulder in the second picture.

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They had a lot of standard breakfast fare but I found something you don’t find everywhere.  It was called Eggs in a Frame.  In the photo you can see they cut a hole in the bread and cook the egg in the cavity.  This I’ve seen before but these folks take the cutouts and make French toast from them.  I opted for sausage & their Dutch Potatoes for my meat and other starch.

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The egg / toast combo was good but it needed a bit more salt & pepper to suit me.  The Dutch potatoes turned out to be essentially hash brown casserole and unlike some places I’ve been where the casserole was obviously frozen and reheated this was hot and tasted fresh.  The sausage links were nice size links not those wee little brown and serve jobs.  They had a decent amount of sage and enough pepper to let you know it was there without making you sweat.  The French toast cutouts were sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar and came with a little tub of a melted butterlike substance to dunk or drown them in should you choose to.  I didn’t.

Overall it was a happy way to start the drive home and if you live in the area or are passing through I’d recommend giving them a try.

Ye Olde RenFest

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Carolina Renaissance Festival

This week instead of a new country it was a trip to a different time.  On a beautiful fall day that was supposed to be sunny and 65 it seemed like a perfect day to pack up the passport and trek north and back in time to the Carolina Renaissance Festival.  Normally this is a trip I take with friends but circumstances made it a solo adventure.

Arriving just after opening I got a sweet parking spot right on the lane and far enough out to get a few steps on the old Fitbit.  It was pirate weekend and there were tricorner hats and bustiers as far as the eye could see. Keeping in theme I enjoyed a musical interlude with the Rambling Sailors   then headed for the food.  There are a lot choices but I had to go with the turkey leg and a Foothills Brewery Cottonwood Pumpkin Ale to wash it down.

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That was a tasty turkey leg.  I’ve had some that were cooked so long they were closer to jerky on the bone than a good drumstick.  In this case though it was moist with a touch of salt and smoky flavor.  It was also quite filling as there was a lot of meat on that leg.  The pumpkin ale was subtle on the pumpkin but did have that taste of fall that paired with the turkey.  I was not the only one enjoying lunch today as the raptors were having hunks of meat for lunch as well.

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A little strolling around and then it was time to grab a drink and head to the arena.  Since I don’t get it often anywhere else I opted for a Chaucer’s Mead as my libation of choice.  I had to hear the bar maiden’s tale plus pony up $4 but what are you gonna do, it was Chaucer’s mead.

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The mead kept me fortified while hanging with the king and court during the jousting tournament.

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Finally after visiting a number of shops with Armory, Forge & Leather in the names it was time to call it a day and journey back south.  To make sure I was prepared for the trip a stop by the jerky stand was in order.

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I have to say that is some of the best jerky I’ve had in a long time.  Great flavor, a bit sweet, a bit smoky, cut thin and not too dried out.  I’m saving some of that for a mid-game snack tonight.

If you’ve never been to a Renaissance Festival it’s a fun afternoon with a lot of things to do for both kids & adults so find one and make it a family day out.