My Lunch

I don't fancy myself a food critic, nor do I consider myself a food photographer. What those people can do to analyze, critique, and present the food they eat to the general public in a way that's the next best thing to eating it yourself, is just extraordinary. There are very, very talented people out there in those fields. I am not one of them.

But with that being said, I like to eat, I like to take pictures, and I like to write about the food I've enjoyed. If you've read this blog for any length of time, you'll see that food is a recurring theme here. I tend to photograph and write about the food I enjoy more than the stuff I don't.

Recently I've had the pleasure of eating at three places I'd never been to before:

1. Tonali in Durham, NC
   
2. Connolly's Irish Pub in Cary, NC
3. Pomodoro in Mebane, NC

Here are my thoughts on the three:

Tonali, 3642 Shannon Road, Durham. Nuevo Mexican
Mark D. discovered this place, and was very excited for me to try it. His excitement was well founded. The chef at Tonali used to be a sous chef at nearby Four Square, and that was an excellent start. 'Restaurants with chefs' is a good thing in my book. And Tonali's nuevo Mexican cuisine to me meant that it was not some El Generico ground beef brittle tacos and canned refried beans place.

We both got "Agua de Jamaica", as you should also if you encounter a place that has it. It's a tea made from hibiscus flowers. It's usually priced by the glass, so despite how good the agua was, we were proportioning our consumption appropriately to make it last throughout the whole meal. Much to our delight, the server arrived and asked if we wanted more aqua, not another agua. Free refills! The consumption increased exponentially from there.

Tonali: agua de jamaica Hosted on Zooomr

We were brought an amuse bouche (or whatever it should properly be called in Spanish). We didn't officially know what this was, but most of it (turkey, cliantro, tomatoes, infused oil) was visibly identifiable. It certainly amused my mouth.


Mark had the tacos de pollo pabil, or slow-roasted chicken tacos. There are several accoutrement pictured here that I dare not attempt to identify for fear of maligning the dish.

Tonali: tacos de pollo pibil Hosted on Zooomr

I had the Sinchronizadas de Pavo (sandwich of turkey, often confused with dang quesadillas!), with several sides, including fresh guacamole, a jicama relish, and house made molé that was exquisite.

Tonali: sincronizadas de pavo Hosted on Zooomr

We finished with some decent coffee, but skipped dessert, though I think we both are regretting this now, as we're pretty confident that the desserts would've been pretty special too.

All told, the damage (including tax) was about $18 for both of us, excluding tip. Tonali was a real find!

Connolly's Irish Pub, 1979 High House Road, Cary (link)
This was a find of Tom B., and right next door to his favorite coffee place, Crema (which should have its own review). It's a pretty typical Irish pub, with pub food, Guiness drafts, darts, etc. Now I'm no fan of the Irish, other than the one I married, but I enjoy a good pub as much as the next Paddy.

It was a Friday in Lent, and despite Tom's non-Catholicness, he got the fish-and-chips.

Connelly's Irish Pub: Fish and Chips Hosted on Zooomr

Even Pope Ratzinger would approve of the light, almost tempura-like batter of the fresh white fish. Tom shared some with me, and I agree that these were excellent.

Sticking with the fish theme, or shellfish in this case, I got the crabcake sandwich. . . a self-proclaimed house specialty, as indicated by the shamrock adornment next to its menu listing.

Connelly's Irish Pub: Crabcake Sandwich Hosted on Zooomr

This was also very good, sufficiently crabby, and accompanied by a huge pile of carb sticks! Connolly's is definitely a place I'd love to take Jennifer to for her favorite pub drink: a snakebite

We finished the meal off with coffee from Crema (macchiato for Tom, redeye for me) that unfortunately, I did not photograph. Kevin at Crema takes his craft very seriously, and the quality of the product there really shows.

Pomodoro, 107 E. Center Street, Mebane (link)
This is a new restaurant in Mebane, on Center Street (aka US70) in what's often a large, unoccupied building. Allegedly, this restaurant is owned by the same family that owns Sal's, off Hillandale Road in Durham. . . our favorite Italian restaurant in North Carolina. Allegedly. After eating there, I was doubting this fact.

Granted, a lot of the issues we had with the restaurant were probably because they've only been open two weeks, and the employees were still finding their feet. Our friendly young waitress didn't understand terms like "antipasto", "caprese", and "Bolognese," which I seriously doubted was on the penne I ordered when it arrived. The place was full, with a line out the door, so I'm hopeful that the turnover will lead to a quick improvement in the quality of the food. They also have an internally lighted outdoor sign hanging from the building, a couple of things I don't like in signs. But since Mebane has no standards for the heinousity of signage, is technically legal.

The restaurant wasn't bad, but for now, I would not recommend Pomodoro. I'll happily give them another try in a few months.

Super What?

Today was one of the great food holidays of the year: The Super Bowl.

Even though we really could not care less about American football, the Super Bowl is a great event in the Traveling Roths hold. It's the one day a year we make Buffalo Wings.

Here's the play by play.

First, set the TiVo to record the game. This will be important later.

Then make sure you have obtained a hearty supply of chicken wings. We got ours a week ago and then froze and thawed them. Once thawed, the wings have to be separated into their component pieces. A chicken wing from the store is like a disembodied human arm, conceptually, so picture that when I describe the dissection. First, cut off the wingtips (hands) and save for stock-making. Then separate the wingette (forearm) from the drumette (upper arm). After performing all the surgery, I brined the wings for the first time, since I figured it couldn't hurt.

Next, assemble the rig.
In my case, I used the small pot that came with my turkey fryer, along with the propane tank and a gallon of oil.

The wings had been rinsed and dried, and brought to room temperature.

Next, heat the oil (carefully) to 375F. Add the wing parts as many as will fit without

• causing the oil to boil over, and

• causing the oil temperature to drop too much below 350. "Cold" oil leads to greasy food.

In my case, my setup can handle about 20 wing pieces at a time. When I do this inside on the stove, I can do maybe eight at a time, which is way less efficient, and way more time consuming. We are hungry, after all.

Fry the chicken for eight minutes, adjusting the burner as necessary to maintain 350-375 as closely as possible. You absolutely need a thermometer for this. Eyeballing it will only end in heartache. (There are two thermometers in this picture, plus another in my pocket. Overkill, admittedly) Now would also be a good time to enjoy a lovely beverage. Though not visible in the above picture, a bottle of Yuengling Lager was nearby.

Remove the chicken from the oil to a draining rig. Fry the remaining wings in appropriate batches.

Coat the wing parts in the magic sauce, move to a baking pan, and roast at 350 for 20 minutes.Now would be a good time to enjoy another lovely beverage.

This time, a mojito, which Jennifer and I found out goes excellently with wings.

Remove the wings from the oven, serve with bleu cheese dressing and veggies.

Enjoy.

Then onto the game. Since we TiVo'd it, we didn't have to pay any attention to when the thing actually started, plus we'd built up some buffer time, allowing us to do the coolest thing you can with TiVo: Fast forward through the game, and stop at the commercials, and the halftime show.

After "The-artist-formerly-know-as 'The-artist-formerly-known-as-Prince'" finished his set, we turned off the TV and called it a night.

Recipe Follows:

Authentic Buffalo Chicken Wings with Maytag Blue Cheese Dressing

12 chicken wings (or more), halved
canola or peanut oil
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
4 T butter
1 bottle (5 oz.) Frank's Original Louisiana Hot Sauce (this is the big secret)

Maytag Blue Cheese Dressing
1 cup mayo (225 g)
3T minced onion (39 g)
1.5 t minced garlic (7 g)
1/3 cup minced parsley (15 g)
1/2 cup sour cream (130 g)
1 T lemon juice
1 T white vinegar
1/3 cup Maytag blue cheese, crumbled (50 g)
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350F and oil to 375F
Reserve wingtips for stock
Fry wings for eight minutes in small batches. Transfer to a cooling rack and let drain. Season with salt and pepper. In a saucepan melt butter, add hot sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper. tos wings in sauce. Roast 15 to 20 minutes

In a bowl mix together mayo, onion, garlic, parley, sour cream, lemon juice, vinegar, and blue cheese. Transfer to a serving bowl. Arrange wings on a serving platter. Garnish with flat-leaf parsley. Serve with dressing.

The Rest of the Trip

New Years Resolution: Be more timely with my posting. OK, so much for that.

Continuing the Great Xmas Escapade

Christmas eve morning we drove from Brooklyn to Plains, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Wilkes-Barre, and the home of Jennifer's grandparents. For the Big Italian Family Christmas Eve Dinner, we made our second semi-annual trip to Betelli's Villa, in Wilkes-Barre. They offer a scaled down menu on Christmas Eve, but the Veal Saltimbocca was excellent, and Tristan couldn't resist the pasta again, of course.

(Have you ever seen the picture of that guy on The Smoking Gun who keeps getting arrested for huffing gold paint? Tristan could be a marinara sauce huffer.)

That night, Jonas, John, and Jordan gave up the opportunity to sleep in actual bed's at cousin Tahnee's house in order to be at Nona's when Tristan and Zoe woke up.

Christmas morning it was evident that Santa had gotten the memo about the kids' location, and he had delivered their prizes to the right place. We hung out and ate, and after lunch, Joe, Pam, Jared, and Julia arrived from their hotel.

That night it was off to Cousin Shannon's house for another family tradition. More food, games, and funny made-up stories about "postive attributes" of Democrats. We got to meet Briellia, Shannon and Brian's almost 2-year-old daughter, and see Brian's two-part homemade horror series "The House With Many Dolls."
We did get a decent photo of the immediate family though

My Big Fat Italian Christmas Hosted on Zooomr

The next day we headed back to Harmonyville, to slow down and relax. . . a little. Great Mom came over to start making tomato sauce for pasta. It's a two-day affair. That night we visited with Uncle Dave and Aunt Phyllis.

Chinese Dress Hosted on Zooomr

We even got to see a cool video of Aunt Phyllis's eye surgery. I wish I had a video of my eye surgery.

Wednesday, Great Mom came over for day two of the pasta sauce, and we enjoyed it on some spaghetti and some of Nona's famous homemade ravioli. Great Mom was very eager to try some of that.

Thursday we met up with the Lamberts (Matt, Anne, and Peter)and the Flickingers (Dan, Jean, Emma, and Grace) at Saint Peters Village. Of course we were there to play on the rocks, and of course, somebody ended up going swimming, and this time it was Zoe. The kids love the rocks, and Dan, Matt, and I do to, having spent many hours on them ourselves as kids. I think Jennifer and Jean (Dawn was back at the house with the two youngest Lamberts) may tend to be more cautious. No matter. Despite Zoe falling in, we got a few good pictures.

1 Lambert 2 Flickingers Hosted on Zooomr

4 Flickingers Hosted on Zooomr

When it got dark, we all went to the Lamberts' for what's becoming a tradition: meatball sandwiches and exhaustive playtime. Dawn, Jane, and Laura were already there. We had a great time, and the kids slept like rocks that night.

Friday, December 29th. Happy Birthday to me! It was pretty low key. We drove into Pottstown, and ended up having lunch at The Very Best Wiener Shop (their claim, not mine.) The restaurant is kind of a landmark in town, and has quite a history with the Roth family. My grandparents were regulars here for probably 60 or more years, and a picture of Grandad even hangs on the wall. Andy and I used to play for the restaurant's sponsored Little League baseball team in the late 1970's and early 1980's. The food pretty much sucks though, but it's cheap.

For dinner we went to Buick (Matt) and Christine Kozsuch's house in Eagleville. This is the first I'd seen them since their wedding in June, and the first time JR and the kids got to meet Christine. They have a great place and dinner was excellent. They're expecting their first child in July, and fortunately, Tristan and Zoe were well enough behaved to (hopefully) not make Buick and Christine resent their decision to become parents.

On Saturday, Jennifer went to see her friend Tricia from PSU. The kids and I went to Ambler to see Uncle Roger, Aunt Linda, and cousins Laura and Julia. We had giant hamburgers and a whole lot of fun.

4 Roth Cousins Hosted on Zooomr

We had to hurry back to Harmonyville because Jennifer and I had reservations at "The Inn at Saint Peters Village". As a little aside, Saint Peters Village was a granite and iron ore mining town from the Victorian era in the late 1880's. There are still many original period buildings, but the village has not really been able to make a commercial go of it since at least the late 1970s. I can't count how many businesses have come and gone from the two dozen or so buildings. The village is currently undergoing a major renovation that I would guess would give it its best shot at economic vitality. The showpiece of this is the Inn. The restaurant has been getting very serious reviews in Philadelphia magazines, and is starting to get the attention of the foodies (and the culinarily ignorant that just like spending a lot of money on meals) who don't mind the drive from the city and 'burbs out to our neck of the boonies.

Some have said that their dining experience at the Inn was the best meal they've ever had in their life. I would not be one of them. It would place strongly in my Top Ten though. Despite the admonitions of the sommelier, who said my photos would be "washed out," I took pictures of my food anyway. And maybe the snooty "I always have my Mercedes serviced at the dealer" table behind us were looking at us funny, but at least I knew what a pomegranate was.

I won't make this a food review, but let the pictures, which were not washed out, but the way (so there!) speak for themselves.

Amuse Bouche (Happy Mouth /my translation)

Amuse Bouche Hosted on Zooomr

Jennifer's Appetizer

Appetizer: Rillets of Duck Hosted on Zooomr

My appetizer

Appetizer: Serrano Ham Hosted on Zooomr

Jennifer's Entree

Venison Chop Hosted on Zooomr

My Entree

Scallop and Shrimp Hosted on Zooomr

(okay, that one's a little washed out)

Jennifer's Dessert

Dessert: Bread Pudding Hosted on Zooomr

My Dessert

Dessert: Warm Bosc Pears Hosted on Zooomr

That pear-shaped pear sorbet was amazing! The pattissier could make a mint if he could package that and pimp it out next to the Ben & Jerry's.

Sunday we loaded up and drove home, making the trip in an incredible sub 8-hour time. The trip was nicely busy (in my opinion) and over-scheduled (in Jennifer's opinion). We're now on the every-other-year PA/NY Christmas trip, so we'll be back to do it again in 2008. Next year: a whole lot of sitting around home.

Moving to Zoomr

Andy told me about a cool new photo sharing site called Zooomr and here's a picture of mine you'll find there.

Children of Philly Hosted on Zooomr

Vietnamese Coffee

Thanks to Mark Davidson, I discovered the Vietnamese 9N9 restaurant here in RTP at the intersection of Miami Blvd. and Alexander Drive. That was back in May or June, and since then, I've been there with Mark (or Jason Kreider, or Jennifer and the kids) at least half a dozen times.

The restaurant has nearly everything going for it, including several very important rules for restaurants:

• plenty of people of the ethnicity that the restaurant claims to be
• busy, ensuring good turnover and freshness
• no fishy smell, again ensuring good turnover and freshness

They have a great selection, the food is very fresh, and it is reasonably priced. Win-win-win.

But the thing that impressed me the most was the coffee. Vietnamese French-pressed iced coffee, to be exact. Mark made me order it, and I enjoyed it so much that I made Jennifer get it, and eventually Jason, who with his thrifty nature, was reluctant at first due to its steep $2 price, but discovered that he liked it so much that he decided to go to Viet Nam to bring back a child to make it for him. (Seriously, he's going next month).

Not wanting to a) go to a Vietnamese restaurant every time we wanted coffee this good and b) pay $2 for it, Jennifer and I set out on a quest to have the ability to make it at home.

We made a couple of attempts with the various hardware and software we had at home, but it wasn't right. We needed a Vietnamese single-serve French press. Actually, two of them. So last weekend, Tristan and I headed to Grand Asia Market in Cary. We not only found the aforementioned presses ($5 each) but we were able to pick up some Vietnamese coffee, Vietnamese sweetened condensed milk, and some toasted seaweed snacks that Tristan likes to munch on at school. (An American kid who brings Japanese food to munch on in Chinese class, but whatever, they're tasty!)

Here's how it works. The press pot has a perforated bottom, and a perforated plunger to go on top of the grounds, and a lid, to keep in the heat. The whole contraption sits on top of a small class containing about 3/4" (45g) of sweetened condensed milk. You add 20g of the pre-ground Vietnamese coffee (~ 3 T) to the pot, and place the perforated plunger on top. Add 20 g (or mL) of nearly boiling water to the contraption, and let the grounds hydrate, then add an additional 45g. The coffee will drip into the milk over the next 5+ minutes. When the dripping has ceased, mix thoroughly, pour over ice, enjoy.