Remsleep's Profile
The Greenbrier
SWMBO and I are heading up to The Greenbrier for our 20th anniversary. We've never been, so any recommendations welcome. My current default is to pick from the various in-house offerings, but are there places within easy driving distance that are worth the trip for an anniversary dinner?
Tracy's Deli - Chapel Hill
I ate at Tracy's in their first week of opening. I had the Reuben and found it to be way too sweet for my taste. I haven't been back. Maybe I should give them another shot.
Need 2 restaurant picks (Lantern, Glasshalfull, etc.) in the UNC/Chapel Hill area!
Speaking of places that dont get much love, I've never had a bad meal at Carolina Crossroads at the Carolina Inn. Only proviso is I haven't been there in three years or so, although before that I ate there a couple of times a year as it was a favorite of my in-laws.
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Carolina Crossroads
211Pittsboro St, Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Kosher heritage turkeys in the NC Triangle area?
Probably not quite what you're looking for, but Trader Joe's has kosher turkeys if you can't find anything else. I believe they are organic, but I'm not sure.
Great grilled cheese in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill?
I've never made it to any of the places mentioned, unfortunately, but I can recommend a grilled cheese to avoid: 5 Guys. Their burgers are very good (although not up to Only Burger standards), so when I popped into a branch up in Massachusetts for a late lunch while on the road, I had pretty high expectations for the grilled cheese. It was, AFAICT, one of their burger buns with two slices of American cheese cooked on the griddle. Entirely forgettable, no crunch at all, and neither the bread nor the cheese had any character. I had better grilled cheese sandwiches from my junior high cafeteria.
Need rec for breakfast between RDU-Raleigh and/or sandwich place between Raleigh-Durham
Can't really help with the breakfast, but from the sound of your teen's taste in lunchtime fare, Dame's Chicken and Waffles will get the job done. It's not far from Duke East Campus in Durham. I haven't eaten there myself, but the buzz on the board has been mostly positive.
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Dame's Chicken and Waffles
317 W Main St, Durham, NC 27701
Montpellier / Cevennes
Thanks again to all for the recommendations. We're back from a very nice week in the Cevennes bracketed by a couple of days in Montpellier.
I have to say that I adored Montpellier. It's beautiful, of manageable size, full of friendly people, and just a fun place to be. Because I was on my own in the city, I didn't really splash out on meals. I had a decent steak frites at L'Assiette de Boeuf in the Rue Verdun; I was going to go to Entrecote, which is just across the street, but there was a line out the door, and I was too tired at that point to stand in it. I did find the coffee at Fairview Coffee to be excellent, and their "Lemon Cake", which is really an Anglo-Saxon quickbread, to be remarkable. I think they used corn starch to achieve the amazing texture, but I didn't ask. Silly me.
With 4 adults and 5 kids between the ages of 11 and 14, one of them a vegetarian with an eating disorder, most mealtimes were more about management than pleasure. Even so, we did have several very nice meals: a surprisingly good lunch at the modest little hotel in L'Esperoux (not the Hotel Touring, but the other one), just down the slope from the top of Mt. Aigoual; a slap up lunch at Le Guillaume d'Orange in St. Guilhelm that, unfortunately from a management perspective, ran a full three hours; excellent crepes in La Couvertoirade; a very good first-night-in-town meal at the Hotel de la Bruyeres in Vallerauge, which we later learned is not well reviewed for reasons that escape; and finally an excellent adults-only dinner at the Auberge Cevenole just west of Vallerauge. Everyone locally recommended the Auberge Cevenole, and it's easy to see why: excellent food at a very reasonable price.
Dinners we mostly did ourselves, helped out by the excellent butcher in Vallerauge. I'm trying to figure out how he makes his grated carrot salad so good. I think it may just be the quality of the carrots, in which case I'm stuck. The local lamb is amazingly good too, as is the charcuterie. The quality of the prepared salads at the Super U in Ganges was another surprise, especially the celeriac remoulade.
MinGa Korean-Japanese Restaurant
I wouldn't be alarmed by it. I'm guessing that it is the undissolved bit of some sort of spice paste. Thinking about it a little more, I probably encountered similar things when I was eating cheap eats in Japan, but that was a very long time ago, so it didn't come immediately to mind.
Pretty sure they're serving beer, although the sun wasn't over the yardarm when I was there, so I wasn't looking closely.
MinGa Korean-Japanese Restaurant
So, after looking at the menu on FB, and given that it's 5 minutes from my house, I took the opportunity to go there for the lunch special.
I was on my own, so there's only one data point, but it's a good one. I ordered the Chanpon/Zambong/janpong. It came with an array of little side dishes: kimchi, oden, an apple/cabbage slaw, curried potato, and seaweed. All were very good. The chanpon was also excellent, although a bit different from versions I've had at Red Lotus and other Chinese places. It seemed a bit more, for want of a word, peasanty. Plenty of cephalopods and a couple of nice bivalves, but no giant shrimp. The ones in the dish were tiny, and, judging from the texture, quite possibly of the dried variety that I understand to be traditional in Korean cooking. The broth had a slightly gritty mouth-feel that was new to me but not unpleasant; I could see how some might not like it. It was mildly spicy by my chili-head standards, but I didn't ask for a particular spice level. Also, the serving was huge and more than defeated me.
Service was fine, the price was right, and the only thing I wasn't overwhelmed with was the tea, particularly the lack of a hot tea offering. No tea?!? Honestly? The unsweet tea was strong, but they only had Sweet'n'low for sweetner, which I don't really like.
I'd go back in a heart beat.
G2B Gastropub - Durham, NC
I think that space has bad restaurant fengshui. I hope these guys can overcome it.
Lunch / Dinner in RTP
I don't eat that often in RTP, but I made a special trip to try Dim Sum House in M'ville on my way way to pick someone up from RDU, and was very impressed. Only problem is that dim sum for one is a bit limiting. Haven't ordered from their regular menu, so can't give guidance there.
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Dim Sum House
100 Jerusalem Dr, Morrisville, NC 27560
Israeli Couscous in Triangle
I know for a fact that the CH/WF has it in bulk. Can't recall the price, however. I do love me some israeli couscous. Whenever I have lots of dried porcini on hand, I use them with couscous "risotto" style. Mmmm.
Interestingly enough, Israeli couscous was a food of necessity. It was invented as a substitute for rice during the austerity after the 1948 War of Independence.
Looking for Chili for a tailgate at Duke
I think the Q Shack's chili is very good -- I am very much of the beans-are-a-condiment-in-chili camp. Whole Foods' chili is just o.k. It has beans, and is woefully under-seasoned, but the texture is pretty good; you can always add more cayenne for heat, but it does lack more complex chile flavors.
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Q Shack
2510 University Dr, Durham, NC 27707
Chapel Hill - Do We Have An Indian Market?
There is a little one in the satellite shopping area at the corner of 15-501 and Westgate Drive next to Spartacus. There is also one behind South Square in the same strip mall as Saladelia.
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Saladelia Cafe
4201 University Dr, Durham, NC 27707
New Asian Big Box Grocery in Durham
Haven't had a chance to visit it yet, but a Chinese friend of ours said that when she went in she was immediately assaulted by a strong chemical smell (possibly drying paint or other off-gasses from new construction). She had her baby with her, so turned right around and left. She does admit to being especially sensitive and cautious of such things, being the daughter of two research chemists.
Has anyone else noticed this?
Montpellier / Cevennes
Auberge de Bourras sounds like it's within easy reach. Google maps gave me the number. Thank you for the recommendation.
Montpellier / Cevennes
Thank you all for the recommendations so far.
I may have a been a bit too general with the location. We will be staying in the village of Vallerauges, which is 20km north of Le Vigan, the nearest large town. If anyone knows of places in and around that area, I would be especially grateful.
Montpellier / Cevennes
Planning for a summer trip that will have me two days in Montpellier on my own and then a week in the Cevennes near Le Vigan with my family and some friends.
Any recommendations gladly accepted. I'll be on my own in Montpellier, so I'm not looking to splurge on Michelin stars, but I'm not on a starving student's budget either. We'll probably want at least one special meal once the families are together.
Seeking one lunch in Durham, NC
I would try The Pig. I'm not a 'que eater, but their short rib patty melt is killer (metaphorically and probably literally). The other lunch items looked equally yummy. There is a whole 'nother thread on The Pig on the board.
Help me find weird food [Raleigh, NC]
I was nosing around the freezer at WF in CH (looking for venison w/o success) and saw that they had bone-in goat leg and veal sweetbreads. Have to come up with something for those. And wasn't there a chitterlings thread on the old South board?
Also, there's folks selling Bison meat at C'boro Farmers' Market and they will get you kidneys, livers, tongues (very nice), and "oysters" if that melts your butter. Chicken feet are definitely for sale there too, although I've only used them for stock. I'll leave the prepping of other chicken foot dishes to the pros.
Gourmet Kingdom (Carrboro) issues?
Has anyone tried banquet style dining at GK? I'm thinking of it for a 12 or so person dinner, but given that the banquet menu is only in Chinese, I'm slightly intimidated.
Group dinner in Chapel Hill - need ideas!
Of the three you cite, I would only consider Crossroads. They're very used to handling large groups. When my parents and in-laws used to visit, it was our go to place for at least one dinner and we were never disappointed.
I have had far more bad experiences than good ones at Il Palio in the last 12 years.
Weathervane seems, as already stated by others, a bit pedestrian for your purposes.
eggplant or chicken parmigiana sandwich in Chapel Hill area?
Pretty sure J&J's does them, though I can't address the quality never having ordered one.
Gourmet Kingdom in Carrboro
I was there the other weekend with my daughter. We both got noodle soups, which were both as good as always, and the steamed buns were better than the last time I got them. I haven't really had a chance to sample the broader menu.
The restaurant was still busy serving a mostly Chinese crowd, fwiw.
