Orange Leaf

Frozen yogurt is making a comeback. In my mind, frogurt has gone through two phases: 1) being the low-cal alternative to ice cream, and 2) being itself. It may be that our collective palettes are maturing. Or that the tart flavor of the yogurt tastes more "natural." Or maybe we just love things that come in ultra-modern, Asian-ish packages. Whatever the cause, frogurt is in and it's delicious.


The newest frozen yogurt shop in the Triangle is Orange Leaf in Chapel Hill's Timberlyne plaza. As you can see from this picture on a Saturday night, this place is popular, and it has good reason to be. If you've read my previous post about Local Yogurt, then you already know that our area is blessed with a wonderful yogurt shop. Local Yogurt serves up four flavors of yogurt plus a large plethora of toppings, all charged a la carte. But Orange Leaf has a different perspective. They have around 15 flavors (plus twists) and lots of toppings. The clincher is that everything is priced by weight. So you can have as much or as little of nearly every flavor in this store possible.


When I first walked in, my mind could not handle all of the possibilities. I would have more pictures of everything if there were not so many people that may have been offended to be filmed. I don't even want to start calculating all the flavor combinations. My plan of attack was to create five mini forgurt sections in my large cup. Without going into too much detail, I tried pomegranate, peanut butter, mango, taro, and pineapple. They also had cheesecake, blueberry, plain, coffee, green tea (not as good as the others), and many more. For toppings, I used Reese's Pieces, brownie, Rice Krispie treat (a little stale), mochi, gummi worms, Rainsinettes, and one of the coolest toppings I've ever come across. They are called bursting boba and they look like differently colored fish eggs. If you're familiar with bubble tea, these are similar to the boba in those drinks. The difference is that these are balls of juice encapsulated in a thin membrane. The slightest pressure on that membrane and *pop* a burst of fruit juice in your mouth. In the end, I had five microcosms of flavor from which to eat on a hot summer night. I love having lots of little flavor options with my food, so needless to say, I was in heaven at Orange Leaf.

Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe

Recently, Sunday mornings have become one of the most relaxing times of my week. I sleep in as much as I can. After waking up, I putz around the web and the house, not trying to accomplish anything except not trying to accomplish anything. Then, once my stomach is fully awake, I begin to ponder what I want for breakfast. Sunday is a day that some restaurants in town take off, but there are many that open for breakfast and/or brunch. I'm usually a huge proponent for at least 3 meals a day, but starting with a rich meal around 11am or noon makes it difficult to justify two more meals before the day is over. So when it comes to Sunday brunch, I'm looking to go all out. And this past weekend, that is exactly what I got at Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe in Chapel Hill.

You have two options for going to Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe: get there early or wait. This restaurant is on the main street of Chapel Hill, Franklin Street, right across from UNC campus, so it is very popular, especially amongst the church-going crowd. The restaurant is very deep but not very wide. In the front are some bar seats that are first come-first serve and great if you're dining alone or if you are lucky enough to find a couple open seats. The remainder of the restaurant are smaller booths either next to the open kitchen or clustered in the back half of the building. There are some Old English decoration features in the back, but this eatery is a Southern diner through and through. We were extremely fortunate to arrive during a lull time and were seated in 5 minutes, just before a line 20-30 people deep formed.


Firstly, we had an omelet (I think it was called the Big Bird). Three eggs wrapped around sliced turkey, bacon and tomato, covered in cheese sauce. On the side were cheese-covered hash browns and a biscuit. The omelet tasted great. The cheese sauce seemed a little much at first, but it really brought the omelet together, especially since it had no cheese on the inside. The biscuit was good, though nothing special considering this is the South. Hash browns were classic and perfect: crunchy outside with tender inside.


The other meal we had was a pancake combo with scrambled eggs and bacon. But the most interesting feature is this: the pancakes were filled with M&M's! The candies melt into the pancake, giving it the taste of a chocolate chip pancake, but the candy coating gives it an indescribable quality that makes you want to order another stack of these rich beauties. The menu also claims they can use Reese's Pieces in the pancakes as well, so we might be going back to Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe soon to do a side-by-side comparison of these candy-filled griddle cakes.

Four Eleven West

I love Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. Not only does it have a nice college-town portion by UNC, but it has many other great restaurants and shops all along it. For a birthday dinner out, we decided to go to Four Eleven West for some good Italian food.


The restaurant is nice, but not too nice. Fancy but not too fancy. They have an area for the 9-to-5 work crowd to grab some drinks. The restaurant has many different rooms, making it feel more private and intimate. After taking about 10 minutes to decide between many different dishes, I ended up choosing The Crab. It is a papardelle made from red pepper in a cream sauce made with dill. Mixed in to this is crab meat, mushrooms, scallions, and bacon. Despite the presence of bacon, I did need to add a bit of salt to the dish. But other than that I thought it was pretty good.


One great thing about the pasta dishes on the menu is that you can choose between half and full orders. That way you can opt for less food or just order twice as much if you're really hungry or want to save some for later. We also ordered the shrimp carbonara over spaghetti. The sauce was very nice, made with shallots, bacon and peas. A topping of Parmesan cheese finished everything off. We probably could have finished a full order of this pasta quite easily, so it's good we stuck with the half order for our own sake.


Chicken marsala is exceptional when it is done correctly. And Four Eleven definitely did it justice. When making a marsala sauce, the goal is not to make a thin mushroom gravy. Instead, you want to make a wine-based sauce with a sweet flavor and earthy mushrooms. That's exactly what Four Eleven did. The chicken in the sauce was delicious and the pasta was just the icing on the cake.

For me, Franklin Street is pretty much the lifeline of Chapel Hill. I hope it will take me many years to eat at all of the wonderful gems along this street. And the day I do, I want them to plan to extend the road.

Butternut Squash

We had cause to celebrate recently, so what better to do than eat vegetarian! There are quite a few vegetarian/vegan restaurants in the Durham/Chapel Hill/Raleigh area, so the idea is nothing new. But pulling off vegetarian well is another matter altogether. We decided to try Butternut Squash in Chapel Hill.


We started with a couple appetizers in order to savor the full array of food that this restaurant had to offer. I'm still relatively new to vegetarian eating, so I relish all of the various meat-free alternatives that have been made. Our first dish was definitely one that stands on its own, no matter what your diet (well, maybe not for those who are lactose intolerant...or vegan...or low fat...). Anyways, we ordered the flash-fried goat cheese because it sounded too good to pass up. Soft, robust (and even slightly gamey, but in a good way) goat cheese was formed into balls, covered in a thin batter containing hints of cinnamon, was quickly fried to make the shell crispy and just warm the cheese. It was served with a sweet berry jam, creating a wonderful interplay between sweet and savory. I would definitely recommend this appetizer if you go to the restaurant because it is nearly transcendent.


People who do not or cannot eat particular foods are forced to become creative. If not for tofu and tempeh, vegetarians would be stuck with carbs and vegetables all the time. Butternut Squash has taken tempeh and boldly used it in place of chicken wings. These tempeh hot wings were very good, though not for the faint of tongue. They were very spicy, but also wonderfully flavorful in their Buffalo sauce. You did not miss the chicken at all.


For dinner, I ordered a special with linguine and a tempeh bacon-cream sauce. While good, not every meat substitute works as well as others. Bacon is a wonderful meat that can be eaten alone or used as the base of an entire cooking repertoire (i.e. Southern cooking). Tempeh bacon has not quite achieved the same effect, part of which may have to do with the ability of bacon to exude its smokey, salty flavor through rendered fat. With the other good dishes on the menu, I would not order this main course again.


To end on a positive note, our other main dish was butternut squash risotto. This was a fine, creamy risotto with a cheesy background flavor. I almost stole this dish for myself it was so good. All in all, Butternut Squash is a wonderful vegetarian restaurant that I think everyone should try just to expand your mind and your taste buds.

Breadmen's

There's nothing like a leisurely Sunday morning. After sleeping in, you wake up, read a magazine and overall relax before starting anything. At some point you decide it's probably a good idea to get something to eat. What better place to visit than one of Chapel Hill's institutions, Breadmen's. Don't let the Tarheel footprints outside fool you, this restaurant is an equal opportunity sports enthusiast. At least that's what I gathered from the many years of sports posters for all the local universities on the walls. The restaurant can often be quite busy, but we were lucky to get seated right away on a Sunday in the early afternoon. Many students like to frequent this eatery, and, according to the clientele we saw, it seems to be a good "morning after"/hangover hangout from obvious sunglasses being worn indoors. Anyways, on to the good stuff (the food stuffs):


We had two decent sized platters of breakfast foods. The pancakes were good - decently fluffy and about medium thickness. Eggs and breakfast meats were par for the course. Honestly, I find most diner eggs and meats to be pretty basic, so I never use them as a proper judge of character. Home fries, on the other hand, are a good meter stick. Breadmen's potatoes were well seasoned and delicious. Finally, the coup de grace was the biscuits and gravy. The biscuits are soft but the edges were browned slightly to add a little crispiness to a dish that could easily get too mushy. The gravy was great with good body and that meaty salinity that I love. It also made a good topping for the potatoes (I love to mix and match my food). Overall I was quite satisfied with breakfast at Breadmen's. It made a slow-start Sunday even more enjoyable.

Cooking, Baking, Restauranting...Pretty much just eating anything I can get my hands on - 6/29/09

What a week! I managed to do a lot of cooking and eating this week and I'm not sure where it all came from. Let's start with what I made first.


Lunch this week, as a continuation of my soup series, is chili con carne. The recipe was from Cooks' Illustrated. After browning chunks of beef, you cook some onions and bell pepper (or jalapeno). Then, you stir in some cumin, oregano and garlic, then water, beef, diced tomato, and minced chipotles in adobo sauce, simmering it for 1 hour covered, 30 minutes uncovered. At the very end, you whisk in some cornmeal into 1 cup of the chili, then whisk this mixture back into the soup, simmering it until it thickens up. I was very surprised by the consistency of this soup. Most chilis I've had contained beans, but this one omits them in favor of thickening the soup using the cornmeal. The chipotles in adobo are a very easy way to bring some heat and a nice smokey flavor without resorting to liquid smoke. The beef stayed tender and everything else seemed to melt together into the background flavor. This chili was both surprising and outstandingly delicious for something homemade.


Dinner this week is a chicken fricassee with some citrus flavors. Briefly, the chicken is seared, then some root veggies and citrus are cooked in the same pot. Tomato paste is added, then flour, then some chicken stock, orange and lemon juices, white wine, and honey. The chicken is added back in to finish cooking. On the side, you cook some potatoes and blanch some veggies (I chose yellow squash and Mediterranean zucchini). Oddly, you remove the original veggies and citrus, then thicken the sauce using an egg yolk and milk. All of this is combined again to yield the final produce. Everything tastes good, but the citrus disappears into the background. I think adding in some citrus zest in at some point could help make the flavors more bold. But this makes for a fine dinner. The citrus lightens the heavier chicken with its skin on. Plus, lemon and orange are the perfect flavors for the summer.


A great deal of the ingredients used in the foods above came from this week's CSA assortment: corn, blueberries, potatoes, onions, zucchini, squash, cucumber, tomato, and three kinds of melon.


For cake decorating this week, we learned more piping techniques, including some specific to birthday cakes. Since my lab did not have any birthdays this week, I went for an "I <3 Cake" cake. The cake was supposed to be flavored by rose water, but that flavor did not come out. Instead, the major players were the apricot jam filling and vanilla icing. Cake writing is a little difficult, by the way, if you don't have the right size tip for one, but also because you have one shot to do it right (sizing, spacing, shaping). And always, always, ALWAYS remember to spell everything correctly. Here are some examples of what can go wrong with cakes: Cake Wrecks.


The SO (significant other) did some cooking this week too that was quite astounding. It started with some pork that was combined with pureed pears and plums. To this was added some cream cheese, cilantro and hazelnuts, among other ingredients. Wrap it in a tortilla, stick it in a pan with cheese and more hazelnuts, and bake it in the oven. The flavors for this dish were definitely out of left field, but they all combined together for quite a sumptuous dinner. Add a side of fresh cucumbers and raspberries and a cup of dilled sweet potato soup, and you've got one killer dinner.


As for eating out this week, I remembered my camera for most of our meals. First up is Pepper's Pizza on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. This was the second time I ate at this restaurant, and I've enjoyed it both times. The pizza pictured is one we made ourselves. They have some great ingredients and pre-formulated options, but we were in a creative mood. Half of the pizza was Italian sausage with fresh garlic (fantastically garlicky without being overbearing...but then again I don't know if you can have too much garlic), and the other half was a NC-style Hawaiian using pulled pork and pineapple (a great variation on true Hawaiian with ham and pineapple). Plus, they have great music while you eat. While we were there, they were playing Michael Jackson's album Thriller to honor his untimely passing. If you want some non-traditional options for pizza and you're in the area, give Peppers a shot.


While in Raleigh, we hit up the Flying Biscuit. This restaurant serves delicious, truly Southern food (breakfast all day to boot). I ordered my first chicken-fried steak and what an awesome dish it was! The crisp outside juxtaposed against a moist and delicious cubed steak, paired with a wonderful gravy made me want to wrap myself in the steak and never leave. The green beans were a good side, though a little oily. The homefries were seasoned with a house ("moondust," I believe) seasoning that made these tubers really pop. In the midground (between foreground and background), you can see their biscuits, served with strawberry jam. True to their name, these biscuits are light, airy, but totally indulgent with some good saltiness to them. Lastly, in the background, you can spy their sweet tea, which is one of the sweetest you can find without any sugar at the bottom. The South has risen again at this wonderful restaurant. Word to the wise: if there is a wait for a table, the bar seats in a first-come-first-serve fashion, so feel free to grab a stool and enjoy your food while others are still waiting outside.


In the Chapel Hill Timberlyne plaza is a rare find: an Ethiopian restaurant by the name of Queen of Sheba. If you've never had Ethiopian, try to find a restaurant and give it a shot. This one was very good with great service. To start off, we had an Ethiopian soda (flavored with spices and honey) as well as a sweet tea that was also given some depth by some warm spices. We had the vegetarian sampler, which had yellow lentils, a pea flour sauce, tomatoes, green lentils, and potatoes in a horseradish sauce, all atop and with a side of injera, the sourdough-ish spongy flat bread. Everything was fantastic. I love having lots of options when I eat, and this was the best way to get that. All of the flavors melded with each other but could still stand alone. They have many meat options too for compulsive carnivores. To finish, I had a cup of Ethiopian coffee, supposedly made with some butter, sugar, and more spices. The coffee was positively black with a rich and bold flavor that lacked that bitter aftertaste of many coffees. Overall, it was a marvelous experience that could not be beat.