Triangle Good Eats

Did you see last night’s Mad Men? We didn’t, because we were busy working at Cary’s Pocket Community Garden, and grilling up some grub for the next week. There was, however, a fascinating story on NPR today about an original Madison Avenue ad man, Sid Lerner, and his Meatless Monday campaign.

Sid is the man behind the memorable “Don’t Squeeze The Charmin” ads, among many others. Like Sid and other people in the article say, we love to eat meat, but we prefer to eat it in moderation, and to know that it has been raised conscientiously, and if at all possible, locally. Here’s the article.

We’re definitely looking forward to trying the Quinoa-Stuffed Zucchini Boat recipe mentioned in the article. For this week’s Meatless Monday, we’ll be having one of our classic go-to summer meals: Grilled Marinated Vegetable Sandwiches. The sandwiches are that much better when we add Rosemary and Garlic goat cheese from In The Red Farm and Dairy, which we always get at the State Farmer’s Market.

Tags: American by Jad
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Here’s a cute little NPR article about that quintessential Memorial Day food, the humble hot dog. Just click the dog and read on.

The article cites “Ole Time Hot Dogs” in Cary, but after doing some digging, we figure they’re probably referring to Jim’s Old Time Hot Dogs, at 2000 Walnut Street, Cary NC, 27518 (919 554-9063). Those onions sound tasty!

Tags: American by Jad
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I had dinner at Elaine’s recently with my husband to celebrate our anniversary. When we arrived, we were handed personalized menus that said Happy Anniversary. Elaine’s is housed in a small, casual space. The ambience is perfectly nice, but it’s not what I would consider the ultimate romantic dinner spot. I was seated facing a huge painting of a pineapple, which kind of amused me.

We were brought an amuse-bouche of curried sweet potato soup. I didn’t care for it, I couldn’t taste anything but the curry seasoning.

I cannot remember the name of my drink, but it was a cocktail with a blackberry puree and was excellent and my husband really enjoyed his basil mojito.

My husband started with the artisanal three cheese sampler with homemade crackers. It came with a Manchego, which was fine but not memorable, a locally-made Chevre, which was lovely, and a very potent blue cheese, which my husband loved. The crackers were light and airy.

The highlight of my meal was definitely my appetizer. I ordered the seared foie gras with a roasted half local peach, amaretti pit and vin santo sauce. Hard to go wrong with foie gras and this did not disappoint. The foie gras was incredibly rich and unctuous and the saltiness of it paired with the sweetness of the peach was delightful.

My husband had the cast iron skillet free-range chicken breast on “bubble and squeak” with fresh porcini and foie-gras porcini jus. The chicken was excellent, very tender with a wonderful sear. The jus was rich and lovely but also too salty and half the potatoes were undercooked. A little disappointing.

I had the grilled hoisin-sesame tenderloin with rice noodles, cashews, snow pea tips, and charred ginger broth. The beef was delicious, tender and perfectly cooked. I enjoyed the ginger broth but would really have liked more noodles and fewer snow pea tips.

For dessert we tried the lime curd semifreddo with a chocolate cake brownie. The semifreddo was tart and refreshing but the brownie was dry, dull, and just didn’t belong.

The service was good, but slow, which may have been because our server was also tending the bar. I certainly like a leisurely pace for a special dinner but two full hours is a little too much for me.

I would certainly come back to Elaine’s but our meal had its imperfections and I wasn’t as blown away as I would have liked, considering the prestige and the prices.

Soon I’ll be back in Chapel Hill for another special occasion dinner (at Lantern) and I feel a little guilty about skipping out of Raleigh again. So tell me, what are your favorite special-occasion restaurants in the Raleigh area?

Elaine’s on Franklin
454 W. Franklin St.
Chapel Hill, NC
(919) 960-2770

Tags: American, Chapel Hill by Mary
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