Triangle Good Eats

Yesterday Andrea Weigl tweeted a link to this Carolina Journal article; Raleigh’s city ordinances basically send the message that food trucks are not welcome in the City of Oaks. My response? Raleigh needs to take the stick out of its ass.

The City Council would be wise to note that food trucks are incredibly popular right now. People love tasty, portable, affordable food and the casual fun of getting that food from a cart or truck. It makes us think of festivals and carnivals and being a kid, and makes eating even more of a social event. Food trucks have a long history – the first diner, which dates back to 1872, was actually a horse-drawn wagon in Providence, Rhode Island, where the owner sold warm food to factory workers. Sounds like a good truck to me. The all-American chuck wagon started just a few years earlier, around 1866.

I can’t understand how food trucks hurt local restaurant business. Getting a bite from a food truck and sitting down to a nice, leisurely meal in a restaurant are two distinctly different things. The presence of food trucks is not going to cut in on my patronage of excellent Raleigh restaurants. The food truck round-ups in Durham have been hugely popular, which should tell you something. I’d love to have more reasons to go to downtown Raleigh instead of always driving to Durham. City councilors, If you’re concerned with Raleigh’s popularity and well-being, be concerned with letting Raleigh’s food scene be as dynamic and thriving as those of Durham and Chapel Hill.

Want some food truck action here in Raleigh? Then make sure to come to the Big Boss Food Truck Harvest tonight! Beer, live music, pumpkin carving contest, and food from Only Burger, Mom’s Delicious Dishes, Klausie’s Pizza, Indian Food on Wheels, Kogi, Valentino’s, and Kona Ice. Trucks will start arriving between 5 and 6. Don’t miss it!

Big Boss Brewing Company
1249 Wicker Dr.
Raleigh, NC

Want to know more about Triangle food trucks? Read this excellent Indy Weekly guide.

Tags: Raleigh by Mary
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I’ve been raring to eat at Duck and Dumpling for a while and finally got my chance during Restaurant Week. It’s small and chic, but not off-puttingly so.

I’d already decided to get the Asian Pear Martini when I found out that their special drink was an Asian Pear Mimosa. I mostly tasted the champagne, the pear flavor was very subtle, but I enjoyed it. My only complaint is the price ($10, the same price as their martinis).

We were brought an amuse-bouche, a ginger and carrot soup in those little soup spoons (sorry, no picture). It was delicious, insanely creamy, and a nice way to start the meal. Because I am woefully unhip, I love the rare occasions when I dine somewhere that serves an amuse-bouche (this doesn’t really happen say at Cookout!).

My friend Beth and I both started with the pork half-fried dumplings (which can be found on the regular menu) and my husband got the black bean rib tips (which aren’t on the regular menu). Both were good. The rib tips were very tender and the black bean sauce was delicious. The dumplings were absolutely stuffed with well-seasoned pork. Very tasty, but almost too meaty for me.

My husband and I both ordered the Poached Diver Scallops in a Honey-Ginger Glaze (the similar dish on the regular menu is $26, so this was a good deal although I’d be interested to see what the other scallop dish is accompanied with). They came in a fried wonton bowl on top of some greens. The scallops were fantastic. Perfectly cooked and the sauce was delicious, sweet but not overly so. Best scallops I’ve had in a long time (although not too surprisingly, scallops don’t keep so well. We had a few left over that we ate the next day and they were not so great.) Beth got the chicken pad thai (also on regular menu) and though I only had one bite, it was tasty and certainly a cut above the usual pad thai.

For dessert I chose the green tea ice cream, Beth got the ginger ice cream, and my husband got the key lime pie. I would say the key lime pie was the winner. Both flavors of ice cream were very subtle, I would have liked a little more green tea flavor.

Service was good, with one exception. We had leftovers boxed for us and had to flag our server down to make sure he boxed the rice, which he originally was going to just take away. And the next day when we opened up the leftovers, the server (or someone in the kitchen) had decided to only pack up the scallops and not the greens that remained on the plates. I really dislike it when someone decides what is worth packing up for me, as far as I’m concerned, everything on the plate should go in the box. A minor irritation.

Chef David Mao stopped by our table to ask how the meal had been. I love little gestures like that, it sets a restaurant apart.

I really enjoyed my meal here and am eager to come back and try offerings from the regular menu.

The Duck and Dumpling
222 S. Blount St.
Raleigh, NC 27601
(919) 838-0085

Tags: Pan-Asian, Raleigh by Mary
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I looked at the First Friday website for May and saw that Moonlight Pizza was advertising half-price appetizers, so we went to check it out. Once we were there it turned out they were no longer offering that special. Not really the restaurant’s fault the website was out of date, but slightly annoying.

Moonlight has a really great patio but it was wet with rain so we sat inside. Cute interior but with no carpet and few curtains to help muffle sound, it can get pretty loud.

We ordered the artichoke dip to start with. It was fine, more chunky than creamy. I appreciate big chunks of artichoke hearts but other than that it was unremarkable.

We tried the Harvest Moon pizza, topped with corn, zucchini, eggplant, squash, tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms, and bell peppers. The crust was very thin and crackery, which is not my favorite style of crust. The cornicione (end crust) looked and tasted like a soft pretzel. Not bad, but Mellow Mushroom is still the place to beat in terms of end crusts I actually eat! Unfortunately the pizza suffered from the same ailment that afflicts many veggie-heavy pizzas – it was watery. Because most of the veggies weren’t roasted, they retained a lot of liquid and it made the pizza soggy. On top of that, the veggies were sorely under-seasoned. This may have been the first time I’ve ever put salt and pepper on a pizza. Beyond the problems with the toppings, the larger issue was that the ingredients didn’t come together as a cohesive whole. You had a crust, barely-there tomato sauce, some cheese, and some toppings but not a satisfying pizza.

Moonlight Pizza
615 W. Morgan St.
Raleigh, NC 27603
(919) 755-9133

Tags: pizza, Raleigh by Mary
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I always feel strange when I go somewhere that people rave about and find it lacking. Makes me wonder what I’m missing. People rave about The Pit. It was recently named one of the Top 50 Best New Restaurants by Travel and Leisure Magazine. I really wanted to like it. But I was disappointed with my meal there. Nothing was bad, exactly, but nothing was great, either. And that was a letdown because I really love BBQ.

Before I went, I took a look at the menu online and a few things caused an eyebrow raise. Girly drinks? Tofu? Salads? What the what? I guess I’m just a purist. But I calmed myself down. For one, I like girly drinks. And for another, although I wouldn’t ever order salads or tofu there, it’s not such a bad thing for a BBQ place to ensure that if you drag a vegetarian friend along for the ride, they won’t go hungry.

The Pit certainly has ambience to spare. It’s housed in a really nice space, which is a first for me when it comes to eating BBQ. I’m used to my BBQ being served in little shacks, but hey, maybe this would be a nice change of pace.

I ordered the Scupperdine Sangria (with local wine, fruit, and club soda) and while it was tasty for the first few sips, it got watery fast. I guess that’s what I get for having a girly drink with BBQ!

We started with the fried green tomatoes, which came simply dressed with a pepper relish. They had a decent flavor, with a nice tang from the buttermilk they’d been soaked in, but these were some crunchy tomatoes. I wasn’t a big fan.

We were brought a basket of biscuits and hush puppies. My husband liked the biscuits, I found them boring, but I’ve mentioned my indifference to biscuits. Hush puppies were fine but not memorable.

I ordered the chopped pork platter, with sweet potato fries and collard greens. My husband got the pulled pork platter with creamed corn and black-eyed peas. The meats were really disappointing. The chopped pork was tender but a little dry and very bland. It tasted better when doctored with plenty of sauce, but that shouldn’t have been necessary. The pulled pork was even drier. The fries were good, but I’ve never met a sweet potato fry I didn’t like. Collard greens and creamed corn were good, the black-eyed peas nothing special.

What it comes down to is that the BBQ was a letdown. It may have just been an off night, but I was still really disappointed. I know where I’ve had the best BBQ in the Triangle so far (review in the future) and it sets the bar pretty high. But then I asked myself, if I needed to go someplace closer, would The Pit be the next best thing? And sadly, the answer is no. This will sound terrible, but the BBQ sandwich at the Cookout around the corner from me has more flavorful pork than what I had at The Pit. And it’s super cheap!

I will definitely revisit the Pit sometime and see if my experience was a fluke, but it may be a while. So many other places to go!

The Pit
328 W. Davie St.
Raleigh, NC 27601
(919) 890-4500

Tags: BBQ, Raleigh by Mary
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UPDATE: Sadly, Pho tu Do has closed!

I can’t believe I went the vast majority of my life not knowing the sublime pleasure that is banh mi. The first time I had one was in San Diego, after I saw a review of a little place inside Ranch 99 on someone’s food blog (thank God for food blogs!). I went, I ate, and was blown away. Best sandwich ever.

So what is banh mi? It is the oh so tasty result of French colonialism, a combination of crusty French bread and delicious Vietnamese ingredients. It took me a while to hunt down a good source in the Raleigh area, but luckily other people who are just as obsessed with the sandwich had done some legwork for me. I found a tip online that there was a banh mi place inside the An Chau Plaza.

There’s a little food court in the back of the building. There are three different vendor signs, but they all appear to be part of one restaurant. Go up to the Pho Tu Do sign for menus if you want to get them to go, which is what we do. The food court is a little stuffy and we love to take our sandwiches to the park.

Just how much will these beautiful sandwiches set you back? $2.50! The menu says $3.00 but it rings up for less. It’s an amazing deal. We got two of the Banh Mi Dac Biet (Special Combination French Sandwich) and an order of spring rolls ($2.95) to go. They also have pho, of course, which I’m going to have to go back and try, and an extensive list of bubble teas.

The sandwiches here are just as good, if not better, than the ones I loved in San Diego. Good bread is critical to a successful banh mi and this bread was excellent, with just the right amount of crustiness. This is not a good picture, but you get an overview of the contents – sliced pork, pate, mayonnaise, pickled daikon and carrots, cilantro, and slices of jalapeno. This has got to be the least boring sandwich you will ever taste. The cilantro and pickled vegetables add great crunch, brightness, and zing to balance out the savoriness of the pork. I eat mine without the jalapenos but my husband leaves his on and wants to point out that they add some noticeable heat. 

The springs rolls (filled with shrimp, pork, rice noodles, mint and lettuce) are good, light and refreshing.

I have heard rumors of other banh mi sources (Pho Cali, Pho 9n9, maybe Dalat Oriental, although people on Yelp refer to tofu subs. These are not subs, people!) and will have to investigate. But this is a great place for them and you can’t beat that price!

Pho Tu Do (inside An Chau Plaza)
2821 Brentwood Road
Raleigh, NC 27604
(919) 790-7884

Tags: banh mi, Raleigh, Vietnamese by Mary
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