HullaBalloo!

Back in Boston, freezing my knickers off and biding my time until May. I ate a lot of good food in Greensboro, it is certain. Actually, it has gotten to the point where I've started stealing menus from restaurants so I can remember what I had, and therefore, blog about the food.

So, I did that for a dinner I had at Maria's in Greensboro, just a few days before I left, and I wish I had done it for The Wooden Nickel in Hillsborough, NC. Maria's has been in business for a long time, quietly delivering good food off of my radar the entire time I've lived in the city. I went in for lunch, and while there was invited to a 5 course wine dinner made by one of my favorite chefs at Liberty Oak. For an exceedingly affordable $25, I got shrimp won-tons with a homemade sweet and sour sauce, steamed mussels in a curry broth, duck confit with fig chutney, and tea-brined pork loin with sweet-potato polenta. All of this specially paired with wines that, unfortunately, I cannot remember well. The pairings, oddly, were done by an old friend of mine who used to work at the wine shop that I used to work at. Such is the world of food/wine.

Now, The Wooden Nickel is in Hillsborough, a farming community in the middle-of-nowhere NC. This place is a hub of delicious food, and this unassuming little pub has a good share of it. Here, you can have something that I have just discovered is totally delicious: battered and fried banana peppers with ranch dressing. You can also have burgers from free-range grass-fed cows that were raised about a mile away from the restaurant, as well as bison burgers of the same ilk. You can undoubtedly taste the difference in the meat. Top that off with some delicious beer from my folks at Foothills Brewery , and you have a fine meal. My fellow blogger and delicious-food maker Amy at Earthbound Kitchen used to work down here on a farm, which is why I've been coming down to visit.

One more word on beer, because I've found a brewery worth raving about. Aviator Brewery in little Fuquay Varina, NC (just outside Raleigh, and yes, I've already made the appropriate jokes) makes several delicious options worth writing home about. My favorites were the Frostnipper and the King Rat Stout. Big, delicious beers with clean hoppy flavors and malty, creamy, coffee finishes. The brewery is not messing around about the name: it really is in an airplane hangar that used to house the owner's biplane. They seem to be doing well, and are creating an underground stir in the beer-world of the Triad area. They do a good tasting/tour at their brewery on the weekends.

Also, my personal nostalgic beer of choice, the famed Red Oak beer is now being bottled in the Triad area, and can be found in many specialty grocery stores and wine/beer stores. This beer comes in several varieties, but the standard lager is what you can get in the bottle. This stuff is brewed according to the Munich Purity Law, and you can tell by the clean, nutty flavors of this wonderful micro-brew.

Now that I'm back in Boston, I'll start reviewing Boston eateries, brews, and bars again. However, it was good to be reminded that home has some fantastic eats. I'm not ashamed of the culinary possibilities of Greensboro and its surrounds, and it could easily stand up to Boston's metropolitan area any day of the week.

Here's to eating more in the New Year!!

New Year...

They said that I'd vanished. They said that I'd never come back. They were wrong. So, maybe I got a little carried away with the whole concept of a 'break' from work by buying a Playstation 3 and spending 40 hours playing Dragon Age: Origins. That doesn't make me a bad person, it just indicates the extent to which I was traumatized by last semester.

In fact, as I get closer to my departure date, I am finding myself extremely unwilling to go back. My body and mind are rebelling against the very idea of returning to a place with some of the most awful weather that I have ever experienced, of writing my Masters thesis, of teaching a class, of conferences. I just hate all of it right now, and want to stay here with my college friends, eat good food, and drink good beer.

Ugh. Well, I'll have to go back and face the music again soon...but I have a week yet! I'll close with one of my favorite phrases in German.

Was tun, wenn's brennt? Brennen lassen! (what to do in case of fire? Let it burn!)

The Tasting...

I almost forgot! I have yet to regale you with tales of my chef's tasting. It was everything I wanted it to be. Here's a look at the menu:

Course 1: Tomato Borscht with Sour Cream and Chives

Course 2: Fried Chicken Livers and Hominy with a traditional Ragu

Course 3: Quail Breast, Creamed Spinach, Citrus-Tarragon Sauce

Course 4: Ostrich, Asian-style Slaw

Course 5: Dry-Aged Ribeye, Sautéed Green Beans, Cippolini Onions, Bordelaise

Course 6: Elk, lightly fried artichoke, mint/coriander/fennel sauce (Moroccan)

Course 7: Goat cheese, homemade apple butter, crostini

Course 8: Homemade carrot cake with cream-cheese icing

My only complaint was with the chicken livers. Not sure about those in general. On the whole, a little lackluster on the creativity, but all cooked well. Excellently fresh, local ingredients. Good service. No corking fee, and was asked whether I wanted my wine decanted: both good signs. We sat at the restaurant's titled table, Table 16, which was a lovely table situated beside a window. This is designed, of course, to be the restaurant's best table.

On the whole, I score the restaurant a 9 out of 10, and I imagine I will be able to give it a 10 on my next visit.

Tasting notes on the Carruades de Lafite, 2002: Ripe, elegant, New-World style fruit. Medium body, with flavor profile that included crayon, slate, pencil-shaving, blackberry. Drinks well, and better after decanting.

Proposal: Part 1, The Journey Begins...

In the interest of keeping up the academic side of this blog, I'm throwing out the proposal for my Masters thesis. Rising from the mists of a caffeine-induced haze, this profoundly cloudy document attempts to tell people what I'm writing this thing about. To tell you the truth, I'm still not sure myself. That may not bode well, but I'm so excited about post-humanism right now that it is clouding my judgment. If you have helpful criticism, please post a comment. Better yet, if you have any ideas about how this whole thing might be developed into a class or have books/source materials to recommend, then PLEASE tell me!

Here you go...

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

For a small town, Greensboro, North Carolina has some amazing food. I'm currently sitting in The Green Bean, a fantastic coffee shop on Elm Street, sipping a "red" (rooibos) espresso with white chocolate and honey. I am eating a turtle brownie from Spring Garden Bakery, a fabulous coffee shop in its own right. Tonight, I'll be going to the eminent Table 16 for a chef's tasting that is bound to be fabulous. Last night, I made a roasted NY strip steak (grass-fed beef) with a zinfandel cream sauce.

Let's talk about Chef's tastings for a moment. You can do this at most fine restaurants that are not chains. Essentially, this means that you give a chef general parameters of your likes, dislikes, allergies, or dietary restrictions, and he will prepare you a succession of courses that are not on the menu. Usually these courses tend to be small 'tasting' plates designed to impress the diner

and give you a sense of the chef's overall skills. They are a lovely way of being surprised by food, since the chef decides what delicious things to bring you. Sometimes they can be paired with wine selections for an extra fee. However, the tastings can be expensive, so check with your waiter for standard pricing and flexibility.

Now, here's a case in point for wine investment. At dinner, we'll be drinking the Carruades de Lafite, the second bottling of Lafite Rothschild. I bought this wine for approximately $60 in 2007. Now, looking at online prices for this bottle and vintage, the price has shot up to nearly $300 American. We're not going to sell it, of course, because at this point I'm going to take great pleasure in drinking it, but you see my point? There's a pretty penny to be had in this business if you're willing to store the wine in an appropriate fashion. Some knowledge, a friend in the business, and a good wine shop can do wonders for your cellar, friends, and don't you dare forget it. I'm looking forward to laying down a good Brunello di Montalcino, and just seeing what happens...

Now, a word to pan-roasting meat. I'd never done this before, but you'll accelerate the process if you use a cast-iron pan. One 1-1/2 inch thick steak was pan-seared (5 mins. on both sides) with a bit of olive oil and a very hot pan. Then, I suggest an oven at 400 degrees for about 30 mins for medium doneness. Then, your best course of action is to make delicious sauce with a bit of wine, cream, and a dash of butter for richness. Scrape up the good stuff left on that pan as you deglaze with the wine. There you go! Now sit down with some garlic-mashed potatoes and a bottle of good seasonal beer. Yes, I said beer. Steak and beer are a delicious combination, friends. Taste and believe.

Additionally, I've discovered a new author (or two) for good reads over break. Try A.S Byatt's new novel The Children's Book for something psuedo-historical. For something more on the edge of sci-fi try the fabulous Octavia Butler with Kindred. Butler's reputation precedes her, winning both the Hugo and Nebula awards for her science fiction.

I think that's all for now. Have no doubt that I will write about this evening's dinner for your enjoyment. Be careful in the snow, everyone!

Could I get a drum-roll please? . . . . . . . . . . . I'm done with semester three! Am I anxious about the papers I've turned in? Yes. Am I afraid that I might be full of, in a word, bull? Yes. However, I don't need to be concerned about that anymore, 'cause its over. Sort of.

Really, the work never ends. Now is the time to construct the syllabus for next semester's class (or two classes, not sure yet). For those of you gasping in horror at the implications of that statement, let me assure you that, yes, they are going to let me teach students BY MYSELF. Sound like a terrible idea? Well, it might be. Only next semester will tell. In fact, I'm looking for some ideas. Here's my class description (at least, on the original application) . If you have readings to suggest, let me know:

Historical Narratives: Performance and Identity in the Early-modern and Post-modern World.

How does history inform the present? The future? What is its value, and how do we construct it? In this course we will examine the nature of history as narrative through the lens of early-modern and post-modern constructs of identity, popular culture, performance, and literature. Through these texts, the course will seek to use the seemingly distant past as a means for interrogating and understanding the present. Our examination will range from Deleuze and Guattari's theories of the 'post-human' body to The Duchess of Malfi, from Judith Butler to The Tudors. In each instance, we will seek to critically analyze how bodies, texts, and performances of the past haunt the present, as well as how they can be considered, in the words of Umberto Eco, as 'open works' for interpretation.

So, history and performance are big themes here. Anyway, if you have any ideas, just post 'em!

The other class is Introduction to Acting. I have no idea what I'm doing for that one, yet, if you have ideas. Possibly, I'll just spend each class making them pretend that they're Jell-O. That's always fun, right?

Let me think...do I have any cool links for you today? Maybe

Muppets and...

I have to repost this from a friend:

Somehow, the muppets just never quit being entertaining. Thank God for Jim Henson.

Anyway, in other news, I've eaten a lot. I ate a spatch-cocked quail, Manchego mashed-potatoes, latkes, mulled cider, wine, rum, egg-nog, apple-carrot Slaw, homemade cookies, spice-rubbed salmon, apple-cake, stew, and that's probably not all. The holidays, as I have mentioned, are one of my favorite times of the year for eating.

I have also succeeded in nearly finishing two papers and writing an abstract for one of them. An active weekend, my friends. I'm exhausted, elated, and a bunch of other 'E' words. However, I can't take it any more and I need it to end. I can't even form sentences properly anymore. I don't even know what my papers were about when I started them. Probably not what they're about now. Roughest semester in graduate school so far. Tomorrow is the last class. If I don't come back...well...

Anyway, because I love you, my adoring fans (or whoever clicked that incorrect link that sent you here) I'm going to give you this. It's funny. Read it.