The King's Kitchen Visited 6/1/2018 4 Forks

The King's Kitchen  129 W Trade St., Charlotte, NC 28202

I'll be honest and say that I'm generally not a huge fan of the South - it's hot, humid, and it lacks the diverse population that I crave.  But the one thing I do enjoy about the South is the food and hospitality.  It's comforting, hearty and there's something about the food that can't be recreated in the North. 

I was in Charlotte for only 36 hours but I couldn't leave town without trying at least one restaurant.  Normally I would try to go for a BBQ place but I couldn't find any within walking distance of my hotel, so I settled for the next best thing - shrimp and grits. AJ and I found our way to this place since it was literally across the street from her hotel and they explained that they donate 100% of the sales to feed the poor which is a lovely concept.  The menu was a greatest hits of everything Southern - fried green tomatoes, gumbo, po boy sandwiches, fried chicken, catfish, okra, the list could go on and on.  Since we were going to a rehearsal dinner afterwards we tried not to go too ape shit on the menu.  We split a pimento cheese ($8), sautéed mushrooms ($4) and both got our own order of shrimp and grits ($22).

If you've never had pimento cheese before, then you are missing out.  Don't be fooled - it's not fancy cheese...I'm frankly not even sure it's really cheese but it's a tangy, slightly spicy spreadable delight.  The waitstaff was super nice and brought AJ some veggies since she has a gluten allergy to go with the cheese.  It's definitely not the healthiest thing to eat but honestly, not much is in the South..which is why we got the sautéed mushrooms to balance things out but they were soaking in oil (in a good way) so I'm not sure how healthy it really was.  As for the entrees, they were delicious.  The grits were creamy but still with a bit of texture to it and it had an extra special ham flavoring to it, which is always appreciated.  I usually like really cheesy grits but since this had a lot of shrimp on it, I was good that it was a bit more simple.  The shrimp was cooked well (not to dry and with the right amount of bite to it) and went really well with the grits.  I was definitely a happy person after this meal.  It actually started to rain while we were sitting outside so they were nice enough to seamlessly move everything inside for us with no issues at all.  The waitress was so sweet and friendly that it reminded me of the good things that the South has to offer.   Also a shout out to their wine buyer as they had an awesome Châteauneuf-du-Pape  by the glass - that's pretty hard to find outside of France. While I'm not sure I'll ever find myself back in Charlotte, I enjoyed the one meal I had there and would totally come back for the fried chicken, okra and even pot pie.  Total bill:  $50/pp with tax, tip and wine

Photo Credit:  Yelp

48 Hours in Durham, North Carolina - Part 2 Visited 9/8-10/2017 3.5 -4 Forks

Foster's Market  2694 Durham Chapel Hill Blvd., Durham, NC 27707                                    3.5 Forks

I was excited for Foster's because everyone kept raving about the grits bowl there and how amazing it was, so I was eagerly awaiting my chance to try it.  It's a super cute country market/cafe type place - you can walk around and buy all sort of adorable Southern focused food items and then they have a entire prepared foods section where you can order food to-go or to stay.  They have a lovely outdoor patio where you can sit and enjoy your food. 

I was all set to order the grits bowl when the guy at the counter said it would take over 45 mins for it to be ready.  I was super bummed because the bowl sounded amazing - stone ground yellow cheddar grits, two fried eggs, black beans and salsa.   Even though I wasn't in a huge hurry to go anywhere, it seemed a bit ridiculous to wait that long for food.  He said that we wanted something faster we could either order the farm plate or breakfast biscuit and those still came with a side of grits.  I'm not sure how they works where we could still get a side of grits but couldn't get an entire bowl of it.  Isn't it the same thing except the bowl is bigger and had more ingredients mixed in?  In any case, I wasn't going to argue with him and got the farm plate ($10) which came with 2 scrambled eggs, choice of meat (I got the country sausage), herb cheddar biscuit, fresh fruit and a side of cheese grits.  

You order at the counter, you seat yourself anywhere and then they come and find you.  Normally places will give you a number on a stick so that they can find you easily but here instead they take your name and then just scream it across the whole restaurant while they walk around with your food. There has got to be a better way for them to do it because most of the time you're trying to eat our food but the waiters are just running around screaming "Jenny! Is there a Jenny?".  In any case, my food came relatively quickly and in true Southern fashion it was hearty and great - for the most part. The biscuit was fluffy and you could tell that the sausage patty was home made.  It was easy enough to make your own biscuit sandwich with the eggs and sausage.  The Rise sandwich was better but this one was also really satisfying as well.  Ironically enough the thing that wasn't good about this dish was the grits.  They were actually really plain and flavorless.  I'm normally not someone who puts hot sauce on anything for flavor but for this, I dumped a bunch of hot sauce to give it some kind of flavor profile.  I was shocked at how bland it was and this was the whole reason we came here.  Aarti commented how it must have been a bad batch because it was normally much better than this.  It's too bad that I didn't have enough time to come back for another try.  Total bill:  $29 for 2 with tax, tip and coffees

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Rose's Meat Market and Sweet Shop 121 N Gregson St., Durham, NC 27701                           4 Forks

Even though Aarti and I were pretty full from our breakfast at Foster's, we had to stop by Rose's Meats and Sweets because Will and Aarti's friend is the pastry chef there and they were insistent that we stop by for a bite before we left for NYC.   When I walked in, this place reminded me of a place that you would easily find in Brooklyn.  It had a super hipster feel complete with heavily tattooed chefs and waiters, but I'm not saying this is a bad thing at all - in fact, it was nice to something that was very non-Southern.  Even the name has an artisanal feel to it, doesn't it?

Another surprising element was that the menu is actually Asian and not a BBQ focused place, which is what I would have thought with a place that had "meat market" in it.  The menu changes daily but they had things like steamed buns, silken tofu, smashed cucumber and ramen and then the dessert portion was more Southern focused with pies, ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, cookies and tarts. When we sat down the waitress told us there was only 1 ramen ($13) left, so of course without even knowing what was in it, I had to have it.  It was barely 1:30pm and they were already out of it, so I guess it must be good!  Plus everyone around us was inquiring about it so I figured I didn't have any time to waste.

I was pleasantly surprised by how tasty it was given that this wasn't a ramen shop.  It was a fairly traditional ramen with a salty flavorful pork broth, chashu, egg and greens in it.  The noodles were soft, the pork sliced thin and the egg was poached well so what's not to love??  It would have been nice to have some seaweed but overall I was impressed with the dish.

I was stuffed to the gills but of course we had to have dessert and the flavored ice cream sandwiches were awesome.  They are huge and the cookie is more like a soft gingerbread consistency and the ice cream is hard but not too hard that you can't bite into it.  We had a few samples the night before and trust me, they can be very addictive.  Unfortunately we had to run to the airport so we couldn't stay long but it was a lovely glimpse of a funky cool restaurant that caught me by surprise in what is otherwise a cute Southern town.  Total bill:  $35 for 3 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

48 Hours in Durham, North Carolina - Part 1 Visited 9/8-10/2017 4.5 Forks

Rise Biscuits and Donuts 401 Foster Street, Durham, NC 27701

I had never been to North Carolina before so when Aarti and Will asked if I wanted to join them during their annual visit there to see friends and to catch the NU vs. Duke game, I figured why the heck not?   The city has gotten some good buzz as being friendly and hip given that it's got a booming college town and lots of working professionals in the Research Triangle area.  We stayed with Will's friends from college who were the nicest people ever (is that what happens when you live in the South?) and luckily for me, his wife is a pastry chef!  So they knew all the great places to eat in the area. 

We spent Saturday afternoon at their local farmer's market which was great.  I love that kind of stuff.  It's was huge and had tons of stalls as well as food trucks and it seemed like the place to be on a Saturday afternoon.  Even though everything looked great, we got lunch at Rise Biscuits and Donuts which is a brick and mortar place right next to the market.  It's tiny and doesn't have any seating but don't let that deter you.  You can order at a kiosk or at the counter - we chose kiosk since the line was shorter.  As you can imagine with a name that has biscuits and donuts in it, it's all about the biscuits and donuts here.  You can make your own biscuit sandwich or they have ones that you can choose from.  I went for a traditional sandwich of sausage, egg and cheese on a biscuit and Aarti got a version with fried green tomato on it.  Will was the only one who got a donut - maple bacon bar of course!  The wait can be kind of long but it is totally worth it. 

Like I said, they don't have any tables inside but they have a few benches outside.  I don't know how anyone can wait to take this home and eat it because we were practically tearing through the bag when we got our order.  This is Southern food at it's best.  The biscuit was fluffy and moist and extremely hearty.  The sausage and egg was a perfect salty combination with the sweetness of the biscuit.  I was afraid 1 sandwich wasn't going to be enough food but it is plenty of food - don't be fooled.  I didn't try the donut but it looked amazing.  While this is not the kind of food you should eat on a regular basis, it's definitely the kind of food I wish I could eat on a regular basis and not drop dead at 50.  I'm glad they don't have these in NYC otherwise I would have a real problem on my hands.  And what's even better?  The price.  Total bill:  $24 for 3 people with tax and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Mothers and Sons Trattoria  107 W. Chapel Hill St, Durham, NC 27701

Having a pastry chef friend in the area was amazing because clearly she's plugged into the food scene in Durham, so I completely trusted her choice of going to Mothers and Sons for dinner on Saturday night.  Given how small Durham is, you could tell that this was one of THE places to be - as it was packed to the gils on Saturday.  We were a fairly large party of 9, so we got a big communal table in the back but luckily the acoustics were pretty decent that we could still hear the person sitting next to us.

Since there were so many of us at the table, we essentially ordered one of everything off the menu. The men at the other end of the table got a lot of meat focused dishes like the rabbit and porchetta, while the end of the table I sat at had more vegetarians and we got more pasta focused dishes.  I won't list off everything we had because (1) I can't remember it and (B) everything we had was great.  But I will call out in particular that the squid ink pasta with uni and shrimp ($13) was truly outstanding, the arancini was fantastic and the artichoke salad with trumpet mushrooms creative and incredible. While we all shared family style there were definitely dishes that were so good that I wish I could have had them all on my own.  All the pastas were home made and perfectly executed.  If there were any just ok dishes, I would say I've had better polenta and I'm generally never really impressed with bruschetta in general.  The waitress was super friendly and knowledgable (she directed me to the squid ink pasta over the rigatoni that I originally ordered).

Overall it was a really lovely night out with great food and friends.  A lot of people at the table were saying how they were ultimately looking to retire in Durham because of the cheaper cost of living and general slower pace of life.  I can see the appeal and with restaurants like this, I get it...although the overall lack of diversity and extreme slowness of life might be a bit much for me but restaurants like this do make you see that living outside of NYC can still be fun and delicious too.   My only concern with the city is that there aren't too many other places like this in the area and one can only eat at the same fantastic restaurant so many times before getting bored but if this is what's like to be bored, it might not be such a bad thing.  Total bill:  $76/pp with tax, tip and wine

Photo Credit:  Yelp