In the spirit of Tony Bourdain, food as adventure. Try everything twice in case it was made wrong the first time. Eat without fear or prejudice.
In the town of Carrboro, there are two taco trucks, one by Fitch Lumber, the other by Cliff's Meat Market.
We went to Mama Dip's Country Cooking Restaurant in Chapel Hill for dinner Saturday evening.
I ordered the plate of NC BBQ ribs and fried chicken. The ribs were sweet and vinegary, and the pork was nice and tender. The fried chicken was delicious- the skin was really nicely seasoned.
I tried my friend Kelly's plate of side items. She got the mac & cheese which was really good, but the best item by far was the yams. They were lightly sweetened, and not heavily candied.
We also ordered a side of fried green tomatoes with our dinners. They were also very good.
One morning, we went to the Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen, a small drive through just off the highway for breakfast. This inconspicuous location served simply perfecy buttermilk biscuits that were large, light, fluffy, and delicious.
In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, I visited the amazing Locopops, a local chain of gourmet Mexican popsicles called paletas that had a writeup in Food & Wine last year.
I was compelled to try more Locopops, so on the following day, I went back, and this time, I went for a crema flavor, chocolate curry coconut. Again, the flavor combination was delicious.
While wandering around the Lower East Side with BrookLen, we went to il laboratorio del gelato for some delicious gelato. All the gelato is handmade on-site. I had the Earl Grey and black sesame gelato: the Earl Grey reminded me of the ice cream from the Takashimaya Tea Box Cafe, and the black sesame was really yummy. BrookLen got the coconut and lemon. We tried the avocado, but it seemed really rich.
Next stop on the food safari was the basement Sichuan restaurant Xiao La Jiao (aka Little Pepper). We started with a couple of cold appetizers: ma la (spicy) beef tendon with the wonderful Sichuan peppercorn - what I call "the numbing spice" and cucumbers marinated in loads of minced garlic.
Little Pepper
Before we all sat down to dumplings at Best North Dumpling, we grabbed a snack on the street outside the Main Street subway station as we waited for Mr. & Mrs. BrookLEn.
The mini Peking duck in mantou were only 75 cents each from the window at Corner 28. From the same window they also sold freshly steamed zhucangfen (steamed rice noodle wraps) with either char siu (roast pork), shrimp, or dried shrimp.
A few windows up the road we had also gotten a scallion pancake -- nice and chewy and hot off the grill, so hot you burned your fingers a bit trying to rip it apart.
We all went to Chinatown in Flushing, Queens this past Sunday to try various places in the area. We started at the Best Northern Dumpling Shop, which was a stand in a small mall.
We ordered 3 kinds of dumplings: mutton dumplings (left), fennel & pork dumplings (below), and leek & aquatic food dumplings.
All of the dumplings were clearly handmade with nice thick skins. They were all really juicy as well, indicating freshness. I really liked the pork & leek ones; as I recall, Fougoo liked the lamb dumplings.
This weekend in Brooklyn, we drove over into the Red Hook neighborhood to go to DeFonte's Sandwich Shop. The place is a favorite for cab drivers in the area, but since it's not near a subway station, having a car makes it much easier to get to.
Lamphole and I shared two small sandwiches - the first had an omelet with peppers and onions - delicious with a little Sriracha sauce. The bread was nice- the crust a little crisp with sesame seeds.
Our second sandwich had roast turkey, fried eggplant, mozzarella, peppers and onions- a great combination of flavors. There was also just the right amount of juiciness such that if you weren't careful, it'd drip down your arm.
It's Thai Restaurant week in DC-Baltimore and the same goes for our blog. Tonight, driven by a fever for the flavor of fresh Thai Mangosteens, I went to Ban Thai restaurant in Baltimore.
Their Basil Duck dish was delicious and crispy.
Certainly the highlight was the Thai fruit plate. We got Longans, Rambutans, and of course, Mangosteens. Some crazy customers didn't finish their plates, so of course, we snagged some of their unpeeled longans. Sad, I know.
Today was Songkran, the Thai New Year, and we went to Born Restaurant in Vienna, VA for lunch.
For an entree, I got the Olive and Basil Duck. This was delicious. It was served on top of a Malaysian Roti bread, and the duck had a crispy exterior to it that went well with the salty and spicy basil sauce.
One of my group got the Soft Shell Crab special which was deep fried and was smothered in a sweet and spicy sauce.
My other friend got the Pad Thai which, while it came with chicken, had secret bits of pork that gave it a nice flavor.
To commemorate the Thai New Year, the Thai Embassy specially brought over fruit from Thailand to be served in several restaurants in the area, and Born was one of them.
Last week's Girls Cooking Night theme was fruit and meat - excellent theme inspired by 1000yregg love of the combo. I have to say we all thought it was one of the best meals yet.
To the left, is brownie's scallop and mango ceviche. Clockwise, above: Melissa made a salad with perfectly crisp and smoky bacon and cranberries; Debbie made tacos with chicken, mango, and roasted red peppers; Kim made a Moroccan lamb stew with apricot and lemon; and I made a Cuban pork and banana stew.
Finally, because he was too cute to resist, we've allowed a new male member to girls cooking night... Welcome little Matthew!
A few weeks ago 1000yregg took us to Lexington Market, on the edge of West Baltimore, to Faidley's. They sell all kinds of fresh seafood and have a huge raw bar, but we were there for Baltimore's Best crabcakes.
The things that distinguish Faidley's from the rest are: 1) they mix in the "mustard" - the yellow tomalley from inside the crab and 2) they deep-fry the crabcake but without any filler or breading, and 3) they use only Maryland crab. All lump, all deliciousness!
This weekend, I met up with a friend, Mike, in DC's U street corridor before a show at the Black Cat. We met up at Cork Wine Bar which has been getting some good reviews since it opened in the last few months.
We got the cheese plate. It had a Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk- which was nice & creamy, a 
The Potato and Leek Gratin with gruyere was good- I liked how the potato was diced up in this piping hot dish so you had more surface to be coated with the cheese.
We got two main meat dishes. The first was the Red-Wine Braised Lamb with pomegranate, radicchio, and spinach. The lamb was really well cooked, and you gotta love fruit and meat combinations.
This is the Roasted Eggplant mixed with chili and mint. At this point, I moved on to my second glass of wine, this time a Château La Bourrée, Côtes de Castillon 2005.
The second meat plate was the Duck Confit served on a mushroom polenta. It was also nicely prepared.
We also had a very good side of Caramelized Sunchokes aka the Jerusalem artichoke. It reminded me of parsnips. Yummy.
Dessert was pretty good at Cork as well. I got what was called a Grapefruit Financier- which was like cornbread with grapefruit- really light and very delicious.
Mike got the Goat Cheesecake which was not at all heavy to eat. All in all, Cork was a really good experience with good wine and outstanding food.