Triad City Bites March 2019

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

MARCH 2019

6

th

and Vine

Winston-Salem’s backyard patio

Curated By:

Also featured in this month’s Issue: Fast-food fatigue!

Dinner Guest

Not So Fast!

I

used to be a fast-food junkie. I deserved a break and took it, every day. I had it my way. I knew where the beef

by Timothy G. Beeman II was. And quería tacos, amigos. I was what I call a “3-a-dayer.” Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner.

Elevensies, midnight snacks, second breakfast and so on. My best friends were Ronald, the King, the Colonel, Dave’s daughter and a little chihuahua peddling tacos, or in my case gorditas.

I think I mentioned a was a junkie.

As much as I loved that stuff, I knew it wasn’t exactly healthy.

According to my cardiologist, the food probably had little to do with my heart surgery, but it certainly didn’t help.

After my surgery, I cut back on the fast food. It wasn’t a conscious decision; it just started happening. My now-wife made me eat at home more, to my chagrin. As a food writer, I realized there were local restaurants that served food that was of higher quality, better tasting and, the kicker, healthier. But still.

I still had fast food every few weeks by then, but gone were the days when the person in the window knew me by my first name. I went to McDonalds on Dec. 29, 2013 and picked up a Big Mac, fries and a Dr. Pepper. While I had been eating at McDonald’s, I hadn’t eaten a Big Mac for about two years as it was never my favorite fast-food burger (that would probably have been the single with cheese from Wendy’s). This sandwich was awful.

It tasted bland, even with what I could tell was a lot of salt. The lettuce wilted, the bun soggy, the cheese not melted, the “special sauce” not so special.

This was the marquee burger of a world-known fast food giant?

That turned me off from the Golden Arches. It was about two months before I realized that I hadn’t had any fast food since that Mickey D’s run.

I am a creature of habit and I love streaks. I went to a local Irish pub for 1,099 days in a row. I have written my daily blog every day since Nov. 1, 2014. So, after two solid months of not having fast food, I decided to keep that streak going. To this day, I haven’t broken it. However, there are some caveats. I don’t count Subway, Jimmy John’s or that ilk as “traditional” fast food. That’s deli food to me, so I can have that. There are several restaurants like barbecue joints that I don’t consider fast food.

Just because the food is fast doesn’t make it fast food.

I still eat burgers. But I know that what I get at Cin Cin or Burger Batch is made with fresh beef and not warehoused frozen patties. I eat at take-out places and sometimes that food is greasy goodness.

But it’s not traditional fast food.

My quest for low-sodium foods has taken me to restaurants that offer cleaner food and I don’t need McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, KFC, Bojangles or Hardee’s. Rarely do I miss them. If I drive by Burger King and my windows are down, I take in that “flame broiled” aroma and think to myself: That could never be as delicious as it smells. It never is. It never was.

The bonus for eating local is that my money isn’t going to some corporate office in Kansas. My money is staying local for local owners, local employees, the local economy. I have gotten to know many of the restaurateurs and executive chefs in the Triad. I call many of them friends. I love their businesses and love when they thrive. To me, that just tastes better on its own.

I deserved a break. I had it my way. I knew where the beef was. And quería tacos, amigos.

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Triad City Bites

March 2019

Small Batch $-$$

burgerbatch.com 2760 NC 68 HP 336.875.4082 237 W. 5th St. WS 336.893.6395

Greensboro Farmers Curb Market $-$$ gsofarmersmarket.org 501 Yanceyville St. GSO

The spring greens and baby spinach are beginning to stir.

Herbs from parsley to cilantro are flourishing; the spring onions are fresh and the chickens are laying double-time. For generations, the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market has been providing fresh produce, meat, dairy and other fundamentals from local farmers in a sunrise market that joins together three neighborhoods a few blocks from downtown. In addition to Saturday hours — always 7 am-noon — the Wednesday Midweek Market begins April 17, operating through October from 8 am-noon. Every farmers market day sees local artisan goods, fresh and local farm products, goods prepared by local chefs and local food tastings almost every week at 10 am in Cook’s Corner.

THIS MONTH AT THE MARKET: April 13: Vegetable Boxties with Chef Pat Roby of M’Coul’s Public House April 14: Plant Sale, Roasted and Raw Radishes & Roots April 17: Strawberry Quinoa Salad with Vincent Webb of NC Coop Extension (Grand reopening of Midweek Market).

The burgers at Small Batch have become legendary — an array of crafted designs that stand out, even though great burgers are everywhere. The Figgy Piggy has fig jam, bacon and goat cheese; the Hellboy brings salami, fresh mozzarella and cherry peppers to the party. The hand-cut fries are appropriate with any burger, and also on their own. Now, along with its bespoke brews, Small Batch has a craft-cocktail menu, a wine list and shooter board. They even have milkshakes that truly test the limits of the form. One of them is garnished with a slice of cake. Brunch has become a big deal at Small Batch in both downtown Winston-Salem and High Point, with a menu that adheres to the ethos of the brand. A workday lunch following appreciates the timeliness and quality of the orders. And dinner has always been a good call at Small Batch, with something for everyone in the crew. But perhaps Small Batch is at its best at night, after the dinner crowd has gone home and the place becomes what it was always intended to be: a really great bar, with an interesting menu and fantastic beer.

March 2019

The Quiet Pint $$

facebook.com/quietpinttavern 1420 W. First St. WS, 336.893.6881 The Quiet Pint has everything you could ask for in a neighborhood tavern: A briskly rotating stock of craft and local beers, curated by expert staff and knowledgable regulars; craft cocktails and a wine list to appease even the most sophisticated palate. The bar menu brings pub food to an entirely new level with soups and seafood, salads and small plates, tacos, burgers, international street food, and everything else a night owl needs.

On weekend mornings, a unique brunch menu brings the neighborhood to life with dishes both classic and innovative. Live music, tap takeovers, themed nights and other events fill out the week.

Triad City Bites

3

6

th

and Vine, t

It’s springtime in the Downtown Arts District, and owner Kathleen Barnes sits barside, contemplating the new season’s white wines.

6th and Vine has always held a special place in the Downtown Arts District, and when spring hits this little corner of Winston-Salem, the city responds graciously. It’s when 6th and Vine transforms from Winston-Salem’s Living Room into Winston-Salem’s Backyard.

Kathleen has already put some time in on the reds, and tomorrow she’ll start in on the rosé. But for now she’s satisfied with the whites.

“The best one I tried was a white blend,” she says. “It’s a little sweet. People love their sweet wines, but I hadn’t really nailed that part of the list down until today.”

Some restaurants — even those that boast of their wine lists — offer just a few choice whites by the glass: a chardonnay, a sauvignon blanc and maybe a pinot grigio. This spring, 6th and Vine will have more than 15 whites by the glass, and even

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Triad City Bites

March 2019

more by t “The wi grapes yo Like the It’s bright The pat of umbrel when the Along w Wednesd companio half-price ized jalap

6th and Vine $-$$

6thandvine.com 209 W. Sixth St. WS, 336.725.5577

the city’s backyard

the bottle. ine list has a Spanish section,” she says. “It has a French section. I’ve got ou’ve never heard of before.” e picpoul, a low-key Rhone varietal that Kathleen found a couple years ago. and crisp, with clear flavors of minerals and lemon. It’s on the list. tio at 6th and Vine more than doubles the restaurant’s occupancy, with plenty lla tables for everybody throughout the afternoon and into the evening, lights start to twinkle. And it’s available for private parties most afternoons. with the new wine list, new menu items complement the season. Steak days feature sirloin cuts with a featured treatment. Ceviche makes a perfect on to Tequila Tuesday. On Thursday, glasses of wine are half price; bottled go on Sunday. New brunch items like bananas Foster French toast with carmelpeño bacon help us ease into the weekend. And a late-night menu upgrades

March 2019

standard bar fare into something more becoming of a bistro: cheese plates, flatbread, fried goat cheese and even nachos.

The wine list rotates; the menu changes; but 6th and Vine works in the same way it always has. It’s casual enough for a drink and a quick bite, fine enough for a sit-down meal for two. There’s always room at the bar, it seems, and the hours spent at a patio table wile away as afternoon melts into evening.

6th and Vine is there for a breezy downtown lunch, for after-work cocktails and a last-minute brunch. Tastings at the bar deepen wine and cocktail knowledge; dinners manage to both comfort and surprise.

But 6th and Vine is at its best in the springtime, with friends on the patio and a baked brie on the table as a server pours another glasses picpoul white, or verdejo, or another great wine everybody’s been wanting to try.

“This is when everything is in full bloom,” Kathleen says.

Triad City Bites

5

Jerusalem Market $$

jerusalemmarket.com 310 S. Elm St. GSO, 336.279.7025 5002 High Point Road GSO, 336.547.0220 In some ways it’s business as usual at Jerusalem Market — both the one on Elm Street and its predecessor near Adams Farm: a solid menu of Middle Eastern classics like tabbouleh, baba ghanouj, grape leaves — “dolmathes” on the menu, tahini, feta and yogurt sauce.

But technique and presentation lifts their menu above the rest. The shawarma comes as charred chunks of actual cuts of lamb and beef, not the ground or shredded product some are accustomed to, which by necessity must be served sliced. “It’s like the burnt ends on a brisket,” owner Easa Hanhan explains. The bulk of their produce is local — through Gate City Harvest; their slate of wraps, which rely on ingredients like dried beef and sausages, imported cheeses and house-made sauces, are completely unique. Their vegetarian selections are ample. And their hummus is the best in the world.

Burke Street Pizza $

burkestreetpizza.com 1140 Burke St. WS, 336.721.0011 3352 Robinhood Road WS, 336.760.4888 A traditional New York pizzeria with all the trimmings, open for lunch, dinner and latenight feasts. The menu goes beyond thin-crust pizza with salads and subs, specialty pies and appetizers. Both the Burke Street and Robinhood Road locations deliver — order online at burkestreetpizza.com or call the restaurant. Look for upcoming renovations to the Robinhood Road location. Find them on Instagram at @BurkeStreetPizza.

6

Triad City Bites

Local 27101 $

thelocal.ws 310 W. Fourth St. WS, 336.725.3900 There’s nothing revolutionary about Local 27101. It’s a lunch place on Fourth Street, right in the heart of downtown WinstonSalem’s Restaurant Row. The menu, as created by Executive Chef Patrick Rafferty and owner Greg Carlyle, has a stable of classic lunch dishes: Burgers with seasoned crinkle-cut and sweetpotato fries. A legendary hot dog. Fresh shrimp and oysters for po-boys. Made-to-order salads that go beyond the basic. It’s fresh food made fast, and Local 27101 stands by that promise with in-house delivery throughout downtown and the West End during lunch service — order from the restaurant or online at thelocal.ws for speedy and free service. Catering is available either through the Local or on-site at the Millennium Center. Call for details.

Uncle Buzzy’s Fried Food $ Find them on Facebook.

1510 First St. WS

Spring is the season for Uncle Buzzy’s! WinstonSalem’s only carnivalfood stand has classic roast beef sandwiches, a full menu of fries and tater tots, poutine, smoked mac and cheese, pulled-pork meat cones, and the best burgers, wings and hot dogs in town. Now, in addition to ice cream tacos, Uncle Buzzy’s serves ice-cream cones hand-dipped in cherry, blue-raspberry, butterscotch or chocolate shell. There are box lunches, sandwich trays, wing platters and more on the catering menu — hot dog trays are great for March Madness and birthday parties alike. And Uncle Buzzy’s proudly introduces in-house delivery — order directly from the store or at the website with no delivery charges.

March 2019

Flash in the Pan:

Coconut Rice, a la Santa Marta

I

had all but given up on coconut rice when I met Jairo Villafañe. This dish, beloved along the Caribbean coast of Colombia, has a rich history and obvious potential, but I wasn’t sure I would ever love the brown,

by Ari LeVaux grainy mounds that accompanied most meals. arroz de coco was either too sweet, too greasy, too mushy or too bland.

Rice is served with nearly every meal in Colombia, usually prepared with oil and seasonings, pilaf style. It can be a busy dish, embellished with vegetables and meats, or it can be simple, like traditional coconut rice, which contains little more than coconut, sugar, salt and raisins.

Jairo Villafañe is a cook, anthropologist and cooking teacher in Santa Marta, the oldest European-built city in the Americas. In his small, stainless-steel kitchen he walked me through the entry-level task of frying a local fish called a mojarra until the fins crunch like chips, showed me the ways of twice-fried smashed plantains, called patacones, and shared his version of coco limonada, coconut lemonade, a spectacular drink I will pass along to you on a hot day in July.

But when it came to my education in coconut rice, Villafañe enlisted the help of his mother, Maribel Simanca, who everyone agrees cooks it the best in her family. Simanca learned the ways of arroz de coco from her mother Nayda Gomez, who’d learned it from Jairo’s great grandmother Lauriana Cabana, as taught by her mother Eulogia Guillen.

Coconut rice is made with ingredients that are easily obtainable at home, providing you can find a decent coconut. If you live in a little town near Canada like I do, that can be hard. Too many times to count, I’ve returned home from the store with a promising looking specimen that turned out to be full of a noxious stank when I opened it.

Villafañe was unfamiliar with the concept of a sour coconut. Once, he recalled, he brought a coconut home from the Tayrona coast, and forgot about it for about two months.

“It was fine,” he shrugged. “Delicioso.”

It makes me wonder how long the coconuts in my local grocery store have been sitting around.

In any case, if you are familiar with what a bad coconut is, you need to know my north country coconut screening technique.

Bring a bowl to the store. Choose your coco-

March 2019

nut, shaking it to ensure it still has some water (the more, the better). Save your receipt. Exit the store. Smash the coconut on the curb, and hold it over the bowl to catch the water. Take a sip.

If the water tastes good, then proceed home with your coconut(s). For a one-pound sack of rice, you’ll need two. If the first one tastes in any way bad, march back into the store and exchange it. Repeat until you have as many good coconuts as you need.

Arroz de Coco Samario

Samario means “of Santa Marta,” the coastal city where Simon Bolivar lived out his final 16 years, and home to Maribel Simanca’s teachers.

The one place where my recipe strays from their traditions is where I reduce the sugar by roughly 85 percent; Maribel used about two tablespoons of sugar per pound of rice, and I use a teaspoon.

To a typical Samario that reduction makes about as much sense as a sour coconut. But to my taste it’s more versatile unsweetened, and less dessert-like.

Serves 8

1 pound white rice 2 coconuts, with the meat pried out, rinsed, and chopped into small pieces no bigger than a quarter A kiss of sugar, the less refined the better.

Maybe a teaspoon.

2 teaspoons salt 8 cups water ¼ cup raisins

Put half of the coconut in a blender with four cups of water. Blend on high for at least two minutes. Pour the mix through a strainer into a thick-bottomed pot, using your hand to squeeze all of the liquid out of the fiber and through the screen.

Heat the resulting coconut cream on med/ high. This is where it gets interesting. The cream will soon boil and foam like dairy cream milk would. But unlike cow’s milk, it won’t burn. It just boils and boils peacefully.

While the liquid boils, rinse the rice in two or three pots of water to remove the starch, and use the remaining pieces of coconut to make another batch of coconut milk. Set this batch aside.

Meanwhile, after about 20 minutes at the foaming boil, the volume of liquid will stop shrinking and it will thicken. Reduce heat to medium, stirring attentively when needed, and, as Maribel says it, sofriendo hasta aceite, or, “simmer until it’s oil.”

The coconut milk will become increasingly thick until it finally separates into a mound of rubbery curds gathering in the clear oil. The solids will begin to fry in the oil, and the lily white lumps will darken. After another five or so minutes, add the salt and sugar and stir it all together. Add the second batch of coconut milk and stir, scraping any buildup off the bottom of the pot. Add the rice, stir again and put the lid on, leaving the heat on medium. About 30 minutes should have elapsed since you started boiling the coconut milk.

After another 10 minutes, give the mixture a gentle stir and turn the heat to low. It will look very thick, and you will be tempted to add more water. Hold off, for now. With experience you will learn when it truly needs a little more water, but don’t add too much, or overwork the rice, which would make it mushy. Cook slowly on low another 15 minutes or so.

Add the raisins, give it a final, gentle stir, cook five more minutes, then turn off the heat, leaving it covered. Like all pilafs, from plov to paella, it needs about 20 minutes of “rest” before it’s ready to serve.

Press the rice into a small wide servingsized bowl and carefully invert it onto a plate. Carefully remove the bowl to reveal a perfectly sculpted mound of Arroz de Coco Samario. Serve with seafood.

Triad City Bites

7

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

In the Weeds

4

:17 p.m.

Seth walks in.

“Usual?”

“Yeah, James.”

I pour a shot of Fernet and pass him a PBR. Seth is an “inbetweener.” He works at a restaurant down the way and he just got off the

by James Douglas lunch shift. So, if you’re a line cook at a non-descript restaurant, have two hours to kill, of course you’ll show up at a nearby bar.

I’ve known Seth for a while now. He’s been cooking about as long as I’ve been tending bar. Seth usually flies solo, either on break or after a long shift. He gets his shot and his beer and opens up a book. This week, it’s Steinbeck. East of Eden. Nice choice. As long as it’s not a self-help book. A drinker with a self-help book is dangerous.

He started out on a different path, as most of us do. In the business about a decade, he’s worked at about 15 establishments over the years. In the service industry, this is normal. When you’re not chasing the 401K, the benefits, the promotion, one tends to follow the money, or a sane restaurant owner. Usually the former, because the latter doesn’t exist.

People like Seth exist in every city, every restaurant. They’re lifers on that line, or failing that, biding their time to move on or open a place of their own.

I’ve worked with countless numbers of these brethren, and while all are different, I’ve never seen harder workers on the fly.

Seth started as just a face I’d serve on occasion. Seth is a line cook, a sous chef. He just got hired at one of the new hotels/restaurants/spas that seem to be popping up every six months or so in downtown Winston-Salem.

He’s a great cook (he sometimes brings me leftovers, delicious,) has aspirations like most, but is also just trying to get by like the rest of us. Seth’s a grunt. He’s downtown out of necessity. He works, he comes by, has a drink or two, and he goes about his life. No glam. That’s most of us.

Seth started out at a mechanic school. Motorcycles — BMW, Ducati, Triumph. Decent gig. He’s in Florida, good money, no attachments, he’s young, world/oyster, all that. Then the Curse of the Hometown comes calling.

The Curse of the Hometown is an obligation or respon-

sibility that calls you back home. It’s not my phrase, and it’s not really a curse, mostly. “Promises to keep” and all that. In Seth’s case, it was a family member who took ill. I’m familiar. Sometimes, you must come back. I know plenty who don’t. So, congrats to all of you who MOVED AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE. I hope it’s nice in Austin.

Line cooks are a big part of the unsung heroes of the industry. They deal in repetition, slinging the same dishes out day after day, under all the stress and heat that comes with that kitchen. They deal with the perfect meal coming back from an unsatisfied customer. They feel the disappointment of realizing a mistake, an overlooked order change, a substitution. They can show you the finger trick of determining a steak’s wellness, and they can recite temperature requirements like sonnets.

They’re the ones who feel a server’s wrath, even when they’re not compensated like one.

The ones you don’t see are some of the most important of what we do. I’ve seen tears and anger. I’ve seen fights and breakdowns. I once saw the police chase a new dishwasher with warrants out the back door just to have a waiting cop slam him into my car (the dent is still there.) I’ve also seen a guy with no car and four different restaurant jobs provide for his family when he could have gone in another direction. That’s the soul I love to see in this business, the heart, where the only thanks one receives is silence from a plate not being returned by a pissed off server. I’m not saying they don’t receive thanks from the head chef or wwner, some of the best restaurant owners I know are aware of the importance of the line cook and are vocally so. But when they take off that apron, they’re as anonymous as the guy next to you at the bank. Front-of-house people get recognized. I know some who go drinking in the next town over so they don’t see anyone who knows them.

There’s a Bob Dylan interview where he mentions levels of fame, similar to Warhol’s “15 minutes.” In it, he said that you could be famous worldwide, nationally or regionally. You could be famous in your town, or the street you live on. A line cook’s fame is determined by the burner in front of them and the complaints they don’t receive.

I know more Seth’s than I can count, and I’m thankful for every single one.

Line cooks are the unsung heroes of the restaurant industry. They deal in repetition, stress and the heat of the kitchen.

FOOD+DRINK

The line cook, properly seasoned

Interested in Triad City Bites? Call Brian at 336.681.0704 to find out more.