Food Truckin’

I don’t know about in your area but the Food Trucks are in high demand around the Charlotte area.  If you haven’t experienced this whole mobile eatery phenomena, let me break it down for ya!  It’s a restaurant on wheels. Yeah, it’s that simple.  There are lots of different trucks in the Charlotte area.  There’s a wing truck, a pizza truck, a cupcake truck, a local / organic truck and the list goes on!!

There’s even a weekly gathering of all the trucks in Uptown.

So far we’ve only been to Chowdown once and the food was GONE! That was the first week of the event and I couldn’t make it till later in the evening.  I think they’ve done better planning as well and prepared for the multitudes to get their eat on.  SO…  I’ve been on a mission to find the trucks at other times!  Cause you know I like to try new things!

So first truck we found = Harvest Moon Grill

They had two options that day we found them on Camden & Park. 

Option 1:  Cucumber Tomato & Bacon Sandwich with a bulgur salad

Option 2:  Barbeque Pulled Pork with green salad and peach vinegarette

I went with option A.  That sandwich was STUPENDOUS!  The bread was grilled and nice and crunchy.  I do believe there *may* have been some butter on there!  The proportions of cucumber, bacon and tomato were perfect.  A good sandwich is all about proportions.  I believe in sandwich artists and the good man in the Harvest Moon Cart is an ARE-TEAST!

We headed back to the same spot on a Friday and The Roaming Fork was parked and serving up some tasty treats!  They had multiple options – I don’t know if I even remember them all.  I do know there was:

Option 1:  Blackened Fish Tacos with chips

Options 2:  Pulled BBQ Pork with mixed greens in Balsamic Vinaigrette

And this time I went with the BBQ pork.  It actually came as a sandwich but I was trying to watch my carb intake.  You didn’t need the bun.  Really I think it might be better without the bun – you could really appreciate the nice flavor of the rub on the pork.  There were little nuggets of goodness in there – the charred edges where you could tell the grill had left it’s mark! 

I look forward to getting back Uptown for Chowdown Uptown soon!  There’s Philly steaks to try, cupcakes to partake in, and pizza to munch on!

Have you had any foodtruck treats?  Wanna plan a meeting @ the next Chowdown??

Dinner Club - June

We have started a dinner club with our good friends Tracie & Roland.  Tracie and I have been friends since our Peace College days.  So ever since they moved to Charlotte, we have enjoyed any time we have been able to spend together!

The four of us love food!  Roland worked in the restaurant industry for years so we often like to reminisce about the days of restaurant working.  Last night we brought up the whole “serving table recurring dream.”  If you haven’t served tables before you may not know what this is about… but it’s similar to the “can’t seem to make it class” dream.  It's pretty funny how the restaurant industry makes a mark on your life!  Ok sorry for the sidetrack!  Back to subject at hand…  

Last month was our initial Dinner Club meeting, where we came up with the idea of a monthly “Dinner Date.”  We went to Bask on Seaboard, which as the bad blogger that I am, I never blogged about.  But I am going to try and do a better job! 

So this month The Fig Tree was on tap!

Our table was on the porch – it was a perfect evening to sit outside.  Roland loves appetizers and he was hungry, so the ordering began…

Bison Carpaccio – with heart of palm, arugula and parmesan

The bison was so good.  It literally melted on your tongue

Crab Pagoda – crab meat with avocado salsa layered between house made potato chips

Loved the presentation.  But I felt like there was a little something missing on this dish.  It needed some more salt and maybe a little more acid (lemon juice) maybe?? 

Cheese Platter (which I unfortunately don’t remember which ones were on the plate.  Oops!)

Loved the mixture of cheeses with assorted fruit, honeycomb, and different crackers.  Also thought it was a cool touch that a fig leaf was on the bottom of the plate. Get it – fig leaf – Fig Tree Restaurant.  HA!

Cold smoked duck breast with arugula and peaches.

A special for the evening.  This was so good!  The duck was tender and flavorful and the peaches were a perfect compliment. 

Next up Soup & Salad course:

Caesar & Spinach

Corn & Stilton Cheese Soup – surprising yummy – I thought it would be too strong with the Stilton, but it was really smooth and rich.

Entrees:

   

Tracie & Roland had the 2 entrée's above. 

Grilled Provimi Veal Chop and Jumbo Shrimp over Smashed Fingerling Potatoes with Cremini Mushrooms, Capers and Sherry Garlic Butter Sauce with Asparagus

This was an amazing piece of meat.  The meat was extremely tender and flavorful.  I would go back today and get this!  DELISH!

Grilled Filet Mignon topped with Stilton Cheese and Mushroom Duxelles over Fingerling Potatoes and Wilted Arugula with Veal Demi-Glace and Asparagus (minus the Stilton)

The filet was cooked perfectly.  They had a really nice hard sear on the steak and the demi glace added a nice sweetness to the saltiness of the seasoning of the filet.

   

Joe and I went with:

Sautéed George's Bank Sea Scallops over House Made Saffron Fettuccine with Fava Beans, Roasted Red Bell Peppers and Preserved Lemon in Basil-Mascarpone Sauce

Pasta was perfectly cooked. Creamy rich goodness.  Scallops perfectly seasoned and seared!

Pork Porterhouse with Barbequed Fingerling Potatoes with Stewed Okra with pan jus.

This was one of the specials of the night.  Unfortunately the pork was over-cooked (to well-done).  I didn’t love the bbq flavored potatoes either.  Wouldn’t get this one again.

And then came the sugar!!

 

White Chocolate Raspberry Bread Pudding     Chocolate Molten Cake

And somehow I don’t have the pictures of the Beignets.  They were light and fluffy and sweet.  They came with Cinnamon Crème Anglaise that was SERIOUS.  It was so tasty I thought a spoonful of it my coffee would be perfect.  And it was!

We had such a good time.  The meal was slowly paced.  Lots of time for chatting and catching up.  Our monthly dinner dates have been our only time with Tracie & Roland so we’ve got lots to catch up on!

July’s Dinner Club is planned and I look forward to telling y’all the details!  Any suggestions? 

There are so many yummy spots in our Queen City.  And there are places on our list that we’ve never been to.  Barrington’s for instance.  How have I lived in Charlotte for over 13 years and haven’t been to Barrington’s??  Ridiculous!  We will fix this problem!

Boston Wrap-up

Easter morning was a beautiful day in Boston – the rain had moved out and the sun was shining!  It turned out to be 20 degrees warmer on Sunday than we got to Boston on Friday – how’s a girl supposed to pack for such things?  After church in downtown Boston, we headed out to Cambridge for brunch @ Craigie on Main.

I had read multiple reviews on this spot.  The Food Network voted it the best breakfast in Massachusetts.  Boston Magazine voted their brunch “One Perfect Meal” in April 2011.  So we were pretty stoked about heading here for Easter brunch.  Friday afternoon they called to confirm our reservation and to inform us that they would have a pre-fixe menu.  I have to say, I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t know about the pre-set menu until then.  But we probably wouldn’t have chosen anywhere else.  So onto the good stuff…

a little Bloody Mary to start…

And then came this delectable tray of goodies:

Cranberry turnovers, sweet potato bread, cinnamon rolls and some of those amazing house made doughnuts!  They really know how to make a girl happy!

Next up:  Fruit salad with crème fraiche

Entrée:  House-cured Ham hash with slow poached egg

Grilled Rabbit Crepinettes – yes Joe ate Rabbit on Easter – slightly wrong I know.

Side of pork belly – yes please!

Desserts:  Sour milk panna cotta and house made Beignets = WOW!

What an amazing meal.  Service was superb.  The food was excellent.  A highlight of the trip for sure!

After brunch we headed out a little further to Harvard and tried our best to soak up some smarts.  Don’t think it happened, but can’t blame a girl for trying!

That evening we headed to Myers + Chang for a little Asian fusion.  We were blown away by this place.  A fun fresh funky spot! Loved all the different options. This was the one time when I wish we would have had a big group of our friends so we could have tried more items. Our favorite would have been the muscles - they were AMAZING! Didn't love the pork tacos (I only chose these because I had read so many good reviews about them.) but everything else we couldn't get enough of! The portions were pretty large – I wish there was a 1/2 portion option.  There were so many other items we wanted to try but just didn't have enough room. The mussels were some of the best I have ever had. 

I was so busy slopping up the broth of the muscles that I didn’t take any pictures of the food.  Sorry kids.  Can you tell we liked this place?

Monday, our last day in the Beantown was spent mostly on the North end.  I had read so many different reviews about Regina Pizzeria and Galleria Umberto’s and couldn’t decide which one to settle on… so we picked BOTH!  Yes get ready for carb overload coming peeps…

Margherita Pizza from Regina Pizzeria

a thinner crust pizza - medium sweetness to the sauce – light cheese = REALLY good pizza

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Then on to Galleria Umberto’s.  This is a little different spot.  They have everything in the case and you choose what you want.  The prices here are CRAZY cheap.  $1.45 a slice!!  The pizza is more deep dish-esque.  Much sweeter sauce and think ooey gooey cheese.  REALLY REALLY good pizza.

The challenge is you really can’t compare these two.  They’re very different. It just depends on what you look for in a pizza – if you like thinner crust then go to Regina’s and if you like thicker pizza go with Umberto’s.  Or you can just make the smart choice – go to both. Because they both are  REALLY good.  I really think I am saying really too much in this post.  But what can I say they were just REALLY good. 

As if we had not had enough carbs – a MUST stop in the North end is an Italian bakery.  The two fav’s are Modern Pastry and Mike’s Pastry.  We went with Mike’s – I wasn’t strong enough to do a tour of pastry shops after the tour of pizza joints.

We tried an assortment – chocolate calzone, a black & white, and one fruit tart.  All we could muster up was a couple of bites and took the rest with us for later at the airport.

And here ends our whirlwind tour of Boston and stuffing ourselves with as much goodness as we possible could!  Boston was an amazing city.  We saw beautiful sites, enjoyed some great history and may have enjoyed just a bite or two of food.  Overall a wonderful long weekend away!

So have you been to Boston?  Have you been to any of the restaurants that we went to?  Did we miss one of your favorite spots?  Do tell!

Italian in Boston

Saturday evening the rain had finally lifted and it had turned out to be a lovely night.  We took a five minute stroll from our hotel to dinner at Erbaluce.  A charming restaurant nestled between large buildings – you felt like you were entering a secret location.  The décor was crisp and simple – mostly whites with very little artwork.  The food shining through as the main attraction.

    

The menu was in a hand written font which I thought was perfect feel for the restaurant.  It was “fine dining” without stuffiness. The chef would run food from the kitchen and then stop by a table for a visit.  All very laid back and homey!

We started off with a bottle of wine: Castello di Luxxane- Carlino Oltrep Pavese and moved on to the food.

Appetizer – San Danielle Prosciutto with hazelnuts and pears.  Delicate. Delicious. Simplistic.

Entrees:  Rack of Boar with wild Concord grape and lavender mosto / Lasagnetta with a procini sauce, foraged mushrooms and marjoram – AHHH mazing!

We had decided we wanted to walk over to Finale Desserts and Bakery to finish off our evening but how sweet was Erbaluce to deliver some sinfully rich truffles with the check.  It’s a sneaky little way to sweeten you before you see the damage!  Totally worked.

Unfortunately we were a bit disappointed by Finale…  nothing to write home about.  We should have gotten something off the amazing dessert menu back at Erbaluce.

I know y’all are probably done reading about all the food we ate in Boston.  The weekend recap is half over – promise.  Just a few more spots to tell you about.  I think we may have saved the best for last – no wait there was the Lobster Roll @ Neptune’s.  Well needless to say there are still more yummy treats to tell you about.

Rainy Day in Boston

We woke up to a rainy chilly day on Saturday in Boston.  After our fun filled day on Friday, we were fine with taking it easy. 

So we slowly motivated and got bundled up to go explore.

Of course our first stop was brunch!  We headed over to Southend Buttery in the Back Bay neighborhood, which was really close to our hotel, The Chandler Inn.  This brunch was super good! 

We started with coffee and their house scone.  Something about hot coffee, warm scone, cold butter, and yummy jam just makes me happy!  So happy I had to have a bite before I even could take a picture.  It’s kind of like someone got the hand caught in the cookie jar – that would be me!

For our main courses:

Joe went with Huevos Ranchero – 2 eggs over easy, cheese quesedilla, black beans, crispy home fries, sour cream and guacamole – YES PLEASE!

I went with the Tradition Buttery Breakfast:  2 eggs over medium, pancakes and bacon – a classic – you can’t go wrong!

Just delicious!!  Fueled up and ready to go…  now where to go to get out of the rain and cold?  A museum of course!  We made our way over The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.  This is a little different museum in the it’s a personal collection of art housed in a building specifically built for the collection.  Really they can do a much better job explaining it.

Excerpt from Isabella Stewart Gardner website:

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is housed in a stunning 15th-century Venetian-style palace with three stories of galleries surrounding a sun- and flower-filled courtyard, the museum provides an unusual backdrop for the viewing of art. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's preeminent collection contains more than 2,500 paintings, sculptures, tapestries, furniture, manuscripts, rare books and decorative arts. The galleries house works by some of the most recognized artists in the world, including Titian, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, Manet, Degas, Whistler and Sargent. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum opened to the public on the evening of January 1st, 1903.

Fenway Court, as the museum was called at its inception, is the only private art collection in which the building, collection and installations are the creation of one individual. Isabella Stewart Gardner's vision that the museum remain as she arranged it "for the education and enrichment of the public forever" is reflected in every aspect of the museum.

To learn more about the museum hop over to their website.

After a couple hours in the museum and some more walking around town it was time for a quick bite of lunch.  A fellow blogger, Jeannine was so sweet to give me the low-down on some of her favorite spots in Boston.  One of which was a really cool burger spot that was created by two college friends called, B Good.  Their concept is to make fast food real – by real people.  They want to create fast food you can feel good about eating.  And boy did we feel good about eating this super delish burger!

We went with the Adopted Luke beef burger:  mushrooms, caramelized onions, swiss cheese, and homemade bbq sauce.  And of course we needed a side of fresh cut sweet potato fries.  The burger was cooked perfectly – nice and juicy with just a hint of pink inside.  The toppings were in perfect proportions not too many falling out everywhere.  The sesame seed bun toasted lightly held up well to the BBQ sauce of juice of the burger.  The fries were big and rustic – no doubt that they had been cut in house and made that day.  (Mouth watering over here!)

Dinner on Saturday was VERY good!  More tasty tales to come…