Band Together — One More Time

May 28, 2009

band-together-logoPlease buy a ticket to the Band Together concert on June 6 (how’s that for getting to the point?).  It will be a ton of fun, and if you do, I won’t do another post about the event (well, at least not until it’s over).

Tickets are only 20 bucks — and that gets you one hell of a concert featuring Rusted Root, The Rosebuds, Chatham County Line, and maybe even an after party with Hobex.  And if you want plenty of great food and beverages, think about getting a VIP ticket for $125.  Urban Food Group is the exclusive caterer to this year’s Band Together event, and I’m quite confident you’ll like what they’ll be serving.

The silent auction items have pretty much been finalized, and I’ll list the food-related items again followed by some choice non-food items.  If you’re not there, you can’t bid on them.

  • Cooking class for 10 people led by Chef Bill Smith at Crook’s Corner.
  • Fullsteam Brewery personalized beer experience. You’ll meet with the ultra-cool folks at Fullsteam who will design a beer based on your individual tastes. They’ll make that beer and then then deliver 5 gallons of it, with personalized labels and 10 t-shirts, to your home to have a great party.  More info found here.
  • Ashley Christensen and Poole’s Diner Experience. Spend a Thursday trailing chef Ashley Christensen in the kitchen at Poole’s Downtown Diner. Learn some insider tips. That evening, you and 3 guests will sample the food that you prepared.
  • Jujube Working Experience. Want to learn the secrets behind kick-ass Asian-influenced food? Ever wanted to find out how hot woks can really get? Well spend a night working the line with chef Josh DeCarolis at Chapel Hill’s Jujube, and you’ll be a better cook.
  • Herons Farm to Table Experience. Spend a day with chef Scott Crawford touring Cherry Lane Farm, a beautiful local family-owned farm where 2 acres have been planted for Herons in The Umstead Hotel and Spa. Return to Herons that evening for a specially prepared dinner for 2 created around the items you harvested.
  • Knife Skills with Chad Ward. The author of the acclaimed book, An Edge in the Kitchen, will conduct a knife skills class for you and your guests in your kitchen. Trust me, you’ll learn a lot from this class. And you’ll get a signed copy of Chad’s book.
  • Zely & Ritz in Your Home. Chef Sarig Agasi of Raleigh’s fantastic Zely & Ritz will cook a private dinner for 4 people  in your home on a Sunday evening.

Other Food-related Items

  • Cases of Wine
  • Restaurant gift certificates from Magnolia Grill, Fins, Fosters, and more
  • Tour complements of Taste Carolina Gourmet Food Tours

Other Nice Items

  • Two bedroom beachfront condo in Curacao during Thanksgiving weekend
  • Ride the Zamboni at a Hurricanes’ game next season
  • Get a personal, behind the scenes tour of WRAL with anchor Bill Leslie
  • Sports memorabilia and tickets, including items signed by Shaquille O’Neal, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Eric Staal, Roy Williams and tickets to UNC football and basketball, Carolina Panthers, NASCAR, and NC State football and basketball (and more)
  • Lunch with the N&O’s cartoonist Dwayne Powell and columnist Barry Saunders (and maybe a charicature by Powell, too)
  • Golfing packages, including a round for 4 on the soon to open NC State golf course
  • U2 tickets — good ones
  • Custom-built skateboards
  • All kinds of spa, massage and other personal “treatments”
  • Incredible artwork
  • Amazing music memorabilia, including signed guitars and photography.  Or a lesson on harmonica and washboard from local bluesman (and Cajun chef) Mel Melton.
  • Ever wanted to DJ a party?  You will at a local club after getting some lessons from a professional DJ.
  • Want to get away for awhile?  How about a condo at N. Myrtle Beach, a beach house, or a luxury suite at a B&B at Cape Carteret (with massages included)?  And if you want to stay closer to home, try a night at the new Renaissance hotel.

There are a lot more items than this, but you gotta be there to bid.  During this tough economy, non-profits like the Lucy Daniels Center (the charity who receives the net proceeds from this event), need your help more than ever.  Please buy a ticket and make a difference.  And have a great time.

——-

Band Together for the Lucy Daniels Center

bandtogethernc.org

June 6, 2009

Featuring Rusted Root, the Rosebuds, Chatham County Line and after-party by Hobex

Downtown Raleigh at the Lincoln Theatre

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Posted by Varmint

I Knew Biscuits Are Bad For You, But . . .

May 26, 2009

From failblog.org

Biscuit

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Posted by Varmint

Smoking Ban Now a Law

May 19, 2009

Nosmoking

With Governor Beverly Perdue’s signature today, Session Law 2009-27 prohibits smoking in restaurants and bars beginning on January 1, 2010.  To the North Carolina General Assembly and Governor Perdue, I thank you, my wife thanks you, and most importantly, my children thank you.  The fiction of a non-smoking sections, when they’re adjacent to the cloud of cigarette smoke, will soon be over.  I can eat my meal without worrying about the smell of my clothes or the watering of my eyes or what the smoke is doing to my kids’ lungs.  Some say this will be the beginning of the end for bars, but this now makes me want to hit them more often!  I never thought I’d see the day when this happened in North Carolina — aka Tobacco Road.  Simply amazing.

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Posted by Varmint

Are You a Foodivist?

May 19, 2009

Are you a foodivist?  I know a lot of foodivists, don’t you?  These are the people who care about where our food comes from.  They’re the ones who care about the use of pesticides and growth hormones.  They’re the ones like Michael Pollan or even Mark Bittman in his efforts to promote eating less meat (but not no meat!).  Or my friend Phoebe Lawless, who is passionate about the Triangle’s Slow Food movement.

The word “foodivist” came to me this morning, as I was looking at the current National Geographic and the story about the world’s food problems.  As I skimmed this article, I thought to myself that this is a story that most of America really hadn’t thought about, but it’s a tale that foodie activists around the world have been telling for years.  And because I didn’t like the term “foodie,” I made up my own word for these activists: foodivist.  Yeah, it’s stupid, and perhaps it’s a shameless attempt to coin a word, but I checked Google: zero hits.  There is no record for that word.  It makes sense and gets the point across.  And frankly, I’d be proud to be called a foodivist.  I am, however,  probably not a hard-core foodivist . . . yet.

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Crook’s Corner Cooking Class Added to Silent Auction Items

May 18, 2009

crooksBill Smith, the Beard-nominated chef at the place where Southern cooking was re-born, Chapel Hill’s Crook’s Corner, has graciously donated a cooking class for 10 people for the Band Together silent auction on June 6.  The winner of this item and 9 of his or her friends will  cook in the restaurant’s kitchen on a Monday night this summer, where Smith will teach them how to make some of Crook’s classic dishes.  Alternatively, Smith could offer instruction on a single theme, such as the different ways to cook a duck (confit, pate’, roastd breast, etc.).  The winning bidder will work out the details with Smith.  And then everyone can taste their hard work in the bar area of Crook’s.

This is another example of the amazing generosity of the Triangle’s chefs in helping out the Lucy Daniels Center, the designated charity of Band Together.  Get your tickets now and bid on some great culinary experiences.

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Posted by Varmint

I Bet My Knives Are Sharper Than Yours

May 18, 2009

Knife

I’m about to make a couple of guesses that I suspect are not far from reality.

First, I’m willing to bet that 99% of the homes in this country have kitchen knives that are not nearly as sharp as they could (or should) be.

Second, the person who invents a low-c0st, idiot-proof and simple mechanism to sharpen knives will be a gazillionaire.

I’m a pretty good home cook, and because so few people really cook much anymore, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that I’m in the top 5% of home cooks.  I’m not saying this to be arrogant, please understand, but I’m trying to make a point.  And even though I’m a pretty good home cook, Imust confess that my knives were, um, not very sharp.  Oh, I thought that I maintained them fairly well.  I’d try to sharpen them from time to time, and I’d use my steel to align the edge, but I never really knew how dull they were.  Until I had knife-guru Chad Ward over for dinner, that is.  He offered to help with some prep work, started using my “good” knife — a fairly expensive damascus steel Shun — and asked, “Do you have anything else?”

I then pulled out an old cheapo Forschner blade, which he ran over my crappy steel for a minute or so.  He then proceeded to shave the hairs off his arm.  Seriously.   And that Shun?  Chad had to take that home to sharpen, as it was in very bad shape.

If I, a pretty good home cook, had grown accustomed to dull knives, I’m betting that a very tiny percentage of American homes have knives that are even close to being as sharp as they could be.

Why is that?  First of all, because it is not easy to teach yourself how to sharpen a knife properly.  It’s something that you have to learn by doing it, and if you learn improperly, then your knives won’t be very sharp.  Heck, read this awesome tutorial Chad Ward wrote and tell me that knife sharpening is simple.  Second, it’s because there is no simple, inexpensive and effective knife sharpener on the market.  Oh, there are a ton of sharpening devices and machines available.  Some are quite inexpensive and others are pricey.  But most of them are crap.  And the ones that do a great job usually cost a fair amount (i.e., over 50 bucks) or are not easily operated — at the very least, their operations are not that intuitive.  If someone could come up with a knife sharpener that worked, cost only 20 bucks and was so easy to operate that even my mother could use it, well, that person would make a buttload of money.  People have tried plenty over the years, without success.

Now that I have two sharp knives, I’m not willing to ever go back to “Dullsville.”  I’m going to see if Chad will teach me how to sharpen these suckers.  I may have to bribe him with lunches or beers or sacrifices of virgins, but damn it, I am going to learn.  And if it works, I’ll teach you, too, and it won’t cost you a virgin.

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Posted by Varmint

J. Betski’s Open for Lunch!

May 15, 2009

betskis

I usually don’t report on items like this, but when I saw my friend Jedidiah’s report on New Raleigh, I had to go, “Hurrah” and post it here!

J. Betski’s, Raleigh’s gem of a Central/Eastern European restaurant, is now serving lunch Tuesday through Saturday.  This is huge news for me, as my wife doesn’t really care for their cuisine, but I love it.  And seeing I eat out for lunch a lot more frequently than I do for dinner, I’ll be going here quite a lot.

Click here for the lunch menu.

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Foodie Experiences for Sale

May 14, 2009

The response has been terrific to my plea for interesting food-related silent auction items. Interested in cooking with Ashley Christensen? You can do it. Want Zely & Ritz chef Sarig Agasi to cook you dinner in your home? Done.   And how about harvesting vegetables with Herons’ chef Scott Crawford, and then having him cook for you? It’s all yours — for a price.

How do you bid on these items? First, you need to attend the Band Together concert on June 6, 2009. Tickets are 20 bucks in advance, $25 at the door, and $125 for great VIP tickets.  Second, you need to bid.

Here’s a list of some of the food-related experiences:

  • Fullsteam Brewery personalized beer experience.  You’ll meet with the ultra-cool folks at Fullsteam who will design a beer based on your individual tastes.  They’ll make that beer and then then deliver 5 gallons of it, with personalized labels and 10 t-shirts, to your home to have a great party.
  • Ashley Christensen and Poole’s Diner Experience.  Spend a Thursday trailing chef Ashley Christensen in the kitchen at Poole’s Downtown Diner.  Learn some insider tips.  That evening, you and 3 guests will sample the food that you prepared.
  • Jujube Working Experience.  Want to learn the secrets behind kick-ass Asian-influenced food?  Ever wanted to find out how hot woks can really get?  Well spend a night working the line with chef Josh DeCarolis at Chapel Hill’s Jujube, and you’ll be a better cook.
  • Herons Farm to Table Experience.  Spend a day with chef Scott Crawford touring Cherry Lane Farm, a beautiful local family-owned farm where 2 acres have been planted for Herons in The Umstead Hotel and Spa.  Return to Herons that evening for a specially prepared dinner created around the items you harvested.
  • Knife Skills with Chad Ward.  The author of the acclaimed book, An Edge in the Kitchen, will conduct a knife skills class for you and your guests in your kitchen.  Trust me, you’ll learn a lot from this class.  And you’ll get a signed copy of Chad’s book.
  • Zely & Ritz in Your Home.  Chef Sarig Agasi of Raleigh’s fantastic Zely & Ritz will cook a private dinner in your home on a Sunday evening.

I’m anticipating that we’ll have even more experiences than these, and I’ll add them to the list when confirmed.  We also have lots of other items that may be of interest to you, such as gift certificates at great restaurants such as Magnolia Grill, Fins, and others.  Plenty of wine.  Culinary tours from Taste Carolina.

And if you’re interested in non-culinary items?  How about a two-bedroom beachfront condo in Curacao during Thanksgiving week?  Or a weekend in a gorgeous suite at the Harborlight Guest House on the Bogue Sound (including massages and dinner for two)?  Ever wanted to ride the Zamboni at a Hurricanes’ game?  Now you can.  There’s a behind the scenes tour of WRAL led by Bill Leslie.  Custom made longboard skateboards.  Lots of spa treatment.  And if you’re into sports, lots of tickets and memorabilia.

So get your tickets to the June 6 concert, featuring Rusted Root, The Rosebuds, and Chatham County Line, with an after-party featuring Hobex.  It all goes to my favorite cause, the Lucy Daniels Center.  I’ll see you there.

——-

Band Together for the Lucy Daniels Center

bandtogethernc.org

June 6, 2009

Featuring Rusted Root, the Rosebuds, Chatham County Line and after-party by Hobex

Downtown Raleigh at the Lincoln Theatre

2 Comments | General | Permalink
Posted by Varmint

Herons: New Chef, New Food, New Heart

May 7, 2009

lambHerons Restaurant in Cary’s Umstead Hotel has been a bit of an enigma since it opened a couple of years ago.  It’s one of my favorite dining rooms, with warm wood decor and the most comfortable seats around.  The service has always been top-notch and efficient, although sometimes a bit overzealous.  At one point I wrote that Herons was the most underrated restaurant in the Triangle, but over time, I began to see why folks had a problem with it.  First, dining at Herons was a ridiculously expensive proposition with entrees in the high 30s and 40s.  Second, the food was wildly inconsistent, which could be directly tied to their chefs.  Phil Evans opened Herons, and although he was capable of putting out some good food, I thought he lacked direction and soul.  What I mean was that the food would taste good, but it just didn’t excite me.  I don’t need to be excited with everything I eat, but at 4o bucks, that plate should be somewhat memorable.  The second chef, Paul Kellum, went downhill from there.  I had two meals at Herons under Kellum, and both of them were lackluster, with one dish — Kellum’s version of chicken and waffles — being practically inedible.

I had no reason to go back to Herons, except for a business lunch, perhaps.  And then, with the economy gone bad, Herons wasn’t even a good proposition for business.  Ostentation is out.  Frugality is in. Read the rest of this entry »

12 Comments | Cary, chefs, General, Restaurants | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Varmint

Food Blog Code of Ethics

May 1, 2009

A “Food Blog Code of Ethics” has been proposed, and before I begin my discussion of this concept, I want to say, “I’m all in.”

This Code has been developed by Brooke Burton and Leah Greenstein, the creators of the food blogs SpicySaltySweet.com and FoodWoolf.com.  The power of food bloggers is now unquestionable, which I can attest to based on the number of emails I get from restaurants, chefs and their publicists.  Before I started this blog, I didn’t know a single publicist, and now, well, it’s a different story.  I like getting to know publicists.  I like getting to know chefs and restaurateurs and growers.  I like having the access to the behind the scenes actions of local eating establishments.  But I also know that I have an obligation to my readers.  Therefore, when I get comped something by a restaurant, I let you know.  If I’m a personal friend of the chef, I disclose that, too.

I don’t write this blog to get free stuff or because I’m a journalist in search of that untold story.  This blog exists first and foremost because it gives me an opportunity to record and share my thoughts.  Only a small handful of my 260 posts to date could be considered “reviews,” as that’s not what this is about.  It’s about food and fun and family.  I sometimes get serious here, but not very often.  I sometimes work extra hard to ensure my writing is top-notch, but usually what I quickly type ends up on the blog.

But what I do work hard to do is to be fair and ethical.  I try to check out my sources and find independent verification.  I prefer to report facts more than speculate.  I sometimes make mistakes, and I try to come clean when that happens.  And I stand behind my work.  If you want to know who this “Varmint” dude is, just click on the “About” tab.  No secrets.  No anonymity.  Just me, Dean McCord.

This is why I applaud the introduction of this Code of Ethics.  I first learned about ethical guidelines when I was active with eGullet, as the people behind that organization and forum work diligently to hold themselves to the highest standards.  It may make them come off as somewhat dictatorial pricks at times, but that’s not their concern.  They want to be sure that folks follow rules of civility and ethics.

I am here today to announce that VarmintBites agrees to comply with the Food Blog Code of Ethics.  I owe it to you, my readers.  I owe it to the chefs and restaurateurs, and I owe it to myself.  If you think that I’ve failed to comply, let me know, and I’ll take care of any mistakes and let you know if I disagree.

So, local food bloggers, who else is in???

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Posted by Varmint

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