ediblegarnish: hunting in the south

I feel like I haven't been hungry for days.

A month at home in NC wrecked my entire system, and I came back gut distended and greasy. Usually just eating at home does this to me because there are nibbles and eats all around. I never stop consuming, and it is never counterbalanced by any physical activity. Every meal is often a spread of meat. I think it's even more exaggerated since I don't go home that often. My dad will just buy cuts of steak and legs of pork and frozen ducks and he even brought home an octopus this time. By the end of the month, I couldn't even look at the hot pot meat, opting instead to fill my stomach with napa cabbage and glass noodles. An otherwise monotonous month was punctuated by Athena's visit, and so I had to pretend like the Triangle Area was a cool place to be.

We started with sweet potato biscuits and Southern food at Mama Dip's. It was a Chapel Hill day after a little bit of work in the morning. We only needed one day.

Weighed down with deep fried Southern goodness and extra carbs, we wandered Franklin Street, strolled through a bit of campus, stumbled upon a random gallery grand opening that was all orange themed, picked up some beers at a bottle shop, and went home to drink them while watching Tick Tick...BOOM.

If people are visiting though, I usually lean towards a day in Durham. My memory of the food is better. I learned a lot about Durham this time around. We really take our own homes for granted huh.

Athena was the one that found Boricua Soul - a Puerto Rican inspired soul food spot in the open air tobacco campus. Get their bowl if you don't know what else to order - pernil with pickled red onions, arroz con gandules, mac n cheese, collard greens, and crispy crunchy tostones.

Honestly, some of the best collard greens I've had in awhile.

Also we had to split a greens, beans, and cheese empanada. I was too full to process the flavor but it looks bubbly and cute:

Still full from lunch and in search of a banana pudding, we ended up at It's a Southern Thing [I literally called them to ask ahead of they had banana pudding] and fell for their wings. And fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese. When I tell you I had to be rolled out the door...

Then we went home to drink more of the assorted beers* we got in the thrill while watching Hamilton.

On the last day, we managed to squeeze in a Raleigh day.

For a day of farmer's market, food hall, and free museum.

Would highly suggest these mini sammiches from Alimentari at Left Bank Butcher at Transfer Co Food Hall if you need a midafternoon snack. They're served on little waffle cookie looking bread rounds. I literally can't figure out what they were called... something like mizette or lizelles or something. Anyways, the spicy nduja one was my fave.

And that's the Triangle Area in a nutshell. We even squeezed in a cute (but deserted) cocktail bar and dinner in Cary at my parents' new favorite Sichuan spot.

A random gem I found for brunch when Frank was unexpectedly in town was True Flavors Diner. We loved it for their giant portions, skillet sides, and jovial waiter who raved about the gravy, especially the biscuits n gravy, especially the biscuits n gravy with mushrooms (because they were out of duck). There's a giant biscuit under this pile somewhere.

I only ate like a third of it before I was ready to keel over into a nap. It was raining outside, so we wandered under the awning to a bottle shop slash brewery slash taproom to further distend our tummies.

Namu used to be one of our favorite coffee spots. It still has coffee in the same layout. Except now it contains a beer hall and Korean food. So... it's even better. I revisited with a book and found love in this simple bowl of kimchi fries with an egg on top.