the davidsonienne •

Yesterday morning, I opened up my Daily Candy email to see this trendy little V-tine’s gift idea (among others)…

Cute keychain, you say!

Yes… it’s functional, it’s precious, it’s a TOILET SOUND BLOCKER! Whaaat?!

At first I thought this darling chunk was actually a piece of high-tech sound-canceling equipment. Which might be cool, right? Think of the usefulness: keep your neighbors from hearing the inane yips of your chihuahua Brutus, avoid the awkward looks from other subway riders who can hear you listening to the Backstreet Boys at full blast, tune out that coworker who blabs ad nauseum on the phone. I suppose that technology is still being tweaked in the labs.

Because, nope. I was wrong. This little dangly makes a toilet flushing sound. Hmm. It also advertises “after all, this little device means you won’t have to flush for real and thus saves water.” Well, let’s just think this through for a minute. If you are shy about the sounds of your natural wastes, doesn’t that mean you should probably let them make their merry way down the tubes? I’m certainly into saving water, but let’s all remember this little ditty:

And just make sure the “toilet” doesn’t “flush” accidentally inside your purse…

smoked corn chowder… with bacon. yes.

Does this really make any sense? I am eating all but two (and make that two with bad reputations) of these “best foods you aren’t eating.” Bring on the more exotic list. And who isn’t eating cinnamon!? Shame on you!

I live here now!

Bruce Buschel’s Times article, “100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do (Part 2)”

a dear sweet chapter comes to its close

Have you noticed that I never eat out anymore?  Very astute.  It’s a problem living on a retail paycheck.  Happily, good food is always in the works when family is in town. I recently visited Poole’s - a “diner” in downtown Raleigh - just before catching my otherhalf’s brother on the stage at the Pour House (a curious venue that has thirty beers on tap but never a beer that I am dying to have).  Poole’s is a small place, about half bar, half restaurant, so I was shocked when we swung in the door and the host offered to seat us without the rest of our party - three other people.  (They don’t take reservations.)  “We usually don’t seat people unless the entire party is here…” he said, “but it will be an hour and a half for you guys if you have to wait.”  We were fumbling with gratitude for him.  Happily, our other dinner-mates were right on our tails.  

I do wish I had gotten a better glance at the wine list, but the cocktail menu was on a close chalkboard and absolutely blaring its loud beacon.  PITCHER OF PIMMS: SOMEWHAT AFFORDABLE.  !!!  I quickly convinced three other people to share it with me.  It was close to what I think I remember Pimm’s to taste like.  Good, certainly refreshing, but not quite cucumbery or fizzy enough.  Was I supposed to be looking for more of a tang?  Hmm.  This problem seems to be difficult to conquer in the United States.  We just don’t have that weird lemonade soda business that’s on tap in every British pub.  Ah well.  It was good, but next time I’ll probably have the vinho verde (I know - I would have ordered a bottle for myself if that weren’t extremely crass).  

The waiter gave us a short little (disclaimer?) ditty about how all the food is local, free range and happy and crap, which I was pleased to hear.  How refreshing, a restaurant that depends on the local food markets for its selections.  The menu is written on chalkboards hanging on the walls, as it changes frequently and sometimes nightly… think of how many trees they are saving.  It was fun to hop up and peer around the place while deciding what to eat.  We ordered appetizers to share.  Let’s see if I can remember them.  

Fried green tomatoes with heirloom tomato salad — I guess I wasn’t really aware that fried green tomatoes are awesome.  Heirlooms with dill and some kind of creamy sauce… it was a vibrant dish.  Good tomatoes are like fireworks splashing on the palate - too bad eating mediocre (or just not fresh) tomatoes early in life caused me to miss about 20 years of fresh tomato eating.  

Pimento cheese en croute — Sorry, Augusta, this version might be better than the Masters’ pimento sandwiches…  not officially, of course…  The crisps were thinly sliced and crusty.  I don’t know what they put into the PC to make it so good because I was too busy eating it to think.

Beet, avocado & goat cheese salad - Beets are another vegetable that I spurned after trying them from cans as a child.  How silly.  I would never have thought to combine beets, goat cheese, and avocado - what a happy family those make on the palate.  Thinly sliced beets + creaminess = yes.

Macaroni and Cheese - piping and perfect.  Crusty, gooey, etc.  I guess it wasn’t made with truffles, but what pigs are hunting those down in the Raleigh area anyway? 

Green beans with bacon -  I don’t know what they did to these green beans and bacons to make them so succulent.  It was pretty ridiculous.  Bacon is the reason why I cannot be vegetarian.  

Summer squash and zucchini, flash or tempura fried?  - These came out last, and still burning.  They had a bleu cheese and something else awesome dressing.  OMG.  I wanted to lick the plate.  

Oh, and then after dinner was over, we ordered the homemade baguette - and they did seriously make it after we ordered it — to sop up the juices on the plates.  I think a few waiters were distressed when we refused to let them take our empty plates.  It was a good call.  

Dessert - you didn’t think we’d leave without that, did you? - was a regular adventure as well.  We tried three things out of a possible four — strawberry _, white peach bread puddin, and a chocolate pot de creme with cocoa nib cookie.  The strawberry business tasted better than the best pop tart of all time.  This phrase is not my original creation - a dinnermate came up with it and THEN in a moment of clarity and possibly telekinesis the waiter said the exact same thing!  It was seriously hot (have you noticed a trend with the food coming out at high temperatures?), the strawberries were fresh and gooey, and the crust was this sugary buttery mess.  It won.  The second and third prize winners weren’t bad either.  The white peach bread pudding was soft and sweet.  The pot de creme was hard to stick your soup spoon in at first, but I (as usual) succumbed to the creamy, not-too-sweet-or-chocolatey pudding.  

As we left, it hit me - were there any nuts at all on the menu?  In the desserts, not one nut.  In the appetizers we ordered, no problems.  I scoured the chalkboard to find no mentions of nuts.  Is this because nuts are not a local commodity?  The host asked us to identify food issues - is someone aware of allergies and lifestyle choices in this establishment?  I’m not sure of the answer, but I can tell you that I was elated to be able to eat all the desserts… and since the prices were reasonable, I can feel good - or at least less guilty financially - about returning to eat them.  

I imagine business will spike a bit due to the recent shout-out to Poole’s on J.J. Goode’s article on 36 hours in Raleigh-Durham.  I think the hype is worth it.  The place delivers high-quality dinners.  Now I want to go back for the brunch…

**Title of this post taken from the writings on the wall at Poole’s.

basic hearth bread

Dearest readers who have probably abandoned me by now,

I now live in the beautiful town of Carrboro, North Carolina!!

Yes, big change.  Thus my lack of postage.  Also, I just got internet.  It is tethered to a modem via ethernet cable.  I feel as though someone has handcuffed me.  Snobs For Wireless Internet Anonymous has a new member.

But here’s the most exciting part (for this blog, I mean) about moving!!  Carrboro was voted in the October 2008 issue of Bon Appetit as “The Foodiest Small Town” in America!  They have a famous farmer’s market here!  WOOOOOO.  Expect me to go on some Saturday (hopefully this one).  It’s year-round.  And I think I can walk to it.  So on Saturdays, I will pretend to be earth-conscious and not drive my (lovely, gorgeous) SUV around town.  

Also, I have an unpaid internship with Algonquin Books, and no paying job, so the elaborate home cooking has dwindled more to rice and beans.  But I love my life here.  So that’s okay.  And I am ignoring that business in the news where the economy stinks.  Curiously, epicurious (heh) just ran a post about money saving tips for food.  Beans.  Rice.  Pasta.  Tuna.  I think those were already fairly well-known for being cheap.  Unfortunately, organic food is not that cheap.  But I did make some more of that tasty parsnip and apple soup the other night (future post — the soda bread that the boyfriend made… omg… rum butter was involved - I wanted to eat the butter by itself), and successfully included (all?) organic ingredients.  So perhaps I can make my new year’s resolution to eat more responsibly work out.  

And later I must tell everyone about food-related Christmas presents!!!  Expect that in a later post, complete with pictures (they were GOOD ONES-;)- thanks Santey - and Dad, for the camera :D)…

Hopeful for forgiveness,

The Dsonienne