Pumpkin Bourbon Cheesecake

This may be the best cheesecake ever. Creamy, nutty and pumpkiney all in one beautiful package. It's Jay's recipe but I make it almost every year. 

More great pizza!

At Toro in Durham, another great batch of delicious pizzas. Eggplant, lamb meatball, or classic?

       

Elements in Chapel Hill

My friend Heide took me to Elements in Chapel Hill on Environ Way.  It's Asian with a bit of a twist. She said her tuna tacos were delicious...

     

And my shrimp with walnuts was really unique. Big, fresh shrimp with what tasted like a rice flour coating finished with a sweet and tangy sauce. Thanks, Heide.  I'll add this to my list of regulars. 

       

        

Remember...

More on the search for first rate PIZZA

If crispy is what you are looking for and you don't want to travel to Durham, there is an alternative.  It's the flatbread pizza at City Kitchen in Chapel Hill. This is a different breed of pizza; it doesn't ooze with cheese or droop down laden with other heavy ingredients. It's crispy and can hold its own with a cold beer.  It's good...not Toro in Durham but it is closer and better than most other attempts at pizza that take place in Chapel Hill.  What passes for pizza here makes me cry.

My new favorite beer

If you like "white" beer...wit blanche is the snobby name for it, this is THE best. It's creamy and wheaty with a delicate, sudsy head.  I love it.  I had it first in France (it's Belgian) and was pleasantly surprised that it's available all over the US.  Who knew?

The famous Diodata meatballs

I made these for Tom to make up for a tough week. His favorite meal: pasta and meatballs.

The recipe is my Grandmother's. She was a Jewish girl from South Philly who married an Italian guy from South Philly in 1912.  She learned to cook by watching his three sisters and became a premier Italian cook. She also made a fabulous Lamb Stew with Dumplimgs. Don't know where she got that recipe.  Her meatballs were heavenly and live on through the generations. She made them every Sunday morning and I can still remember the aroma of them frying up in the pan. She would save me 

two for breakfast before she dumped the rest into the sauce.  She was the best Grandmother and I only wish I had told her that more often.  She is also responsible for my lifelong love of cooking.

Charleston, SC

Basico's in North Charleston has the most delicious tacos in a dozen different varieties. I had the catch of the day which was Grouper. It was delicately fried like a crispy surprise then wrapped in a corn tortilla with some kind of Adobe cream sauce which was excellent. I also tried their shrimp and veg taco. Tom had the pulled pork and BBQ d brisket tacos which he kvelled over.  Lol.

It was dark when we arrived so pardon the picture below. 

End of summer soup and salad party

David made a killer salad with grilled eggplant and fresh corn and I made two cold soups.  One was my favorite Gazpacho of the summer of '14 after many, many variations were tried. It's watermelon gazpacho from Vegetarian Times Magazine. Blueberry Gazpacho was my least favorite.

Fun meal and great company. 

This soup recipe was ripped out of a magazine I happened to be reading in our Paris rental apartment.  It was 2 yrs. old so I didn't think anyone would mind.  Thanks, Louisa Carter, wherever you are because it was delicious. People especially enjoyed those Rosemary Parmesan croutons.

If anyone wants any of these recipes, just let me know. 

Harvest 18

Harvest 18 on Renaissance Parkway, Durham

Farm to table, great, friendly service and really good food.  I had the whole bass and it was beautifully cooked...light and tender. Sweet potatoes were delish also.  One complaint: too much butter on the otherwise perfect string beans.  Will definitely go back.

Merlion and killer Tofu

Who said Tofu has to be boring?  The sizzling Tofu platter at Merlion in Southern Village (Chapel Hill) may be the best tofu I've ever had. Dark, spicy and smoky yet it still manages to be incredibly crispy!  Amazing. Tom and Jen's duck and shrimp dishes, while tasty, did not compare to this mighty tofu dish.

Their appetizer sampler was also first rate. Crispy spring rolls, fried coconut shrimp and meaty samosas were a big hit.

Iceland: a girl could starve here

We visited a very cool thermo powered tomato farm where the tomato soup was amazing.  People there were very friendly though slightly cultish.  It was freezing that day so soup was very appreciated.

Every site we visited, every national park, every geyser, every lagoon, every museum, there was a cafe and a gift shop.  The same mediocre food, the same overpriced merch from fur coats to puffin fridge magnets ($16.00) popped up at every stop. The country is designed to squeeze as much $ out of tourists as possible...in a very courteous way.  Tom said, Iceland's motto should be: "Shop here and if you have time, see our country."  And don't get me started on the Blue Lagoon. But it is beautiful. 

The last meal we had in Iceland was due to a misunderstanding.  We asked the young man at our hotel where we might find a restaurant with vegetarian options (they didn't know from vegan) and he recommended "Vegemot."  I think he was confused because the restaurant was on Vegemotastigur St. But was not vegetarian...at all.  We had faux ethnic food which was pretty bad and pretty expensive.

The drinks however were amazing!  Which almost made up for the bad food...almost. I discovered my new favorite drink there but alas, it's Swedish and probably impossible to find in the good old USA.

On to Iceland

Can we find non meat foods in the land of the Vikings?  We'll see if we can meet the challenge. 

We're off to a rocky start when we are stopped in our tracks by this menu around the corner from our hotel.  Note foal is on the menu. We knew we'd see horse meat on menus which means those hard working Icelandic ponies that take tourists tolting around the country side, the horses that are so revered by the Icelandic people that they appear on every refrigerator magnet, calendar and tee 

shirt, those horses end their days on a plate? And they  repay their hardworking horses by eating their babies?

Also on the menu is minke whale. And puffin. With blueberry sauce.  Yum. I can't imagine what a puffin tastes like. Chicken?

Although minke whales are not technically endangered, their numbers are dangerously decreasing. It's odd that a country that rakes in millions each year from tourism, tourism that includes to a large part whale watching excursions, turns around and kills whales to eat them. It's not like the native people of the arctic who depend on whale to live, these people have many other food choices.  Like puffins.  Who, by the way, mate for life, use the same nest every year which they thoroughly houseclean before they leave to set out to sea and have only one chick per year.  You gotta love them.  So why eat them?

We did find amazing food at Glo, a vegetarian place serving delicious meals every day. No foals.

The stark natural beauty of Iceland"s lava fields, waterfalls, geysers and volcanos is breathtaking. 

Special vegan pizza

Last meal in France was amazing pizza courtesy of Brian's cousins

Brian's fabulous cousins and their kids. 

Brittany, August 11

Beautiful Brittany is known for their crepes and Calvados. And cute ponies, apparently. This is our resident equine who is quite well fed, as you can see.

The crepe below is actually a galette, which is made with wheat flour and is usually savory. Tres bien!

August 8 and 9, 2014. Bayeux and Omaha beach

Crazy drive out of Paris and teaming rain coming into Bayeau, but what a charming town.  Hotel Churchill was fine and we enjoyed our dinner at The Little Norman. The next day was sunny so we were able to walk to the cathedral and the museum to see the famous Bayeaux tapestry. 

The next day we visited Omaha Beach where so many young men died on D Day.

Paris: day 5

Our last day in Paris so food celebrations were in order.  Tom finally got his much desired falafel on the rue des Rosiers.  It was pouring rain so we opted to sit at Chez Hanna instead of the world famous L'Has Falafel where people have to stand and balance umbrella and fistful of dripping lunch material. 

Dinner at the fab Potager de Marais where the onion soup got high marks and the chocolate mousse was the best EVER...vegan or not.  The quinoa burger was crunchy and delicious but the mashed potatoes were a bit of a disappointment.  Nell said mine are much better...creamier. 

When asked how she makes the mousse, our cook said she mixes soy cream for one hour to get it to whip up.  May be a deterrent for a home cook but I'll give it a shot when I get home. Last night in Paris!  On to Normandy where veg options may be more limited. Who knows, maybe there are vegan crepes? In my heart, I feel this may be where our paths diverge because this woman WILL eat crepes!  And what is France without a bit of cheese?  Really!

Paris: day 4

After a rainy morning at the Musee d'Orsay and an underwhelming museum microwaved lunch, we visited another museum called Bon Marche. It may as well BE a museum.  We did score some non leather shoes for Nell.  Then off to Hermes, perchance to dream.

To see how the 1% lives, visit Hermes' drop dead gorgeous store on the Rue de Sevres.  $500. headbands, anyone?  Or a show jumping saddle? They start at $9,000.  If only that war horse we saw today had been born a bit later...

Have I mentioned that Paris is tres, tres cher?  Mon Dieu, cokes are $9 and bargains are hard to come by so dinner at Candelaria was a real treat for our weary wallets. The 6 seat restaurant may scare some but service was super friendly and food was great. But what's with the totally Spartan seating at this and other veg places?  Do our asses have to suffer to prove our worthiness?  Answer to come. 

 

Lunch day 3

The little vegan burger store 2 doors down on Rue des Archives is a big hit.  Nell loved their homemade mayo and French fries. And €11 is a bargain here these days. 

You have to see this at least once in your life.

Vegan in Paris: day 2

The much touted Cafe Pinson in Marais required a one hr wait for dinner. A small restaurant, maybe 30 seats, and next to us were 2 American co eds at a table for 4 who were there when we first arrived and were there when we left. They had long stopped eating but were consumed with quizzing each other in French prepping for a test, presumably at a college nearby.  Girls, how do you say oblivious Americans in French?   Nell had black rice ratatouille and we had carrot soup. Just a note: they only had one vegan entree on the menu but luckily it was good.  As the cafe is gluten free, I cannot recommend the desserts.  I ordered a Madeleine and it ended up food for our local pigeons. Alors!

You can have a so-so meal in Paris

After a Pompidou and Notre Dame visit, a very late lunch was negotiated. Waitress assured us that salmon salad was vegan (lol).  I settled for veg lasagna which tasted like a Lean Cuisine with shaved Parmesan.  Our resident vegan had Gazpacho and fries. Lots of veg places close at 3pm which make a late lunch problematic. Voila.

In Paris in August, they dump a lot of sand on the banks of the Seine and call it Paris Plage. Cute.

Paris!!!

Paris is a vegetarian dream. So far. Dinner last night at Omar's around the corner in Marais was an antidote to the jet lagged, lost luggaged, bereft souls here at Rue des Archives.  Yes, lost luggage but J'espire for today. Voila cous cous legume. Tastes a lot better than it looks, the Sancerre was fab.