Road Trip: North Carolina

I recently spent a few days with some friends in Cary, North Carolina. This is near the Raleigh/Durham area. It was my first trip and our host made sure to take us to all the hot spots for both tourists and locals.

First stop, the City Limits in Cary. This place has it all: mechanical bull, line dancing, dollar Bud Light bottles, and a black light so every speck of lint shows up on your black shirt. If you've been reading this blog for a while, or if you know me, you know that this place isn't my usual speed. But, I was on vacation and I have to say, it was a sight to see. Pulling into the parking lot, we came upon a pickup truck waving Confederate flags and another that had "balls" hanging from the trailer hitch. The ultimate in classy.

This is where I had my first Jager Bomb (as described in an earlier post). My friend (caught the eye of some supposed cowboys, one of whom turned out to be a lawyer in disguise. Anyway, they bought us shots. It took me abut 10 sips to finish it, since I was stuffed from dinner and had already had a beer. As you know, I liked it. The rest of the night I stuck to the Bud Light, mainly because it was cheap, it was really hot in NC that night, and I didn't want to be too hungover the next day. If you're in NC, and want to hear music that ranges from hip hop to country line dancing and the Electric Slide, with a little Bon Jovi thrown in for good measure, check out the City Limits. I saw a Less-Than-D-List celebrity there. No, I didn't go up and talk to him. We also spent lots of time watching a group of 3 guys perform choreographed dances to just about every hip-hop song they played.

The next night, we went to the Red Room in Raleigh for tapas. We had the following:

• Calamaris Fritos (delicious, cooked perfectly, great batter)
• Pan con Chorizo y Manchego (Chorizo flatbread with artichokes, peppers,tomatoes, Manchego and spanish paprika) My favorite. Basically a chorizo pizza. Chorizo is like, really rich, dense, and sort of sweet sausage, but with a hint of heat. Manchego is a mild flavored Spanish cheese.
• Quesadilla con Polo y Aguacate (Chicken and avocado quesadilla with pico de gallo and sour cream) Good, but nothing special.
• Patatas Bravas con Aioli (Fried potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce with garlic mayonnaise) OMG like the best home fries you've ever tasted!
• I had a glass of white sangria. So tasty and great for the summer. Sadly, I forgot to eat the maraschino cherry before the waitress (who sucked, by the way) took it away. Anyway, I'm thinking of making some over the weekend.

On Sunday, we drove to Wrightsville Beach, where I had a delicious and very filling bowl of seafood gumbo (tomato based spicy soup) at The Oceanic restaurant. We sat on the pier and looked at the ocean as we ate. SO relaxing.

Our last day was Monday and our host took us to Chapel Hill. We had a nice lunch at the Top of the Hill Restaurant, a brewpub. They have outdoor seating and you can people watch from this second floor patio. I had the Hugh Morton Mango Lager to drink. It was decent, with a hint of mango flavor - not too overpowering. I bought a sixer of cans of Rams Head IPS to bring home. On that note it turns out that a "Fragile" sticker put on the suitcase to protect the brew actually invites damage, as shown in the photo below.
























For lunch, I had the Smoked Paprika Chicken sandwich with beer battered fries. Tasty.

The IPA was good too. Pretty strong (6.0%) and reasonably hoppy. I gave a few away and I have one left in the fridge.

Overall, a good eating vacation. I could write another whole post about all the delicious food that our host made us but I'll leave you with just one short description. Easy appetizer: Fresh mozzarella (the soft kind that comes in balls), sliced tomato, and balsamic vinegar for drizzling. You could reduce the vinegar to thicken it, but the vinegar we used seemed thick enough to start with. I guess it depends on what you buy.