Dîner avec mon amour

This dinner was un petit morceau de ciel. "A little piece of heaven" for my non-French speaking Internet friends.  (By-the-way I'm also non-French speaking and am relying on a online translator for this post.) Greyson and I have each been to France on separate occasions in our past lives, before we fell in love, and before anyone knew what a blog was.  


It's a silly American thing that anything French makes you feel more sophisticated.  Silly, but no less true.  Greyson shook and UrbanSpoons took us to Coquette Brasserie.  A lovely place that brings a little bourgeoise to Midtown Raleigh.  I put on a little dress with some hot boots, took the hand of my handsome man, and had a little Friday night date.  

A little "city cafe" feel in Raleigh

(See, the Photoshop makes it look even more sophistiqué!)

We've heard the staff here criticized as snooty.  We love that because we are total snobs.  Okay, all kidding aside, this rumor was not true.  Our waitress was great and extremely informed. We ordered the Plat de Charcuterie & Fromage as an appetizer.  A spread of duck pate, sausages, compote, and cheese.  It was great.  Greyson said, "Perfect appetizer.  Makes you hungry for more."  I got the Coq au Vin, Greyson got the Pan Roasted Duck on the waitress' recommendation.  Profiteroles and Black Currant Clafoutis for dessert topped off an awesome meal of trying each other's food.  

Dessert! 

(That's the same in French by-the-way.)

It was delicious.  I will say, I missed vegetables.  But what do we know, we're fat Americans.  We drive SUV's in suburbia, thinking we're better than our slender, longer-living European friends with better health care.  But after a meal like that, they must have something figured out that we don't.

Vive la France! (et l'Amérique!)

Amy

Dumplings and Ocean's

Our latest shake took us to downtown Raleigh Friday night.  Just a few days after I read an article about how the chef at The Duck & Dumpling is retiring.  But we do what our iPhones tell us, and settled in a high top table by the window.  I was a little bummed not to have the original guy making the dumplings I've heard so much about, but we were not disappointed when we got our appetizer.  Actually, it was embarrassing how quickly we put away the appetizer sampler of all the dumplings they have.

Dumpling sampler appetizer

So Greyson says, "Remember in Ocean's Thirteen when they poison that guy's dumpling?  You know, the hotel reviewer guy?"  This question led to a good 20 minutes of character discussions and line quoting from one of our favorite movie trilogies.  "You have to learn to walk before you crawl, Linus," I said.  "Reverse that," Greyson says.  We laughed as he continued to cut each dumpling in half so we both could try each kind, always giving me the bigger piece.  

The Ocean's discussion naturally led to our upcoming plans for our fifth anniversary in April.  A topic I've been keen on for some time, as I am ready to bid winter aideu for warmer weather.  We plan to go to Las Vegas.  While no casino heists are in the works, Shakes dinners are.  I can't wait to do some out-of-town dinner blogs.

But until then we're eating at home. I had the Basil Duck because, I mean, "Duck" is in the name of the restaurant.  It's fitting, and I was not disappointed.  Greyson had the filet simply because he had to try the Asian-style steak.  He too was satisfied.

When it came time for dessert, the young, hip, happy wait staff got their chance to shine.  We couldn't decide between the Apple Crisp with Ginger Ice Cream and the Spiced Pear with Ginger Ice Cream.  After some discussion, the waitress and the hostess both recommended the Pear.  That's what we ordered but that's not what we got.  So the mistake Apple was on the house.  

The Spiced Pear with Ginger Ice Cream (heaven!)

The waitress brought the Pear too. So we enjoyed our second dessert looking out the window at our chilly little city, dreaming of a city in the desert, to celebrate five years of funny discussions over dinner.


Happy (early) Anniversary,
Amy

The Crab Waffle

Let me preface this post with a little on my love of breakfast.  If I could pick only one meal to eat on any given day it would be the first of the day.  As a child I lived for pancakes on Saturday morning.  Cereal may be my favorite food.  As an adult I will always pick something from the breakfast/brunch menu if a restaurant is awesome enough to serve it all day.  Cracker Barrel on road trips is a must.  While I'm totally "ignoramoose" on the peg game, I'm a genius at picking good breakfast food.

When we shook and I ended up landing on Zest Cafe in North Raleigh, I never imagined one of my morning favorites would end up as part of a seafood appetizer.  

I'll get to that in a minute.  Zest is adorable.  From the fork-knife-and-spoon fence out front, to the gift shop you have to walk through to get to the dining room,  it is cute.  We were thrilled they had a seasonal menu.  I'm convinced seasonal menus mean that the chef must have prepared something special just for me.  Seasonal menus are smaller, fresher, and make a restaurant better.  I truly have more faith in a chef and owner who keep a menu smaller.  

I asked the waitress what the best appetizer was.  She recommended this thing that I called "The Crab Waffle."  Well, I'll say it truly had something for everyone.  It was salty, sweet, spicy, hot, cold, crunchy, soft, raw, and cooked all in one.  It was a sweet Belgian waffle with a tower of spicy slaw with cold crab and shrimp on top.  You can tell they used a cup to mold the crab tower. It was kinda good, but so weird I couldn't get past the crab cocktail on top of the waffle that was kinda mushy.  It was such an odd concoction I really can't say if I liked it or not.  

Greyson with The Crab Waffle

Our dinner entrees were better for sure, but honestly I can't remember what else I ate after the intense insanity that was our appetizer.

Here's to keeping breakfast pure,

Amy

Pizza Night! (twice)

Okay, so we ate a a pizza place two nights in a row.  (This is not your blog!  Don't judge us!)  


Our places for pies were Tony's Pizza and Milton's Pizza and Pasta.


Tony's is literally right across from our neighborhood and we eat across the street every week being the trivia junkies we are.  We wanted cheap and quick on a Friday night because I work so early on the weekends and set UrbanSpoons to $ in North Raleigh.

There are three sizes of pies you can order.  We are the saps who ordered the medium.  The small is PLENTY for four people let alone two.  Needless to say, we had leftover slices.  But the pizza remained true to the promise of New York style.  Everything on the menu was true NY Italian, the calzones, the garlic knots, etc.  Big slices, fresh toppings, not bad.  The crust was good.  There was a little more grease than I liked, but nothing I couldn't blot with the paper towels they had on the table.  I love that when I'm eating messy food.  

That is a big freakin' pizza!

The inside of the restaurant was cozier than I expected.  Lots of families were there on a Friday night.  We saw at least 2 sleepover parties.  (We've been asked to discuss child-friendliness of restaurants we visit.  This is not something we pay attention to.  But we will now for our reproducing friends.)


All the families on a Friday meant it  took FOREVER to get our pizza.  It was getting a little ridiculous after awhile and I was getting what we call "Hangry".  (That's a combination of hungry and angry when my blood sugar gets low.)  


When we finally got our pizza it was good and did more than cure low blood sugar, it raised my cholesterol sufficiently.  We enjoyed our caloric gorging so much at Tony's, we came back a week or two later after sledding with our awesome friends on a snow day.

Me, Trish, Sam, and Erin before taking the plunge into Highway 70

The next night.....

Our dear friend Amy Milslagle is a fine-wine-drinking-foodie and if it were up to her we'd dine at some of the Triangle's finest places.  But our Saturday evening's dining locale wasn't up to her.  It was up to Ashley, her five-year-old-mac-and-cheese-loving-Kindergartener.  As fate would have it, Greyson shook and landed on Ashley's pick, Milton's Pizza and Pasta.  

We understood why this was Ashley's pick.  It's a huge menu with tons of options for kids and families.  We hadn't seen her in awhile and she told us all about Santa's visit as she sipped on milk and we had beer at the bar.  When we got our table she kept asking for Jell-o.  This seemed odd to Greyson and I but I cracked up laughing when we understood what she meant.  There is a salad bar.  She had Captian's Wafers and Jell-o pudding as her salad as any Elementary school kid would.   It was a small salad bar.  But surprisingly fresh with actual salad for me.

Our pizza was good.  In honor of our Carolina Hurricanes, my hockey loving hubby got The Stanley Cup Pizza piled high with Canadian Bacon and Bleu cheese.  I got El Pollo Loco with BBQ chicken and jalapenos.  It was pretty good.  My fave BBQ chicken pizzas are still the Funky Q Chicken at Mellow Mushroom and the Barbequed Chicken Pizza at Lynnwood Grill in Raleigh.

The Stanley Cup Pizza

(We need the Canes to come sample this pie to get some inspiration to play better this year.)

Decent pizza, but the best part was hearing how happy Amy was in a new relationship.  Maybe we'll shake and eat with her and "Mr. Right" soon.   Ashley made our second leftover pizza box of the week more beautiful than we could've imagined with her superior art in crayon.

That's amore!

Amy

Cafe Capistrano 01/09/10

Okay the first official Shakes dinner!  (Please read previous post for rules.)  


So we set UrbanSpoons at North Raleigh and $$.  My first shake did it.  We landed on Cafe Capistrano off Durant Road.  80% of the 95 UrbanSpoon voters liked it.  Previous reviewers described it as California style Mexican.  This was a good description.


We love Mexican food but any typical Mexican restaurants (places that begin with El, Los, La, or Las) can sometimes be a bit heavy.  Let's just say after we usually eat Mexican any romantic interlude is out of the question. (Greyson: "Speak for yourself") Bloated bellies leave us passed out on the couch with the dog.  

There it is....

But Cafe Capistrano was a little lighter.  Everything was much fresher.  You could still get the Mexican fare you crave, (Quesadillas, burritos, enchiladas, etc.) but with a fresher taste.  (That's the Californianess in there.) The refried beans were awesome.  Cafe Captistrano's website says they use no animal fat in the beans and it shows.    


We got guacamole for an appetizer.  This is big for me.  I'm big on the guac. But no one is bigger on the guac than sister my Julie who asked for a description.  I told her it was "chunky and fresh."  She seemed happy with this, and she's the guac expert afterall.  However, they did not need all the lettuce around the guac.  It got on my nerves.  I mean, I don't want lettuce when I'm trying to eat chips! (Greyson: I thought that made them healthy)

My sister Julie Jones, the guacamole expert on her Wedding Day 10-4-08.  

In my previous post I explained how we usually go to "The Place" a city is known for.  We also usually get what a particular place is "known for," or that night's special.


So I ordered the Santa Fe Enchiladas with their secret mole sauce.  I'm not real sure what was so great about the sauce.  I may be biased, but my fave mole sauce is at Fiesta Grille in Carrboro.  OMG!  It is awesome! (Greyson: I would bathe in that sauce)


Greyson got the special.  The Crab Quesadilla.  He liked it and wanted to eat it all.  He was good and backed off. (G: Until the next day when I found it in the refrigerator...oops) 


I thought the portions were a little large.  We had a doggy bag.  Who are we kidding, our dog Ginger will never see tasty leftovers. (G: This whole time I could have blamed it on the dog?!?...ugh, missed opportunity)


The one thing that bugged the crap out of me was this stupid, distracting fountain in the middle of the restaurant.  I swear to you it was a freaking garden statue!  (G: Yeah, very weird...Gordon Ramsay would have had a fit)


But the staff was nice and prompt.  We gave Cafe Captistrano our approval on UrbanSpoons.



So did we have a romantic interlude after our less-heavy Mexican dinner?  Please!  We're not that kind of blog! (G: Again, speak for yourself)


Ole!
Amy

The beginning

Our inspiration for this blog:
When we travel we're the kind of people who have to eat at "THE PLACE" that particular city is known for.  Hence the picture of us at the famous Arthur Bryant's BBQ in Kansas City, July '09.  We're working to check off restaurants before we die.

But at home we found ourselves eating at the same restaurants all the time.  We couldn't decide where we wanted to eat.  If it wasn't in the North Raleigh/Brier Creek area, we didn't go.  BORING!

We got iPhones for Christmas '09.  Well, I got a new iPhone 3GS 16G.  I had been wanting one since they came out but, I refuse to get the first generation of any technology as I believe the bugs haven't been worked out. (Before Apple's sleek iPod/iPhone days of compatability I took a '99 iMac to college and dealt with 4 years of headaches.)  Plus, we had a contract with Verizon.  

But, our contract was up, and Greyson being the wonderful husband he is, agreed to get rid of his Blackberry.  (He has one for work anyway.) He surprised me Christmas morning with a creative way to wrap my gift and we went and got the phone the next day.

Greyson's creative gift wrap

We were in the Apple Store and Greyson says.  "I'm not gonna lie.  I'm a little jealous."  I knew he too wanted the pretty little piece of smooth technology in his pocket that makes you feel cooler than you really are.  After a week of watching me Tweet, text, and app shop my fingers raw, we went back to the Apple Store.  I assured him that him getting a phone would make my Christmas gift no less special.  Just to make sure though, he got the older 3G 8G model for $99.  He is a dear!

So a week after we kept hearing the "Da-na-na Da-na-na" of the ESPN SportsCenter App constantly update on his phone we discovered the inspiration for our blog, UrbanSpoon.

www.urbanspoon.com has an iPhone app we love.  (A free one, Greyson is not big on the paid ones yet. I of course would easily drop five bucks for a Harry Potter games App.  But that's a different story for a different blog.) With the UrbanSpoon App you can find restaurants in your area and read reviews.  You can set a filter to the type of cuisine you want and price.  Then you shake your phone and it finds restaurants for you.  

We tend to make everything a game.  Seriously, everything.  So here goes....

Shaking it up, The Rules:

1.  When we're going to dinner we each get 3 shakes to find the right place.  Sometimes we may not be in the mood for Mexican, or Sushi, or whatever.  The 6 shakes at least give us some choice.  We'll pick a restaurant from there.

2. No repeats.  We're trying new places, at least for 6 months.  

3.  We review each restaurant on the UrbanSpoon App.

4.  We blog about our experiences here.

A few caveats.....

1.  We are in no way restaurant critics.  Our only qualifications are that we love to eat.  We love to eat out.  And we have spent countless hours watching both the British and American versions of Gordan Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.  

2.  Greyson is trying to lose weight.  So we have to EARN our dinners out.  We have to work out.  It's on the internet now so we are accountable.

3.  Only 1-2 nights out a week.  We cannot afford any more.  Maybe after our stellar critiques catch Ramsay's eye and we become part of his restaurant empire, we could do it every night.  But not now.

4. You will hear about our dinner conversations on this blog.  We plan to bring friends along on our dinners.  You'll have to hear about them too.

Here's to technology making dinner more entertaining!

-Amy