Triangle Restaurant Week will be May 11-17.
Sweet meal deals and tours are planned. 3-course menus are a set price of $15 for lunch and $25 for dinner. Its a chance to check out the 48 restaurants from across the Triangle taking part.
Check out the website and plan ahead. It has some great videos that give you behind the scenes insights and a chance to hear from the owners.
Erin at Conscious Shopper is looking at how to Green Her Grocery Bill. Consider her efforts to balance costs with her green ideals.
Drew and I went to Pei Wei for lunch today. Its one of the places the folks in my office frequent.
The location was home to a Boston Market years ago and more recently a Crazy Fire Mongolian Grill. Pei Wei has erased the memories of most folks that anything could have ever existed there before it arrived.
It was a beautiful day and most of the patio was already taken when we arrived. I had the Thai Coconut Curry with chicken and brown rice. It has Green curry coconut sauce, ginger, Thai basal, red bell pepper, onion and long beans. Exquisite.
Drew had the Pei Wei Spicy Chicken Salad. It has Wok seared chicken, assorted lettuce, Napa cabbage, vegetables, rice sticks, tomato and lime vinaigrette. The portion was large. He said he would have liked the chicken a little more done, so that it was crispy along the edges.
The Pei Wei website says that our restaurant is one of 150 in more than 15 states serving wok-seared, contemporary Asian cuisine. Its a faster, more casual version of PF Chang.
The other Pei Wei restaurants in Wake County are at 1107 Walnut Street in Cary and 10251 Little Brier Creek Lane in Raleigh.
Lunch time service has always been great. Food has always been perfect.
You pick up your own fortune cookie along with your drink on the way to the table. My fortune read, ” The pleasure of what we enjoy is lost by wanting more.”
Michael Pollan has a couple of paragraphs in a collection of views Salon.com compiled on President Obama’s first 100 days in office.
Pollan PRO: Michelle Obama has been speaking out about the importance of real, fresh food, home cooking and gardening. By planting an organic garden on the White House lawn, she launched a thousand victory gardens
Pollan CON: The misstep was a half-hearted effort to trim crop subsidies, by limiting direct payments to farmers grossing more than $500,000 a year and redirecting those funds to childhood nutrition programs.
The Farmers of Orange have joined together to operate the South Estes Farmers Market. The market will be celebrating its first anniversary on Saturday, May 2, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.
The Star Barn in Pitssboro is doing it up May 1 to kick off its CSA. When members pick up veggies, they’ll be able to enjoy, music, drinks and local fare. The get together will facilitate veggie car-pooling in 2009.
The Wake Forest Farmers Market will host a Meet in the Street event 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on May 2 and a Taste of the Market is planned for May 9.
The Oxford Farmers Market will host a Strawberry Fest 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on May 9.
Mother Earth News says its a good time to plant cantaloupe and watermelon in our area.
They also recommend sowing cucumber and squash now.
In his hot list this week, Restaurant Reviewer Greg Cox of the N&O reminds that you should make reservations now if you intend to treat Mom to brunch. He says that area universities traditionally schedule graduations to coincide with Mother’s Day, so dial or click as soon as possible.
He mentions Margaux’s and Zest in my area for Sunday brunch possibilities.
Dr. Andy Angyal, professor of Environmental Studies at Elon University, will be speaking at the North Raleigh Library at 7 p.m., Tuesday May 26 on Green Design and the Quest for Sustainability.
The program sounds like its all over the place on a range of issues such as green architectural designs, local food production, efficient transportation, and conservation and renewable energy practices.
The library newsletter says:
This talk will examine the impact of global warming and climate change and Peak Oil. It will discuss some of the principles and practices of sustainable design, including the use of solar energy, more efficient material design, and the use of recyclable materials.
We will examine how local food production, improved public transportation, and more sensible land use planning practices can all contribute to the creation of a more sustainable society.
The library is looking for sign ups.
Slow Food of the Triangle will hold its 2009 Farm to Fork Picnic celebrating Local Food & Local Farms at 4-7 p.m. on Sunday, June 14th at the W.C. Breeze Family Farm in Hurdle Mills, Orange County.
Join Piedmont farmers and chefs for an early evening of food, music and fun activities for the entire family! $50 per person; free for kids 12 and under.
Proceeds will benefit farmer apprentice programs sponsored by the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) and PLANT @ Breeze Farm Enterprise Incubator program.
The 2007 celebration sold out fast – don’t miss this year’s Farm-to-Fork fun. Visit www.farmtoforknc.com for ticket information, updates and to view the 2007 Farm to Fork Picnic slide show. For more information, contact 2009farmtofork@gmail.com or call 919-755-3804.
The N&O in today’s paper starts what they promise will be a series of articles about folks growing food for the farmers market. Reporter Luciana Chavez writes about Chris Stonehouse who battles the deer to grow produce and flowers in her yard that you can find at the Pittsboro Farmers Markets on Thursday afternoons.
