Three Restaurants and a Preview

From Cuyahoga Falls to New York City to Banner Elk

For the final post of 2017, I thought I’d share some dining highlights from the year ending, preview some of Food Pilgrim’s destinations in the New Year, and explain a bit more about why I am doing this exercise.

The last first: When photographer and video producer Donna Campbell and I traveled North Carolina to create the guidebook series called Literary Trails of North Carolina for the state arts council (published by UNC Press), we also made a practice of trying to eat local dishes. No chains. Sometimes dining suggestions even made it into the narrative about literary destinations.

Ultimately, we had so much fun on our treasure hunt for NC writers’ historic haunts and chasing down references to places that had appeared in their poems, stories, and novels, we didn’t want to quit, even after we had put 150,000 miles on my truck and cris-crossed the state through three volumes–Mountains (2007), Piedmont (2010), and Eastern NC (2013). The series took nearly 10 years to produce.

Longing to explore some more, I cooked up the idea for The Month of Their Ripening: North Carolina Heritage Foods Through the Year, pitched the book to UNC Press, and soon we were back on the road, hunting down the backstories on twelve different ephemeral foods that matter to North Carolina’s cultural history. We were learning about foods that come around only once a year and make us long for them in the offseason. The twelve chapters discuss such distinctive ingredients as ramps (April), soft-shell crabs (May), scuppernongs (September), persimmons (November), and oysters (December). The book comes out in September.

Meanwhile, I am now telling stories of other food products and their producers around the state and beyond through this blog. I hope that these installments might reveal something new to readers and provide ideas for new dishes, dining destinations, and cultural traditions to try on. What drives me is curiosity, a hunger for getting on the road, and hearing stories of people who are passionate about what they do, while reflecting on the very human practice of making the food that also helps make memories.

In 2018 I plan to introduce you to a long-running flour mill in Boonesville, NC, two more Ashe County destinations–a maple syrup farm and a cidery. I hope these story ideas pique your interest in continuing this journey with me. Meantime, here are three restaurant recommendations that you might want to put on your bucket list for 2018:

The bakery case at Blue Door Cafe.

B R U N C H
Blue Door Café and Bakery, 1970 State Road, Cuyahoga Falls, OH

This find was pure lagniappe. On a regular summer business trip to western New York, we took a different route and landed in Ohio at brunch time. Because the Blue Door is both a café and bakery, all of the graceful pastries and associated breads are fresh from their ovens. The menu is decidedly European influenced with spaetzle, blintzes, crepes, and several kinds of custardy French toast. One involves apples and caramel; another is called bananas foster for the eponymous dessert and is made with sourdough, butter rum-soaked bananas, candied walnuts, chocolate, and more. Donna ordered crepes with fresh peaches. I cannot eat such heavy sweets for breakfast, but I loved reading about them on the menu. The Blue Door also values midwestern farm products such as Nueske’s thick cut bacon from Wisconsin and Ohio maple syrup. Their high level corned beef hash is made from “Neiman Ranch, nitrate free corned beef, organic potatoes and onions, sweet cabbage and organic carrots – all diced together, sauteed and served with local, cage free and free range eggs and a flaky croissant.” I ordered the huevos rancheros for which the tortillas are also house made, featuring Chihuahua cheese, refried black beans, D'Artagnan Spanish chorizo, and a local Brunty Farms organic egg. This breakfast bowl also came with fresh guacamole, lime crema, fresh pineapple salsa, and a spicy, house made tomato and red chili sauce. We’ll be taking that route again next summer.

Sugar dusted crepes with peaches and microgreens at the Blue Door.

L U N C H
Tim Ho Wan, 85 4th Avenue, New York, NY 

A foolish consistency be damned. Here I broke my rule against chains, but the only other U.S. link besides this one in NYC has just opened in Hawaii. Tim Ho Wan launched its dim sum dynasty in Hong Kong and soon earned a Michelin star. The chic but austere décor in Manhattan hosts a feeding frenzy from 10 am to 10 pm weekdays and a bit later on weekends. Okay, so we didn’t order the chicken feet, but we went early and ate and ate and drank hot jasmine tea and then Chinese beer as an antidote to the cold April bluster outside. It seemed like the real deal since we were soon followed by groups of students from nearby NYU and Cooper Union who huddled inside the door and outside on the street clutching table pagers and umbrellas that bumped and shuddered in the wind. The food came fast, and we kept ordering. My favorites were the deep fried eggplant with shrimp, the baked BBQ pork buns, and steamed dumplings with shrimp and chive. The pan fried turnip cake, however, did not remind me of past turnips I have known and loved.

Already deep into our dim sum, Donna Campbell helps decipher the delicacy of baked BBQ buns to a nearby diner at Tim Ho Wan in New York City.

D I N N E R
Artisanal
1290 Dobbs Road
Banner Elk, NC

Besides the manicured mountain setting, the outdoor tables set on a covered patio above a bold stream, and the daily menu that infuses the immediate locale andreaches east to harvest from the Atlantic Ocean, this seasonal restaurant is finally all about the best ingredients. Each element takes its moment on the palate, and the combinations are surprising and always aesthetically configured. Every plate is an abstract painting with intense colors that become flavor explosions. The portions may at first seem small but are right-sized by their intensity and mix of textures. Yes, Artisanal is very expensive, so this is a once-a-year destination for me, always with special friends. Among the deft combinations are cloudlike crab and pimiento cheese beignets served with pickled green tomato and a smear of bacon jam; rustic scallops with smoked tomato jam and local country ham; crispy tempura soft-shell crab with spiced cabbage, blood orange and creme fraiche; hickory smoked duck breast with sunchoke, kumquat, spinach pudding and caper; and most stellar among the sides–caramelized cauliflower with ramp pesto and parmesan. The operation is run by a Charlotte couple who have amassed an enormous wine cellar, convened a well-humored and unpretentious staff, and set a luxurious pace for meals that leave room for irresistible desserts based on fruit in season.

Happy New Year!

The Artisanal take on panna cotta with ripe, NC strawberries and creme fraiche.