What To Have

The Humble Pie is always a great place to gather with friends for food and drinks. The food was amazing this time as well.

I talked about their grilled andouille sausage in a previous review so this time I’ll focus on the two other dishes I tried, their soup of the day and their ravioli.

I started with the soup, because it had been cold again in Raleigh after a wonderful week of warm weather. The soup was definitely not what I expected, but it made the meal. I’m not sure when they do this dish, but if it’s on the menu try it. It was Lobster Dumpling Soup or something like that. This dish was really less of a “soup” and more of a creative way to present lobster dumplings. They started with a small bowl of broth (think about 1 cup) and cooked a few vegetables with it. Then they deep fried 3 dumplings stuffed with lobster and spices. The dumplings were then arranged in the cup of broth so that they were halfway submerged. The closest thing I can think of is half-fried dumplings. But unlike those dumplings these were crunchy on one side and soft on the other. It was a texture I’d never really enjoyed before. Try this out if you can.

Part two of the meal was porcini and ricotta ravioli . I have to say, after the soup, I had pretty high expectations. Again, I was not disappointed. The ravioli were small hand made delights bursting with flavor. One of the best parts was that they were in an alfredo sauce but it wasn’t overpowering. The flavors and textures were able to meld together without one thing being too dominant.

I’d recommend any of these dishes with a nice glass of wine or a beer.

–Matt

There are a couple new cajun restaurants that have sprung up and come back in the recent months. As a big fan of spicy food, i’ve visited them a few times. Yancey is back with his place and The Big Easy is open a few blocks down. Both places are on Fayetteville street and while both are “Cajun” they both offer something a little different. I’ll detail Yancey’s in another article

I find that the big easy is a very good deal for the money. Their entrée’s are a good size and they often start with a salad. Tonight I had a couple of my favorites. The Louisiana Pretzel and the * Crawfish Etoufee*. The pretzel is definitely something different to try. It’s a large soft pretzel covered with crab/artichoke dip and cheese that’s baked until it’s warm throughout. I’m a big fan of all the ingredients, crab dip, artichoke dip, pretzel and of course cheese. I never would have combined them, they do it very well. I usually get this to start when I visit.

My main dish was their crawfish etoufee. It starts with a small house salad and your choice of dressing. The main dish is a fairly large bowl of etoufee with a pile of rice in the center. It has all the makings of great etoufee. The roux is light brown with plenty of flavor, the crawfish are cooked perfectly (not over-done and chewy). The dish is not too spicy but you can spice it up with some of the hot sauce on the table.

When you check the big easy out, also look notice the atmosphere, it’s what I’d expect to see in a New Orleans joint. They also cater to parties and events with their large upstairs area and large bar.

–Matt

Went to the Duck and Dumpling again tonight and as usual it was great. I started with some sui mai. Small pockets of goodness stuffed with a shrimp and pork. Steamed in your own little bamboo basket, then topped with a drop of oyster sauce. The chef takes time every day to make these fresh, so they always satisfy.

When I go to the duck and I’m feeling like something light, but filling, I will often get the Steamed Sea Bass. It a good size piece of fish lightly steamed until flaky. There really aren’t too many spices on this dish, the fish speaks for itself. For service, it’s placed on a bed of steamed bok choy and green onions. The focus of this dish is the fish, the accompanied vegetables and the bowl of jasmine rice on the side are do their job well and add simple flavor, but make you focus on the fish

–Matt

J. Betski’s does a lot of specials. I really enjoy the different sausage specials they do. Tonight, they were doing Bratwurst. They usually have Kielbasa I consider bratwurst a lighter type of sausage, it’s less dense than a kielbasa. They served this as they do the kielbasa, with a couple mustards and sauerkraut. If you visit and it’s on the menu, I would definitely try this.

Another special tonight was Cream of Cauliflower soup, it was creamy and pretty good. What really separated this dish from other versions at other restaurant was it’s topping of truffle oil. This added a very rich element to the soup. One of the waiters actually mentioned he could smell the truffle oil from around the corner. This soup is also made to order so it takes a couple extra minutes, but you know it’s not sitting in a pot somewhere.

At this point of the evening I was fairly full, but the bartender said “try the dessert, trust me”. So I gave the Lindzer(sp) Ice Cream Sandwich a shot. By far, one of the best desserts I’ve had in a while. This was started with two gingerbread layers. The house made gingerbread pieces straddled the border between crunchy and soft, a definite treat. The filling was amazing, three small scoops of homemade ice cream. In the center, a scoop of almond ice cream, on the outside, two scoops of Lindzer torte with raspberry swirl. The whole dish was sprinkled with candied almond slices. Again, if you’re there, and this is one of the specials, go lighter on dinner and finish your meal off with dessert and a nice sherry.

–Matt