My Duke friends took me to Stoney River in Chapel Hill to discuss research over dinner. The space is large and decorated in a casual elegant style. The open kitchen is huge and fun to watch.
I started with this tomato and mozzarella salad. The mozzarella was very fresh and gave that nice chew along with some milky sweetness. The fried onions were very tender/crisp thanks to their thinness. And that pile is huge, isn't it?
My ribeye was nicely cooked to medium rare and salted. In addition to the mushrooms, I also tried the sweet potato souffle with nuggets of brown sugar.
Several of us enjoyed the creme brulee for dessert. It was very creamy and covered with a beautiful crystallized sugar sheet.
Our Texas Instruments colleague Cathy Wicks was gracious enough to host several of us at Ecco tonight. This is one of those restaurants that has been on my list for a long time. Even though it is within easy walking distance of Georgia Tech, I hadn't made it there until tonight. The menu is a combination of Italian, Spanish, and French that make use of some local Georgia ingredients. The combination of those three countries is sometimes a little forced, although the georgia ingredients (fruit, cheese) were all great and perfectly appropriate. We started out with a meat and cheese board. This actually reverses the French tradition, where cheese usually follows the main course. Everything was excellent. The Georgia cheese was a big hit, as was the French cow/goat cheese. I thought the sauscisson was very subtle and very good. The waitress said that the roast pork pasta was their signature dish, so I had to try it. It had traditional broad pasta (fresh, of course) ...
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