Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Eating my way through Raleigh, NC

This past weekend I headed south to Raleigh, North Carolina. Although I've been an East Coast girl my whole life, I have to admit that I haven't spent much time at all below the Mason Dixon Line. When the opportunity arose to visit my friend C, who was in Raleigh for a work assignment, I was excited to make the trip.

From the moment I landed and saw the airport traffic patroller zipping around on a Segway I knew I was going to be in for an experience:


What made me even more excited was the fact that I had been hearing rumors from Courtney at how amazing the food scene was in Raleigh. Most people assume that only big cities have great food, and that is something that I know not to be true. However, I was still surprised to think that Raleigh, NC had exciting food in store!

Upon doing some research on Raleigh, we learned that there is a walking food tour that you can do of the city! We weren't really sure what to expect, but I highly recommend it if you ever have the opportunity to do a food tour of a city. You get a great taste of what there is to offer and get to see the city. I tried to snap photos along the way, but forgot quite a bit.

Scallop atop homemade cornbread with pesto and red pepper sauce at Sunflower's:

Courtney and I enjoying homemade sparkling lemonade at Sunflower's:

Lamb kebab on sticky rice at the Troy Mezze Lounge:

No picture of the food, but we had Chicken BBQ at Clyde Cooper's!

One of the best parts of the weekend was actually the dinner we had on Saturday night. Yes, C and I went out for dinner after a food tour. It was that kind of weekend :) C brought me to one of her favorite Raleigh restaurants, Humble Pie. It is a small plate restaurant with dishes meant to be shared. We got four items to split and my goodness were they all good!!

Fried asparagus next to a spinach salad:

Chicken enchiladas:

Wild mushroom gnocchi in a white wine sauce:

The incredible atmosphere at Humble Pie!



We finished the weekend eating at UNC Chapel Hill's "Top of the Hill" restaurant with their own brewed blueberry beers -- served the best way, with fresh blueberries! It was an all around wonderful weekend in Raleigh with great friends, great conversations, and great food!