Raleigh, NC
 

So, the new promotion comes with lots of travel opportunities - and hopefully the ability to sneak out of the office and do some sight seeing kinds of travel opportunities.

Thankfully said promotion comes with hella raise that will also let me enjoy said travel opportunities :)

First site of invasio...err...business opportunity, Raleigh, NC.

OC, aren't you from near those parts? (if you are grrl, we're SO doing coffee *G*)

I'll be there with my technical lead, my quality lead, and hopefully on occasion an industry expert or two. So, where do I (the project manager) take people for fun when they need to get away from the stress of a new project for a while?

I think I'd strangle myself with my own necktie if my title were "quality lead."

*snicker* My mother's in Quality Assurance. As a child I always pictured her job to be going to other people and assuring them that the product was good.

Actually her title is Quality Assurance and Testing Supervisor......but we call her QL for short...QATS just sounds so....dirty *G*

One thing I can tell you is don't go out for Mexican food (unless you like plain hamburger with ketchup on a tortilla), DO eat BBQ (some of the best I've ever had was in Mt. PLeasant, south of Raleigh, restaurant owned by an ex trooper), and be sure you know the difference between regular iced tea and "sweet tea", because man-oh-man is it sweet...........have a great time - it is beautiful down there.

We're here and getting settled in.

Last night for dinner was Bahama Breeze.(http://www.bahamabreeze.com/index.asp) Research quickly shows one is down Philly way - I highly recommend it. It's a chain, yes, but a big change from the standard burgers, fries, and mudslides you find at Fridays, Tuesdays, and Applebees. If you like Carribean cuisine and a laid back atmosphere, (and yes, reggae) this is most definitely a place you'd enjoy. I had Tropical Tiger Prawns which was a healthy portion of prawns marinated in passion fruit juices and served with roasted red pepper angel hair pasta and fresh squash. My dinner companion had the Calypso Shrimp Linguine - I 'm not sure what all was in it, but it sure did smell good.

We were on site for meetings today and met some awesome people. (We'll be working with them for the next year or so, so friendly is important!) Had lunch at Quiznos, nothing out of the ordinary - we were crunched for time and had to grab and go.

Got caught in a hella storm on the way back to the hotel from the office, and decided to work for a bit before heading out for dinner. Dinner this evening was sushi and sashimi at Sakura (www.steakandsushi.com). I'd never had the experience of sushi before and was a bit tentative on what to order. My dinner companion (traveling with someone who likes to try different things is a true pleasure) recommended to start with something I 'knew'. So, I opted for a cucumber roll and a philly roll. (Not standard sushi from what I've found, but it was good anyway). The cucumber roll was light and refreshing, dipped in a little bit of wasabi to give it some spice. The philly roll was also good, cream cheese, smoked salmon and avacado in seaweed and sticky rice. I was suprised at how rich everything tasted, even though it wasn't cooked and it was 'naked'. It's definitely going to be something I try again.

Tomorrow we're going out to lunch with our customer, and I think they're planning on something 'local', so hopefully it will be an experience as well. Since we're so busy on site this week, we've not had much of a chance to explore Raleigh, but I'm hoping that eventually we'll get to travel around a bit and see what's out here.

Dag

I had never heard of a Philly roll, and I consider myself sushi qualified. Googling these ingredients led me to several "localized" recipies, all the same. :) Philly roll, california roll, new york roll, broadway roll, green bay roll. Interesting. These flavors and textures are obviously very compatible, a discovery made independently in many places.

The best sushi ingredient is eel! Never,ever thought I would eat eel, ate it on a bet, but damn! Its great!

I just moved from Chapel Hill - a quick jaunt north of Raleigh to Illinois (Crapaign, Champaign - same thing) and I MISS NORTH CAROLINA SOOO MUCH. I miss my friends, seeing all the pine trees, and I miss Chapel Hill.

If you have time, you should go check it out. There are lots of unique restaurants, my favorites being Crook's Corner and Foster's Market. University of North Carolina is the country's first public university and the campus is gorgeous - definitely worth a post-dinner stroll. You could grab dinner on Franklin Street too.

Despite what people may say down there, Durham is also worth a look. It has a bad reputation for being a bit ghetto, but it is a very unique old Tobacco Town. BrightLeaf square in downtown has a lot of cool places to check out and many of them are in old Tobacco warehouses, so they have really unique architecture. The only bad thing about Durham in my book is that it is home to Duke University - I loathe them as a tar heel fan. Apparently, Dook's campus is really pretty too. I never went there as I refuse to venture that close into enemy territory.

I never made it to Raleigh much... the downtown does have some cool stuff.

If I think of anything else, I'll post it.

I spent my college years in Raleigh. Haven't been there since 1993, so a lot of my advice may be extremely outdated and irrelevant now.

Food:
Check out <a href="http://balihainc.com/">Bali Hai</a> for tasty Mongolian Grill action. If there's one Raleigh restaurant I miss, that's it.

Char-Grill is the definitive Raleigh burger joint -- fast food at its best. There's a Fuddruckers nearby for more refined burgers.

Goodberry's has good ice cream and custard.

Gumby's Pizza was the grease-pit pizza joint of choice among the NCSU set.

There's a Hard Times Cafe in Raleigh now, and if it's anything like its Maryland cousins it's damn fine chili.

There used to be an authentic cheesesteak joint downtown (TJ's Philly Grill: the owner moved from Chester, they had Amoroso rolls trucked in, and I'd donated a big pic of John Kruk to their walls), but I'm told it's long since closed.

Heh, Mr. Dunderbak's is still at the local mall -- decent German-style sandwich deli with all sorts of imported beer.

Rock-Ola Cafe was a decent casual-dining place.

People used to swear by Two Guys on Hillsborough Street for Italian. Dunno if the Rathskellar's still there.

Can't comment on the local cuisine too much, as grits are wallpaper paste mixed with sand, and REAL barbecue isn't vinegar-based.

The music scene was pretty good in the Triangle back then, dunno now. The Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill was the dive of choice.

Anyone remember the greasy spoon down towards Mt. Pleasant with the NASCARs on the roof?

Sheer prejudice. All barbecue is good. MMMmmmm barbecue.

All barbecue is good. All barbecue is made with tomato-based sauces (if any sauces at all) and with a smoker. It's one of the few things Texas has gotten right. Vinegar-sauced shredded pork isn't bad, but it's not barbecue.

Vinegar based sauce is absolute heaven!!! I miss it sooo much. I hate this sweet-ass Midwest shit. No offense to the midwest - I'm from here.

I think Two Guys closed in April.

Champaign, IL.. geez I spent a couple of years there.. my folks were doing the college thing..back in 77-78 (damn I am getting old.. not that the grey stripes look anything other than cool!).. damn trying to remember where we lived.. although the school I went to was southside elem. (closed now I guess).. wow.. remembering too much.

and in defense of the midwest (although I am not prone to that) there are good places if you know where to go, other than that? chicken fried steak all the way (and don't get me started on that fucking chicken fried chicken bullshit) (yeah 17 years cooking and mostly with chefs' uh yeah I know what I'm doing.. if only it worked out on dates :)) )

I have a friend who moved to the raleigh/durham area about a year ago, she's luvin' (as it were) it, but I keep hearing complaints about conversation... perhaps you kids could meet? I dunno.. just a thought

I grew up in the midwest... I'm just reaquainting myself - I guess in 5 years of living in NC, I got a bit southern!

What's funny is a lot of people have lived in Champaign at one point in their life, but no one seems to live here now :(. I wish they did because I'm getting bored!!!

I'm about 90 minutes from you, grrrl.... I'll IM you my phone number....

Sweet! please do!

college town, the turnover rate is amazing, like here in Lawrence (aka. Larryville)

okay, real quick.. as a fellow mid-westerer, what are 'grits' to you? (this has been a family arguement for as long as I can remember...)

Grits are ground up hominy corn. That white, thick corn stuff. I think it tastes like ground up rice and I never liked it. Plus the texture - eeeewwww!

Grits are like white, grainy gravy in my neck o' the woods too (Texas.) It tastes far worse than ground up rice and is an abomination.

Grits are a delivery mechanism for things that may actually taste good. That said, I'd rather eat the things that actually taste good and skip the bland crap they come with.

Grits are fifty.

grits are white corn hominy (look it up). they are often overwhelmed by another food/flavor, but they're fine on their own, maybe a little salt and pepper, and or a little butter. I like grits.

melidasaur - My bad, I was talking to Dagney, I'm located 90 minutes from Raleigh. Didn't mean to get your hopes up. Come back to NC and we'll party!

No problem :)... I'll let you know when I make my return to the old North State.

yeah, grits around here are ground hominy, however in Illinois/Indiana they are a shredded mixture or ham and beef that is pressed into patties and pan fried.. I like both varieties, I just wonder how two things so radically different from one another got the same name?

But which one is the True Grits? :D

Hominy is made from field corn that is soaked in lye and water.

I think true grits are ground hominy. It's dried after its soak... ground up, sold in bags... or you can even buy instant grits. Grits with Red-eye gravy has ham in it.

Shrimp and grits is really popular at this restaurant in Chapel Hill called Crook's Corner. They put cheese in their grits.

I tasted grits once... and decided that once was enough. Some southern foods - vinegar based bbq, hushpuppies, biscuits, sweet potatoes, pinto beans, collard greens, cobblers, and banana pudding are just so wonderful that you can easily overlook the fact that many of those people like grits too. :)

So wouldn't that render them unfit for human consumption, but pretty good for cleaning out a clogged drainpipe?

Perhaps that is what melidasaur was getting at ...

I don't know why, but I like grits. Strange because I do not really like oatmeal that much, but I also have a preference for salty stuff, and I tend to drown my grits in salt, butter, cheese and - you guessed it - tabasco sauce.

Once I ate my grits before they were cooked through. :dead:

Southern BBQ is most definitely NOT vinegar-based. Vinegar-based (usually pulled pork) BBQ comes from the east coast. BBQ down here is thick and sweet.

I do need to watch my BBQ lingo... mustard - SC, vinegar - eastern NC, tomato based vinegar - western NC. Vinegar-based is just a small portion of it. Thank you. :)

that was the weird thing about living in the south.. when I dipped my pizza in ranch they all looked at me like I was mad.. then they tried it.. SUCKERS!!! anywhoo! honey-mustard is the ranch of the south.. I like them both.. and then again the thing I miss the most is FRESH seafood.. right out of the ocean and on my plate. *sigh* and oh my.. collard greens! *drooling* it's been almost 10 years since I've had real collard greens and overly sweet sweet tea.. I think I know where I'm going on vacation (since I finally get one).

But which one is the True Grits?

I dunno, perhaps go ask Mamma (oh I hated that show!)

and I'll be damned if I'm going to get my lips anywhere close to her aged 'grits'