Bull City Ciderworks 305 South Roxboro Street, Durham www.bullcityciderworks.com In my mission to sample every conceivable culinary occupationfrom growing food with aquaculture to preparing meals at a zooI recently went behind the scenes at Bull City Ciderworks. The business began in 2013 in a building on Elizabeth Street. In 2015, owners Ryan Bogard and John […]
Debbie Matthews
Posted inFood & Drink
Postal Fish Company Is a Dream Come to Life in the Most Unlikely Place
Postal Fish Company 75 West Salisbury Street, Pittsboro www.postalfishcompany.com Constructing a dream from brick and mortar: If you’re a rancher that might mean a stable. A hotelier puts up a resort. A carpenter creates a fully decked-out woodworking shop. And a trio of chefs in Pittsboro opens the Postal Fish Company, named after the venue’s […]
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Good Intentions and Political Wrangling Led to School Lunch as We Know It
Mary Spell worked as a baker in two different Durham middle schools in the nineties. At the time, Durham Public Schools had a mainly scratch-made philosophy in its cafeteria. Spell would arrive at seven-thirty every morning and, with her baking partner, craft hot yeast rolls, pizza dough, cookies, and cobblers to feed the children. Although […]
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Little Lessons on Frosting (and more) at BIG Bundts
BIG Bundts & More 721 Broad Street, Durham www.bigbundts.com In the past month, I’ve been in a VIP lounge at a food festival in South Carolina and a cake lounge in Durham. And I’ve got to say, while VIP-ing is pretty groovy, I’d rather spend my time in a cake lounge. Because cake. Every so […]
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Fair Food Dispatch: SPAM, A Lot.
Well, butter my buns and call me a funeral sandwich. This Saturday marked my last judging gig at the State Fair. It was for SPAM, and had the most entries—twenty-three. The trepidation I had about sampling dishes made with this classic canned ham product was multiplied many times over. Every contest sponsor chooses their own […]
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Fair Food Dispatch: Pecans (With a Side of Nerves)
My kid was a little nervous. I was preparing for my second contest of this year’s state fair: North Carolina Pecan Association’s Pecan Recipe Competition. My culinary school-educated child was about to be a judge for the first time. “Don’t worry. It’s fun and relaxed,” I advised. “Lisa [Prince, contest organizer] walks us through, and […]
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Fair Food Dispatch: Sweet Potatoes at Ten A.M.
Along with the very stringent, state-sanctioned contests at the State Fair, there are more relaxed cooking competitions, whose announcements come liberally sprinkled with smiling mascots and cheerful illustrations. Lisa Prince, host of UNC-TV’s Flavor, NC and From the Vineyard, along with the state’s agricultural department, organizes these contests and recruits judges. Companies like King Arthur […]
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The North Carolina State Fair Opens Today. Here’s More on What to Eat.
(This is our second dispatch from the North Carolina State Fair. Read our first one here.) Some people pine for eternal youth, or throwing a winning touchdown at the Super Bowl, or waking up as a Kardashian. Since my family moved here from Elizabeth City in the mid-eighties, we have only missed the State Fair […]
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La Farm Bakery’s Carolina Gold Rice Bread Shares Gems of the Past
La Farm Bakery 4248 Northwest Cary Parkway, Cary www.lafarmbakery.com I have just enough clear-eyed self-awareness to know that I would have become the crankiest of serial killers. One summer when I was little, my mom decided to lose some weight. It worked; she went down six full dress sizes. But the diet that worked so […]