Devour - Spring 2016

2 DEVOUR | SPRING 2016

INDUSTRY 10 | Things are heating with local entrepreneurs Bo and Faith Perkins’ condiment company, Addiction Sauces.

EDITOR Shea Carver

ASSISTANT EDITOR Shannon Gentry

ART DIRECTOR Kyle Peeler

ADVERTISING Shea Carver, Willa Brown, John Hitt, Rose Thompson

CONTRIBUTORS Rosa Bianca, Gwenyfar Rohler, Joel Finsel, John Burke, Emily Caulfield, Bethany Turner, Evan Folds, Linda Grattafiori

PHOTOGRAPHY Holland Dotts, Willa Brown, Trent Williams

ON THE COVER 6-7 | Tripp Engel’s culinary journey has taken him to kitchens all over the states. Now stationed at Brasserie Du Soleil in Lumina Station, he serves up fine French cuisine to local diners. Photos by Holland Dotts Photography

14-15 FARMER

Healing Earth Family Farm The Hartingers are a (bio)dynamic-farming family, growing certified organic leafy greens and welcome visitors to their empire of dirt.

16-18 EAT

Chicken Soup for the Local’s Soul Rosa Bianca takes a chicken-soup tour of Wilmington, getting a taste of international bests from La Güera’s chicken posole to Kyoto’s Tom Yum Gai.

DEVOUR is published by HP Media seasonally and covers southeastern NC. To subscribe to the print publication, the cost is $15 a year. Folks can sign up to subscribe in print or monthly via e-mail updates at www.devourilm.com.

ADVERTISING in Devouris easy! Feel free to call HP Media at 910-791-0688 or email shea@encorepub.com for a media kit. HP Media also offers advertising packages for Devour and its other publications, encore and AdPak.

30-31 IMBIBE Founding New Anthem

Tap into the latest brew news with New Anthem Brewery’s Bill Hunter and Aaron Skiles, as they prepare for their 2016 opening in downtown ILM.

38-39 FEATURE Water is More Than Wet

Evan Folds delves into one of Earth’s greatest mysteries: water. It’s the world’s most sensitive substance everyone uses and abuses.

ALSO INSIDE: Chef Profiles, pgs. 6-7 • Food Porn, pgs. 20-23 • Industry, pgs. 24-25 Cocktails and Conversations, pgs. 26-27 • Book Reviews, pgs. 40-41 • Culinary Calendar, pgs. 42-46 SPRING 2016 | DEVOUR 3

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40 BEERS ON TAP Great beer needs some great food to go along with it, and we’ve got both! We also have a Lil’ Tappers Kids Menu, so bring the whole family to OTap.

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Ogden Location: 6932 Market Street 910.791.7800

Dinner: Monday - Saturday: 5:30pm - 9:00pm

6623 Market St. (910) 799-3847 www.catchwilmington.com

Inside the Kitchen Getting to know executive chef Tripp Engel—and his food—at Brasserie du Soleil

BY Allison Ballard ● Devour contributor

i

f things had turned out a little differently more than a decade ago, Tripp Engel might be working in one of the most respected kitchens in New York City. Luckily for locals, he is turning out consistently accomplished fare at one of Wilmington’s most popular restaurants, Brasserie du Soleil in Lumina Station.

Although Engel has wandered around the country via restaurant, family and home always lured back the Brunswick County native. His style at Brasserie is evidence of what he’s learned: combining classic French dishes and techniques of his many mentors with local seafood and produce, all while incorporating interesting flavor profiles to create something unique to coastal Carolina.

There might be a cassoulet on the menu, but with local triggerfish and white beans, seasoned with ginger, coconut milk and chili. He purees rutabaga soup, French style, but garnishes it with Southern staples, like country ham and sorghum syrup. A winter lamb paillard is dressed with local cherry tomatoes, fennel and buttermilk herb sauce, and garnished with bacon-wrapped, gorgonzola-stuffed dates.

Like a lot of people who make a career in the kitchen, Engel started early by washing dishes and getting paid under the table. And he was still a teenager when he moved on to a Mexican restaurant and had the chance to run a kitchen. Still, when he graduated high school he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life. He tried college, but ended up moving back to the coast to help his mother.

• Right: Brasserie Cassoulet with triggerfish, white beans, ginger, coconut milk, and chili.

• Next page: Chef Tripp Engel Photos by Holland Dotts Photography

6 DEVOUR | SPRING 2016

INDUSTRY

Once he returned, it wasn’t long before he was working at a couple of Carolina Beach eateries, including Mariner’s Edge, a calabash-style seafood place headed by Mike Bowers of 2 Bros Coastal Cuisine food truck. “That was where I started to learn about classic sauces and good techniques,” Engel says. “It piqued my interest.”

He also started to receive accolades for his work. He was intrigued enough to look into C.I.A. textbooks and eventually enrolled in Charleston’s Johnson and Wales University. Sean Brock, the awardwinning chef of Husk fame, was his classmate. “He was in my stocks and sauces class,” Engel recalls. “You could tell he knew what he was doing, even then. We were friends the whole time we were there.”

Although Engel continued to work through school, after graduating with honors, he thought carefully about where he would go next.

Engel chose Boston Harbor Hotel and the kitchen at Rowes Wharf Sea Grille with renowned Chef Daniel Bruce. “It was super busy and he was making just beautiful food,” Engel praises. Here, with the guidance of an early pioneer in the farm-to-table movement, Engel started to have more confidence in his cooking.

It wasn’t long before he returned to Wilmington once again to help his family. This time he started working with Ash Aziz at Circa 1922, and developed a relationship with Scott Fisher, a beloved local chef who passed away in 2001. Engel agreed to be his chef de cuisine at Café Atlantique. Fisher’s life was cut short only a few months after it the cafe opened. “I credit him with showing me true passion for the work,” Engel adds.

After another search, and not quite finding the right fit, he connected with Jimmy Sneed, chef of the landmark restaurant The Frog and the Redneck. Engel and his girlfriend moved to Charleston to

work there. “I learned so much from him,” Engel tells—“more than I had learned from anyone.” When Sneed was tapped to open a restaurant at the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas, Engel planned to go with him. In the ensuing months as Sneed was prepping in Vegas, he arranged for Engel to continue his culinary education by offering in a couple of high-profile opportunities. Engel chose New York City and Eric Ripert’s celebrated Le Bernardin.

“It was the biggest deal of my career, and the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Engel says. He learned to work quickly, but also with a precision necessary to meet the restaurant’s expectations of perfection. “The amount of volume and the attention to detail was unlike anything I’d experienced,” Engel continues. “The amount of focus it takes to cook—it takes it all out of you.”

As Engel was making final plans to join Sneed in Las Vegas, the chef’s restaurant deal fell apart. With a pregnant wife at the time, Engel had to make another choice about his career: stay in Las Vegas, perhaps return to Le Bernardin, or make a new family in North Carolina. He came back home, and was soon the chef at Aziz’s new Brasserie du Soleil, which opened in 2005. It proved to be a well-liked gathering spot from the outset. For Engel, now divorced and remarried, it was the right decision.

“I like being close to my daughter, who is now 10,” he says.

“We make good food here with the best produce possible. I like the relationships I have with the farmers, fishermen and suppliers.

And I like Brasserie. It’s consistently busy and that makes my life better as a chef.”

Brasserie du Soleil is located in Lumina Station at 1908 Eastwood Rd. #118, (910) 256-2226. www.brasseriedusoleil.com SPRING 2016 | DEVOUR 7

Monday - Thursday: 11am - 9pm Friday - Saturday: 11am - 10pm (Lunch menu served until 4pm) Closed Mondays through the end of March.

1001 N. 4th Street • (910) 769-6565 www.facebook.com/thedistrictnc

TUESDAY TASTINGS MENU $10 per person - Cheese and chocolate for the table! $2.25 domestics, $4 drafts and $4 wells.

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Every Tuesday is Date Night!Every Tuesday is Date Night!

3 courses 3 courses

Fired Up! Bringing the heat and flavor to Wilmington

BY Shannon Rae Gentry ● Devour assistant editor When it comes to heat, I have few limits. I once made a pot of jalapeño soup because a friend gave me a grab-bag full of the spicy capsicums. My husband says I “ruined him” because now he can’t eat anything without covering it in Frank’s Hot Sauce first. (Child’s play, really, but it’s cute.) It’s not about punishing or hurting my taste buds—but I like to push their boundaries, which involves a little brow sweat and an occasional glass of milk. So when I go to restaurants, the little chili on the menus don’t scare me. However, there is a certain art to serving up authentic flavors and heat. ● Bo Perkins, owner of Addiction Sauces. Photos by Holland Dotts Photography 10 DEVOUR | SPRING 2016

Bo and Faith Perkins

INDUSTRY

Addiction Sauces • www.addictionsauces.com

While perusing hot sauces at Whole Foods a few months back, I came face-to-face with someone who understands my heat addiction. Bo Perkins was stationed at an aisle-cap table, sampling his hot sauces and grits by his local company, Addiction Sauces. He sold me on Addiction’s Bhut Jolokia—a.k.a. ghost pepper. Perkins let me shake several drops onto a sampling of his cheddar grits, which I was surprised to be able to taste. Though the heat was there, it wasn’t the loudest presence on my palate, which is exactly what Perkins had in mind.

Bo and his wife, Faith, have come a long way with their aptly named “Addiction Sauces.” They started in their home with an FDA license to manufacture hot sauces and other products. With their own small army of sophisticated taste-testers (daughters Maddie, Bethany, Emily, and Olivia, ages 6 to 12), the couple started with small-batches and grew from there.

The idea of Addiction Sauces began in the heat—err, the summer—of 2011. Sauce production began in 2012 and by 2013 the Perkins had hit the hot-sauce show circuit. They won their first Scovie Award at the Fiery Foods and Barbecue Show in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2013, taking home first place for their Bhut Jolokia.

They’ve scored many other wins since.

There are two stories behind Bo’s saucey interests: one started back in the early ‘90s when he lived in New Orleans after graduating from the Culinary School of America in Hyde Park, New York. The Big Easy was his introduction to the po’ boy and its hot-sauce pairings.

“I went to this one place called ‘Streetcar [Cafe],’ and they had a Firecracker po’ boy with shrimp, split down the middle with jalapeño pepper-Jack cheese. They breaded it and fried it. It was my favorite one,” he recalls. “Then I found at different places I’d used one hot sauce on one po’ boy and another hot sauce on another, and I thought, ‘Why can’t their be one sauce that completes the balance of salt, sweet, spice?’ So after going through hundreds of hot sauces, anything I could find, I started making my own.”

There are plenty of novelty sauces on the market—more feats of strength than flavorful condiments­. Bo says a good hot sauce has balance: a Goldilocks zone between hot and mild. “I’d say a little more than mild and less than-melt-your-face hot,” he says. “Anybody can make a hot sauce real hot, but to balance salts, sugars, acidity, and get the consistency correct, it’s not an easy task.”

The Perkins continue to grow their own peppers (as they did in the beginning) and make their own mash when time and demand allows. At one point they had 140 plants in their backyard, then had to expand to a plot off of Sidbury Road (across from Poplar Grove Plantation). They plan to seed 300 pepper plants in 2016.

Bo’s favorite pepper is bhut jolokia. He uses the sauce made from it on everything. While hotter, it’s also a slow-burning heat that takes a few seconds to gradually feel. A lot can hurt, a little is manageable.

“So, of course, I grew these peppers and had more than I knew what to do with,” Bo remembers. “I made a batch of sauce using my recipe I’d had for years and it lit me up like you wouldn’t believe it.”

His daughters saved the day … well, at least, what they were snacking on did. Bo took the array of pineapple, banana, and fruit they were eating, and chucked it into the sauce. “It was either going to be the best or the worst thing ever,” he tells. “It was awesome!” The sweetness and acidity of the pineapple, combined with the rich, creamy texture of the banana, balanced the heat well.

Addiction also has a habanero sauce, which is more forward on the palate. “Unfortunately different seasons yield different heat levels, so our last batch was hotter than expected,” Bo admits. “It’s designed not to be as hot, but it’s that upfront heat, so once you immediately taste it ... bam! It just hits you.”

For years Bo had his personal stash of sauce. Soon, friends started asking him to make more for them. For example, Peri Peri was designed for oysters—specifically, for Bo’s parent’s annual “Redneck Oyster Roast.” One year he was asked to bring his sauces, but he wasn’t convinced they were right for the job.

“So I made [Peri Peri], sent it up, everyone loved it and kept asking for it,” he remembers. Special requests are actually how the Perkins ended up expanding Addiction Sauces to grits, BBQ sauce, ketchup, granola, and spice blends. The idea for Addiction grits (white cheddar, jalapeño and garlic) came from a former owner of Cape Fear Seafood Co. He gave Bo a bag of grits from a South Carolina company to try. “I brought them home, cooked them, I took one bite and threw them in the trash,” Bo remembers. “I avoided him for three days . . . honestly, they tasted like chemicals.”

And so Bo accepted a challenge from the same friend: “Do better.” He got to work and looked into various processes and quality ingredients (such as real cheeses and milks). He needed to come up with a quick-cooking grits recipe. Once he found a formula he could put his name on, they quickly became a product staple locally.

The Perkins are entering other condiment endeavors, including “a different kind of ketchup” and a barbeque sauce. Bo didn’t want typical ketchup. He grew up eating Heinz like everyone else, but thought there had to be something better. While testing recipes he found them to be too sweet until he landed on the right blend of spices, charred onions and vinegar.

Speaking of vinegar…

The BBQ wars of vinegar-based versus everything else can get pretty heated in the Carolinas, but that didn’t stop Bo from making a sweet and tangy sauce. “I would never make sweet barbecue sauce,” Bo says, looking across the table to Faith.

“I’m more of a sweet than vinegar person,” Faith admits. “I love wings, and I love my wings drenched in sauce. I don’t like them too spicy, and I like a good, thick sauce, and that one seems to be it.”

The spice in their BBQ sauce comes from ground mustard seed, as to give it kick without overwhelming the palate with heat. “It’s the only sweet barbecue sauce that I’ll eat,” Bo concedes, “especially on fried chicken wings.”

Their arsenal includes homemade granola: original, chocolate and cranberry, and of course spicy. The Heaven & Hell blend is balanced with aleppo and bhut jolokia pepper flakes—and excellent on anything from salads to burgers to pizzas. Also in development for spring or early summer 2016 is a lavender vinaigrette. “It’s almost like we should just called ‘Addiction Food Company,’” Bo observes. “I love food and to be limited to just hot sauce... I’d really like to move forward with the granola, because so many people like it.”

Limitations on product expansion are often set by the process, and finding a co-packer to keep up with volume and standards of the Perkins. “It’s hard when you have something in mind—and you’ve been doing it and you know how it should taste,” Faith says, “and then you put it on a larger scale where companies are trying to lower the price by using different products.”

There are several different co-packers the Perkins use, some in North Carolina, while others reside in Florida. “We try to stay local because it’s a North Carolina product, but as you grow you’ve got to look at all of your expenses and costs,” Bo adds. “ More important than anything, I want to have quality products that people enjoy.”

Mai Burch

Southern Thai • 3715 Patriot Way, Unit 123 www.southernthairestaurant.com

Southern Thai’s central location at 3715 Patriot Way makes it a

SPRING 2016 | DEVOUR 11

INDUSTRY frequent stop for pick-up orders, but the space lends itself to so much more. As part of a strip mall, it may fool newcomers from the outside, but inside are vibrant coral walls and Thai-inspired decor that welcome guests before anyone greets them.

There’s a certain feng shui to the area and how it’s utilized for optimal seating and comfort for 50 to 60 diners. A woman came in for a takeout menu as I awaited at a window table for my interviewee, Southern Thai’s owner Mai Burch. The guest sang praises to the waitress for a carryout order she’d gotten a week prior—which prompted her return.

“The food here is ah-mazing!” another woman concurs as she eats her lunch at the bar.

When it comes to her restaurant, Burch takes pride in its promise to deliver affordable authentic Thai cuisine—with a big helping of Southern hospitality. “We all really care about what we eat, so that means you eat the same,” she says.

A streak of emerald green in her dark hair is as subtle as she is.

Burch is originally from southern Thailand, but has lived in Wilmington since she moved here with her then husband in 2003. After years of working with other Thai restaurants, she decided to open her own in 2013. “I had the idea for a restaurant for maybe two years and then I went to some friends to see if they would help out,” she explains. Sai Thammavong and Oye Schwartz, who work wonders in the narrow Southern Thai kitchen while Burch manages the front of the house, helped Burch.

“They are both my best friends and I’ve known them for a

SERVING

CHINESE Japanese thai $4.75 LUNCH BOWLS FROM 11AM - 3PM EARLY BIRD DINNER SPECIALS FROM 5 - 7PM

MON-thur: 11am-3pm and 5pm-9:30pm Fri-sat: 11am-3pm and 5pm-10pm

4102 market st. • (910) 332-3302

www.kyotoasiangrille.com 12 DEVOUR | SPRING 2016

long time,” she continues. “We live in the kitchen like family. I don’t boss around. They do what they do and I do what I do.”

The petite and soft-spoken restaurateur rarely joins Thammavong and Schwartz in the back at Southern Thai to cook, unless they’re shorthanded or particularly busy. Burch did, however, develop the extensive menu with her former business partner, Wa Na, who eventually returned to Thailand. “She was the better cook,” Burch admits.

Nevertheless, she does enjoy making at-home versions of Thai papaya salad, stir fry and fried rice—all found on the Southern Thai menu. “My son loves my fried rice,” she adds. “Particularly spicy basil, like the one we have here, but I make it more spicy—more chiles, more basil leaves.”

In her experience Burch says a lot of Thai restaurants tone down traditional spice and flavor of pleasing sensitive, picky or unadventurous palates. “I think most Thai restaurants have a similar menu,” she clarifies, “but the way we do ours is that we keep everything fresh all the time. We’re not scared to make it more flavorful.”

She also says Southern Thai’s kitchen doesn’t cut corners on ingredients. Real coconut milk makes up an array of curries—save for the Southern-style, which comes with traditional bamboo shoots, green beans, bell peppers, baby corn, and basil in red curry paste sans milk. Panang and Massaman are alongside more familiar red, green and yellow curries.

“Our curry is better than a lot of places; I can say it because people say it,” Burch quips. “Because we are not cheap on the coconut milk, not adding water . . . [and] we go heavy on everything, and [add] fresh vegetables.”

While most Southern Thai menu items don’t have a long list of ingredients, the minimalist approach doesn’t compromise flavor.

The pineapple fried rice (one of Burch’s favorites) has robust cilantro, onions and scallions, which aren’t overshadowed by the light

sweetness of pineapple, and includes a slightly crunchy texture with cashew nuts. “When you eat food [out at a restaurant] you add [salt and pepper], here you don’t need to do that,” Burch adds.

While Burch says the food is pretty darn close to traditional cuisine from her home country, it’s still not as spicy as she knows it could be. “We lower the heat—we start it really low—but if you want spicy, tell us,” she explains. “We do medium, hot and Thai hot.”

There are still a couple of dishes marked with a red chile pepper to warn particularly sensitive palates to heat. For the diner who’s never eaten at Southern Thai, or ever tried Thai cuisine period, Burch recommends the kitchen’s vegetable stir fry with garlic sauce.

While Burch takes pride in the quality of her food, she takes customer service and hospitality just as seriously. She has a straight-

forward philosophy and goal in this business: Everyone should be happy. Sometimes that means having a flexible menu.

“I got one guy who comes in here, he’s even been to Thailand, he asked us to do Thai basil ‘Thai style,’” Burch tells. “I had a customer [who] couldn’t eat soy sauce or any oils, but she comes in with her husband who comes to eat our pad Thai. So we make something [off] menu, because she has to sit down with her husband to eat.”

Getting more people to dine in is something Burch always shoots for. Some of the food just isn’t the same experience in a box after a car ride home. Mostly, Burch says, the beautiful space is too often bypassed and her attentive staff under-utilized. “I feel for my servers because often my sales are [fine] but dining in is [low],” Burch admits. “So I always tell people, ‘Come in and bring your family!’”

That’s an open invitation to all.

● Mai Burch, owner of Southern Thai.

Southern Thai is open Mon. - Thurs., 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.

- 9:30 p.m.; Fri., 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. - 10 p.m.; Sat., 12 p.m.

- 10 p.m.; and closed Sunday.

Photo by Holland Dotts Photography

SPRING 2016 | DEVOUR 13

Healing Earth Family Farm: A certified organic and biodynamic hot bed of health

BY Linda Grattafiori ● Devour contributor

Matt and Stephanie Hartinger are beginning their fourth year of farming and second year of following the stiff regulations of being certified organic. In naming their Rocky Point farm “Healing Earth,” the Hartingers not only endure the rigors of certified organic disciplines, but also integrate healing practices from bio-dynamic farming and holistic health. “We document everything we do on the farm,” Matt tells. “Our neighbors are aware of what we’re doing. Once you start eating truly healthy food, a transformation occurs; your consciousness begins to change and you become healthier.” ● Above: Matt Hartinger and his daughter, Juniper, farm the land together; (right) Many greens and lettuces grow at Healing Earth’s biodymanic farm. Courtesy photos.

14 DEVOUR | SPRING 2016

“So long as one feeds on unhealthy soil, the spirit will lack the stamina to free itself from the prison of the body.”

— Rudolph Steiner, “Secrets of the Soil” They’re now branching out to Wilmington. Customers can find them at local farmers’ markets, sharing their philosophies—“transferring our energy from the food we grow to the food you eat,” Matt continues— and their crops. One they’re most excited about is Carolina Gold rice, grandfather of the long-grain rice and a native heirloom of the Antebellum Period. Last fall the Hartingers harvested 202 pounds of milled rice.

“I contacted this SC guy, and he shipped me the seeds for free in May and said, ‘Grow it!’” Matt recalls.

This “SC guy” happens to be the renowned visionary and founder Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills. Together, with his wife Kay Rentschler, former NY Times journalist (“A Grits Revival with the Flavor of the Old South,” 2004), Roberts is putting Carolina Gold rice and other heirloom seeds on the Carolinas’ culinary map (ansonmills.com/recipes). He was more than happy to share his seeds with the Hartingers.

In October, scythe in hand, Matt and his family harvested the rice, tossed it into a U-Haul, and drove five hours to Morganton, NC, to have it threshed. After it dried for 10 days, Matt drove back to have the rice milled, but not polished.

“When the rice is polished, it loses all its nutrients,” he explains. “This summer we plan to build our own barn, which will house a small mill from South Korea. A little bit of this rice fills you up and is very satisfying.

It’s hard work to plant it, but then I can just watch it grow (as opposed to most vegetable crops, which require constant attention). It gives me a lot of pleasure.”

Although he grew up baling hay in Nebraska and Indiana, Matt wasn’t always a farmer. For years he served as a Marine in Afghanistan. During his down time, he read Rudolf Steiner’s agriculture course on biodynamics called “Secrets of the Soil: New Solutions for Restoring our Planet.”

Matt knew in his heart he had to give farming his best shot.

“The Marines brought me to NC,” he says. “When I left the military, I began interning for Stefan Hartmann of Black River Organics in Ivanhoe.

One day I was delivering vegetable boxes for CSAs (community supported agriculture), and I met Stephanie.”

Matt and Stephanie shared their passions for healthier living and eventually for each other. They married and purchased 30 acres of land in Rocky Point in 2012. A water-quality major, Stephanie proved a quick study in farming and contributed her own knowledge of herbs gleaned from her work at Paula’s Health Hut. She became a certified educator at the Living Foods Institute in Atlanta, GA, and discovered the healing properties of raw foods, fermenting, juicing, and sprouting.

Soon the Hartinger farm began taking shape with a 30-by-45-foot cedar-wood greenhouse for growing luscious greens: spinach, arugula, Asian greens, rainbow Swiss chard, and a wide variety of lettuces. Not only was the greenhouse pregnant with salad fixin’s, but Stephanie was pregnant with a baby girl, Juniper, who (two-anda-half years later) will soon be joined by a baby brother. Matt has two older children, Isabella and Lucas, who enjoy helping with the harvests and can transplant with the best of them.

Matt is also a shooting instructor for the Coast Guard and gets pointers from his boss about permaculture—a system of 12 principles which allows farmers and other growers to creatively re-design both the environment and behavior.

INDUSTRY “Starting up a farm is really hard work,” Matt says. “You need help from everyone. The government promotes corporate farming, 1,000- to 2,000-acre farms. But the kind of small farms you have determines the kind of community you have (the operative word being ‘kind’). Some people like to think we’re ‘there,’ but we’re not ‘there’ yet. The northeast is way ahead of the power curve, but very few areas in America have that kind of community. You have to completely change yourself— get selfishness out of your mind—all those little petty things.”

The Hartingers want families to visit Healing Earth, to volunteer their talents and learn certain principles of biodynamic farming, such as proper composting, which helps increase necessary bacteria and enzyme decomposition, and understand how important microbes and earthworms are to the dinner plate.

Their five-year plan includes selling Carolina Gold rice and garlic to Tidal Creek, various farmers markets and interested restaurants.

They will continue the yearly CSAs, but on a smaller scale as to focus on the rice.

They want to add more animals to the farm to keep their Rhode Island Red hen and Buff Orpington rooster company. A small farm store will sit on the highway with flanking vegetable plots so Stephanie can demonstrate her gardening prowess.

Follow them at www.healingearthfarm.blogspot.com and see what’s happening on the farm and in the kitchen, with such delicious recipes as Garlic Scape Pesto (below).

GARLIC SCAPE PESTO INGREDIENTS: Garlic scapes (two or more) Olive oil Lemon juice Parmesan cheese Sea salt METHOD: Process to desired consistency and enjoy with vegetables and pasta.

SPRING 2016 | DEVOUR 15

Supreme Slurping Chicken soup for the local’s soul

BY Rosa Bianca ● Devour contributor and encore magazine restaurant critic

a

s my imaginary friend, Jason Mraz, once said, “If you’ve gots the poison, I’ve gots the remedy.”

In other words, simmer down— because I’ve stumbled upon Wilmington’s most supremely slurpable cures to aid whatever ails. But we’re not talking cocktails or craft brews here, so slide away those Freakers and shine up the spoons.

Otherwise: “No soup for you!”

Here’s where things get weird: Technically, I’m from the past. Not in the I-was-therefor-the-signing-of-the-Declaration-of-Independence kind of way. What I mean is: The very words read here were written several months ago. I’m not sure what the present world currently looks like to everyone else, but back in my time—January 2016—we experienced quite bizarre weather. One day I would be trotting down Front Street in flip flops, and the next ... buried under a pile of scarves and sadness.

So, as I sit here writing in the past, I’m unable to determine if readers are skipping along Wrightsville Beach or ice skating down Lumina Avenue. Either way, it could happen.

Here’s the good news: No matter the temperature, there is nothing quite as consoling as a savory, soothing bowl of soup. Whether working to cure a case of the sniffles or just looking for a way

• Right: Nawab’s Indian chicken soup.

• Next page: (Top) Saigon Bistro’s sweet and sour chicken soup and (bottom) Kyoto’s Thom Yum Gai. • Page 18: La Güera’s chicken posole.

Photos by Holland Dotts Photography

16 DEVOUR | SPRING 2016

EAT to enjoy that “One Tree Hill” marathon going down, brothy goodness makes for a perfect accompaniment.

My mission for this assignment was to seek out some of Wilmington’s most inspiring, soulful chicken soups. And to make things even more interesting (not that time traveling to tell this story wasn’t pretty kick-ass), I decided to step outside of my chicken-noodle comfort zone and take on restaurants dishing out international bowls.

Vamos a cavar!

Hãy dào sâu!

Daeuna hafr fi!

Let’s dig in!

Kyoto Asian Grille 4102 Market St. • (910) 332-3302 For my next bowl of multicultural magic, I stopped by one of my staples: Kyoto Asian Grille. This unsuspecting Asian eatery sits near the junction of Princess Place and Market Street. A close friend with an affinity for Thai food once led me here after reading their nearly perfect ratings online. I have been a loyal follower ever since.

Their Shrimp Pad Thai is on point, so I couldn’t wait to get my spoon into a bowl of their traditional Thom Kha Gai soup. This coconut-milk based concoction features large, tender pieces of chicken and slivered onions. The broth tastes superbly sweet with a tangy kick from fish sauce.

But the surprising star ingredient comes in the mushrooms. Meaty and lush, the abundant ‘shrooms in this soup soaks in every sour drop. The velvety, aromatic base is rich and flowing with citrus-y lemongrass and bright cilantro.

It left me saying, “More, please.”

Nawab’s chicken soup so special.

“Love,” he said and smiled back at me. Noted.

Though simplistic and not brimming with vegetables, the broth exploded with an exotic bang. The classic Indian flavor trio—onion, ginger and garlic—seemed to form the base along with sweet, nutty coriander and earthy cumin. The chicken was roughly chopped rather than served in large pieces.

This allowed shreds of the meat to add texture to the savory broth.

As I was leaving, my server exclaimed, “Tell your friends about us!”

Promise kept, my friend.

Saigon Bistro 21 N. Front St. • (910) 769-2628 My last adventure-in-a-bowl comes from a familiar place—at least to me. When I walked through the doors at Saigon Bistro on Front Street, a winding staircase behind the bar caught my eye. I suddenly recognized this to be the very building whose windows I had once scrubbed four years ago. As it turns out, I was a serverin-training for one of the many restaurants that ultimately failed in Saigon’s location.

Don’t worry; I got out just before things went sour.

Now, here I was, placing an order for sweet-and-sour soup. Funny how things come full circle.

Saigon’s Vietnamese menu bursts at the seams with spicy, authentic dishes packed with inspired flavor and a French influence.

Nawab Fine Indian Cuisine 6828 Market St. (910) 769-7418 In search of a traditional Indian chicken soup, I came upon multiple online reviews labeling Nawab Fine Indian Cuisine a “must-try.” Its quick onslaught of fans had me out the door and zipping down Market Street in a flash. As I sat at the quaint bar, as my server suggested some rice or bread to go with my soup. Warm, buttery, charred naan fresh out of the tandoor oven and stuffed with rosemary? OK, twist my arm.

As the menu didn’t note specific ingredients, I inquired what made SPRING 2016 | DEVOUR 17

EAT I opted for the Canh Chua, or Hot Pot Soup, with chicken.

This abundantly packed broth wafted intoxicating scents of fried onions and sticky pineapple. It was sublimely tangy, but balanced beautifully by the sweetness of the fruit. I dug my spoon deep to find massive chunks of chicken breast, large halved tomatoes, bean sprouts, and crunchy cylinders of okra. A few fluffy spoonfuls of jasmine rice later, I was in soup heaven. Each bite was addictive in a way that makes me wonder if there’s crack in pineapple. I have a good feeling about you, Saigon.

La Güera 6620 Gordon Rd. • (910) 392-6682 In my research of local Mexican cuisine, I discovered one hidden gem—tucked away in a small shopping center off of Gordon Road. Family operated, La Güera is known for their uniquely authentic fare and especially, for their posole (hominy soup, which can be enjoyed with the addition of chicken, pork or both). La Güera’s been serving up tasty eats here for several years.

Their posole comes with a vibrant crimson broth that permeates the air with the perfume of sweet paprika, sharp garlic

and smoky cumin. It’s dotted with loads of chewy hominy (hulled corn kernels) and—of course, in my order—delicate, shredded chicken.

The posole came with its usual side car of condiments: homemade fried tortillas, lime wedges, radishes, finely chopped cabbage, onions, jalapeños, and cilantro. Each silky bite blends rich with tomatoes and Mexican oregano and bay leaf—known for expertly enhancing warm spices and meaty flavors.

Posole is known for its reputation to cure hangovers.

You’re welcome, everyone.

Come enjoy delicious food, waterfront dining and panoramic views of the best sunsets Wilmington has to offer! www.elijahs.com

2 Ann St. Wilmington, NC • 910-343-1448 18 DEVOUR | SPRING 2016

The Hang Town Fry

Cafe • Catering • Prepared Foods Meats • Wine • Gourmet Store 3520 S. College Road Phone: (910) 350-3663 • Fax: (910) 350-3691

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SPRING 2016 | DEVOUR 19

Brooklyn Pizza Co.

Beach Bagels

Ceviche’s

Hops Supply Co.

6932 Market St • (910) 395-5558 Grandma Sicilian Pie- Homemade fresh mozzarella with plum tomato and basil.

7210 Wrightsville Ave • (910) 256-3131 Langosta de Coco Ceviche - Langostine tails marinated in a mix of citrus juices and coconut milk, with ginger, red bell pepper, red onion, cilantro, avocado, and habanero.

7220 Wrightsville Ave • (910) 256-1222 José - Egg, bacon, sausage, onions, provolone cheese, cream cheese, onions, and jalapeños on a toasted bagel.

5400 Oleander Dr • (910) 833-8867 Mac ‘N’ Cheese - Rigatoni tossed in a smoked Gouda and white cheddar cheese sauce with shrimp, andouille sausage, roasted tomatoes, and poblano peppers.

Henry’s Restaurant & Bar

A Taste of Italy

Eternal Sunshine Café

Oceanic Oceanfront Dining

2508 Independence Blvd • (910) 793-2929 Henry’s Shrimp and Grits - Sautéed shrimp in prosciutto cream sauce served over Guilford County grits.

420 Eastwood Rd • (910) 791-6995 Country Rock - House-made buttermilk biscuit, handbreaded chicken, one scrambled egg, topped with our creamy Southern sausage gravy.

1101 S College Rd • (910) 392-7529 Eggplant Parmigiana - Thinly sliced eggplant breaded and fried to perfection, layered with sauce and cheese, and topped with mozzarella in a dish with pasta or on a wedge.

703 S Lumina Ave • (910) 256-5551 Crab-Stuffed Shrimp - Jumbo shrimp stuffed with our famous Carolina Crab Cake and topped with Mornay sauce, served with lemon-herb orzo and asparagus.

Sweet-n-Savory Café

Clean Eatz

Baba Ghannouj

Bluewater Waterfront Grill

1611 Pavillion Place • (910) 256-0115 Scallops and Pork Belly - Seared sea scallops paired with grilled smoked pork belly, served over creamy yellow stone ground grits, sautéed spinach and roasted tomatoes, finished with roasted corn relish.

351 S College Rd #29 • (910) 769-1056 Greek Gyro Sandwich - Served in Greek pita with lettuce, tomato, onion, olives, feta and cucumber sauce. *Choice of beef and lamb or chicken.

203 Racine Dr • (910) 452-3733 Build Your Own Bowl - Salmon, broccoli, asparagus, snow peas, and brown rice.

4 Marina St • (910) 256-8500 Surf and Sand - Filet topped with five bacon-wrapped shrimp and a horseradish cream sauce, served with garlic mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables.

TO

EAT! Recipes to try at home

Food Your Feelings: Local blogger shares latest round of recipes from her kitchen

BY Emily Caulfield ● Devour contributor, Food Your Feelings blogger, http://dearemilycaulfield.wordpress.com.

It is a mad scientist’s power that comes from making something wonderful and brand new.

A singular dish that was just a grocery list of disparate ingredients, moments or hours before. The golden, shimmering alchemy of cooking is one of the ways I fill my life with warmth and light. I cook home food; no molecular gastronomics, no loopy swirls on the plate. It is a remarkable thing to be confident in providing for yourself—not just surviving, but creating, often out of very little, a feast, nourishing and magnificent in its rustic simplicity.

ROASTED TOMATO & HERBED CHEESE STRATA INGREDIENTS: 1 1⁄2 cup grape tomatoes, rinsed and dried Olive oil French bread, diced or torn into bite-sized pieces Small yellow onion, sliced into thin half-moons 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar 1 tbsp water Elephant garlic, 3-4 cloves sliced thinly 3.5 oz Feta cheese (or goat, or any soft/semi-soft salty cheese) 1/3 cup milk 3 whole eggs Handful parsley 1 tbsp butter METHOD: Roast whole grape tomatoes and slices of garlic tossed in olive oil 24 DEVOUR | SPRING 2016

at 400 degrees for about 30-40 minutes, stirring often. Next to them, dry out the torn bread. Just dice some bread and toast it on a dry pan as the tomatoes roast in their own dish. Keep an eye on it, though.

Depending on your oven, it may be ready sooner than the tomatoes.

While all that’s going, caramelize the onion in a small pan, just with a glug of olive oil, a tablespoon of butter and salt for 20-30 minutes, stirring often over medium heat. Add balsamic and water, and stir.

Cook until the onions are deep gold and sweet.

Pull the tomatoes and set aside, then pull the onions and pour over tomatoes. The bread’s probably ready, too, if it’s not already out of the oven. Pull and set aside to cool, the croutons should be very hard and dry to the touch.

Crack the eggs and lightly beat them with the milk, salt and pepper. Pour in the croutons and Feta, and toss gently to coat. Let sit for 3-5 minutes to absorb all the liquid. Pour the saturated bread into the roasting dish with tomatoes and onions, and toss gently. Try to keep the tomatoes in tact, so there are distinct tomato-y bites that spark with the cheese, veggies and herbs!

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes, and check it often. It’s ready when the egg has set, and it’s all gold and lovely. Enjoy!

gingery garlic, golden chicken & carrot coin soup INGREDIENTS: 1 large vidalia onion, diced 1 lb chicken, rinsed and dried 5 fat carrots, peeled and sliced into very thin coins Small knob ginger 1 tsp ginger powder 4 cloves ginger, sliced finely 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp turmeric

EAT 3 tbsps olive oil 8 cups chicken stock METHOD: First of all, roast the chicken separately from the simmering soup.

Preheat the oven to 400, brush the chicken with olive oil, salt and pepper, and throw it in a pan, then walk the eff away—for at least 10 minutes! Then flip and walk away again, for another minute. It only needs 20 to 25 minutes.

For the soup: Put a little oil in the pan, add onion, salt, garlic and spice powders (ginger, garlic, turmeric). Heat over medium for about 7 minutes, stirring often, then add the carrot coins. Adjust seasonings, and cook for another 5 to 7 minutes. Toss in the fresh garlic and ginger, and cook another minute. Turn the heat up, add stock and bring to a boil.

Check the chicken! It should be done! Pull it and let it cool. Then, shred it into thin “noodles” as soon as it’s cool enough to touch.

Turn the soup’s heat way down to a whimper, and let it warm for another 15 minutes or so. Everything’s mingling like the best kind of cocktail party (a.k.a. not too long). Shred the chicken into long, thin strands, like noodles, and add to the pot/party. Let it hang out another 5 minutes, then serve warm rather than hot, with fresh black pepper and giant sourdough toasts.

Place in the center of the oven and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown and set; the toothpick test is a lifesaver here. Let it sit at least 20 minutes before serving. It should be served warm or at room temperature.

Here’s how to conjure this magic, straight from the bartender’s mouth: Add all ingredients in mixing glass, stir until properly diluted, serve over block of ice and garnish with orange zest.

Mmmmmagic!

TAKE-AWAY ASIAN SLAW For the salad: 1 small head green cabbage, julienned 1 bunch green onions, sliced finely (just white and light green parts) 1 lb carrots, shredded or slivered into thin strands 1 fat bunch mint, sliced finely 1/3 cup peanuts, shelled and busted up into small pieces 3 fat cloves garlic, minced 2 small hot chiles, diced

For the dressing: 2 tbsps soy sauce 1 tsp fish sauce 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar 1 tsp sesame oil 1 tbsp light brown sugar Lime juice from one full lime Ginger powder, to taste

Boozy Cold Brew INGREDIENTS: 2 oz Eagle Rare Bourbon 1 oz Carpano Antica Italian vermouth 1 oz Folks Cafe chilled espresso 3 dashes of Fee Brothers black walnut bitters METHOD: Full disclosure: This is not my original recipe. This ingenious cocktail is yet another from the fertile mind of Ian Murray of Manna, located in downtown Wilmington. Since he whipped up this delicious coffee cocktail for us last November, we’ve been thinking of and drinking little else.

METHOD: These are really the bones for the most authentic-tasting bounty of crunchy slaw you’ll ever lay your teeth on. You can add or subtract ingredients based on personal preference, (particularly with the strength of the dressing), but just keep tasting and adjusting, and soon some real-ass Asian slaw will be blooming under your whisk.

Here’s a tip, though: Make the dressing before, and let it sit and souse while you get on with the chopping and shredding. Then, when everything is similarly beribboned and ready for the delicious, sharp citrus-y juices and heady aromas, dress the veggies. Taste, adjust, and taste again. If it’s too spicy, more soy neutralizes heat. If it’s too fish saucy or nutty from the sesame, a dash more sugar can remedy. It’s all about lightness and freshness: normally, I’m all about some heavyhanded flavoring, but this recipe sings when less is more. Plus, the more subtle the dressing, the more crunch we can eat!

It’s a bit austere, but never out-and-out draconian. A go-to when I need some my-body-is-a-temple food, and it always restores!

SPRING 2016 | DEVOUR 25

Cocktails and Conversations An old man and the Negroni

BY Joel Finsel ● Devour contributor, mixologist and author of ‘Cockatils and Conversations from the Astral Plane’

i

t was one of those miserably cold winter weeknights at the restaurant—the kind of evening in a small city by the sea when you’re lucky to make enough money to get your car out of the parking garage at the end of it. Whether we have a book full of reservations or none, setting up the bar is pretty much the same as any other: There’s always the possibility of getting slammed. It could be a theater rush or the fall-out of a fundraiser, where at the end the organizer stood onstage and declared us the spot for the official after party. A bartender never knows, except to be ready for anything.

I was in the kitchen, gathering stray tools for my station, when Chef caught my eye. He was at a prep table nearby, standing over a robot coupe and a few bowls of ingredients. “Hey, Joe!” he said. “Do you want to see a miracle happen?”

“Absolutely,” I said.

He smiled as he added handfuls of various herbs, spices and a little oil into the industrial blender. He pressed the button with a childlike joy and the once separate components combined into green goo.

“I want to see the miracle,” a dishwasher named Parker said, hovering nearby.

Before long, others congregated, too.

Chef poured the concoction through a cheesecloth to filter out solids. He then poured the low-pulp liquid back into the machine. He looked up into our expectant faces, then began spooning in white powder.

“So far, we have changed solids into a liquid,” he said, continuing to spoon in more powder. “Now, for the miracle: We will turn this liquid back into a solid again.”

“Whoa!” Parker said.

26 DEVOUR | SPRING 2016

• Joel Finsel, bartending at Manna. Photo by Trent Williams

“Everywhere the sky is blue. There are a multitude of cuisines and dishes. I think of them as the languages and dialects of food.”

—Ferran Adrià

IMBIBE “What’s the chemical?” I asked.

“Tapioca-maltodextrin,” he said.

With each spoonful, the liquid thickened to something closer to hummus.

“Maltodextrin is an emulsifying agent,” Chef said. “It bonds to oils and stabilizes them. Since tonight is our tribute to El Bulli, we’ve got a few molecular gastronomy options for any bar guests brave enough to suffer through a little freezing rain to get here.”

“Wow,” Parker said. “Look, it’s a solid again.”

True to Chef’s word, the green liquid herbs became flakes. A few of us began to clap.

Back at the bar, I looked up a few terms online. There’s nothing worse than having to stand in front of guests and not know the answer to basic menu questions. I began with “molecular gastronomy,” the “science that investigates the physical and chemical transformations of ingredients that occur in cooking.”

Check.

I remembered reading in “Vanity Fair” about El Bulli, the famous remote restaurant in Spain. Millions tried to eat there every year—they sold out an entire season’s worth of seats in under an hour, in fact. Yet they depended on selling cookbooks to make a profit. I distinctly remembered the writer’s description of his martini as something like the gelatinized essence of an olive served with a spray bottle of vodka. I look up Jay McInerney’s account: “[Dinner at El Bulli] begins with a glistening, olive-colored sphere, wobbling on a spoon as you raise it toward your lips, exploding in the mouth to unleash a bath of intense olive-flavored liquid. Then, as the waiter has instructed, you lift the silver atomizer to your mouth and spray the gin-and-vermouth mixture on your tongue. In your case, three sprays for good measure. Or seven. The waiter didn’t specify how many sprays.

This is your martini, as deconstructed by Ferran Adrià, the world’s greatest chef.”

I immediately realized I was drastically unprepared. I kept reading: “The meal ends some 34 courses later—just after the penultimate frozen foam of Parmigiano-Reggiano—with another trembling sphere, which turns out to be a reconstituted lychee.”

Chef arrived five minutes later, just as we were about to open, with the final menu. I read the words “currant spheres” and “foie gras gelato” when the couple who feeds each other walked in the door. They were regulars, yet they kept to themselves. I’d probably waited on them a dozen times, yet we’d never shaken hands, nor had they ever offered their names. The woman was taller by a couple of inches than he, with long dark hair, she looked Native American and beautiful. The man was probably handsome once but had succumbed to the kind of sagging entropy that hits many 50 or 60-something wasps. They liked to sit in the corner with one arm around the other, and like a sort of two-headed humanoid, they forked food into the other’s mouth, savoring every bite.

I said hello. The man smiled and asked for two glasses of Sauvignon Blanc. She didn’t make eye contact.

“Ah, El Bulli,” the man said, as he picked up our special menu.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Only the most creative restaurant in the world,” he said. “It’s a Michelin 3-star in Catalonia overlooking the Costa Brava.

She rolled her eyes, took a sip (from her own glass—they didn’t pour liquids into each other’s mouth) and responded with

something too quiet to overhear.

“Michelin are, in fact, tire manufacturers,” he said. “Two brothers, I think. They published the first guide for motorists in France.

Probably figured the more people drove, the more tires they would sell . . .”

“It’s just odd,” she said.

“What do you mean ‘odd’?” he asked, cheeks flush, irritation in his voice. “It’s full of maps, mechanics, gas stations, that kind of thing.”

Sensing a break in their conversation, I walked up with water just as she was about to hammer home her point.

“I find it odd,” she said, tolerating me the way an elephant would a fly, “that a tire store with a cartoon man made of marshmallow rings should hold so much sway over who gets to be called the best restaurants in the world. Don’t you?”

“I couldn’t agree more,” I said, bailing him out.

He laughed. She laughed. They kissed for a few seconds.

“We’ll take one of everything, kid,” he said.

That was the last we spoke all night.

Joel Finsel is an author and award-winning mixologist based in Wilmington. Feel free to send questions or comments to joelfinsel@gmail.com.

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TAP

THE KEG! Reviews and rambles on brew

Founding New Anthem: New Hanover County’s ninth brewery comes to downtown Wilmington

BY Bethany Turner ● Devour contributor “Almost every day I head out the door for work at 7 a.m., and he’s standing in his garage, brewing,” explains Bill Hunter, one half of the team for New Anthem Beer Project. Hunter is the neighbor to his business partner and brewmaster Aaron Skiles. Skiles—currently employed in the German automotive industry—has been enjoying craft beer since his first sip of Pete’s Wicked Ale in the early ‘90s. Yet, in the past four years, he found a renewed passion—and talent—for homebrewing.

“I went to Colorado with my wife and we went on the Brews Cruise,” Skiles shares. “I met a guy named Scott Witsoe at Wit’s End Brewing Company. He had been [director of operations for another company], and he loved homebrewing beer. I talked to him for a while, and he said, ‘If you’re smart, you can do this.’ I thought about it for a long time, wrote multiple, different business plans, and kept brewing beer as prolifically as I could at home.”

During those four years, Skiles and his family resided in an Ogden cul-de-sac. They were friendly neighbors with Hunter’s family.

On July 4, 2013, Skiles pitched the dream of owning a brewery to Hunter.

“I thought he was joking,” Hunter concedes. Many grand plans brewed over frothy beverages. “He took me out and we had a drink one night. That’s kind of how it started.”

When Skiles shared his business plan, Hunter noticed its thoroughness—evidence his neighbor had spent time developing it. “He knew what he wanted to do and he knew how to do it,” Hunter, a salesman and businessman by trade, shares. “He had me hooked. I’ve never had a bad beer he’s made. It was a no-brainer for me.”

The duo imagined Ogden would be a great place for a brewery—after all, biking to work was desirable. They discussed a property that might be available for lease with Steve Gibbs of Fermental Beer and Wine, a succeeding Ogden bottle shop. But a missed opportunity led the search to downtown Wilmington. The first location they viewed—and the one they fell in love with—was an empty space between Hotel Tarrymore and Duck and Dive bar at 116 Dock Street.

According to the New Hanover County Public Library, the McClellan Livery Building was constructed in 1914 as a commercial rental property for the Hanover Trust Company. It was “first used as stables by W.B. McClellan and Son,” according to a description at Port City Architecture online. “Other tenants included a variety of automobile dealerships, repair and upholstery, wholesale feeds, and groceries [an antique image shared by the duo’s real estate agent shows the building painted with ‘Staf-o-Life Feeds’ on the front], and electrical repairs and services.” Historic Wilmington Foundation awarded the building a plaque and it is on the National Register of Historic Places as well.

• • Left: Aaron Silkes and his business partner, Bill Hunter (next page), discuss plans to open New Anthem Beer Project, downtown. New Anthem is slated to open in time for Azalea Fest.

Photos by Holland Dotts Photography

28 DEVOUR | SPRING 2016

Downtown Wilmington > 115 N. 2nd Street

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Weddings, Receptions, Fundraisers, Birthdays Super Bowl Party: Sun, Feb. 7th Carolina Pine Music Series 2016 Kickoff Party: Sat, Feb. 13th

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visit our Facebook page for tasting room hours and special events: www.facebook.com/broomtailcraftbrewery

NEW hours:

Wednesday 4-9 pm • Thursday 4-9 pm Friday 4-10 pm • Saturday 2-10 pm Sunday 2-8 pm

6404 Amsterdam Way, Suite 100 Wilmington, North Carolina www.broomtailcraftbrewery.com

IMBIBE 116 Dock Street stretches far back from the street, a length of space not visible from its façade. One entire wall is made up of original, exposed brick, and the ceiling features iron trusses that harken back to its use as a stable. Transforming it into New Anthem Brewing will not require much upfit. The design aesthetic will maintain its industrial, warehouse feel.

“The plumbers can come in and immediately start cutting holes in the floor,” Skiles explains. He and Hunter also will add retail storage, a small office and potentially a laboratory. Naturally, there will be a taproom and brewing space.

“Every brewery should have a lab, I think,” Skiles urges. “A big focus for me is going to be quality—having the best people around, and having an open discussion with everybody, whether it’s a bartender, a brewer or cellarman. We will sit down and point out anything we taste wrong with the beer. One, is it saleable?

Two, is it going to be good for us? And if we find out if it’s a spoilage mechanism in the beer, is there a process or best practice we can change?”

Given his background, Skiles describes himself “process-oriented.” “Even after a project is completed, you should still monitor that project and make sure you’re putting out a quality product,” he notes.

Fal Allen, brewmaster at Anderson Valley Brewing Company, said in Brewing Techniques magazine, “There are only two types of breweries: those that have had an infection and those that will.

Doing regular lab work will enable you to detect infection while it is still low grade, long before it can affect your beer. You will be able to take corrective measures, and no one will ever taste the difference. No beer will have to be dumped. That, if nothing else, adequately justifies the expense of some basic lab equipment and the time taken to apply it properly.”

Though infections sound particularly nasty, they are not uncommon in the brewing world, and they won’t make drinkers truly ill (though one may be averse to drinking it). In a nutshell, infections come from yeast not intended for the brew—which could have floated in by air through an open window or other means— or bacteria that appeared on equipment or materials not fully sanitized. Infections damage the taste or appearance of beers in various ways. While some beers should be hazy—like a hefeweizen, for example—and wild yeasts are desirous for certain styles of beer—such as Brettanomyces bruxellenis and its characteristic funky fruity notes—in other instances these would be considered an infection.

Labs allow breweries to test for quality control, yeast management, bacteria, and wild yeast detection. It ensures the consumer’s glass isn’t tainted with a bad beer and its consistency is how it’s intended to be enjoyed.

Particularly common off-flavors include diacetyl (tastes like fake popcorn butter), DMS (creamed corn), phenols (medicinal, BandAids), acetic acid (vinegar), and oxidation (musty cardboard).

CraftBeer.com offers a very handy, simplified guide on off-flavors or detecting infections in beer.

For Skiles the focus at New Anthem Brewing will be on quality, as well as diversity of product. He wants to create beers that taste unique but have wide appeal. New Anthem will offer a host of styles, like saisons, hoppy brews, porters, and stouts.

“I think we’re going to be a little bit different,” Skiles continues.

“We’re going to start with mixed fermentations in the barrel program, just as soon as we can get some beers on tap. That doesn’t come to fruit for six to 18 months.”

30 DEVOUR | SPRING 2016

Skiles is part matter-of-fact in his discipline and part visionary.

He often peers into the distance as he describes his plan. It seems he has a particular view in mind.

“I like making things, and it’s kind of cathartic for me,” he divulges of the creative process. “When I was much younger I built houses. When you go to work in the morning and you work, work, work, [then] sit on the bed of the truck and have a beer at the end of the day, you can look and actually tell what’s happened that day—instead of something you do affect[ing] a process six months down. Running a business, you have to think long-term like that as well, but in brewing you also get that instant gratification.”

As the months close in and bring New Anthem closer to reality, Skiles’ dream is more an anthem all his own. “I like naming beers after my favorite singers in weird ways, or favorite songs or even lines of songs,” Skiles explains. “There’s a novella called ‘Anthem’ as well, and it’s just really interesting. It’s about being an individual.”

“I’m just glad we have the opportunity to do this for Aaron, because this is a lot about quality of life for him, too,” Hunter adds.

“To be able to do something he’s passionate about. He’s going to be here in the brewery a lot, but he’ll be home every night. He won’t be traveling to boat shows 12 times a year.”

IMBIBE He and Hunter are hoping to open New Anthem Brewing by Azalea Festival. The festival closes downtown streets the weekend of April 6-10, 2016. The growth plan includes distributing core brands, perhaps five or six beers, locally before expanding. Plus, they’ll package barrel-aged brews and provide consumers the ability to cultivate a vertical, featuring different vintages of one style from consecutive releases.

“You can go into Cigar City, and they make great Lactobacillus sour beers,” Skiles says. “Their dark beers are absolutely delicious, and then they’ve got a Belgian blonde with pineapple, and it’s amazing. I’d like to be that guy who can totally break off and do the unexpected.”

Still, Skiles and Hunter are methodical in their growth. Both come from business backgrounds who have watched the downfalls of a business growing too fast. “We want to grow smart,” Skiles offers. “You get strung out and can’t keep up with supply and demand [if you do too much at once].”

Though they’d love to be self-distributing, it really depends on maintaining their in-house supply first and foremost. “We want people to know we’re going to take care of the beer, store it properly, [make sure it’s] fresh.” They also want to impact the greater Wilmington community and are already looking toward partnerships with local charities and organizations. Caring for the environment and water treatments are top on the list. “There are some things we can do in the future to alleviate our footprint on the en-

vironment itself,” Skiles says. “We’ll just try to have a good time, be good employers, and grow.”

Hunter will handle outside sales and hopes the brewery’s distribution expands through neighboring states with time. As for now, they’re happy to join the ranks of other breweries and brewers they respect.

“We have a really good core who are really knowledgeable about beer: Kelsie Cole and Joan Wilkerson at Front Street Brewery, Caleb Churchwell at Bombers Bev. Co., and John Savard at Wilmington Brewing Company,” Skiles touts. “We’ve got some really smart folks. It’s interesting: Every time I go out, the scene and demographic is growing. It’s not just your 21 to 35s. I go to Fermental and there is such a diverse group of people. That’s really cool, especially if we, in the craft beer community, can get people who are interested in branching out. Beer is so diverse: You can find beer with hay, pomegranate stems or apple peels, but there’s always going to be [an individual mark]. If you had three brewers making the same beer, none of those three are going to be the same. Every brewer has his or her own fingerprint. Bill and I both want to leave a legacy in Wilmington, and hope New Anthem can be a cornerstone of downtown and southeastern North Carolina.”

New Anthem Beer Project will be located downtown at 116 Dock St., and is slated to open sometime in 2016.

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UN

CORKED! Reviews and rambles on vino

Tips for Hosting a Wine Tasting: Let’s start with a theme...

BY John Burke ● Devour columnist In my life I’ve played host to dozens of wine tastings, whether in my home or, when I was a distributor, in larger venues. Wine tastings make for a near perfect party. They can be designed for a pleasantly short get-together or they can go all night. They have infinite possibilities and remarkable flexibility.

But wine tastings can go south just as easily. They may be easy, but they have their pitfalls. To avoid such, I have a few personal rules I employ when planning a wine tasting of my own.

Have a theme I know order doesn’t sound like a key element to any good party, but having rhyme and reason to the wines selected serves a purpose. It gives context to the evening and separates a wine tasting from a bunch of people drinking wine. It can be particularly important to select a theme when asking each guest to bring a bottle instead of being the sole source to provide it. Offering a little structure can be helpful to friends while they’re shopping.

Naturally, there are myriad choices when selecting a theme: wines by the same winemaker, from the same region, of the same varietal, in the same price point ... and on and on. Just those themes alone can keep anyone busy for weeks in any good wine shop. ...But Don’t Be Too Obtuse About That Theme “Wines From the Willamette Valley” is a great theme. “Wines From this Two Acre Radius in the Rhone Valley” is a nightmare waiting to happen. Only a handful of people in the world have palates sophisticated enough to distinguish if the grapes they’re tasting were grown on the east or west side of a vineyard. Making a tasting too specific makes it less fun for the rest of us normal people.

Wine can be one of those things which make people try too hard to seem more sophisticated than they really are. Don’t shoehorn yourself or friends into a theme that isn’t suitable; keep the evening accessible to everyone.

• Right: Wine tasting parties can be more fun with a theme and central focus, but they cannot exist properly without ... cheese!

Stock photo 34 DEVOUR | SPRING 2016

Cheese, Cheese and More Cheese Food is imperative at a wine tasting. No matter what else is planned, there should be snacks. Crudite is great. I love a little charcuterie. However, always put out at least two cheeses.

My loyal vegan readers are welcome to skip ahead, but I can’t stress enough the value of cheese at a wine tasting. Cheese coats the tongue and mellows some rougher wines. It is as natural a pairing as peanut butter and jelly.

In fact, combine this rule with my previous ones to create a fun theme: Pick a couple of cheeses and ask everyone to bring a bottle to pair with one of them.

For the record, while I am loyal to cheese at a wine tasting, I am not an aficionado of the stinky varieties. The subtlety of a good creamy Brie or richness of smoked Gouda are more welcome at my table any day. My point being: Don’t feel pressured by any wine snob to go one way or another when making selections. I

IMBIBE believe very strongly that cheese is a valuable element to a wine tasting—which cheese, however, is up to the host.

Be Specific Hosts who want everyone out of the house while there’s still daylight should make sure the invitation reads “5 p.m. to 7 p.m.”—or something of that nature—to avoid a house full of winos at midnight. If plans include serving dinner afterward, be sure guests don’t have other plans. Who wants to be standing alone at 8 p.m. with a whole pork loin and three bottles of a killer Gamay that were specifically being saved for last?

Make sure guests know what to expect from the evening, at least in part to be sure they’re comfortable with the idea. Not everyone is on board to spend a few hundred bucks on Bordeaux from the year you were born. Not everyone is interested in an evening of tasting wines under $3. Know your guests and cater to them. It’s OK to try to expand their horizons, but try to stay within striking distance of everyone’s comfort zone.

Have a Fun Trick Up Your Sleeve Wine tastings are fun and educational. I find it helps to have one idea or activity which brings those two things together. Here’s one of my favorite examples: When demonstrating how different cultures craft wines to complement their diets, I like to take a merlot, a sangiovese, and a few slices of tomato, and put them before the group. I have them

taste each wine to see that there’s nothing untoward going on with either bottle.

Then I instruct everyone to take a bite of tomato and taste the sangiovese. The flavors of the wine become bolder and more vibrant. But, when they try the tomato before the merlot, the wine becomes flat and lifeless, devoid of any interesting characteristics, no matter how delicious it might have been when they tasted it before eating the tomato.

Italian winemakers only use a little merlot occasionally and only as a blending grape. It doesn’t go well with their heavily tomatobased diet. Sangiovese, on the other hand, is a perfect pairing for tomato, and therefore can be found all over Italy.

Fun experiments can make a tasting more memorable and add to the educational aspect of the evening.

I have a few other random tips, which seem simple but get away from so many people planning a tasting: Be sure not to invite more than the room can handle.

Don’t have too much wine and food.

Be sure to have enough wine and food.

And count glassware.

Most importantly, enjoy it!

Wine tastings are an excuse to get together with people you like. As long as everyone has fun, you can afford to throw out all of my rules.

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Water is More Than Wet: A closer look at the mysteries of H20

BY Evan Folds â—? Devour contributor and owner of Progressive Gardens

Water is much more than wet. How many of you have tasted the water served at a restaurant and cringed at the chemical taste? If you have not had this experience, you need to be drinking better water. Water may be the most obvious substance in our daily lives and, at the same time, one of the greatest mysteries on the face of the Earth. Water is everywhere and nowhere all at once, showing up in the dew of the morning and reappearing as a fog, rolling through the hills at dusk. Water can be structured and energized, and has a capacity to listen and remember. Water has personality and is happier, more productive, and capable of supporting life when we provide the conditions and vibrations it likes. Water is the most sensitive substance on Earth, and has incredible abilities when treated properly. • Above: Stock photo 38 DEVOUR | SPRING 2016

FEATURE We experience roughly 50 tons of water Rarely, if ever, do we stop and consider what We experience roughly 50 tons through our bodies during our lifetime. days. water wants; it is mostly a passive substance of water through our bodies during in our lives. It expresses elegance in the grace Similarly, mature oak trees can require our lifetimes. Similarly, mature oak of a babbling brook, and power in the force trees can transpire 40,000 gallons of 40,000 gallons of water per year! of a whirlpool or an epic surfing wave at Jaws water per year! or Pipeline. For such a common substance, it Water is infused into everything turns out we retain a surprisingly limited underwe do, even language. We “go with standing of its origins, abilities and secrets. Where does water come from? the flow” when we cooperate, or “blow off steam” when we get upHow many different kinds of water are there? What is water, anyway? The set. Inexperience is described as being “wet behind the ears” and a bad truth on all accounts: We don’t really know. mortgage is described as being “under water.” We say these things withModern science—with all of its authority, expertise and experience— out really even thinking about them. actually has never seen a water molecule. Major religions describe water Almost half the world doesn’t have access to clean water, or has to walk to as a seminal substance, and at the same time destroying the Earth in get it. Most people in the world rely on an average of 5 liters of water a day. great floods. Water floated the Titanic—and sunk her. In more ways than In the United States, on average, we use that much water every time we flush one, water is a vital conundrum in the existence of humanity. It’s subtle, the toilet. Water may be everywhere, but it’s not cheap. The modern world is yet strong; simple, but complex. We may know there are no two snow- only beginning to feel the economic and societal pressures of peak water and flakes with the same shape, but we don’t know why. And there are at water security. Business moguls are buying up aquifers and water rights; cities least nine different kinds of ice, and over 80 different properties that are are privatizing their water supplies under corporations that ban rain barrels measurable and able to be manipulated in water. because they believe they own the water before it falls. The UN even predicts Water is beyond normal, but it is also very weird—in a good way. It has an the wars of the future will be waged over water. unusually high melting and boiling point. In some cases, hot water may freeze The math tells us that bottled water costs more than the price of a gallon faster than cold water. It’s called the Mpemba effect. Water has a high viscos- of gasoline. How can it be that something that perpetually falls from the sky ity, or resistance, relative to other liquids. This also allows it to retain heat to costs more than something finite like oil that we are forced to drill from the help regulate weather and be a great facilitator of sound waves. Even weirder, ground? Think about that for a minute. pressure actually reduces ice’s melting point and thermal conductivity. Under My awareness of the uniqueness and ability of water first changed when increasing pressure, water molecules move further away from each other. introduced to work of the late Dr. Masaru Emoto in the film “What the The strangeness of water is a result of its polarity, or the expression of both Bleep Do We Know!?” The film documented Dr. Emoto’s work of taking a positively (+) and negatively (-) charged side to its molecule, represented images of water before and after receiving positive affirmations, such as by the V-shaped chemical structure seen in textbooks. The polarity of water saying “I love you” or blessings from Zen Buddhist monks. What he discovmakes it capable of dissolving anything—giving it the moniker of “universal ered is simply incredible. Before the blessings, the water was distorted and solvent.” One of its many roles is to pick up stuff and carry it around. This disorganized, but after the positive mental stimuli, the water organized includes delivering oxygen and carrying away toxins from inside living cells, into beautiful and highly organized structures that look like snowflakes. but also in creating macro structures, like stalagmites or the Grand Canyon.

The idea of projecting positive vibes onto water so it changes its molecular Water retains limitless identities. It holds things in a way to make them im- structure is revolutionary. Sounds unbelievable, but water is the most reperceptible, like an invisibility cloak that prevents us from seeing substances ceptive of the four elements, so it makes sense. held within. We are mesmerized by its uniformity, and at the same time unThe sensitivity of water can be seen in the influence of the moon on tides or aware of its potential for toxicity. Herein is the threat of public policies, like the age-old strategy of felling trees during the new moon when the moisture water fluoridation or toxins in heavy industry from companies such as Titan and sap are at their lowest levels. Pliny the Elder (23 – 79 AD) advised Roman Cement looking to move into our area. farmers to pick fruit for market before the full moon, as it weighed more, but Because water is a polar molecule, and opposite charges attract, water to pick fruit for their own stores at the new moon, as it would last longer. hugs itself through a process called “hydrogen bonding.” We see the influI started structuring my drinking water, learned about the healing power ence of hydrogen bonding in clouds, the meniscus in a glass of water, or the of homeopathy, and the secrets of biodynamic agriculture that leverage the ability of water striders to walk on water and create an entire ecosystem called force of implosion to make water more vulnerable and receptive to the suba “neuston.” We owe our very existence to these anomalies of water. Due to tle energies and vibration of potentized substances. We even use this water its distinctive molecular structure, it exhibits its greatest density and carrying “technology” on our farm in Castle Hayne with great success. Water is so capacity at 39.2°F, with its density actually decreasing below this temperature. much more capable and complex than we give it credit, so how is it we can This is why ice floats on liquid water, which is relatively unique in nature and know so much, and at the same time, so little about something so important? quite significant. Imagine if water froze from the bottom up. Would life have It is not for a lack of research. Dr. Gerald Pollack of the University of Washsurvived ice ages on the bottom of solid lakes? ington describes in his book, “The 4th Phase of Water,” the tribulations of the There’s something like 326,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons (326 million history of water investigation. The Russians in the 1950s and the French in the trillion gallons) of water found on planet Earth. About 70 percent of the planet 1970s both made aggressive campaigns to document the mysterious nature is covered in ocean and almost 98 percent of the water on the planet is in the of water but were rebuked in the name of “science.” oceans. About 2 percent of Earth’s water is fresh, but 1.6 percent of this fresh The promiscuity of water makes it near impossible to isolate pure H2O outwater is locked up in the polar ice caps and glaciers. Another 0.36 percent is side of a vacuum in a lab, which translates to “contamination” in the realm of found underground in aquifers and wells. Only about 0.036 percent of the modern popular science. This phenomenon of water has halted almost every planet’s total water supply is found in lakes and rivers, which is still thousands professional foray into its mysteries since the turn of the 20th century. of trillions of gallons. Relative to the mass of our planet, water is only the Water is much more than wet. Everyone has experienced living water at equivalent of the skin on an apple. one time or another, such as when we drink from a fresh bubbling creek, Water is life, but it also allows us to engage life. To create 1 ton of steel, it bathe in a natural healing mineral spring, dance in a spring rain shower, or takes 300 tons of water. It takes an average of 460 gallons of water to make feel the invigorating healing of the ocean as the rolling waves crash into a quarter-pound of hamburger. A nuclear power plant requires 30 million gal- our bodies. We live a filtered existence in regards to the potentials of water lons of water to cool its reactors ... every hour. in life and society. We elicit this understanding every time we use rainwater In fact, one of the most important parts of food is water. After all, on our gardens, invest in a water filter, or make the decision to purchase upward of 95 percent of plants and 75 percent of the human body are a bottle of drinking water. We need more water conservationists and concomposed of water. Without water, we die. It is possible to survive for noisseurs. Unless we realize and ponder the importance of its mysteries, weeks, even months, without food; but without water we can last only we are not able to appreciate it for its true capabilities.

SPRING 2016 | DEVOUR 39

TO

READ! Cookbooks and other reviews

Slow Cooking, Canning and Master Cheffing: A few new and old books that tantalize the taste buds (or not)

BY Gwenyfar Rohler ● Devour columnist, freelance writer and business owner of Old Books on Front Street Jewish Slow Cooker Recipes Laura Frankel Surrey Books, 2015 (244 pages)

The slow cooker or crock pot is the secret weapon of many-a-working cook. You can load it up in the morning, turn it on, and come home to a house filled with the unmistakable scent of “dinner’s ready!” At the end of a hard day at work, it is hard to imagine anything better. Laura Frankel’s “Jewish Slow Cooker Recipes” is an interesting contribution to the world of kosher cooking for busy people.

Frankel manages to both explain the realities of dayto-day life for kosher cooking in less than half a page and make it clear that—though she keeps kosher and the recipes in the book are kosher—it is not intended to be a kosher primer. The food should be accessible to eaters from all backgrounds.

I have to admit: The recipes made my mouth water.

Poached pears with sweet mascarpone, candied kumquats, Black Forrest bread pudding—I mean, it would take a will of iron to resist the desserts. The main dishes that had me up nights include wild mushroom stroganoff and the roasted parsnip and Jerusalem artichoke soup.

Oy. Frankel blends equal amounts traditional Eastern European foods with Mediterranean and North African dishes—lots of Moroccan flavors! For those unversed in Jewish culture, the two largest groups to immigrate to the U.S. came from Eastern Europe (Ashkenazi), the Mediterranean and North Africa (Sephardi). The result is a recipe book blending flavors and traditions to really offer a wide range of options for the palate.

Frankel is clearly a mother and used to teaching young cooks at home because her writing style is very clear and straightforward.

However, she still tells a story about each dish, which is pretty much how my mother taught me to cook. Readers can learn a lot about the realities of daily life in an Orthodox Jewish home, 40 DEVOUR | SPRING 2016

but they don’t need a working knowledge or interest in Jewish culture to enjoy the recipes.

Frankel is clearly besotted with the slow cooker as the means for a hot meal on Shabbat (when the stove and oven are not turned on). She is equally as impressed with it as an instrument for helping out a busy mother who wants to make a great cheesecake.

Speaking of cheesecake, Frankel has possibly the best cheesecake recipe I have encountered—and the idea of making it in

FEATURE a crock pot completely revolutionized the way I thought about the dessert. She won my heart with her DIY description of how to make a rack insert for a slow cooker (to keep the cheesecake an inch off the bottom) out of a roll of aluminum foil. It’s written with all the genuine problem-solving of a busy woman who needs to make this work—now! She has no time to go out and find the right part to do it perfectly.

One of the major memories from my youth comes with Passover. My own mother spent the week beforehand relentlessly cooking. It seemed like everyday she had another round of dish prepping: marinating, simmering, baking … the list was endless.

Frankel’s suggested menus and prep schedule for the holidays have the ring of someone who has been there and found a way to make it work.

I just want to go spend a week at her house because my stomach is growling and my mouth watering just thinking about how great her meals must be.

One of my ongoing resolutions is to cook at home more, and make better, healthier food. The slow cooker is integral to making that happen, and Frankel’s recipes have been exactly the inspiration I needed to get back on track.

TASTY LEFTOVERS Books we love to indulge in again and ones we leave on the shelf!

Star Chefs on the Road: 10 Culinary Masters Share Their Stories and Recipes

By Food and Wine American Express Publishing, 2005 175 pages

Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Practical Pantry: Recipes and Techniques for Year-Round Preserving

By Cathy Barrow Norton and Co., 2014 430 pages

I picked up this book hoping it would be 10 brief pieces about food and travel by 10 chefs: Jacques Pepin in Botswana, Bobby Flay in Scotland, Wolfgang Puck in Austria. It looked promising. But, much to my chagrin, the selections are not written by the chefs themselves, but rather are collections of travel articles from Food and Wine, written about traveling with the chefs.

The photography is of course, beautiful, but spending time watching someone essentially work their way through a publicity tour is not captivating writing nor reading. Don’t get me wrong, as a coffee-table book, filled with beautiful pictures, it is a winner. But there is nothing of substance or anything compelling to actually learn more about food, culinary history, practices, or the mind of a chef.

One does not become a celebrity chef in our modern world without excellent communication skills. Therefore, I have to wonder why the editors wasted time with an observer’s perspective. I don’t want to hear about Pepin eating; I want to know how he makes it happen.

If readers are looking for a pretty book to give as a gift to someone who doesn’t actually cook, then this is a winner.

Of all three books, this is my favorite. “Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Practical Pantry” is not just another book on waterbath canning. Oh, no.

She covers cheese making, curing meats and pressure canning everything from soup stock to fish.

The instructions are simple, straightforward and written with an understanding that some of what she describes is intimidating to try alone at home. With making cheese at home, cooks are basically trying to get mold to behave in a controlled fashion. So, how do we know if thing goes wrong—and then, what do we do?

I love canning, and wish I had time and resources to do more of it.

Basically, I am predisposed to love this book. It is not the usual countryfarmer canning guide. It’s like a prepper’s survival guide for the hipster, set with beautiful art, conversational writing and a sense it is all possible—even for a novice. Cathy Barrow’s book grew from her blog, “Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Kitchen,” and it reflects a writing style evolved from answering questions and responding to comments. It is beautiful and inspiring.

SPRING 2016 | DEVOUR 41

Select Indulgences Culinary calendar of events

~events & happenings~ THEATRE NOW Schedule: • 2/19-3/26: Penny Kohut’s ‘Top of the Morning to You With Faith and Begorrah: Election Countdown” • 2/21, 25, 7 p.m.: 3-course meal and a special screening of the critically acclaimed feature film, “Althea,” at an historic fundraising event for the One Love Tennis Program. Features the fascinating story of the trailblazing Grand Slam tennis champion Althea Gibson, who called Wilmington home. Q&A after with Lenny Simpson, who, with Althea, lived and trained at the tennis court just a few blocks from TheaterNOW. Tickets are $50 and proceeds go to support the One Love Tennis Program (www.one-love-tennis. org, www.altheathefilm.com). • 4/1-30: Clyde Edgerton’s “Walking Across Egypt.” • 5/6-6/4: Wiley Cash’s “The Kudzu Queen,” adapted by Gwenyfar Rohler. All dinner productions are sold with three-course dinners. Tickets: $20 (show only)-$40. 19 S. 10th St., downtown Wilmington. www.theatrewilmington.com

PIZZA PUTT Children Museum of Wilmington presents the 4th annual Pizza Putt on 2/19, 6 p.m. Features an 18-hole miniature golf course, pizza, beer and wine from local restaurants and bars, as well as live music, a business card raffle, mini silent auction and so much more! $20. 116 Orange St. www.playwilmington.org

HOMEBREW COMPETITION Hombrewers’ entries are due 2/21. $10 entry fee, must turn in two bottles equivalent. Judging held 2/27, and awards ceremony at Satellite Bar and Lounge on 2/28, 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. More info: www.frontstreetbrewery.com.

BOARDS AND BREWS 2/20, 6 p.m.: Enjoy Catan, Scrabble, Bananagramsat, and more at Cape Fear Games, 4107 Oleander Dr., D. Next door, the Wine Sampler will be running beer and wine specials and have some tables set up to play on. Must be 21 or older to participate. $5. www.capefeargames.com

FULL BELLY FEAST Celebrate and fundraise for Full Belly’s worldwide impact, with an evening of international cuisine, live music with the world beats of Axiom, and a variety of live and silent auction items, 2/27, 6 p.m. Mistress of Ceremonies is WECT’s Ashlea Kosikowski, and all proceeds benefit The Full Belly Project, which works 42 DEVOUR | SPRING 2016

ENCORE’s WILMINGTON RESTAURANT WEEK 3/30-4/6: It’s the tastiest week of spring! Wilmington Restaurant Week features special prix-fixe deals all across town. From low-country to French, Indian to Italian, American and beyond, diners get a taste of all styles of cuisine without breaking the bank. Visit www.encorerestaurantweek. com to see all participants and menus, or pick up the menu guide at freestanding locations in March or log onto www.wilmingtonrestaurantweek.com.

Eat. Drink. Indulge! eradicate poverty with the invention of simple agricultural technologies. $50. Coastline Convention Center, 503 Nutt St. www. thefullbellyproject.org

WINE AND BEER WALK Taking place twice a year, the Wine and Beer Walk gets underway on 2/27, 1 p.m., with participating restaurants and bars scattered across downtown. The self-guided tasting tour starts at Ziggy’s By the Sea; a map will be provided. Patrons receive two samples per venue, and the walk lasts until 6 p.m. Tickets: $16-$27. Ziggy’s By The Sea, 208 Market St. More info: (216) 374-8884 or info@coolwilmington.com

WARRIORS TWOS AND BREWS 75-minute, all-levels class, and enjoy locally brewed afterward.

Takes place every other Monday at Front St. Brewery, 6:30 p.m.

Dates: 2/29, 3/14, 3/28. $10 suggested donation w/half proceeds going to yoga village and other half to nonprofit of instructor’s choice. 9 N. Front St.

COASTAL HORIZONS LUNCHEON Coastal Horizons Rape Crisis Center will present keynote speaker and NFL Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw at their annual luncheon on 3/3. All monies raised will go toward awareness for behavioral health across the region. $125. Wilmington Convention Center, 515 Nutt St. www.businessmadecasual.com

BACKYARD BBQ COOKOFF Taking place around Carolina Beach Lake, the annual Step Up for Soldiers fundraiser features more than two dozen culinary competitors on 3/5. Plus, there’s arts & crafts, raffles and live music by Kenny Reeves & Trainwreck (11 a.m.-1 p.m.), and Gary Lowder and the Smokin’ Hots (2 p.m. - 5 p.m). Tickets can be purchased to sample the BBQ for $1 per taste. Doors open at 9:30 a.m.; event ends at 5 p.m. www.stepupforsoldiers.org

CAPE FEAR BEER FEST Downtown’s Cape Fear Beer Fest will be tapping at the convention center on 3/5. More than 110 brews will be featured, locally, regionally and nationally. VIP tickets enter at noon; GA tickets are admitted at 1 p.m. Event takes place until 6 p.m. $40-$50.

Wilmington Convention Center, 515 Nutt St. www.capefearbeerfest.com

unique events for members and their guests, including cooking classes, wine-pairing classes, premium wine dinners, and free members-only events. The Seasoned Gourmet is relocating to 5500 Market Street, Suite 110, and will have a grand reopening on 4/2. They’re expanding their cooking school and event space, including a new wine bar, and many product offerings, tools and attire for food and beverage professionals. www.theseasonedgourmet.com

WHOLE FOODS Kids’ Club every Thursday, 10 a.m.-10:30 a.m., in the café. Free events abound, fun activities and snacks. • Last Friday of the month, 6-8 p.m.: Wine Not, It’s Friday! Join us for our signature wine tasting event and enjoy a taste of food and wine pairings. $5 donation benefits a local non-profit. 3804 Oleander Dr.

CULINARY CREATIONS CLASS Instead of trying to find a cooking class to meet your goals and ending up with too many cooks in the kitchen, consider having Culinary Creations design a cooking class for you and your family or friends to be held in the comfort of your own home. We will help you design a menu to focus on the dishes that intrigue you most. You can prepare a meal from our menu selections or we can work together to customize a menu for you to learn to prepare and enjoy. And best of all, you and the other ‘students’ get to enjoy the fruits of your labor between each course! 910538-2433. www.culinarycreationsonline.com

ST. PATRICK'S DAY CELEBRATION KIDS COOKING CLASSES 3/12, 11 a.m.: Parade begins at N. Front St. and travels south on Dock to north on Water St. A free St. Patrick’s Day festival takes place at the old Wachovia Building in downtown Wilmington, off Water and Front streets. Beer, music, food, and more for sale.

CHOWDER COOKOFF The annual Pleasure Island Chowder Cookoff takes place 4/9, 11:30 a.m. Tickets are $6 and the event takes place around Carolina Beach Lake. The event features chefs from area restaurants making the best seafood soups and stews. Live music and kids activities available, too. Tastings sold separately. Event ends at 5:30 p.m. www.pleasureislandnc.org

AZALEA FESTIVAL The 66th annual festival takes place 4/9-13 across Wilmington.

Queen’s coronation, concerts with Chase Rice and The Avett Brothers, parade, street fair, garden tours, home tours, special exhibits, circus, and so much more! www.ncazaleafestival.org

EARTH DAY FESTIVAL Hugh MacRae Park presents the annual Earth Day Festival for free. Music plays throughout the day, with food trucks, local breweries, vendors/exhibitors and a Kids’s EcoZone area. No pets allowed. Hugh MacRae Park, 314 Pine Grove Dr., 4/23, noon-6 p.m. www.wilmingtonearthday.com

WILMINGTON WINE & FOOD FEST 5/5-8: The fourth annual event takes place at Bellamy Mansion and features local and regional culinary and wine stalwarts. Special guest chef dinners, bartender challenges, wine and food samplings, live music, and a food truck rodeo with local breweries. Proceeds benefit local charities. $65. 503 Market St. www. wilmingtonwineandfood.com

~classes, tastings & things~ CAPE FEAR WINE & FOOD CLUB The Seasoned Gourmet teaches cooking classes and offers

For boys and girls, ages 8-10. Does your child love to cook?

Wrightsville Beach Parks and Recreation has stirred up something just for them, a fun hands-on youth cooking class! This program aims to teach kids creative and simple recipes that will encourage healthy living and good nutritional choices. It can help build self-esteem, team building, and even motivate them to cook for you! 1 Bob Sawyer Dr.; 910-256-7925. townofwrightsvillebeach.com

CAPE FEAR WINE AND BEER Beer Church: Purchase select beer and keep your glass for free.

1st Mass starts, 1pm; 2nd Mass, 8 p.m., Sunday, free. • Beer Flights, Massage and Monday Night NitroMassage Monday: 5-8 p.m., $10 for 10 minutes with our licensed therapist, Josh Lentz. Beer Flights: nine 5 oz samples for $18. • Monday Night Nitro: $1 off nitrogen pours. Free. • BYOT (Bring Your Own Trivia): The next wave of pub trivia. Prizes include gift certificates from local businesses, as well as beer from us. $10 pitchers: Bartender’s choice. All day. Free wine tasting: from 5-7 p.m., with two whites and two reds. Free • Beer Infusement Thurs.: Come see what ingredients Randall the Enamel Animal is enhancing upon delicious beer. Free. 139 N. Front St.

DUPLIN WINERY 3/19, 11:30 a.m.: 5th Annual Heritage Club Cork Hunt w/lunch in the Bistro, live music and an exciting cork hunt adventure in the vineyards. Limited seating. Event for members of the Heritage Wine Club; members may bring guests. $40. • 5/7, 10 a.m.: Ann’s Art Class w/Ann Farrior. Ann will provide guidance and instruction, and you provide your personal touch. Includes all the materials needed to create your craft, lunch in our bistro and a glass of wine. No experience needed; seating is limited. $50/person • 5/14, and 6/11, 3:30 p.m.: Golden Oldies Show: America’s favorite music of the ‘50s and ‘60s, with country, doo-wop, bluegrass, R&B, and more in a dinner theater setting.

Comprehensive tour and tasting is offered prior to our show. $45/person. 800-774-9634. 505 N. Sycamore St., Rose Hill, NC. www.duplinwinery.com SPRING 2016 | DEVOUR 43

ILM VEGAN POTLUCKS Wilmington Vegan Supper Club Potlucks take place the first Thursday of every month at 6:30 p.m. at SEACC Community Center, 317 Castle Street. Bring a vegan dish to share, swap recipes and socialize. Wilmington Vegan Lending Library will be there for you to grab a book as well. Bring a list of ingredients along with your dish—or even better, the recipe! Dishes absolutely must be completely vegan—no meat, no fish, no dairy, no eggs, no chicken stock, no honey, and so on. Bring a plate, utensils and a drink. Visit http://wilmingtonvegan.com for more info.

PALATE Mon.: 15 percent off mixed six packs • Turntable Tues.: Bring your favorite vinyl, enjoy specials • Wed: Free tasting of wine from around the globe, hosted by a winery representative or vendor to teach you about the selections. All wines offered at a discount as well as an additional 10 percent off six packs and 15 percent off cases. • Sun: $6 mimosas. 1007 N. 4th St. www. palatenc.com

SILVER COAST WINERY Line dancing in barrel room. RSVP: 732-470-8612 or email at wandafull1@hotmail.com• 2/26, 6-8:30 p.m.: Unwind in the barrel room for Vinyasa flow yoga class. Enjoy wine afterward. $20 a person. • Wine and beer tasting always available. 6680 Barbeque Rd. Ocean Isle Beach. silvercoastwinery.com

FERMENTAL Join us in the cozy confines of North Wilmington as we help kick off your weekend with our Friday wine tasting. Every week Fermental serves up a sampling of fine wines and craft beers to tempt taste buds and tantalize tendencies. Wine available by the glass; beer by the bottle. Informal, fun and festive! Take home your favorite or enjoy in-house. Free. 7250 Market St.

FLYTRAP BREWING Fourth Friday Gallery Night, featuring new artists and exhibition every Fourth Friday of the month through 2016. • Food trucks and live music Thurs. through Sat., weekly. • $5 flight Sundays and $5 flight Tuesdays. 319 Walnut St. www.flytrapbrewing.com

FORTUNATE GLASS Free wine tasting, Tues. 6-8 p.m. • Sparkling wine specials & discounted select bottles, Wed. & Thurs. • Monthly food and wine pairing events. 29 S. Front St. www.fortunateglasswinebar.com

BREWERS KETTLE Weekly live music, monthly food and wine and beer pairing events, wine tastings, and showcasing local breweries! 4718 Oleander Dr. 910-502-0333. www.bkwilmington.com

MEATBALL TUESDAY JAPANESE HIBACHI STEAKHOUSE & SUSHI

614 S. College Rd. • (910) 399-3366 www.okamisteakhouse.com

Chef Tom Mills prepares limited meatball subs and other items only on Tuesday nights for less than $12. Once he runs out, then he’s out. Cash and checks only. The Front Room, Little Pond Caterers, 2016 Princess Place. www.littlepondcaterers.com

BOOKS, BEER, JAZZ Enjoy browsing our extensive book catalog and library while listening to live ambient jazz piano. Start out your weekend with a beer or glass of wine, while James Jarvis performs his jazz compositions for your listening pleasure. Live piano from 3pm, Sundays. Old Books on Front Street, 249. N. Front St.

A TASTING ROOM Daily Specials: All You Can Eat Sushi | Lunch $11.99 Dinner $21.99 | Kids 13 or under $13.99 Sunday $21.99 ALL DAY! Mon - Thur: 11am - 2:30pm & 4 -10pm Fri: 11am - 2:30 pm & 4pm - 11pm Sat: 11am -11pm, Sun: 11am - 9:30pm Steak, Seafood, & Chicken for the specially designed “Teppan Grill”, Japanese Sushi, Hand Rolls, Sashimi, Tempura Dishes, & Japanese Noodle Entrées!

44 DEVOUR | SPRING 2016

Thurs/Fri, 5 p.m.: Our weekly wine tastings feature six selections for your tasting pleasure. Try before you buy to load up your home cellar, or choose your favorite wine from the lineup and purchase a glass to enjoy at our tasting bar or in our garden seating. Cheers! A Tasting Room, 19 South 2nd St.

THE WINE SAMPLER Hosting free weekly tasting every Wednesday through Saturday.

1 percent discount on all tasting wines, all week. WednesdayFriday: 3-7 p.m.; Saturday: noon-7 p.m. 4107-C Oleander Dr. (910) 796-WINE (9463). www.thewinesampler.com

BURNT MILL CREEK Thursday Night is Neighborhood Night at Burnt Mill Creek,

with Steviemack’s International Food Company food truck. Bring friends for supper and a drink. Burnt Mill Creek, 2101 Market St.

WATERLINE BREWING Weekly live music, food trucks every Fri. and Sat., and new beer. 721 Surry St., under the Cape Fear Bridge. www.waterlinebrewing.com

SWEET N SAVORY CAFE Every week we break open our wine selection for you to taste. Our wine selection ranges from Napa valley, French Bordeauxs or great wines from Australia. Some weeks we have wines that can only be found at Sweet n Savory Cafe, 1611 Pavillion Place.

TACOS AND TRIVIA Every Wed., 8 p.m., at Capt’n Bills Backyard Grille. Bring your team! Stuffed tacos from 8-11 p.m. for only $2 each. Other food and drink specials as well! 4240 Market St.

BROOMTAIL CRAFT BREWERY Every week we break open our wine selection for you to taste.

Our wine selection ranges from Napa valley, French Bordeauxs or great wines from Australia. Some weeks we have wines that can only be found at Sweet n Savory Cafe, 1611 Pavillion Place.

NONI BACCA WINERY Tasting room open seven days a week, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. (Mon.Sat.) and 12-5 p.m. (Sun.). Taste a flight of 6 or 9 wines; over 70 wines made on premise to sample at any time, served by

“SINCE 1991, A HISTORY FULL OF FLAVOR”

EL EL CERRO CERRO GRANDE GRANDE IS IS CELEBRATING CELEBRATING 25 25 YEARS YEARS IN IN WILMINGTON! WILMINGTON!

JOIN OUR FIESTA ALL THIS YEAR! A DELICIOUS SELECTION OF OUR BEST MEXICAN MEALS AT INCREDIBLE PRICES ALL YEAR LONG! THANK YOU TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS!

COME VISIT ANY OF OUR 3 LOCATIONS!

the glass or the bottle. • Thurs.-Sat.: Specials at the bar on glasses and bottles of wine that run all day, but the crowd begins to gather around 7 p.m.. Craft beer selection, too. We also make special label wines for weddings, corporate gifting, birthdays, reunions, etc. (910) 397-7617.

TAPAS TUESDAY $10, 5:30-7 p.m.: Every Tuesday! Half-off craft cocktail list and select wines. Catch, 6623 Market St.

SMALL PLATES NIGHT Mon.: $25 6-course flight ($35 inc. 2 oz. wine pairing). $5 single plates and $6 Specialty Mojito. YoSake, 33 S Front St.

WILMINGTON WINE SHOP Sample five new delicious wines we’ve brought in just for our customers during Free Friday Wine Tasting, 5-8 p.m.. Have a bottle or glass of your favorite with friends afterwards in our cozy shop or on the back deck. We’ve got a fridge full of craft and micro-brews. 605 Castle St. 910-202-4749.

WILMINGTON BREWING CO. Firkin Fridays, 5:30 p.m. • Sat: Free brewing demos, 1:30 p.m..

• Also featuring food trucks and live music weekly. 824 S. Kerr Ave. (910) 392-3315

FRONT STREET BREWERY Every third Thursday, join us for The Wort Shop Thirsty Third

We specialize in catering!

SANDWICHES SALADS PASTAS DESSERTS 1101 S College Rd. • (910) 392-7529 www.ncatasteofitaly.com SPRING 2016 | DEVOUR 45

Thursday. Our brewers will tap a new experimental brew that will be available in limited quantities for that day only. • Brewery Tours, everyday from 3-5 p.m. Free tasting included! 3 p.m., 3:45 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Learn how we brew our beer, about the brewing process and sample a few brews with one of our brewers. Sign up for a tour at the host stand. 9 N. Front St. www. frontstreetbrewery.com

~tours~ TASTE CAROLINA FOOD TOURS Sample an eclectic assortment of downtown restaurants, enjoy food and drink, and meet some of the city’s best chefs. Public parking available. Saturday tours include a 2:30 p.m. Downtown Afternoon Tasting Tour ($50/person) and a 3 p.m. Downtown Dinner and Drinks Tour ($65/person). 10 a.m. Farmers Market Tour ($75/person). Cooking class available. www.tastecarolina.net

TASTING HISTORY TOURS Tasting History Tours of Pleasure Island; guided walking tours. $25. Afternoon of delicious food and education. (910) 622-6046. www.tastinghistorytours.com

PORT CITY JAVA ROASTERY TOUR Join us at Port City Java’s Corporate Headquarters for our monthly public roastery tour, coffee cupping & home brewing class! Learn how coffee is grown, harvested, processed and roasted through a tour of our facilities and see a formal coffee cupping to demonstrate the “taste of place” that makes each coffee so unique. See us demonstrate a few different brewing methods you can use to achieve that perfect PCJ cup at home.

Tour groups are limited to six people. Tickets are available for $15/person. portcityjava.com

PORT CITY BREW BUS Port City Brew Bus offers public brewery tours that are open to anyone 21 years or older. Eat a hearty breakfast before the tour. We will have pretzels, snacks, and water but there isn’t a stop for lunch. Visit three breweries to experience their facilities, understand the brewing process unique to their beers and enjoy samples of their offerings. $55. www.portcitybrewbus. com. (910) 679-6586

~clubs & organizations~ FEAST DOWN EAST BUYING CLUB Enjoy the quality, value and convenience of the Feast Down East Buying Club. It costs nothing to join, and the benefits are immeasurable. Support your local farm families and community.

Choose a pick-up spot, check out at the online cashier, and you are done! www.FeastDownEast.org

FARMERS' MARKETS Fruits, vegetables, plants, herbs, flowers, eggs, cheese, meats, seafood, honey and more! Poplar Grove, April-Nov., Wed., 8 a.m.-1 p.m. (910) 686-9518. www.poplargrove.com • Riverfront Farmers’ Market open on Water St., downtown, every Sat., through Dec., 8 a.m.-1 p.m. www.wilmingtondowntown.com/ farmers-market • Carolina Beach Farmer’s Market every Sat., May-Sept., 8 a.m.-1 p.m., around the lake in Carolina Beach. Free parking; www.carolinabeachfarmersmarket.com. • Wrightsville Beach Farmers’ Market, 21 Causeway Dr. Mon., 8 a.m.-1 p.m., first Mon. in May-Labor Day. • Town of Leland Farmers’ Market at Leland Town Hall, alternating Sundays, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., MayAug. • Oak Island Farmers’ Market, Mon., April-Nov., 7 a.m.-1 p.m. Middletown Park, Oak Island • Southport Waterfront Market, Wednesdays, May-Sept., 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Garrison Lawn in Southport, NC. • St. James Plantation Farmers Market, Thurs., May-Oct., 4-7 p.m., park at Woodlands Park Soccer Field.

PORT CITY SWAPPERS Port City Swappers is a monthly food and beverage swap where members of a community share homemade, homegrown, or foraged foods with each other. Swaps allow direct trades to take place between attendees, e.g., a loaf of bread for a jar of pickles or a half-dozen backyard eggs. No cash is exchanged, and no goods are sold. Diversify your pantry and go home happy and inspired while meeting your neighbors! facebook.com/PortCitySwappers

ILM VEGAN CARROT MOB Like a flash mob, the Wimington Vegan Carrot Mob chooses a restaurant to meet at and dine in for a night of fellowship and vegan meals. A location and time is chosen, and vegan diners show up and shows local restauratuers support from the vegan community in an effort to expand vegan menus. www.wilmingtonvegan.com

ILM VEGAN MENTOR PROGRAM The Wilmington Vegan Mentor Program ensures those who are new to veganism are provided with all the support and guidance they need. Volunteer mentors are paired with those who are making new food choices. They meet to talk and answer questions, go to the grocery store, discuss cookbooks, and explore local resources. www.wilmingtonvegan.com 46 DEVOUR | SPRING 2016

La Costa Mexican Restaurant

WWW.LACOSTAMEXICANRESTAURANWILMINGTON.COM

16oz margaritas

$4.25 Monday and Tuesday at all locations

THREE CONVENIENT LOCATIONS: 5622 Oleander Drive, 910.392.6006 3617 Market Street, 910.772.9000 8024 Unit 1 Market Street, 910.686.8210 ~ Open Sunday through Thursday until 9pm ~ ~ Friday and Saturday until 10pm ~ ~ Lunch Monday through Saturday 11am to 3pm ~

ie Want to list your food on, event, tour, organizati our class, or fundraiser in next edition?

E-mail the event by the middle April to shea@encorepub.com, or post it online through encore’s calendar, which populates Devour’s calendar, too. Head over to www.encorepub. com, click calendar, add event, and follow the directions.

SPRING 2016 | DEVOUR 47

come home to casey's

Recognized by Yahoo Travel as the Best Buffet in North Carolina!

Family owned & operated by Larry & Gena Casey

WE ALSO DO CATERING!

5559 Oleander drive • 910.798.2913

Wednesday - Saturday 11am-9pm • Sunday 11am- 8pm • Closed - Monday and Tuesday

winner of best BUFFET, FRIED CHICKEN AND SOUL FOOD/COUNTRY COOKING