Triangle Today | Sunday

TRIANGLE TODAY | THE NEWS & OBSERVER

SUNDAY, JANUARY 6, 2019

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CUCCIOLO OSTERIA’S

AUTHENTIC ITALIAN CUISINE WORTHY OF A CULINARY LOVE AFFAIR Greg Cox for Triangle Today Dear Cucciolo, Forgive me if I’m being too forward in declaring my feelings for you so soon in our relationship. (Dare I call it that? It was mere weeks ago that we first met, and we’ve only seen each other twice so far.) But I like to think I have reason to hope that the feeling is mutual. After all, it was you who first uttered those three little words that I longed to hear.

Those words are “the Roman way.” They were right there on your menu, describing your linguine alla carbonara.

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve been lured astray by the promise of that dish at other restaurants, only to have my heart broken by sham versions that cheat with cream. We both know that cream has no place in an authentic carbonara. Your menu description was a coy promise that you would not let me down.

Oh, how you kept that promise, my dear Cucciolo. Let me count the ways: Al dente pasta, firm but supple in a sauce created by a raw egg cooked by the heat of the pasta. The salty umami of pecorino romano. The earthy funk of guanciale. And the finishing touch, the essential spice note — just a bit of black pepper.

Our time together has been all too brief, but it has been enough for me to discover that your charms are not limited to linguine alla carbonara. Or even to pasta, for that matter, though your tagliatelle al pomodoro (ah, that vibrant sauce of fresh tomatoes!) and truffle tajarin (those thin, egg-rich noodles flecked with black truffle!) have shown me that you have just as deft a hand with fresh pastas as with dried.

CUCCIOLO OSTERIA 601 W. Main St., Suite C, Durham 984-243-8744 cucciolodurham.com Cuisine: Italian Rating: 4 stars Prices: $$$ Atmosphere: industrial warehouse chic

Ernie Barnes Family Trust

Clockwise from top left: Cucciolo Osteria’s coffee-soaked ladyfingers are nestled between layers of marsala-sweetened mascarpone in a pillowy, cocoa-dusted tiramisu. Cucciolo Osteria serves a variety of bruschetta including roasted grape bruschetta with creamy goat cheese and toasted walnuts, basil tomato with homemade ricotta, burrata and roasted hazelnut with truffle honey and the exotic-sounding baccala mantecato. Cucciolo Osteria’s truffle tajarin presents as thin, egg-rich noodles flecked with black truffle.

Juli Leonard

Read the full review at triangletoday.com

SUNDAY, JANUARY 6, 2019

Give your shrimp cocktail a little zing Fred Thompson for Triangle Today

TRIANGLE TODAY | THE NEWS & OBSERVER

Comic Rodney Perry reveals the 9 comedians (and 1 musician) who have inspired his career Ed Condran for Triangle Today Rodney Perry is connected. The 48-year old comic-actor is almost like Kevin Bacon; he is just a degree from a number of mega-stars/fascinating entertainers.

You love shrimp. I love shrimp. Go ahead and confess, you know you hang out at the shrimp bowl at every party you go to, afraid they’re going to disappear before you get your fill.

But wait, you’re the one having the gathering. You could do the expected: cold, boiled shrimp with a horseradish-laced cocktail sauce. Not a thing wrong with that tact. You, however, are the uber host, so why go with the norm? During this exciting season of love, hope and craziness, let’s get unique.

My version of Coctel De Camaron, or Mexican Shrimp Cocktail, is a vibrant example of how a few simple ingredients can lift a food to a new plane.

My quest to develop a recipe for this concoction has been a couple of years in the making. I’ve asked questions, lots of questions, at restaurants that serve this cocktail, and at Hispanic stores throughout the region.

There have been failures. The biggest was adding lemon-lime soda. What a disgrace to the shrimp! I knew it couldn’t be all that complicated. But even us food geeks struggle at times.

The liquid is the key, and when it was suggested that I use a clam/tomato juice cocktail as the base, it all came together. This dish is very similar to a ceviche, where the acids in citrus juice actually “cook” the seafood, usually some type of fish.

Here we poach the shrimp first. The exciting taste bud-happy traditions of a great ceviche are definitely present and accounted for, and you will serve something that is crazy good, unexpected, and have folks asking for more.

I implore you to use local shrimp, and even better, the late season green-tail shrimp that are sweet and have less of the iodine flavor of brown shrimp – if you can find them. Any local shrimp will be frozen at this time of the year, but don’t sweat it. Shrimp freeze beautifully. If local shrimp are in a seafood case, ask when they were thawed, or ask if they have some still frozen. That puts you in control.

Get the recipe at triangletoday.com.

“I am probably one degree from most of Hollywood,” says Perry, calling from his Atlanta home. “It’s incredible. Who would have ever guessed?”

He will perform at Goodnight’s this weekend. Before then, he revealed his 10 picks for fascinating people he’s worked with through his comedy career.

host the Academy Awards. He made a joke. He’s a comedian. Let him host the show. He would be incredible.”

5. Steve Harvey: “I met Steve Harvey on the set of ‘Johnson Family Vacation.’ Steve taught me about preparation as a comic-actor.

When it comes to work, Steve is meticulous.

6. Cedric the Entertainer: “I met him on ‘Johnson Family Vacation’ as well. The cool thing about Cedric was the insight he offered.

He talked a lot about what it was like to be part of the ‘Kings of Comedy’ tour. He showed me what the possibilities are in the world of comedy.”

1. Mo’Nique: “I enjoyed being her sidekick (on the late night talker Rodney Perry will perform at Goodnight’s “The Mo’Nique Show”). She saw me me perform, and the next day this weekend. Courtesy of Rodney Perry.

I got a call and she asked me to work with her. She’s so funny and generous.

7. Tony Rock: “Chris Rock is the star. I get it. But Tony “After she called me we met up and she spent $3,000 is so funny. He’s the comic I urge people to get to on a shopping spree for my wife and I (15) years ago. I know. Chris Rock might be a better stand-up than his brother but Tony is a quality act.” asked her how I could repay her and she said for me to do the same for another young comic someday.

We’re dear friends. I just spoke with her last week. I admire and respect her so much.”

2. Tyler Perry: “I learned so much while I worked on “Madea’s Big Happy Family.” Tyler is the hardest working person I’ve ever been around. The guy is directing, producing, writing and wearing crazy costumes. He’s always busy.”

3. Eddie Murphy: “Eddie is the reason I do comedy. I met Eddie at a party years ago at his house. He went up to me and said, ‘Hey, funny man.’ I was blown away not just because he knew who I was but he called me funny man. Can you believe that? Eddie is still the funniest guy in the room. We had a chance to talk comedy and I’ll never forget it.”

4. Kevin Hart: Kevin is one of the nicest guys in the industry. When I had a stroke (in 2016), he didn’t know but me but he sent me a nice chunk of money.

He’s hilarious and a great guy. I don’t get why he can’t

8. Solange: “This is not one you would expect but I meet a lot of musicians. I was at a party and I look up and see who is the DJ. She was playing some killer hip-hop.”

9. Bill Bellamy: “We hosted a show together (‘Who’s Got Jokes’). Bill taught me how to host a talk show.

We were like Batman and Robin.

10. Byron Allen: Byron goes way back (The comic was one of the hosts of “Real People”) to the ‘70s.

Not only is he a very funny comic, he has incredible business savvy. I don’t know how many people know this but Byron is a billionaire. I didn’t know that until he pulled up with a custom Bentley.”

RODNEY PERRY When: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 6 Where: Goodnights, 981 W. Morgan St., Raleigh Tickets: $20 Sunday Info: 919-828-5233 or goodnightscomedy.com

TRIANGLE TODAY | THE NEWS & OBSERVER

SUNDAY, JANUARY 6, 2019

Justin Timberlake can’t stop the feeling.

He’s bringing his tour to Raleigh.

Isaac Weeks for Triangle Today There were plenty of folks counting down the seconds until 2019 arrived, in the hopes that better fortune was awaiting in the new year.

Among them might be Justin Timberlake, whose much awaited album dropped earlier this year to critically mixed reviews and who was forced to reschedule several tour dates because of bruised vocal chords. Timberlake’s Man of the Woods Tour will stop at PNC Arena tonight.

Last year was supposed to be a career high point for the singer. He entered 2018 by celebrating the release of his first album in five years with a Super Bowl halftime show in front of one of the largest viewing audiences in the world.

Here, we look back at some of the hurdles Timberlake faced last year in the hopes that his 2019 begins much better with a killer show, as he is set to perform in front of a Triangle audience that has been eagerly awaiting this Sunday night for months.

1. “Man of the Woods,” or When Bad Album Titles Happen to Good Performers Timberlake’s 2018 Super Bowl performance occurred just two days after the release of “Man of the Woods,” the singer’s first full-length album in five years, and his first impact within the

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music world since the 2016 single “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” That song, off of the “Trolls” soundtrack, was the best-selling single of 2016, according to Forbes, so all signs pointed to Timberlake’s new record posting huge numbers.

Unfortunately, the “Man of the Woods” release strategy may have been doomed from the beginning. Many viewed the album cover, with the singer standing in front of a forest of bare trees, as a hint that the record’s themes and sounds would lean more heavily toward the burgeoning Americana sound than his earlier hip-hop-influenced works. Pre-release rumors of a duet with country star Chris Stapleton (“Tennessee Whiskey”) appearing on the album didn’t help matters. There also was a puzzling trailer released online, with the bearded, flannel-wearing singer promising his fans that the record would be “about where I’m from,” while watching horses run through a pasture.

2. An ill-timed tribute With the 2018 Super Bowl being played in Minneapolis, Minn., it wasn’t necessarily a shocker that whoever performed the halftime show would include an homage to Prince, who had died less than two years earlier and is still synonymous with the city.

Unfortunately for Timberlake, there were two things going against him in this regard: a rumor that his tribute

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For years, many pointed to the incident as an example of white privilege, as Timberlake was largely forgiven for the whole affair despite being the one doing the ripping, whereas Jackson struggled to recover.

That latter claim was only helped this past September when reports came out during an investigation into sexual harassment allegations against disgraced former CBS CEO Les Moonves.

According to a story in HuffPost, Moonves wanted to make sure he could damage Jackson’s career in any way possible, including banning her from all Viacom properties, but wasn’t as heavy-handed in his punishment of Timberlake.

Justin Timberlake is still scheduled to perform in Raleigh tonight. AP would include Prince performing via hologram, a technology that has to be used very subtly to avoid feeling exploitive, and a public feud between the two that still lingered in many fans minds.

While the tribute still went on as planned, albeit one that had a projected image of Prince onstage, instead of a hologram, performing alongside Timberlake as he played the legend’s hits “I Would Die For You” and “Until the End of Time,” the whole affair left fans feeling even more skeptical.

3. Ghosts of past halftime shows It didn’t help that Timberlake already had an infamous moment during a past halftime show when he was a guest in Janet Jackson’s 2004 halftime show. (We hope we don’t need to remind you of the so-called “wardrobe malfunction.”) Some fans still haven’t forgiven him for it, though it’s more for his part in the aftermath than the actual occasion. Timberlake issued many public apologies in the aftermath, while Jackson refused to speak about it for long after.

4. But 2018 wasn’t all bad While Timberlake had his vocal chord problems at the end of the year, he released a photographic memoir of sorts, “Hindsight: & All the Things I Can’t See in Front of Me” this fall. The coffee table books, filled with essays and anecdotes, along with personal photos, landed on The New York Times Bestseller list.

He also announced he’s producing a game show for FOX called “Spin the Wheel,” with actor Dax Shepard as host, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

A premiere date hasn’t been set.

And that tour? Despite the mixed feelings on Timberlake’s new material, his tour is still popular among fans.

According to Pollstar’s year-end figures, the tour ranks No. 7 on the list of the top grossing tours in the world for 2018. That’s 77 shows bringing in $150.8 million, according to Pollstar, and that’s with several shows canceled.

Justin Timberlake When: 7:30 p.m., Jan. 6 Where: PNC Arena, 1400 Edwards Mill Road, Raleigh Cost: Tickets start at $49.50 Info: ThePNCArena.com or 919-8612300

SUNDAY, JANUARY 6, 2019

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