perfection weekend

Perfection, as I define it. That is, a weekend chock full of friends, food, and music.

It began on Friday with (can you imagine a more evocative phrase) Food Truck Rodeo.

An exquisite outdoor space, Christmas lights aplenty, happy neighbors of all ages. Live music. Food trucks. A last really warm and lovely night of Indian summer.

Sidewalk bedecked with chalk (can you tell they’re raising their kids to be hippies here in the Triangle?)

Bluegrass! We ended up sitting right next to the bandstand to eat.

I’d stumbled upon the scene during setup earlier in the day. And made a note of the more whimsically named food trucks for my pun-loving boyfriend.

(that says “baguettaboutit”!)

Once the rodeo officially began, enormous lines formed behind said trucks. Ended up stopping at neither of those (though they, and the crepe truck, are definitely on my to-do list).

Instead I took in the music scene and stole my friends’ baby for awhile.

Then got in a much more reasonable line for pizza and salad. This pizza was boss- it had wild mushrooms, caramelized onion, and entire cloves of roasted garlic *swoon*.

Let me note that this was the second live band of the day for me. After I got off work, I stumbled upon a New Orleans brass band that was lots of fun (particularly enjoying Saint James Infirmary, which was a depressingly themed song- about a woman discovering her beloved in a morgue- and is traditionally played at funerals, but which I found to be quite beautiful and somewhat oddly upbeat).

The next morning, I returned to the same outdoor space for the amazing Carrboro farmer’s market. This lady is my absolute favorite- she has delicious baked goods (many of which are gluten free, FYI) and yummy drinks (mint lemonade, anyone?) and she’s also just delightfully cheerful and lets me know about fun things like when Krishna’s birthday is.

Some of the goodies:

 

And what I opted to buy for breakfast:

Then there were cheese samples from Chapel Hill Creamery. Mmm.

Fresh ginger- so gorgeous!- was in abundance.

 

This was practically the same price as the grocery store, and farm-fresh garlic is something that is truly transcendently delicious if you can get your hands on it. I nabbed some up!

Steve selected this hilariously huge bunch of collard greens.

Someday, when I have some surplus money (so… not holding my breath on that one) I’m going to buy one of these gorgeous, wonderful-smelling, handmade cedar chests.

This particular morning, we strolled from the farmer’s market to my favorite brunch destination in Carrboro: Panzanella. I’ve been a couple of times, including during Mom Weekend 2013 (as dubbed by my roommate and I- the weekend both of our mothers coincidentally were visiting us and we all hung out together!).

The brunch menu kind of makes your eyes roll back in your head. Even better than the sublime-sounding combinations is the fact that they’re purchased through a co-op and mostly local.

They serve delicious Equal Exchange tea in individual teapots.

 

While we waited for our orders to arrive, we admired the interior. The outdoor deck is a WONDERFUL place to eat but it’s been a little too raw lately. The interior has art, a lot of it sort of fun and weird.

 

Soup sounded great to me, and though I wasn’t wild about their special (tomato-cilantro) I still ordered it and ended up LOVING it. I also got some really awesome cheesy grits on the side.

Meanwhile, Steve has become completely obsessed with their vegan wrap, which contains the most creative assortment of ingredients.

Along with being inventive, it is PRETTY and YUMMY!

This post is already quite bulky and we’ve only reached midday Saturday of an epic weekend, so part 2 is forthcoming!

welcome to nc!

A sleepy, tree-lined, generously sidewalked neighborhood.

  

Many a garden, staked up with eco-friendly and beautiful bamboo.

The suspicious feeling one has entered a time warp to 1969.

 

(with a few modern issues)

Agave and soy milk for your iced coffee, simply placed on the counter like normal people add them?!

Ubiquitous adorable bikes.

 

And my dream school. I hope. Someday.

   

The following is a compilation post from two separate trips to my new state (!) of North Carolina. The first time I ever went I already catalogued in the blog (it’s worth a read because there are LEMURS!!). Then I took another trip this past May which I just lacked the organization to post about til now.

My missions were to:

- Get the lay of the land (check)
- Get stoked to live there (check)
- Reconnect with a wonderful friend with whom I attended summer camp (check!)
- Find myself a roommate (not check, but it’s for the best since the place and person with whom I ended up are both infinitely more awesome than the respective places and roommates I encountered on the first trip)

So the above pictures were captured during various meanders along the streets of Carrboro (my future town!)and on the UNC Campus (my future school?! PLEASE?!). Does anyone else wander neighborhoods taking pictures of eating establishments? ACTUALLY, I ended up randomly running into another camp friend at a bar on my last trip (so random and awesome!) and she said she was moving to France in October to teach English (awesome) and had opened up Google Earth to explore her hometown and make sure there were pastry shops (super awesome! And there are 4!)

This combined a pun and wings, which made me think Steve would be all over it, but apparently he’s a vegetarian now… so it’s posted solely for your amusement.

 

Yes please.

Yes please.

The most exciting dining establishment I encountered on my May trip was Panzanella. Its lovely courtyard:

 

And its exciting and admirable mission:

 

Meant it was obviously going to be my destination for a wonderful single lady’s lunch. So exciting to read a menu and actually know it’s of ethical origins and I can eat it! Went for the spicy spring chicken wrap:

Aaggggggggggh it was so delicious!

 

That afternoon I met with someone about an apartment who was totally wrong for me and I’m totally better off without her and I didn’t even like the walk in closet (shh… yes I did). Roommate rejections. Very dramatic. It’s like dating: you meet someone on Craigslist, you send some tentative emails, then they want to Skype. You talk, you laugh, you feel a connection and then… poof. Sorry. It’s not you. I need to live with another college student.

Anyway, I ended up with someone way better- you’ll see in the next post!

That place I looked at that day was within walking distance of Whole Foods, which at the time thrilled me but retrospectively I can now say would have been dangerous for my wallet. With Exhibit A of why being my exciting purchases for the road trip home.

BUT, you say, this is all ANCIENT HISTORY!

How true.

I returned to the Triangle this past weekend to help move someone in. Someone named my boyfriend, who’s joining me in the NC adventure!

We were thrilled to be reunited and in our new town, so we hit up a bar! Slash restaurant. We’d both admired Southern Rail’s charm on respective past trips to Carrboro, so we made our way there to spend a beautiful evening eating and drinking al fresco.

Waited on a table, and began by people watching at the bar area.

  

I saw the bartender making someone something beautiful with strawberries, so I requested one of the same “but not too sweet”. Got fizzy water instead of Sprite, which is good cause otherwise it woulda been too much sugar. What I got was kind of a variation on a mojito. Yum! Steve got a fat tire.

This is ONE drink in DC:

(Note: I tipped! It wasn’t filled in yet!)

We ate outside in what basically felt like an enchanted forest.

Steve got something beautiful with cucumbers and cilantro and basil and gin. Next time, Southern Rail. This is mine.

  

Southern Rail immediately earned my undying loyalty by having tater tots in the menu. One of the appetizer options was basically tater tot nachos: topped with mushrooms, onions, chili, and cheese. Mind boggling. This picture fails to convey how ENORMOUS this was. We took leftovers in a box and then fed them to my friend we ran into at the bar :) (She’d been drinking on an empty stomach. Whoo!)

 

I got the black bean burger, which was delicious but I was basically already full from the appetizer, so I ate like two bites :) But the patty was clearly homemade and spicy, and the avocado spread was delightful. I ate my side salad out of duty, as I hadn’t yet had any vegetables (well unless you count the tater tots and ketchup… which I cannot do in good conscience). Steve got a fab, garlicky pasta and veggie dish.

Then free concert across the street, whoo! This is where I ran into my camp friend… outside the ladies’ room. Steve said from his seat he just saw me outside the bathroom high fiving someone and was like, “Gosh, she’s really very friendly”. Heh.

On to the next morning.

I’d immediately called my good pal Andrea (who I’ll sometimes call Love Fern, and she me) when I knew I was going down for the weekend, and she requested a meeting for Saturday brunch. She said the best place in town for it was Guglhupf, and since I can’t imagine any place better I’ll just believe her and go here for the rest of my life.

It is SO BEAUTIFUL!

 

I mean my gosh there is a fountain. There were lots of adorable families with adorable children. One little boy just wandered back and forth on this ledge, staring in wonderment at the water. Precious.

 

Steve and Andrea both got a scrumptious looking egg somethingorother.

 

And this was my beautiful plate.

Not picture is a guzzled iced coffee after a not-so-stellar night of sleep. I also got this gazpacho, partly because gazpacho tastes like summer.. and partially because I was suffering from veggie guilt.

And I got the most FANTASTIC bircher muesli! I am obsessed with this stuff, and used to try to make it at home, with very little success. This is the best American incarnation I’ve had. (My ultimate trophy, however, goes to the hotel buffet I got to enjoy in Thailand. Not likely to taste it again for awhile, though my little sister is actually there now!)

This is just part 1 of the North Carolina posts. There will of course be many parts, as it’s my new home (!) but the next installment will introduce you to Steve and my’s dope new places, dope new roommates, and dope new neighborhood.