A miracle occurred at Panciuto last week

Last week, our family gathered at Panciuto, one of our all-time favorite restaurants, to celebrate (late) Ben's birthday.  During the meal, chef/owner Aaron Vandemark treated us to samples of two veggie burgers he's been working for some time to perfect.

This incredibly nice offer presented me with a dilemma, because I love Aaron and Panciuto and the great food there, and I will eat anything he serves--but I really do not like veggie burgers.  I've tried tiny tastes of quite a few, and I haven't liked a single one.

Still, Aaron made them, so I tried his.

That's when the miracle occurred:  they were amazing!  They had all the mouth feel and rich flavor of a good burger--and in the second case, of a good cheeseburger--but with none of the weight afterward.  They were simply fantastic.

If Aaron puts them on the menu, I will order them--but only sometimes, because he's still a magician with pork, which he serves often and in many ways, and which I adore.

I now must also openly confess that I have enjoyed--nay, loved--two different veggie burgers.  Unfortunately for veggie burger fans everywhere, you can't order them yet--but you should still go to Panciuto and try the food.  It's a wonderful place with a great team.

We need to make it harder to get into Panciuto

As I've written here many times, I love Panciuto.  The blend of Italian and southern American cuisines that chef/proprietor Aaron Vandemark produces is consistently fantastic, so rich and delicious that I can never finish all I order.  He's been getting his ingredients locally throughout the restaurant's existence, and he's a great member of his community.  On a brisk fall night like tonight, sitting inside the cozy restaurant is a genuine treat.

There's really only one problem:  it's too easy to get a reservation.

Panciuto deserves to be thronged, so busy that they raise prices and still people are on waiting lists, so busy that I have trouble getting a table all of the many times I want to eat there.  I should have to beg to get in, and even then they should have to turn me away often.

Panciuto also deserves recognition as consistently delivering amazing, handmade pasta, something other places are starting to claim but which has been true there from the start.

Spread the word, and then go eat at Panciuto.  Tell your friends to do the same.

Make it hard for me to get to eat at my favorite local restaurant.

The best bread pudding I've ever tasted

Earlier tonight, on a whim, a group of us headed to Panciuto for dinner.  As I've written here many times, Panciuto is one of my favorite restaurants anywhere, and it owns a piece of my heart.  On a cold winter night, I love being there, eating the wonderful food of chef/owner Aaron Vandemark, talking with the servers, some of whom feel like family, and staring out at the beauty of Hillsborough's small downtown area.  When I spotted beef ribeye on tonight's menu, I could resist no longer and ended up at Panciuto.

I hadn't planned to eat dessert, but one of the two--"Pannetone bread pudding, cinnamon ice cream,
vanilla custard, honey"--was something I'd never tried before and intrigued me.  I must confess to not being a bread pudding enthusiast; though I have several friends who are, to me it's always a fine but not compelling dessert option.  Still, I ordered it.

I am so glad I did.

The dish was perfect, from the warm and substantial but not heavy bread pudding, to the best cinnamon ice cream I've ever had, to the thin drizzle of honey on top.  Every bite amazed me.

In talking with Aaron, I learned how very much effort he has to expend to make the dish and thus that it is one he prepares rarely.  I don't know how much longer it will be on the menu, but I am serious when I recommend that you drive to Panciuto the moment it opens even if you order only that one dish.  (Aaron might not like me recommending that particular dining choice; sorry, Aaron.)  Okay, indulge yourself and eat a full dinner there, and be smart and call first to make sure seats are available.  You will be glad you did.

Just do not miss this bread pudding.

A great meal for a worthy cause

A group of us tonight joined other happy diners at Panciuto, one of my favorite restaurants, for a delicious meal to benefit the Eno River Farmers Market.  Chef Aaron Vandemark created a menu around the theme of food from our founding fathers, and it was outstanding.  The great team at Panciuto served us all with care and grace, and everyone I spoke with had a wonderful time.

Aaron presented the meal as four "acts," the first three of which each contained multiple dishes.  (The fourth was dessert.)  We all ate family style, from large plates of food.  From what I could see, no table came even close to finishing all of the food on offer.  The large printed menu told the stories behind each of the dishes.  It was big fun--big, tasty fun.

I normally take a lot of photos at these meals, but tonight I just relaxed, chatted, and ate.

I feel genuinely lucky to have the chance to enjoy such treats--and in this case to do so while benefiting a worthy organization.

If you ever have the opportunity to eat a community dinner at Panciuto, take it.  You will be very happy you did.

Not knowing the limits of your skills, a case study: Cooks & Soldiers

Last week, I wrote an entry in which I mentioned my recent dinner at Cooks & Soldiers.  As I said then, the meal was okay but almost never better than that.  I've thought a lot about what the restaurant did wrong, and I've come to the conclusion that it boils down to ambition far outstripping skill.

The basic idea--serve Basque food--was enough to attract me to the restaurant.  Its menu certainly looked promising.

Click an image to see a larger version.

Then what should have been an easy home run, the pan con tomate with Jamon Iberico, arrived.

The bread was not the thin, crispy wonder you get in Spain.  The tomato was a thick paste, not the light, grated coating of tradition.  Even the Jamon Iberico wasn't quite up to snuff, though it was the best part of the dish.

The croquetas on the menu made me a bit nervous, because they involved shrimp rather than ham, but I was up for trying them.

Unfortunately, as you can see, they were more like hush puppies or just fried shrimp with way, way too much breading, than any croqueta I've ever seen.  To be fair, the menu did describe them as "Royal red shrimp fritters," but I assumed with the name "Croquetas de Gambas" they would hew more to the croquetas tradition.  In this case, I paid for that assumption.

At this point, I realized that this was not so much Basque food as a southern take on Basque food, a menu built by riffing on Basque classics.  In theory, I'd love that--note how much I adore Aaron Vandemark's take on Italian food at Panciuto.  The difference is that Aaron's fundamental skills are so good that when he produces a twist on an Italian dish, he not only understands the heart of that dish, he also can reinvent the concept while staying true to its nature.

Put differently, his skills are strong enough to let him invent.  The folks at Cooks & Soldiers, by contrast, didn't display enough strength in the basics to let them hit their goals.

This point became crystal clear when I tasted the very best dish on the Cooks & Soldiers menu:  the Bikini.

Basically, this is a nine-buck, small, fancy grilled cheese sandwich.  I'm all for dishes like this:  take a classic, employ great ingredients--and here we have Jamon Iberico and black truffle--and create something better.  Even this offering, though, made me instantly wonder how much stronger it would have been with better bread and a more flavorful, ideally Spanish cheese.

The lesson here applies to any art, not just cooking:  if you want to experiment, to riff on classics, to take them to new heights, great--just be sure your fundamental skills and your understanding of those classics are up to the task.

Once more, with feeling: Go eat at Panciuto

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you're probably already well aware of how much I love Panciuto, a Hillsborough restaurant with fantastic food and a wonderful staff.  A group of us ate there recently, and the meal was once again delicious.  Among us, we sampled just about everything on that night's menu, and none of us had a bad bite.

Chef/owner Aaron Vandemark creates dishes that blend Southern and Italian cuisines in ways I've never tasted elsewhere.  He's particularly great with anything fried and with eggs, but his food is uniformly topnotch.  He regularly makes me like vegetables I think I hate, and his meat preparations are always spot on.

The place also simply makes me happy.  It's a family business with a family vibe, and I've felt comfortable in it from the first time I was there.

We're blessed in the Triangle with a wonderful and growing food scene, so we all have many wonderful options when we're considering dining out.  Panciuto should be one you always consider.  If you won't do it for the food, do it for me:  I want this restaurant to be available to me for as long as I'm alive.

Eat at Panciuto

I've said it before, but it bears repeating:  If you don't already regularly eat at Panciuto, you need to head over there.  Everyone in the area should know this restaurant.  As much as it would hurt me personally, reservations should be impossible to get.  Chef Aaron Vandemark should already have won Best Chef in the Southeast in the Beard awards. 

Panciuto is, among its many virtues, one of the finest places to eat on a cold winter night, which is exactly why I was there earlier tonight.  With great food, a warm and cozy dining room, and a friendly staff, it's just the right place to be when you want the kind of meal you wish you could make but almost certainly can't.

The portions here are never small and rarely light, but they are always delicious.  Just check out my main dish tonight, a pork shoulder with polenta gnocchi.

Click the image to see a larger version.

Wow, was it wonderful!  The pork fell apart at the touch of a fork, was crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside, and tasted amazing.  The gnocchi were a revelation, soft and flavorful.  Though I hate to admit it, I even enjoyed the grilled Brussels sprouts. 

Do yourself a favor and go to Panciuto.  You'll be very glad you did.

Support the artists whose work you love

As we head into the season of gift-buying, consider allocating some of your budget to artists whose works you love.  Many of them are probably doing just fine, some may even be incredibly wealthy, but it's just as likely that many of them are barely making ends meet.  Art, in whatever forms one practices it, rarely pays all that well.

I once had a client and friend say that he and his colleagues were wondering why I was still working at PT and with them when I was clearly making millions from my novels.  I assured him that if I was making millions from my novels, I would be writing full-time, but instead my sales are a couple of orders of magnitude lower.

I'm fortunate, though, to have a great job at a great company that treats me well.  Many artists are hustling all the time to make their art, and if you love their work, you should support them.

Consider, for example, Stephen Kellogg, a musician whose work I quite love.  I don't know him at all, though I've been to a few of his shows.  Perhaps he is making money hand over fist; I hope so.  The facts that he's doing a PledgeMusic drive to fund his next albums and that he's playing in the back room of Cat's Cradle this coming Tuesday suggest that he's working hard to make a good living.  If you like his music, support him.  Buy his CDs, or pick up some merch.  Come to the show Tuesday night; I'll be there. 

Or check out the work of Jain Faries, who works in fabric and found objects and other areas that rarely excite me, but who manages to produce strange, wonderful creations.  I do know Jain--she's part of my extended family--but that knowledge does not affect my opinion of her art.  She's working all day each day right now at a craft show in Greensboro, hustling with many other artists.  As far as I'm concerned, her work deserves to be in fine galleries drawing big bucks, but that's not how it's worked out for her, at least not so far. 

Aaron Vandemark, the chef and owner of Panciuto, one of my favorite restaurants, is another artist who deserves your support.  (Yes, if you haven't been paying attention to food, chefs are artists, too.)  As near as I can tell, Aaron and Panciuto are doing just fine, but at the risk of making it harder for me and my friends to get reservations, I would love more people to know and enjoy his delicious creations.  (Disclosure:  I know Aaron a tiny bit, but it's not like we hang out together.) 

I could go on and on with examples, but you get the point.  If you love an artist and want her/him to keep creating great works, support her/him as you plan your holiday spending. 

Don't miss Panciuto this summer

I've written many times about what a great restaurant Panciuto is, and after a recent meal there, I have to say it again.  Chef Aaron Vandemark creates marvelous, locally sourced dinners that blend Italian and Southern cooking to amazing effect.  The wide variety of wonderful ingredients available in the summer lets him create especially scrumptious dishes.

Consider this beauty, a dish he called, "Summer plate."

Click the image to see a larger version.

Fried green tomatoes, cucumbers in a light sauce, corn salad--so many great tastes in one appetizer.

My first course was fried rabbit with cucumbers, watermelon, and more.

Wow, was it delicious.  As I've said many times, Aaron is a wizard with a fryer.

For my main, I chose a farfalle pasta with house-made pork sausage, goat cheese, tomatoes, and greens.

As pretty as it is, this dish tasted even better.

I wasn't planning to show my dessert, but no food-porn meal would be complete without it.  Check out this amazing concoction of peanut butter, chocolate, honey, and so much more.

I'm not normally a fan of desserts that involve peanut butter, but this was good enough to make me seriously reconsider that position.

Aaron is a great guy, and every person I've met on his staff has been super.  The restaurant is a local business, and it buys almost everything it uses from local suppliers.  The food is amazing.  Support Panciuto, and enjoy great meals as you do.

A single-source supper evening

The recipe couldn't fail to entice me: 

1) Take great vegetables and meats from a single local source, Eco Farm.

2) From that fine beginning, have Chef Aaron Vandemark of Panciuto, perhaps my favorite local restaurant, create a complete meal.

2) Add a focus on and free book from the fine folks at Daylight. 

3) Serve outside, with live music, under twinkle lights and, as the evening wore on, the stars. 

4) Top with a showing of short documentaries from various photographers whose work Daylight has produced. 

This single-source supper looked like a sure-fire bet, and it was. 

The menu was amazing:

* warm corn soup with salted whipped cream and caramel popcorn (trust me, it works)
* salad of greens and Aaron's homemade dressing
* farfalle pasta and fried green tomato salad
* pulled pork sliders with cucumber pickles
* squash and cornbread casserole
* Aaron's homemade sausage
* succotash salad
* chocolate pie

You can see all of those on my plate.

The copy of the most recent issue of Daylight was lovely and worthy of continued contemplation.

That's how almost a dozen of us spent our evening. 

I can't wait for the next one.  

A Fox's Feast

As Aaron Vandemark, chef and owner of the wonderful Panciuto restaurant explained in an email message to customers,

I’ve been reading Fantastic Mr. Fox to Henry (my two year old). At one point the hungry animals, led by Mr. Fox, burrow into the farmers’ storage sheds and find themselves surrounded by fowl, pork and cider. What follows is a spectacular Fox’s feast for all to share and I thought it would be fun to do something similar at the restaurant. So… I’m working on a menu now and I expect it’s going to include, chicken, duck, livers, pork shoulders, maple roasted pork bellies, carrots (for the rabbits), cider (hard and soft), and more. This will be our first community style dinner we’ve had in quite a while and I hope it sets the tone for your time with family and friends during the holidays.

As anyone who knows me could tell you, this was tailor-made for me. I absolutely could not resist the notion, so last night a group of us converged on Panciuto for this event.

It was wonderful.

The menu (click on it to see a larger, easier-to-read image) sounded both tasty and adventurous.


(Sorry about the grease stains; the tables were full, and I kept my menu out for reference during the meal).

The food proved to be even more delicious than the menu sounded.

I was frankly wary of both of the first two courses, but I should never have doubted Aaron. They were amazingly good, the soup warm and flavorful without ever being overly strong. The salad made me wish every dressing included duck and mustard.

The main course--the three meats, the raviolis, and the greens and carrots--was so good everyone there ate too much and wished they could fit in more. The pork rack, which was the weakest of the three meats, would have been the star in any other meal, its meat ever more tender as you ate closer to the bone. The pork belly was absolutely perfect, the exact right mix of crispy outside and oh so soft inside. For many, though, the fried chicken stole the show: served as basically large fried nuggets, no bones anywhere, it was moist and tender and so delicious all of us agreed we had never tasted its equal.

The dessert, which none of us had room for but all of us ate, provided a lovely, delicious ending to the meal.

The atmosphere was also perfect. They set the restaurant in one long table, and we all sat and ate community style. The room rippled with conversations and laughter, and though no one person knew more than a fourth of those present, for those few hours we were, as Aaron intended, a community.

I wish I could have taken every single friend I have to this meal.