Beasley's Chicken + Honey

Fried chicken never really was my thing. However, being entrenched in the southern lifestyle, I've discovered that fried chicken, when done right, can be amazing.  Beasley's Chicken + Honey gets it done, and then some.

Beasley's is part of three establishments opened in 2011 in one corner spot in downtown Raleigh. The trio is owned by local chef Ashley Christensen, who also owns the very popular and previously blogged Poole's Diner.  Beasley's focuses on fried chicken - serving a quarter chicken standalone, a chicken biscuit, or the combo chicken & waffles.  The chicken biscuit is an entire fried chicken breast served on a huge buttermilk biscuit served with a fried green tomato, dijon mustard and honey.  The chicken and waffles is by far my favorite - the waffle is so soft and flavorful, and the combination with the moist fried chicken (with your option of light or dark meat) make it extremely craveable.  This picture below was taken on a Friday night (alongside a moonshine margarita...), and I went back a week later and couldn't order anything else....and was just as delicious as I remember.

In case you want to branch out from fried chicken, the pork shoulder meatloaf, served with charred onion gravy a top a bed of whipped yukon potatoes.  The flavorful gravy truly brings this dish up a notch.  The man sitting next to us, who is a regular who always gets the fried chicken, said he was not disappointed on his opportunity to branch out.

Now what would a southern food restaurant be without its sides?  Sides are served a la carte, but you can buy a trio of sides as an entree.  The sides seasonally rotate, such as sauteed summer squash, watermelon with sea salt & olive oil, and stewed field tomatoes & vidalia onions, but the staple is the Ashe County cheddar pimiento mac and cheese custard.  It arrives at your table in a block of glory, and the pimiento gives it that added kick.  I'm not ashamed to say when I offered to split a side of it with a friend, we ordered a second helping because it was that good (and I think I got one forkful of the first serving...)

They go old fashioned by serving Nehi, RC Cola, and North Carolina favorite Cheerwine all in glass bottles, and also make fine cocktails as well like the moonshine margarita pictured above.  They are open for lunch every day and serve an additional brunch menu on Saturdays and Sundays until 4pm.

When I went to Beasley's, my expectations were not as high as when I went to the sister restaurant Poole's, since I left disappointed.  However, Beasley's simply blows all expectations out of the water, and think Beasley's far exceeds Poole's. I will put the chicken and waffles up against any I've had - even at the famous Roscoe's in Los Angeles and Hash House in Las Vegas.  And the mac & cheese here is better than the mac & cheese at Poole's, which is what they are known for.  If Ms. Christensen can keep up this high quality southern food, I will be channeling my inner southern girl more often, and I'll be saying "y'all" before you know it.

Beasley's Chicken + Honey

237 S Wilmington Street

Raleigh NC 27601

http://www.ac-restaurants.com/beasleys/

Zillycakes & Blue Monk Buffalo 10-15-11

When I travel back to Buffalo, the weekend schedule is usually trying to cram all my favorite hometown foods and specialties into a 72 hour span - Mighty Taco, A Royal from Penora's, Pizza & Wings from anywhere, Beef on Weck are usually the menu (I believe to the chagrin of my mother, who always wants to make me a home cooked meal...)  Since I'm always chasing down the old standbys, I never really get to try new restaurants in the area.


My last trip home, my sister & I went down to the Elmwood Strip,  a 2 mile stretch of Elmwood Avenue, lined with bars and eclectic shops near the Buffalo State College campus.  The day was cold and rainy, so our plan to walk the strip was altered to jump in the car and drive 5 blocks to the next group of stores, but still fun nonetheless to explore.


While we were up at the northern end of the strip, we saw Zillycakes, a specialty cake and cupcake shop. Their main business is designing cakes, but they do have a walk-in cupcake bar.  The walk-in area is TINY - there is a small bar with a couple stools, but is adjacent to the bar, so when someone else walks in, you are cramped.  Fortunately, we had some space when making our selections.


All the cupcakes at the cupcake bar are made to order - you pick your cupcake, your frosting, and if you desire, your toppings.  They had the standard cupcakes - yellow, chocolate, red velvet - but they had special cupcakes - apple almond, and lime thai chile.  Same goes with the frosting - standard buttercreams and cream cheese, but also had apple cider buttercream, which sounded perfect on a fall day, so we went with the apple almond cupcake to complement the apple cider buttercream.  They sprinkled almond slivers a top the cupcake, and was beautifully presented.

The cake was super moist, and frosting had hints of apple and spice, but not overpowering.  The almonds gave it texture.  Definitely a great cupcake.  Since Zilly (the owner, hence the name) was recently on Food Network Halloween Challenge, she may want to think about expanding, because her walk-in business will do the same.


Shopping makes me hungry....and thirsty.  As we continue down Elmwood, we were going to stop somewhere to knock another Buffalo staple off my list, but we ended up near the Blue Monk, a gastropub that opened in 2010.  And being from Buffalo, it's very standard to say "want to get a drink?" at 2pm.  So of course, my arm was twisted and off we got out of the rain.  The windows are tainted dark, so it was hard to see in from across Elmwood Avenue, and we wondered if they were open....oh, they were open, all right.


We walk in and the place is PACKED.  At 2pm.  On a Saturday.  The only place we can grab seats is at the bar near the door, coincidentally where we had sat when I had first come to Blue Monk on a Saturday evening out with my sister earlier in the spring.  We had only come for drinks that evening, but had looked at the menu and was intrigued and wanted to come back.


The restaurant is long and narrow, as most businesses on Elmwood are.  The bar runs along the right side before a staircase takes you upstairs to the dining area.  To the right of the steps is a huge blackboard listing all their beers on tap.  They run approximately 32 beers on tap in a wide variety of craft beers.  I go with a Flying Bison Rusty Chain, a Vienna lager which is locally brewed and only locally distributed.  Great flavor and always have when I'm in town.  Sis goes with a Southern Tier Pumking, a seasonal pumpkin ale which is brewed an hour south of Buffalo in Lakewood, NY, but is distributed regionally.  I had this beer in Raleigh a few weeks earlier, and loved it, so introduced it to my family when I was home, and Kim was hooked.  Balanced pumpkin flavor that doesn't overpower you (hmmm...now I need to go downstairs and crack the growler of it I bought yesterday....)


The menu is gastropub food, highlighted by the Duck Frites - belgian style fries cooked in duck fat, and served with a choice of 2 sauces.  We went with chipotle bacon mayo and wasabi aioli.  Since it was a cold day, soup sounded good, and the soup of the day was a creamy fennel and greens soup with goat cheese crostini.  I love fennel and I love goat cheese, and in soup?  Immediately intrigued.  We each got a bowl.  


The frites were perfectly cooked - slight crunch on the outside, yet soft inside.  The chipotle bacon surprisingly was my favorite of the two sauces we selected - the smokiness of the bacon and the slight heat of the chipotle made for a great sauce.  The wasabi aioli was good, but I didn't think the wasabi was strong enough against the mayo.  


The soup was even better.  Shame on me for not taking a picture of it.  The goat cheese was spread on top of the crostini, and placed on top of the soup.  The soup itself was delicious - hints of fennel and the creamy warmth of the soup made for a perfect fall meal, but once the crostini softened to break up and eat, the soup took new dimension.  The goat cheese heightened the creaminess and the flavor, and was so delicious. I immediately wanted another bowl, but then remembered I had to gorge on other Buffalo delicacies later, so I declined.


We stuck around for another beverage, and this time I went with Three Heads The Kind India Pale Ale from nearby Rochester.  I usually don't drink IPA's because they are too hoppy, but sometimes they can surprise me, as this one did, since it more resembled a Pale Ale, which is my beer style of choice.


Blue Monk is not a place I'd expect in Buffalo.  Buffalo bars are like the city and their people - simple, no frills, and great heart & soul.  This bar seems to be more high end and something I'd see in New York, but given the crowd on a Saturday afternoon, Buffalo embraces it, and so do I.  Next time, I will do a full meal, complemented with an Rusty Chain, of course.

Mac and Cheese? Not so fast, my friend...

• If I was granted one last meal before I parted this earth, I'm 99.9% sure I would have macaroni and cheese.  And not that blue box powder stuff....REAL mac and cheese with REAL cheese and noodles....from scratch. As a good catholic girl (at least one that still doesn't eat meat on Fridays during Lent), I will make a big pan of homemade mac and cheese.  Eating as a full meal is a lenten treat to help me forget I can't have chicken or steak on Fridays for eight weeks, but the fat and cheese and all things that make it the king of comfort foods makes me sadly keep it out of my diet on a regular basis.

  I have always loved butternut squash, which has its own comfort quality about it.  It's a sign of fall - crisp air, walking outside in a light sweater, leaves morphing into beautiful hues of reds and yellows.  I always jump at the chance to have butternut squash at a restaurant, but usually don't cook with it.  Fortunately, my friendly produce delivery service forces my hand, and now to find something for butternut squash....
  
  
  So when I stumbled upon a lighter version of mac and cheese substituting butternut squash for some of the cheese, I was immediately intrigued.  I did opt for a lower-calorie recipe, as I wanted to pare down the recipe as much as I could.  Looking at this picture, could you tell this isn't full-on homemade mac and cheese??
  
  
  
  
  
  The squash once mashed down and combined with the cheese gives that cheesy consistency, as well as acts as a binding agent.  Yes, it tastes like butternut squash, but it gives the illusion of that warm comfort yummy-in-your-belly while sneaking in some veggies and fiber.  I used high fiber pasta to even get a little more fiber in the recipe, which does help fill you up faster so you only eat a cup, instead of the entire pan.

  Macaroni & Cheese with Butternut Squash

• 
  
• 1 small butternut squash (about 1 pound), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes (about 3 cups)
• 1 cup homemade or low-sodium canned chicken stock, skimmed of fat (vegetarian option - swap for veggie broth)
• 1 1/2 cups nonfat milk
• Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound elbow macaroni (I use Barilla Plus to get that extra punch of fiber)
• 4 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, finely grated (about 1 cup)
• 4 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, finely grated (1 ounce)
• 2 tablespoons fine breadcrumbs (I omitted this, as to reduce carbohydrates/not a fan of crumb tops)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Olive-oil, cooking spray
• 1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine squash, stock, and milk in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until squash is tender when pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat. Mash contents of saucepan; stir in nutmeg, cayenne, and salt, and season with black pepper. Stir to combine.
2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add noodles; cook until al dente according to package instructions, about 8 minutes. Drain, and transfer to a large bowl; stir in squash mixture, cheddar, ricotta, and 2 tablespoons Parmesan.
3. Lightly coat a 9-inch square baking dish (4 inches deep) with cooking spray. Transfer noodle mixture to dish. In a small bowl, combine breadcrumbs, remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan, and oil; sprinkle evenly over noodle mixture.
4. Cover with foil, and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil, and continue baking until lightly browned and crisp on top, 30 to 40 minutes more. Serve immediately.