Big Boss Brewery - "Who's Your Paddy?"

Big Boss Bad Penny conditioned with cocoa from Nahaulli's Trading Co.

I believe that Big Boss Beer is synonymous with the our beloved city of Raleigh. As I list my favorite things about this city (location, people, food) Big Boss's brown ale Bad Penny is high on the list. Unaware of beer distribution laws, I desperately attempted to have Big Boss at my wedding in Massachusetts, only to have my hopes dashed. The first time I ventured off to the Taproom was with my good friend Chad. We steered off of Capital Blvd. and in the middle of factories and industrial buildings we find ourselves at the happy center of Raleigh's beerverse.

With St. Patrick's Day approaching and Sara's family in town, I was in search of an adequate place to celebrate. Through their Twitter, Big Boss announced their "Who's Your Paddy?" event. Beer, food trucks, and music. It was clear that we would be attending.

OnlyBurger serving the masses

Being a frequent watcher of Food Network since I was 15, (I can attest to the evolution of the channel from being just cooking shows to now TV shows related, sometimes loosely to food), I've been aware of the food truck phenomenon for a while. The first real food truck I heard about in the Triangle was OnlyBurger. My mouth watered reading their site that described daily ground meat and how they toasted their buns. I was anxious to satisfy my carnivorous cravings only to be left wanting as the truck wasn't running at the time I found the site. Finally when I got the update that they were back on the road I recruited a co-worker and tracked them down. The burger was juicy and flavorful. The bacon was perfectly crispy and the bun had that nice crunch from the butter toasting. One thing that I don't think gets mentioned while discussing OnlyBurger is their fries. They are crispy, seasoned perfectly and OnlyBurger does not skimp on the serving.

OnlyBurger burger and fries. Not our prettiest photo.

As Sara and I stood in the OnlyBurger line, I scoped the area for the next food truck to visit. Immediately the words "Duckfat Tater Tots" grabbed my attention. I wandered over to Ko Kyu BBQ's truck and waited in line. And waited. And waited. Before I even ordered Sara had purchased our OnlyBurger burger and we both ate it. Once I reached the end of the line, I ordered the tots and a short rib quesadilla. After what felt like another aeonian length of time we received our food. The duck fat tots were extremely crispy, complimented by the hot sauce served at the truck. Sara noted she didn't find any difference with them being fried in duck fat. The short rib inside the quesadilla contrasted nicely with the blue cheese inside, but it was not the simplest or cleanest dish to eat standing up. While in line I started to have a conversation with the group in front of me. After we got our food and had a taste, one of them wanted me to make sure I mentioned that the BBQ slider was disappointing, especially considering the wait. The rest of my time there was spent talking to Jan from the Carolina Ballet. So over food from a truck and microbrewery beer we listened to her insight on the arts and the state of ballet in Raleigh. Quite insightful and something adolescent Elliot would never imaged he'd do.

Then again, he didn't think he'd be in North Carolina, eating anything other than chicken fingers and drinking mircrobrews.

Duck fat tater tots and short rib quesadillas - Ko Kyu BBQ

Big Boss Brewing Company

1249 Wicker Drive, Raleigh, NC 27604(919) 834-0045 ‎bigbossbrewing.com

OnlyBurger

919-714-1622

http://www.durhamcatering.com/onlyburger

Ko Kyu BBQ

http://www.kokyubbq.com/

Sunni Sky's Homemade Ice Cream

One of the joys of being in undergrad at Campbell was the proximity to Sunni Sky's. For CU students it's a study break, a social meet-up, a haven from the tiny town that we affectionately call "The Creek." Like a hipster at an Arcade Fire concert, I can arrogantly boast that I knew about Sunni Sky's before the fame. Before USA Today and Food Network graced it doors, I was taking dates there and gaining my freshman 15 (it was actually 50) there. While everyone in the country only seems to know Sunni Sky's for the cold sweat and exit wound flavors, all the locals know Sunni Sky's for its cake batter and free samples.

Oatmeal cookie. After a couple bites and melting.

Sunni Sky's is popular in the community partly because of the seemingly unlimited samples they are willing to provide you. I think my record count might be 6 but I was finally able to settle down and pick a flavor, and I didn't think oatmeal cookie would be on the top of my flavor list. With flavors like cake batter, pumpkin pie, sugar cookie, and tiramisu, I assumed that those flavors would be my favorite. But when I tried the sample of oatmeal cookie, with its huge chunks of cookie and creamy ice cream, I was in love.

Peanut butter fudge. Had to bring the photoshop skills to make this presentable.

Sara decided to have the peanut butter fudge. It tasted like peanut butter straight out of the jar. Our chow-chow Norton was constantly begging for it.

Norton having leftover PB straight out of the jar

It's been almost a decade since I was a wide-eyed, culture-shocked freshman moving into the middle of rural North Carolina. And as I became grateful for the open spaces, Southern charm, Cheerwine, and chopped pork, I became equally grateful for Sunni Sky's.

Sunni Sky's Homemade Ice Cream

8617 Hwy 55 South Angier, NC 27501

919-427-7118

http://www.sunniskys.com

Shorties' Out of Sight Cafe - Filipino Food Fest - CLOSED

A good portion of my childhood was filled with big parties full with Filipino foods and dozens of Filipinos speaking Tagalog. It was a comfortable feeling to experience that again at Shorties's Out of Sight Cafe annual Filipino Food Fest. When I moved away from home I knew that quality Filipino food would be scarce (if I was going to be able to find Filipino food at all). And during my years in undergrad, I wasn't able to find any. Evertime I would head back to Florida my mom would already know what I wanted her to cook chicken adobo and lumpia. As I continued to the working world I revamped my search for any restaurant that served Filipino food. Google turned up a place in Durham but I was disappointed to find the restaurant was gone and had been replaced with a Chinese restaurant. I began to believe that Triangle's palate wasn't prepared to keep a Filipino place alive. Yet randomly after much searching I was able to find Shortie's.

Shortie's is a small, unassuming, and hard to find cafe in the middle of an office building that typically caters to Cary High School students and the residents of the building. The problem for me is that their typical hours are just for breakfast and lunch and I couldn't make it back from Durham fast enough to catch them when they're open. Lucky for me I've been able to take advantage of long lunches and half days. And after a couple of years of missing the event, I was finally able to enjoy the annual Filipino Food Fest.

Arriving to the cafe we were gleefully greeted by Shortie. She enthusiastically introduced herself to Sara and welcomed me back after it took her a second to recall that I've been there. With a big smile on her face she asked about the specifications of our order and making sure we had anything, calling me "anak" (child) like she was my own mother. Even though we had breakfast just a couple of hours before I ordered almost all of the menu. Chicken adobo, pancit, lumpia, and sisig. Of course all served with rice. Sara loves pancit, the noodle dish of the Filipino world (technically pancit palabok). I grew up eating pork and chicken adobo. Adobo is chicken cooked in vinger and garlic. The chicken is always tender and has a great tang from the vinger. Sisig is something that I, like a lot of people would, enjoy if they never knew what was in it: chopped pig ear and snout mixed in with onions and peppers. Crispy, hot, and put over some rice, it's one of the best dishes the Philippines has to offer. Then of course lumpia, a skinnier eggroll-like dish full of ground pork (my mom adds ground shrimp to hers). Shortie's renditions of these dishes were reminiscent of my mom's (of course nothing can beat Mom's home cooking.)

Along with the Shortie's personality and her food, there were many members of the Flipino community that came by to introduce themselves to us. They were interested in how long we've been in NC and a little about our story. It was nice to connect with some other Filipinos. I almost felt like I was 8 again.

Shorties Out of Sight Cafe

975 Walnut Street, Cary, NC 27511-4268(919) 467-7196 ‎http://www.shortiescafe.com/