Sushi Gami

The first time I visited Cameron Village I stood on the porch of Cafe Carolina, observing the shops and restaurants that make up the shopping center and thought, "man this is a strange place." High-end jewelry stores like Bailey's share parking space with goofy and eccentric places like Accipiter Gallery. Wine snobs rub elbows with college inebriates, and somehow there still survives an independent video store. So it isn't surprising that Cameron Village is host to the sushi and burger restaurant, Sushi Gami.

And it's not the only sushi and burger restaurant planning to inhabit the shopping center. The initial rumor was that Charlotte-based Cowfish would bring their Ric Flair inspired cuisine to the space formerly known as Foster's. But instead Sushi Gami took claim of the space that we used to know as Uncle Fatty's.

Sushi Appetizer 

Asian fusion is nothing new. Every time I munch on General Tso's Chicken it reminds me of the greatness that happens when east meets west. However, a concept that combines burgers and sushi falls into gimmick territory. And when the gimmick involves two drastically different dishes, the odds are that both dishes are going to suck. I immediately put Sushi Gami to the litmus test for a sushi place: the freshness of their fish. The sushi appetizer featured five nicely sliced pieces. Everything tasted fresh until I got to the tuna, which had a slight metallic taste.

Spicy Tuna Burger

Most of Sushi Gami's burgers are typical gourmet burger joint items. Some sriracha here, and a couple of avocados there. But the truly daring menu items are the few burgers that feature fish on the burger. After browsing my menu choices and being awkwardly hit on by my waitress, I decided to try out the spicy tuna burger.

There are a couple of issues that automatically hurt the quality of the burgers at Sushi Gami. First is the mandatory cooking of all their burgers to the unforgivable state of well done. Secondly, the burger came with some assembly required. For me, separating toppings for the customer to stack shows a lack of trust in the toppings. Yet despite those two miscues, spicy tuna on a burger actually worked. The spicy and cold tuna play well with the sweet mango slices, which combined with the savory burger made for an interesting meal. Looking for more heat, I smeared Sushi Gami's wasabi sauce over the bun. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a little bit overpowering. The sweet potato waffle fries were a pleasant surprise, capturing the crispiness that always seems to allude the sweet potato.

In the end, is Sushi Gami the best sushi in town? No. Is Sushi Gami the best burger in town? No. But it sure is the best damn sushi burger restaurant in town... at least for now.

North Carolina Governor's Inaugural Ball

Eighty years ago the Junior League of Raleigh began serving as host of the North Carolina Governor's Ball. Every four years since then, the Junior League has celebrated a new governor while raising funds for vital programs within the Raleigh community. Programs such has SAFEChild, Communities in Schools, Heritage Park's Community Learning Center, the Boys and Girls' Club and the Center for Community Leadership have all been benefactors of the Ball's proceeds.

Accompanying a night of celebration, music, and dancing were guest chefs from all over North Carolina. Raleigh was well represented at the Ball with a list of culinary all-stars.

Bread and Cheese - La Farm Bakery & Chapel Hill Creamery

Peering down the first floor of the Raleigh Convention Center, extending out into what seemed to be infinity, were guest chefs from all over North Carolina. Sara and I wasted no time as we quickly approached a table cohabited by La Farm Bakery and Chapel Hill Creamery. The two made a great tag team as they combined their cheeses and breads together. I'm a big fan of Chapel Hill Creamery's brie-- creamy, buttery, and nutty. At the end of the night La Farm Bakery was unloading their inventory and hooked me and Sara up with two of their white chocolate mini baguettes, which more than made up for enduring a night wearing a tux.

After awakening our palates with a great cheese plate, we visited the table of Raleigh's favorite BBQ restaurant. The Pit has become as much part of Raleigh lore as Russell Wilson or Charles Meeker.

The Pit

The Pit's offering featured their famous chopped BBQ sitting atop a toasted piece of bread. The Pit added some tomatoes to sweeten the party, bringing great balance to the bite. This dish was the early highlight of the night.

Mandolin

Quickly becoming a Raleigh favorite, and one of our highlights from last year, Mandolin was offering a creative, bite sized treat-- chicken skins topped with black eyed peas and fried collard greens. I was hoping that the chicken skins would be a little more crispy, but the other elements were on point. Specially the fried collard greens.

Crippens

Owned by the creator of the Competition Dining Series, Crippens is a bed and breakfast in Blowing Rock. They offered a dish with roasted beets and feta cheese. The texture of the elements were very firm, making it difficult to eat without muscling your fork though the beet, all of which which was difficult as table space was at a premium. The flavors didn't blend together for me and it was overall a confusing dish.

As the gala ended in the basement, hundreds of hungry dresses and tuxes filled the first floor. Feeling somewhat claustrophobic, we headed upstairs to wait for the crowd to die down. To our surprise, there was more food to be had on the other floors. The Raleigh Convention Center caterers were also offering food for patrons to munch on.

Sesame Crusted Tuna

There were some usual suspects of a catered event, like grilled veggies and dips, but a couple of surprises as well. The first surprise was the sesame crusted tuna.

Fry Bar

I've always dreamed that of attending an event that featured a fry bar, but unfortunately the one at the Inaugural Ball was more of a nightmare. Both set of fries were soggy, limp, and void of flavor. The sauces were disappointing as well.

Shrimp And Grits

It's not an North Carolina party without grits. The Inaugural Ball's caterers offered a fun, bite sized version of shrimp and grits. The serving dish made it difficult to incorporate the shrimp in with the grits but both elements were enjoyable.

Beef And Portabello Over Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Even though we were fighting fatigue, both physically and gastronomically, we soldiered onto the next dish: beef and portabello mushroom over garlic mashed potatoes. It was soul satisfying serving of no-nonsense steak and potatoes.

Before we decided to brave the crowd of the first floor again, we snagged a couple of BBQ pork hush puppies. I remember watching Marcel's Quantum Kitchen and seeing BBQ sauce shooters for the first time. It looked like the funnest dish to eat since Fruit Roll-Ups. And they didn't disappoint, shooting in the BBQ sauce as you took a bite into already moist barbecue pork. They were as fun as they were tasty.

18 Seaboard / Mozelle's

As we made our way back down to the first floor, we were shocked to see the floor raided and out of food. Like a Raleigh grocery store after Greg Fishel calls for an inch of snow. Red Light Chocolates, out of food. Second Empire, out of food. Weathervane, out of food. But there were a few restaurants still standing. One being one of my all time favorites, 18 Seaboard, serving catfish fried onsite on top of their grits. 18 Seaboard has my favorite grits of all time. Creamy and cheesy.

Placing their spicy collard greens next to the grits were Wintson-Salem's Mozelle's. Nothing exciting but I found them to be well executed. Sara was less enthused.

SoCo Farm and Food

One of only remaining restaurants to still be serving dishes was SoCo Farm and Food from Wilson. There are only a few thing I know about Wilson: Ed Mitchell, fast internet, and quality 'que. But after I took a bite into SoCo's braised pork belly, I started to plan that hour trip East to learn more. The piece of pork belly was big and fatty, on top of a griddle cake dressed with spicy roasted pineapple butter.

At the end of the night before we decided to hit the dance floor and shake it, we were able to delight in a couple of desserts provided for by the Raleigh Convention Caterers.

Nothing mind blowing but a welcome sweet note to the end of the night

It was an unbelievable honor to be invited to the Inaugural Ball. I was extremely grateful to be asked to cover the event. The Junior League of Raleigh hosted a wonderful event that is only shadowed by their tremendous work within the community.

Junior League of Raleigh
http://www.jlraleigh.org/
711 Hillsborough St.
Raleigh, N.C. 27603
919-787-7480

PDQ - Falls of Neuse

For a good chunk of my life I lived in Tampa, Florida. And for the most part, I didn't really enjoy it. I was too young to enjoy Ybor and I always thought the Bucs looked silly. I actually enjoyed going to Tropicana Field, I never was a Lightning fan and the food options near me were boring cookie cutter chains, with the exception of Windy City Pizza (RIP).

I hightailed it out of Tampa as soon as I had the chance. But lately it seems like Florida is following me (heck, I can't even get away from my old grocery store), which is why I was weary when an e-mail from a chicken tender joint from Florida appeared in my inbox. I was hovering over the delete key ready to strike it down with malice.

Pumpkin spice milkshake

Once my judgement subsided I opened the welcoming email from PDQ (People Dedicated to Quality) asking me to join them for a sneak preview of their newest location on Falls of Neuse Rd. Not one to turn down a meal, I grabbed my friend Jenn and headed to North Raleigh. Despite being packed with friends, family and VIPs, the line at PDQ kept a swift pace. I learned from chatting with the PDQ's Brooks Briz that he takes great pride in PDQ's service, mentioning that the PDQ's staff goes through a vigorous and long training program.

Chicken tenders and fries

Like any self-respecting Southern city, fried chicken is a crowded marketplace in Raleigh, even when limiting preferences to chicken tenders. So despite PDQ's moist chicken tender, attributed to PDQ making the tenders with fresh chicken ("We don't have a freezer" Brooks made sure to mention), the tender didn't muscle PDQ past their other breaded foes. The fries were a nicely done skinny fry. The potatoes, hand cut daily, were properly seasoned and fresh out of the fryer.

Sweet Heat, Chipotle BBQ, Creamy Garlic

To partner with the tenders are PDQ's five house made sauces. The Sweet Heat reminded me much of ketchup and didn't have much heat. There was a lack of smokiness in the chipotle BBQ sauce but it still had a nice sweetness. The creamy garlic prevailed as my favorite dip, packed with flavor and creamy without resembling mayonnaise too much.

Grilled chicken sandwich

Jenn decided to try out the grilled chicken sandwich. Once again the chicken was moist and juicy. The spread of honey mustard gave the sandwich a needed flavor boost. Grilled chicken sandwiches in themselves are a bland and boring but PDQ executed their version of the sandwich well.

Blueberry coleslaw

Personally I've never had fruit in coleslaw and although I am not a big coleslaw fan, PDQ's blueberry coleslaw interested me enough to try. The fruit gave the crisp cabbage and carrots a nice sweetness but I just don't like the amount of mayo that comes on most coleslaws, PDQ's included.

Apple slices with toffee dip

The best and most surprising thing that we had on PDQ's menu was the fresh apple slices with toffee dip. The fresh slices of green apple are soaked in pineapple juice to preserve freshness, giving them a tremendous crisp texture and tart taste. But the real star of the dish is the toffee dip-- chunks of toffee swirled inside a think, creamy dip. Jenn was so enthusiastic about the combo that she asked for some to go, which PDQ were more than happy to provide.

Oreo milkshake

PDQ definitely has an advantage in its milkshakes. While I'm a fan of extra thick milkshakes, sometimes it's nice to actually be able to drink one through a straw. PDQ's milkshake had a nice middle ground between glorified soft served ice cream and an actual beverage. To assist you with your straw sucking, they provide extra wide straws, like the ones you get with bubble tea. Except without the constant worry of a tapioca ball being rocketed out of the extra large straw into your throat.

Coke Freestyle

For those who want to try orange Coke-Cola, PDQ also features a Coke Freestyle. For more Southern taste buds they offer a collection of sweet teas and Cheerwine.

Despite being a regional chain, Brooks expressed his interest in working with local vendors, such as Cackalacky sauce or teaming up with a local brewery. Or even local coffee from Oak City Roasters. We suggested sweet potato fries.

Some might think entering into Raleigh's fried chicken Royal Rumble is a losing battle, but PDQ has a lot of smart people behind them, which is quite evident when you walk in the door. One of those smart people is Brooks, who is constantly on social media and was a tremendous host. So while all the restaurants duke it out, don't be surprised if PDQ is still standing when the dust clears.