Back to the Drawing Board…

Miss Vinegar, for various reasons, thinks she ought to take this blog back to Blogger for the time being. She will be copying the few news posts over there shortly.

Sorry for any inconvenience, but without Coq au Vengeance, the About page just isn’t the same.

 

OddSpelling OddSpelling

Since Miss Vinegar does a lot of proofreading in her other life, she was appalled the first time she saw that Cheeburger Cheeburger was coming soon to a venue near her. Indeed, it was several days before she could believe it was really spelled that way. This may help explain why she and PoBoy put off lunch there for a long time.

Holidays, however, should be for getting things done, and in the spirit of trying something new, Miss Vinegar girded her loins with her check card and headed out.

Cheeburger Cheeburger

in Tanglewood Mall, Roanoke, VA

The Food: Cheeburger Cheeburger (…sigh) is one of those places you suspect of wanting to put onions on the ice cream; even their basic chicken sandwich comes with sauteed onions. They do, however, have a nice build-your-own-burger selection, with burgers ranging in sizes from 5.5 ounces to 20 ounces. Miss Vinegar built a bacon-Swiss burger with honey mustard, and PoBoy went Italian with marinara, provolone and garlic. Both were quite good. A word of warning, however: the restaurant does not provide fries with the burgers, and the medium fries basket we ordered was really quite large.  They also have a comprehensive soda fountain, offering handmixed sodas as well as shakes and malts.

The Service: Quite good. Our server helped us navigate the menu easily.

The Ambience: Retro fake diner it all its glory: cardboard cutouts of Elvis, lots of pastels and chrome.

Overall: *** (three stars)

 

In Which Miss Vinegar Takes Leave of Every Sense, With the Possible Exception of Taste

This one was a solo mission on the way to get gifts for Ma Vinegar’s birthday: Coq au Vengeance being out of commission and PoBoy fearing he would have been had he eaten at*:

Chili’s
Stratford Commons near Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, NC

The Food: Three dishes caught Miss Vinegar’s eye at first: the Monterey Chicken, the Margarita Grilled Chicken, and the Boneless Buffalo Chicken salad. However, in her zeal to eat something she wouldn’t eat on a normal night out at home, Miss Vinegar, Despiser of Onions, ordered…the Buffalo Chicken Fajita.

She’d always wanted, you see, to try a fajita, and seduced by the sizzle and the knowledge that the onions and peppers would definitely be big enough to avoid, she went for it. And it was good: mildly spicy buffalo chicken, bleu cheese crumbles and bacon. There was also a lot of it, which is why Miss Vinegar cannot confirm whether the brownie mini-dessert actually has a small brownie sitting on top.

The Service: Excellent. Miss Vinegar always overtips when eating alone, feeling obscurely that she has to compensate the server for the fact that there is only one of her, but in this case it was deserved.

The Ambience: Mostly red, which in Miss Vinegar’s book is a good thing. The restaurant’s windows are oriented to make the most of the view of surrounding trees rather than the shopping center behind it, which is also a good thing. Her only objection was to the restaurant art beside her. It’s hard not to wonder about a composition depicting winged buffaloes that also depicts armadillos…

Overall: *** (three stars out of five–Miss Vinegar would personally add another half-point for a painless introduction to fajitas)

*Miss Vinegar hastens to say this does not denote a food quality issue; for whatever reason, Poboy and Chili’s simply do not get along at the biochemical level.

 

Product Review: Fresh Market Kettle Chips

Mmmmm....ish.

They seem to be a primarily East Coast/Mid-Atlantic phenomenon, but if you haven’t heard of The Fresh Market, Miss Vinegar suggests a peek at the website or the one near you. Like Miss Vinegar’s beloved Trader Joe’s in that it’s a sort of boutique grocery for people who secretly dream of having a baguette sticking out of their shopping bag, The Fresh Market aims for elegance where TJ’s aims for…fantastic store brand items and pirates. And as the nearest Trader Joe’s is almost 200 miles farther away, Miss Vinegar regards the Fresh Market as her local.

This week, Miss Vinegar’s eye was caught by a sale display of the store’s own brand of kettle chips, and she tried both the Sour Cream & Onion and the Smokey Bar-B-Que flavors (the latter pictured above). And as much as she wanted to enjoy them, there’s a slightly strange, almost citrusy taste underlying both. A look at the back of the bag convinces her that, once again, Healthy Ingredient Syndrome may be at play: that, as with the first brushful of a Tom’s of Maine toothpaste, it may require time to adjust to flavors that all have pronounceable names. Still, there is only so much time Miss Vinegar is willing to spend accustoming her palate to potato chips. A valiant effort on The Fresh Market’s part, but not quite perfect.

Overall Product Rating: *** (three out of five stars, one given due to the aforementioned syndrome)

 

Chain Mourning

Miss Vinegar just saw this news story about the company that owns Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale filing for bankruptcy. While she hasn’t been to either of these in years (geography having intervened–and no, they weren’t the subject of any Winston-Salem visits; this is not a Grim Eater visitation), Miss Vinegar remembers them fondly: Bennigan’s as the first place she ever tasted etouffée, and Steak & Ale as the home of her favorite steak, the Nine Pepper Filet.*

*Warning: the website appears to load very slowly. Perhaps they’ve already had to sell a couple of servers?**

**The computer equipment, not the food-bringing humans.

 

Miss Vinegar’s Tasty Lab of DOOOOOM!: Introduction

Ms. Cupcake, whom you may remember from the Houlihan’s review, just gave Miss Vinegar an idea for a recurring feature on these pages: a test-kitchen feature for foods of interest.

Of interest on this occasion is a product called Bacon Salt. Said to be both vegetarian and kosher, if this can truly make everything taste like bacon, we may well achieve world peace, with generations of our nation’s youth spared the guilt of watching Charlotte’s Web while eating a BLT.

Unfortunately, this miracle will have to be ordered online. Check back in this space when Miss Vinegar finally gets her begloved hands on it. In the meantime, take the poll:

Poll: Which Flavor of Bacon Salt Should Miss Vinegar Order?

ETA, 12/12: Apparently none of Miss Vinegar’s nearest and dearest have mastered the art of the online poll. She did, however, have two informal votes for Hickory.  So be it.

 

Eat This, Ph.D.

Today Miss Vinegar found a nifty little device that’s supposed to judge the reading level required for a given website:

Who knew barbecue was so complicated?

 

That’s My Q

Miss Vinegar’s views on barbecue have been expressed here often enough, but a rundown of my creed may be helpful:

1)Thou shalt have no barbecue before Eastern North Carolina barbecue.

2)Memphis is okay too.

3)Barbecue places should ideally be simple, evoking the kitchen of a grandmother you may or may not have had in real life.

4)You don’t have to like Brunswick stew or cole slaw, but in a barbecue place they should at least be options.

This creed made Miss Vinegar and PoBoy’s spontaneous trip to downtown Roanoke’s Blues BBQ Company a little hit or miss.

The Blues BBQ Co.
on the market, downtown Roanoke

The Food–This nearly faltered right at the first, when Miss Vinegar was initially served non-sweet tea by mistake. However, this restaurant did allow her to try something she’d been wanting to try for months: the carbalicious (and delicious) fried mac & cheese appetizer. Despite the presence of an East Carolina sauce on the table, however, Miss Vinegar ordered a beef brisket sandwich.

Shock! Horror! But…WHY?

While Blues BBQ’s food is certainly good, they violate Article 3 of the creed all over the place. No sooner had Miss Vinegar spotted collards on the menu (good sign that this would be a place to take Daddy Vinegar) than she saw that the pulled pork sandwich was nine dollars (good place to take Daddy Vinegar if she wanted to be laughed at, since they can both eat at Stamey’s in Greensboro for about that).

The Service–Our server was friendly, but intermittently attentive.

The Ambience– Again, the restaurant violates Article 3; the pub-like polished wood is a bit on the fancy side for a barbecue place, though very pretty. Windows let you people-watch the downtown market traffic, and there’s a small stage for live music.

Overall: **1/2 (two point five stars out of five)

 

Updatelicious!

In the style of my favorite bit of snack-food marketing (“Cheese on Cheese Crackers–Now Cheesier!”), Miss Vinegar presents the new and improved Miss Vinegar’s Eat This, Y’all!

We’ve got a new look (everything goes better with sweet tea!)and a new feature which allows you to search by tags, as well as more links and updates to various entries.
Look for new content soon!

 

*le Scythe…*

Miss Vinegar has been hesitating over this review. (“Duh!” you say.) In light of Copeland’s of New Orleans’s withdrawal from the Winston-Salem area, does she dare say another word about a decent restaurant? Think of the local economy, for Pete’s sake!

With cautious optimism, then, Miss Vinegar reviews:

Village Tavern
corner of Stratford Road and Hanes Mall Blvd., Winston-Salem

The Food– The Village Tavern takes its food seriously, even where lunch is concerned. They offer a wonderful selection of appetizers (Miss Vinegar recommends the hot crab dip, though she’s also a sucker for all things ahi tuna) and twists on traditional American food, from burgers to wood-oven pizzas to steak. Miss Vinegar had delicious marinated flank steak with soy-based sauce, and marveled at the size of the lunch portions.

The Service– Miss Vinegar was one of a party of three with PoBoy and Ma Vinegar, and the service was very helpful, explaining the history of the restaurant and helping to navigate the menu when indecision reared its starving head.

The Ambience–Miss Vinegar had long been intrigued by the comfortable yet elegant facade of the Village Tavern: inside, one finds upscale pub decor with polished wood and brass. There’s also an outdoor patio with large tables, where Ma Vinegar could throw crumbs to waiting birds and enjoy the Indian summer breeze.

Overall: ***1/2 (three point five stars out of five)

(Miss Vinegar apologizes in advance if the Village Tavern should vanish in the next two weeks.)