The Gourmez

North Carolina Sour
Foundation (Past Reviews)
Downtown Raleigh
$10

What a lovely drink to look at! The picture doesn’t do the contrasting colors justice. The North Carolina Sour is a pretty one with its bottom half orange from the combination of Carriage House apple brandy and lemon and the top half full of McRitchie Ring of Fire red wine. Simple syrup is the final ingredient in this citrusy drink.

Make that a tad too citrusy. The lemon juice dominated, and it actually made the drink taste somewhat like a hot black tea in combination with the wine, a red blend that the makers describe as black cherry, chocolate, and toffee. I enjoyed the apple brandy flavor, but overall, the drink was flat in terms of vibrancy. It’s a good cocktail, but Foundation usually hits it out of the park.

Reviewed 4 May 2012.

We are still on my first published book, Maya’s Vacation, in this week’s fiction bragging post, and we will be for a few more weeks — I did a number of interviews promoting it when it came out last March, so I plan to point you toward one each week. But this first one is not an interview with me. Instead, it’s an interview I did with the main character in Maya’s Vacation, Maya Holden. Perhaps she can interest you in her story.

Me: Maya, you seem like such a down-to-Earth woman, but tell me, how did you end up with a litter of ferrets?

Maya: Oh, that. [She waves it away with a giggle]. My husband — ex-husband, now, of course, but he was my husband  then — he never let me live that one down. What happened was that Meredith Viera one day on the Today Show had these long, furry animals I’d never seen before. They were so cute, I just had to get one. So I headed to the pet store that very afternoon, and what did I find but a mother ferret with a new litter of four babies! They were all so cute, no longer than my index finger, and I just couldn’t separate them. It felt like the right thing to do, taking them all home! Chuck turned bright red when he saw them, but he never did complain, not really. He’d been married to me too long! You might say I’m a creature of instinct.

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Torrontes Dolce 1591
La Rioja, Argentina

Sparkling Torrontes! Hooray! Torrontes quickly fought its way to the top of my favorite white wine varietals, so trying a sparkling version is trés exciting. This bottle has a fun purple rubber cork that contrasts with the simple, elegant label design, but I think that just makes it all the more amusing. This grape makes for a sweet, sparkling wine with rose, orange, vanilla, and cream flavors mixing together in the glass. The bubbles are fancifully large.

Torrontes Dolce 1591 is pleasant, but ultimately, it’s too sweet to make me enjoy it free of qualms.

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Bourbon Tasting
The Roxy (Bar Review)
Brightleaf, Durham
$20

The Roxy hosted a bourbon tasting the night before my birthday, and bourbon is something I’ve definitely grown to love during my time in NC. And let’s be real — I’m down for tasting any sort of alcoholic beverage. This was the first time I went to a bourbon tasting, although I did LOVE the bourbon dinner that Jujube held a few years back in which I tried a bacon bourbon cocktail for the first time. But that was spread out over several dinner courses. Bourbon tasting at the Roxy is a more casual affair with chips and salsa and some cheese pizza strips as snacks.

That’s Chris Houldsworth on the left from Republic National who talked us through the tasting. We tried a total of four bourbons and learned plenty about the spirit in general. There was a group of around 20 people drinking together, and it was a friendly crowd, skewing toward the forties in age. Here’s what I learned:

• Standard bottles of bourbon are generally aged around 4 years. Any longer than that and the bourbon makers get bragging rights. Bourbon isn’t aged as long as other whiskeys because of the hotter weather in the central and southern US. Scotland and Ireland, with their cool climates, can maintain ideal aging conditions for longer periods.
• To be bourbon, the spirit must be at least 51% corn and made in the US. It does not need to come from any specific region in the US. It does need to be aged in American white oak barrels.
• Bourbon stops aging once it’s out of the barrel, so no need to store it away for longer.
• Those barrels are usually charred, thus creating a natural filtration system as the bourbon seeps in and out of the wood as it ages.
• Adding a drop or two of spring water is the ideal way to enjoy bourbon. And no sloshing of that glass to smell the nose! It actually makes it more difficult to taste the bourbon.

Now on to the shots! I don’t have many pictures because it was dark, and well, bourbon really just looks like bourbon for the most part. We started with Elijah Craig 12 year. Elijah Craig, Chris told us, is the largest holder of bourbon in the world. Also, bourbon’s very popular in Japan. Elijah Craig is a top seller there.

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About a month ago, I was contacted by Clay Williamson to try out his new business called Food Neighbor. It’s a grocery delivery service. More precisely, it’s a recipe ingredient delivery service. Clay offers a selection of recipes midweek, then orders can be placed for the next week. Then he purchases the ingredients from Whole Foods and local farmers’ markets, portions them out, and delivers them to your house on the following Monday or Thursday — your choice. All you need to do is chop up the veggies and meat and cook the dish you ordered.

Clay asked if I wanted to try out Food Neighbor for the blog, and I said, “Free food? Sure!” I’m easy like that. He arrived a few days later with two huge bags of food. Each individual ingredient was packaged separately, from the herbs to the tablespoons of milk and soy sauce.

Now that is quite the bounty of food! I appreciate the bright color of the bags and the care that Clay takes in clearly labeling what everything is. However, the sheer amount of packaging seems like overkill to this recycler — perhaps group those veggies together in one bag and all the little plastic ramekins in another rather than giving each its own?

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Hello everyone! For my bragging series this week, I am going to share a couple of the nicest reviews I’ve received so far for Maya’s Vacation. But most importantly, I am revealing the winners of the free copies of Maya’s Vacation! There were six entrants and I had five free copies, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave only one person a loser, so I scrounged up another one. Thus, everyone’s a winner! That’s right, free books for Rachel, Angie, Heidi, Angel, Lu Ann, and Lisa! Thank you so much for signing up, ladies, and I hope you enjoy Maya’s Vacation. I’ll send you instructions on how to get your free book.

Doesn't winning feel great?

Now for those reviews. Here are just a few of my favorites, though there are plenty more out there with nice things to say about Maya’s Vacation. The most recent one comes first, from just this February. Emma Rae from Romancing the Book had this to say:

 Definitely worth the buck or so for this little novella. Go ahead and judge the book by the cover. The two characters are both painters, and so is Rebecca Farrell. I’m not putting a “favorite quote” because I want you to discover the beautiful imagery in this book for yourself. I’m not usually big on descriptions or scenery, and this story doesn’t overdo it, but what is there is superbly written. Calibre tagged this novella as “Christian” when I added it. It’s not, but it’s perfectly clean with just the right amount of chemistry.

The story is mostly from Maya’s point of view, and has an excellent supporting cast. You just know Chuck is a slimy user trying to wiggle his way back into Maya’s life, and he wouldn’t be good for her at all. Dean hasn’t been pining for thirty years, and brings his own hurts to the woods. I wish we’d had some more from Dean’s point of view. I like that nothing is perfect and smooth and clear-cut. There’s regret and sadness, but it’s not the focus of the story and that’s fresh. It’s nice to know romance is still alive at fifty, and there’s always room for second chances.

At Amazon, fellow Astraea Press author, J. Gunnar Gray has the following review:

This is a remarkably fun story of a woman caught between two love interests, and I honestly didn’t know how she’s choose until the very last pages. Becca Farrell writes with subtlety and imagination, building Maya’s character with artistic brushstrokes and showing how she’s tugged between doing what’s smart and comfortable, and doing what she really wants. This little novella isn’t getting nearly the attention it deserves.

And an anonymous review over at Barnes and Nobles:

If you like food, art, romance or any combination of the three than you will thoroughly enjoy Maya’s Vacation! The characters are likable and the plot moves at the perfect pace. There are cute analogies and moments the author describes that are laugh out loud funny. The story starts out with Maya taking a brief escape from her current day to day life — and that is exactly what this story offers the reader: A sweet escape from the everyday. If you’d like a short read that will give you a break from your own reality, then look no further than Maya’s Vacation.

Hooray! And looking for these reviews reminded me that I really need to keep a list of all the reviews the book has received, because I’ve forgotten already! If only I were a better organized writer…someday!

For this installment of my Thursday bragging series, I’m giving away 5 copies of my e-book, Maya’s Vacation! What’s that? You like to win things? Well, entering to win is easy. Just leave a comment on this post by next Wednesday, 5/9, and I’ll reveal the winners on Thursday.  Not familiar with Maya’s Vacation? We can fix that easily!

Twenty-year-old Maya knew, as she watched Dean walk away from her front door, distraught at her silence and her father’s threats, that she would never love anyone with the intensity that she loved him. He was her painter, her artist, her soul mate and being apart from him hurt too much. She tucked those feelings away, determined to enjoy the safe and secure life her parents approved of: business school and a marriage to Chuck, a successful real estate agent.

Thirty years later, Chuck has cheated on and divorced her. But when he comes back, begging for reconciliation, Maya follows her intuition and takes a vacation to think it over. Her love of art, food, and wine combine at this retreat in the woods, and she prepares for a week of making new friends, tasting exquisite wines, and learning to paint again. What she hasn’t prepared for is the familiar voice she hears the first morning at camp . . . a voice that makes her skin tingle and brings back memories of who she used to be before Chuck. Has Maya buried her passion too deep to find love with Dean again.

You can also listen to me read from Maya’s Vacation, so if you’re interested in an excerpt, what better way to get one than by listening to the author speak for her characters? Each clip is about 3 and 1/2 minutes long, and you do need javascript enabled for the clips to work.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Don’t want to wait to see if you won the contest? You can purchase Maya’s Vacation now in any e-book form direct from Astraea Press (direct from the publisher is where I get the biggest cut, hint hint), Amazon, and Barnes and Nobles.

Next week, along with the contest winners, I’ll share some of my favorite reviews of Maya’s Vacation. There are some great ones out there!

La Vielle Ferme Récolte 2010
Rhone Valley, France

This red table wine smells like a black raspberry gumdrop. It tastes like a liquid black raspberry gumdrop with hints of licorice and eucalyptus. The aftertase is all spice, mostly cinnamon. Some strawberry and vanilla also comes through.

It’s a thin-bodied wine with exquisite layers, making it infinitely and easily drinkable.

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In early February, I was invited to try the new mac and cheese options at Noodles & Company. I said yes because 1. I have no aversion to chain restaurants beyond when they let success get in the way of creating delicious food and 2. I’d never tried their mac and cheese before. I have this compulsion to try everything once, and who was I to say no to adding something as tempting as a restaurant’s signature mac and cheese to my list?

You should know two things before reading my thoughts on Noodles & Company’s versions of this American staple. First, I’d been to Noodles & Company twice before and was pleased, if unenthused, about the Asian noodles and salad dishes I’d had. Both were good, but they lacked any particular flair that would bring me back in for more. Second, I’m over the gourmet mac and cheese phase. I’ve yet to find a truffle oil or lobster version that makes me happier than a simple bowl of creamy, cheddar-swimming noodles. Thus, I may have been a bit of a tough customer, so to speak — it’s hard to call myself a customer when all the food was free — before stepping into the Brier Creek location.

Brian Rosenfeld, their friendly manager, greeted me and asked me to take a seat. I helped myself to a remarkably good glass of iced black tea for a chain restaurant and waited for the food to arrive. First, I tried their chicken potstickers, an order of 6.

These surprised me a lot. The dipping sauce was especially memorable with a great kick from red chili flakes, but the filling also impressed. It was very fresh and unique for potstickers. The chicken was finely ground and mixed together with carrots and a mixture of herbs — I think I could pick out oregano. It had a great distribution of filling to shell, and each bite went from sweet to fiery.

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It has been too long since I’ve posted on upcoming Triangle foodie happenings! Apologies galore to those of you who e-mailed me events over the past few months. I’ve been busy! Busy is a good thing, right?

Anyhow, I’ve got a list of fun events to share with you all, in order of which is coming up fastest.

South Durham Farmer’s Market, 4/28 and all Saturdays thereafter, 8 am to 12 pm, Durham

South Durham is getting a Farmer’s Market! The chosen location is the Greenwood Commons Shopping Center in Parkwood, home to Papa Mojo’s, Thai Lanna, and Sarah’s Empanadas among other restaurants and stores. It opens this Saturday, and they’ve got a long list of producers signed on to sell their wares. But for this night owl, the hours are still way too short.

Much more to my liking is the . . .

LoMo Market, 5/3 and thereafter, various hours, Triangle-wide

LoMo Market is a mobile farmer’s market that’s hitting the road next week. They bring a range of products from local farms and producers to you, wherever you may be! Actually, they are bringing the mobile market to a few areas that pledged the most support in a fundraiser leading up to their first week on the road. The chosen locations gave the most in pledges to purchase from the LoMo Market. Here is the schedule that goes into effect next Wednesday.

Sundays

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