The Gourmez

The Bloody Brunch Motorco Music Hall and Ko Kyu BBQ Central Park District, Durham Sundays The Bloody Brunch is a weekly event hosted by Motorco Music Hall and the Ko Kyu BBQ truck that brings together a winning combination for the night owls among us: a brunch that doesn’t start until 1 pm, cool drinks, [...]

Tisdale Pinot Noir (vintage free, yo!) Modesto, CA This wine looks thin, watery, dark brown, and plum. It smells of bitter chocolate and currants. As expected, it tastes very thin and watery. Fleeting cocoa powder comes first followed by the currant and overripe figs with some apricot notes. Then the cocoa powder rushes back in [...]

For Six Sentence Sunday this week, I’m venturing into my recently published urban fantasy short story called Bother. Let’s just dive right in, shall we? The sound of crunching bones came next, like nuts cracking but louder, so much louder. It went on for what seemed like ages, but it could only have been a [...]

For our last full day in Minneapolis, I finally managed to steal Ben away from his conference for a riverfront stroll. We aimed for brunch at the Nicollet Island Inn, which is on Nicollet Island in the middle of the Mississippi. Unfortunately, the historic inn with a menu that sounded divine was booked up, so [...]

Time for an update of foodie events coming your way — if you happen to live here, in Triangle, NC, foodie heaven, that is. For those of you lucky enough t o share this region blessed with great produce and talented chefs (including this year’s James Beard Chef of the Southeast, Andrea Reusing!), these are [...]

Point Break The Pinhook, Downtown Durham $8 The Pinhook has a new list of specialty drinks out, which means it was time to head out for a show! Not only did Aye Nako! and Dangerous Ponies give great shows—with impressively sparkly outfits to match—but the Point Break cocktail provided a smooth drink to relax my [...]

Starrlight Meadery Blackberry Off-Dry Mead North Carolina This honey wine is made from combining Starrlight Meadery’s off-dry traditional mead with blackberry juice in the final step of the winemaking process. It most definitely smells of blackberry, which is lovely. I found the sweet version too sweet, but this off-dry form is very appealing to me. [...]

I headed out of the restaurant after dinner on my first night in Minneapolis, only to find myself in the middle of a finish line! There were no signs of a race at all when we went inside, I swear! It was hilarious to suddenly have the whole street transformed. After a few minutes of [...]