As much as we love to travel and try new activities in new locales, we have the most fun in our own city. Finding new events, restaurants, and happenings right here at home is not only cheaper, but builds our sense of community, which is really important since neither of us are originally from here.

Photo from DukeHomestead.org

This weekend, we attended a very interesting event at the Duke Homestead State Historic Site called Widows and Wakes. The Duke Homestead was the home of one of Durham’s most prosperous tobacco farmers and is now an historic site and tobacco museum.

The event was a special candlelight tour of the home with costumed actors that depicted in the Victorian era “how doctors attended a dying patient and prepared family members to say goodbye, widows grieving their loss at a wake held in the parlor, and the reenactment of a period séance in the dining room.”

Photo from DukeHomestead.org. © 2012 Charles Durward Rogers

It wasn’t the typical Halloween haunted house and that’s what I loved about it. It was curated by a historian that took time to research the traditions of families in the late 1800s so it was an accurate interpretation of how people dealt with death and illness.  The actors contracted “consumption” (now known as tuberculosis), made the last arrangements for their deceased loved one and later contacted them in the afterlife through a spirit guide. Afterward, our group gathered around a roaring fire pit and the curator answered any questions we had regarding what we had seen and life in general in those times. It was very entertaining and I will happily attend next year.

This was our first visit to the homestead and I’m already making plans to visit again for other events to help preserve our town’s history. I definitely recommend looking into what your own town has to offer and making good use of it. You never know what you’ll find and will probably have a blast doing it!

Nick drove a race car, then we ate fish tacos. I’d say that sums up our weekend perfectly. But let’s start at the beginning.

For Christmas 2012, I got Nick an awesome racing experience deal where he gets to drive an Indy-style race car around the track at Charlotte Motor Speedway for 5 minutes. I didn’t want to hand him a plain envelope with a printed gift card, so I put it in a small, red box underneath a matchbox replica of the style of car he’d be driving. I couldn’t wait to give it to him because I’d expected him to open it, read the card, and go crazy with excitement at the thought of getting to drive a real race car. His reaction, however, was quite the opposite! He opened it, looked at it for a while and didn’t really say anything. I thought he didn’t like it and getting really sad, but, he said he was just shocked and was trying to soak in the fact that he gets to drive a race car. He finally got around to scheduling his driving experience for this past weekend and had a great time.

Nick, suiting up

the next stig

Afterward, we were famished so we found Cabo Fish Taco, in Charlotte, NC, which was featured on Divers, Drive-Ins, & Dives (click that link for video). We hadn’t originally planned to make this part of our TV Food Travels, but figured it would be easy to find something “famous” in the area and it was a great choice.

Featured in the DD&D video linked above are the BBQ Mahi Tacos and the honey wasabi sauce. Each order came with two tacos, so we got two different orders to share, the BBQ Mahi Tacos and the Tavarua Wahoo Tacos.

Grilled Mango BBQ Mahi Tacos

The Mahi tacos were delicious: flash-fried tortillas, grilled mango BBQ Mahi-Mahi tacos stuffed with Cabo slaw, tomato, avocado, cheese and cilantro white sauce. They had a nice spicy tang from the BBQ sauce that paired nicely with the cole slaw and white cilantro sauce. The wahoo tacos were also good, consisting of flash-fried tortillas, blackened lemon-rubbed wahoo in a kiwi-pineapple fajita sauce, stuffed with lettuce, tomato, cheeses, and topped with the honey wasabi  sauce. I was expecting a bold, fruity flavor from the kiwi-pineapple sauce, but it was pretty mild. I almost didn’t even notice it. The honey wasabi sauce, however, was excellent. It had the right touch of wasabi flavor without being overpowering or too spicy. I’m going to try to recreate this one at home.

Tavarua Wahoo Tacos

We also tried the Baja Shrimp and Crab Dip, which I really liked because it reminded me of the crab filling that comes in a good, high-quality crab rangoon. I think they flash-fried the pita bread, too; a very nice touch, as it gave you the texture of a chip but the fullness of pita. I might try to recreate this at home, as well!

I really enjoyed the fish tacos at Cabo Fish Tacos. I would love to go back the next time I’m in Charlotte and take some friends or family. I’d also like to try some of the other tasty menu items, like the Cabo Roll that looks like the shrimp and crab dip rolled up sushi style in a burrito. And I’m sure Nick would just love to drive that race car again!

After sitting empty for several months, the house next door has residents! I actually met them briefly about a month ago when they were looking at the house and they seem really nice. I was about to walk the dogs when they asked me what I thought of the neighborhood and I told them it was great. They said they have two dogs, too! I’m looking forward to getting to know them. And I’m hoping it’s the start of a beautiful friendship.

A while back, after we first moved in, I wrote about welcome casseroles. Remember how women used to make casseroles to welcome new residents to the community and to ease their move-in stress? I questioned whether folks still do that these days because no one did it for us. However, our neighbor at the time, Casey, the previous resident of the newly occupied house, came over to introduce himself and give us his number in case we needed anything. We actually became pretty close neighbors. He even mowed our lawn for us while we were on our honeymoon!

I wanted to do something nice for our new neighbors to welcome to the neighborhood. They’re still settling in so, taking a note from Casey, we mowed their lawn for them this afternoon. Moving can be stressful. And we should know because we’ve moved a million times over the last ten years. My welcome casserole to our new neighbors (I don’t even know their names yet, but it’s a young couple, just like us) is this cute little  housewarming gift in a jar:

Inspired by Pinterest here.

The jar contains a bottle of Meyer’s hand soap, two sponges, and some dish cloths. We also included a little card with a well wishes, and Nick tied the beautiful bow. I thought about dropping off some baked goods or an easily prepared dinner (like spaghetti), but with all the food allergies out there these days, I was afraid it wouldn’t go over very well. But everyone cleans, right? Especially when moving into a new home.

I hope they like it! After they get settled, we’ll invite them over for dinner but for now, we’ll stay out of the way.

Recently, Nick and I went on another foodie road trip. It wasn’t really a foodie trip because we didn’t decide to travel just for food but it was a long road trip to attend a wedding and we found a few stops along the way.

We had planned to make four stops – two on the way to our destination and two on the way home. But, after a very short weekend full of wedding and family activities, we were exhausted by the time we hit the road back home and decided to stop as little as possible. The two stops we did make, however, were totally worth it!

For lunch, we stopped at the Parkette Drive-In in Lexington, KY (click that link to see it on Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives). Featured in the video are the Poor Boy burger, the chili cheese dog, and fried chicken; we decided to share the burger and chili dog. I wanted to try the chicken but Nick said we shouldn’t overdo it.

Poor Boy burger, Tots, and Chili Cheese Dog

The Poor Boy was just like a Big Mac but way better! In fact, the owner in the DD&D video describes it as the original Big Mac 😉 The ingredients were fresh and it was nicely seasoned, peppery. There was a whole slice of onion on it, instead of a few measly rings. Overall, Nick said it was a “good, old-fashioned burger.” The chili cheese dog was as good; I was really looking forward to the homemade chili sauce but I think they scrimped a little on that. What I did get was meaty and tasty. And it was all on a nice, soft poppy seed bun. Yum!

Overall, it was a quality drive-in and the prices were unbeatable, especially for such fresh ingredients.

For dinner we stopped at Fat Sandwich Company in Champaign, IL. They have ridiculously big, unhealthy but delicious sandwiches that include pretty much everything but the kitchen sink!

 Their specialty is the “Fat Sandwich” is a large sandwich full of whatever goodies you choose, topped with french fries. We got a Fat F sandwich which had cheese steak, chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, mayo, ketchup, and french fries.

I have to say, it was better than I care to admit! I wasn’t sure how I would feel about a sandwich made up of appetizers but the flavors actually melted really well together and was an explosion of savory goodness on my taste buds. I think the key to the success here is the fries, since they go with virtually everything. The cheese steak worked really well with the fries (cheese + fries) as did the mozzarella sticks with the chicken fingers (cheese + chicken + marinara on the side). Any fries that fell off the top were easily eaten as a side dish, like you would for any sandwich. I can also see the appeal of this type of sandwich to the college crowd, as the shop was located on the campus of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I couldn’t eat these on the regular but I would definitely recommend you to stop by if you’re ever in the area.

Since we didn’t stop anywhere on our way home, we’ll have to plan another trip. A real foodie road trip where we first choose the restaurant and then the route to get there. Until then, we’ll just have to enjoy the delicious food in our own town.

See you at the next stop!

<3, NC Squared

Get ready for some food fun!

Next weekend we’re heading west to the warm little town of Normal, Illinois for Nick’s cousin’s wedding. It may not be the beach, but it’s not a terrible way to spend Memorial Day Weekend. Afterall, I do love a good wedding! But, we’re going on a road trip so you know what that means: we’ve planned our route based on scrummy restaurants along the way, all of which have been featured on one Food Network/Cooking Channel show or another.