City Beverage

City Beverage is a food paradox. The rule book says random strip malls located in random spots shouldn't have really good food with pleasant outdoor spaces. It is as if the rules of physics don't apply to this place... and that's just the feeling BEFORE you walk inside. Once you walk inside, you are transported to a tiki bar blended with a 50's diner that someone drop punted into the Parade of Roses. I'm sure some other combination of non-converging entities would be just as useful in description. Beyond the visual spew (or my verbal spew), however, the food is always wonderful. 

City Beverage

4810 Hope Valley Rd
Durham, NC 27707

Archira Thai & Sushi - AVOID!

We had previously had relatively good experiences at Archira (3 to 4 star)- but maybe it was too early on a long weekend, or just something has gone horribly wrong with the restaurant. Clue #1 should be the shredded menus... to make some wholesale edits to something.

Everything we had was disgusting. We have high standards for sushi and Thai food (don't get me started on the embarrassment Thai Palace caused me for visitors from the DOJ in DC a few years ago).

The sushi we were served though visually appealing (and the fish was fresh), was made with some of the most disgusting rice I've ever tasted in sushi. Even Harris Teeter sat around all day rice is better tasting. Clearly, some kid mixed it up with his playdough; they had the same consistency. I felt sick for hours afterwards. Even the salmon skin roll - below - was as if someone had scraped paint chips off the wall. I think one is supposed to REMOVE the scale.

Well, it doesn't end there. Next, insult to injury - the Tom Yum Kai tasted as if someone had simply used some random mix - actually, the majority of store bought mixes taste better. It had no of the breadth or subtleties that I would expect.

Lettuce wraps? No sir, I didn't ask for a wedge. I want lettuce to WRAP things in. Too salty, etc. not even worth discussing.

Thai Iced tea? Would you like some orange food color with your condensed milk? What tea flavor?

Coconut Shrimp - can you say undercooked? The batter inside was still runny.



The waiter was at least trying to helpful - to his credit. But so is my son when he is serving his pretend playdough and plastic food.... and I still only pretend to eat it. Best part is, he knows the food he is serving is fake. Sorry Archira, we are never going back... maybe with a new sushi and kitchen chef? 

Archira Thai & Sushi

East 54

2110 Environ Way

Chapel Hill, NC 

Chirba Chirba - Food Truck - Chinese Dumplings

Imagine if Din Tai Fung was shrunk into a food truck - and that food truck landed in NC, and that you could get those delicious soup buns in NC. Unfortunately, you will need to keep on imaging. We had high hopes for Chirba Chirba - and though the idea is great, the execution is reasonable, I think the cost is just too much. At basically a dollar a bun - it simply is too expensive. Food truck food is supposed to be CHEAP and DAMN GOOD. They have the good, but with competition like Li Ming's grocery (in a fixed location, no less!), they will have a tough time satisfying my tastes.

 http://www.chirbachirba.com/

KoKyu Food Truck (Durham)

Since friends of ours can actually lay claim to some of the start of the food truck craze in New York, we do try to keep out for the good ones. I dearly miss the Boston food trucks from the college days, but that was for good solid and filling lunch food. Gourmet trucks have become the craze. We were especially interested in the rave reviews of Kokyu, and have tried a couple of times to catch it - unless you have the time to jaunt around town all the time, catching these trucks just isn't worth it.... except for this one. 

I was first in line one day when the temperatures were already pushing 90+, having baked for about 15 minutes waiting for the truck to open.  Boy... it was worth it. One of the daily specials was a lemongrass chicken quesadillas - the far right in the picture.  Wow - probably better than any I've ever had. The Duck fat tater tots were sinfully good (what cholesterol?), and the taco  was incredible. Definitely worth the drive and the wait. This is a taco truck that needs to be a food stand in my neighborhood. While Chubby's is great - these quesadillas are worth driving for.  It also helps that time from prep to mouth could be less than a minute.

 

Note to self: Place to try in the Triangle

The Brunch Box - Morrisville

Imagine the kind of breakfast place that a bunch of football players would open- not shy on flavor or portion size. That is exactly the kind of place that The Brunch Box seems to me, at least based on the two things we had there. The Carolina eye opener had roast beef and some heat (pepper jack) wrapped in flat bread. It was a perfect portion size for breakfast that won't slow you down, yet flavorful enough to make breakfast worth eating. 

They also had a special on grilled Kieblasa - I think the pictures do more justice than I can in words - served hot with spicy mustard. 

Centrally located in nowhere land (near the new Walmart in Morrisville), it is definitely worth a drive; best of all, it is next door to our Japanese favorite, Teriyakin.

The Brunch Box
10970 Chapel Hill Rd
Morrisville NC 27560.