Eating in Asheville, NC

This weekend we packed our bags and drove down to Asheville, NC.  It's a good thing my boyfriend loves road trips, because my seasonal allergies and allergy medicine left me about as responsive as a sloth on the drive down.  We chose the mountain drive, heading first towards Shenandoah and then south until we crossed through Tennessee before reaching North Carolina.  We saw miles of farmland, cows, horses and mountains.  It was super peaceful and scenic.

Asheville's a beautiful and interesting area.  Nestled in the mountains, there's a strong arts community located in the area. You get the feeling that people interested in getting back to nature would find their niche easily here.  My boyfriend had described it as having an "aging hippie" vibe, which I could see, but it's developing into much more than that, partially due to recognitions from Frommer's, AARP and Self magazine that the area is one of the best places to "reinvent your life" and "Happiest City for Women".  I had done some cursory research on the food scene and discovered the area was known for locally-sourced, vegetarian-friendly New South cooking. 

I love Southern cooking, but have always wished for more delicious meatless options.  Asheville is an amazing food-lover's destination, with a little bit for everyone.  We started off with dinner at Tupelo Honey Cafe on a cold and rainy night.  It's not a large restaurant, but they did have a little waiting area in the back, which I felt was a nice touch.  The menu was a list of so many wonderful options, it was truly difficult to decide what to try.  My boyfriend sagely suggested I order things that would be difficult to find back home.  He's a wise man.

 Biscuits with tupelo honey and house-made blackberry preserves.  Swoon.

My friend V said that tupelo honey was pretty special, and she's right.  It's produced from White Ogeechee Tupelo and has a distinctive flavor.

 Honey-Chipotle wings with bleu cheese dressing $8.50. 

 Fried Green Tomatoes with goat-cheese grits $6.95. 

The crunch of the cornmeal was fantastic.

 Bacon-Wrapped Pork Tenderloin with chorizo, goat cheese grits, salsa verde pinto beans $19.95.

Smokey flavors, with the pork cooked medium, and intense chorizo sausage. 

 Shrimp and Grits with a spicy red pepper sauce $15.45. 

Luscious grits, the sauce had a nice spice, and the flavors were nicely melded together.

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We love breakfast and brunch.  Next up was Early Girl Eatery. The cafe is located close to Tupelo Honey on Wall Street, a narrow road that reminded us of Diagon Alley from Harry Potter books.  The area is super quaint, and ridiculously hard to find parking.  We circled and circled, until we found a spot over on Battery Lane.  There was a 30 minute wait when we arrived, so we went for a walk around the neighborhood.  It's definitely worth the wait.

 Early Girl Benny $7.95.

Grit cakes topped with spinach, poached eggs, tomato gravy and avocado and choice of bread.  A little honey and preserves would have made the biscuit spectacular, but the butter was nice.  The tomato gravy had a lovely smokiness to it, and this was one of the best versions of an eggs benedict I've ever tried.

 Porky Breakfast Bowl $8.25.

Homefries, bbq pork, scrambled eggs, and farmstead cheese with an herb gravy.  This was excellent with layers of flavor.  My boyfriend felt that the addition of the tomato gravy would have made this even better. 

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Rounding out our eating adventure, my boyfriend saw the nearby cafe on College Street had beignets.  Mayfel's has a funky vibe to it, and definitely worth a proper stop the next time we visit Asheville.  They were super sweet to let me place a takeout order for beignets and coffee for our roadtrip home.

$5 for 8 powder-covered beignets.

Metro 29 Diner

I love diners, greasy spoons, pretty much any place that serves copious amounts of coffee and massive platters of food.  This area really lacks the quality 24-hour Greek diners that I remember fondly from growing up in upstate NY.  One issue we're running into is the lack of late-night dining in the Old Town Alexandria area.  If it's after 10 pm, we've got slim pickings nearby.  After a marathon Ikea assembly session, it was 1 am and we were hungry.  Into the car we piled and off we went to Metro 29 Diner, which stays open until 3 am on the weekends.  

 My boyfriend loves breakfast.  He ordered silver dollar pancakes, hashbrowns and 2 eggs sunnyside up.  These were definitely not his favorite pancakes, and he probably would have been happier if they had grits.

My guilty pleasure, besides cheeseburgers, is a well-made reuben sandwich.  There's something magical about sauerkraut, melted swiss cheese and Russian dressing on rye bread.  This one was massive in size, but with the sauce was the side it didn't create the unctuous bite I was craving.  It was good, but there are better reubens out there.  The onion rings were exactly what I was looking for. 

Miso Soup for Breakfast

We're trying to curb the toasted bagel at the office breakfast.  One toasted bagel with cream cheese can ring in at 436 calories, and buttered bagels are around 495.  Eeek! Trying to fit in breakfast at home is going to be a necessary challenge.  It's tough to get up early when it's still dark and cold outside, so I made the soup last night.  This helped make reheating our breakfast miso soup much easier this morning.

Onions, carrots, tofu, mushrooms and miso paste.  Around 40 calories, the soup is much lower in fat and calories but the sodium content is pretty high. I think I can do better, but I'll have to see how my boyfriend felt.

Breakfast

I'm not a morning person.  The allure of the duvet is much stronger than my desire to brave the cold morning.  This means I'm usually rushing about in the morning to get ready for the commute to work.  Today we decided to head in a little later than normal and I unexpectedly had time to make us breakfast at home.

Mushroom and pepperjack cheese mini omelet, half an orange, mini cinnamon raisin bagel toasted with cream cheese, and a bowl of tonjiru miso soup.  With a warm and full belly we set off to face the day.