Our new Tasty Triangle series is devoted to beloved dishes of the region. You can help
About a decade ago, on a drive from Virginia to Charleston, I took a 90-minute detour in the name of barbecue.
I grew up believing that the right combination of left and right turns could lead you to a life-changing plate of food. Like in a fairy tale, a barbecue restaurant might appear from nowhere, a plume of smoke rising in the air from a cinder block cottage, a crowd of people gathered at the door waiting to get in. You knew you had found a secret, and in a moment, you could taste it.
I ended up at Allen & Son Barbecue in Chapel Hill, the now-closed Southern landmark, that on many days served the best plate of pork in the Triangle for many years.
I didn’t know that at the time.
What I did know is that I ordered sweet tea and was brought out a large, heavily-iced jug just for me. This made me very happy. As did the green gingham tablecloths and creaky wooden chairs. The dessert list was as long as the rest of the menu, but for us, it started and stopped with banana pudding.
Years later, as a North Carolinian, an Allen & Son barbecue sandwich is the one I couldn’t shut up about, right down to the last one, devoured in my car driving the back roads of Orange County, two months before it closed.
Sometimes it feels like it’s the meals that make us who we are, that show us what we care about, that place us in our communities and our time.
When you find a plate of food that means something to you, you want to shout about it and post about it and make sure people know that joy is just a griddled hot dog or perfect taco away.
With that in mind, The News & Observer is introducing Tasty Triangle, a new series offering a view of life in our region through its restaurants and diners, bake shops and bars. Each week, The N&O’s staff will focus on an intriguing dish or meal from somewhere in the Triangle, diving into what makes it special, what we like about it and why you should consider giving it a try.
Instead of a traditional review of a restaurant or dish, these will be tales about our dining experiences and mini profiles of the businesses and chefs we encounter.
In the wonderful first installment, reporter Kristen Johnson tells us about the Cary fried fish restaurant that reminds her of her grandparents. She shares the story of TrY Seafood Grill through a plate of catfish and an Arnold Palmer.
We can learn a lot about one another, and about ourselves, by sharing a meal together. In this series we’ll do more of that.
Where should we eat? Tell us about your favorite dishes, the ones you’ve had for decades from the restaurant where you’re a regular. Tell us about the new sandwich you heard about and are dying to try. Let us know about the sundaes, the dumplings, the bowls of ramen that you and your friends can’t stop talking about.
Fill out this brief survey below or visit this link to give us your restaurant recommendations, or email me at jdjackson@newsobserver.com.
This story was originally published April 3, 2023 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Our new Tasty Triangle series is devoted to beloved dishes of the region. You can help."
