Well, that was a fine weekend. Went to the farmer's market yesterday and got a nice haul (pea shoots, Italian sausage, chioggia beets, fresh mozzarella, eggplant, donut muffins, polenta bread, cherry tomatoes). Also got to see a bit of the chef challenge. Sort of a Durham Farmer's Market version of Iron Chef. They had chefs from Toast, Guglhupf and Four Square competing with the theme ingredient being squash. We didn't stay until the end (too damn hot) but based on the prep I got to see I was most interested in Four Square's offering. Okay, maybe that was cos they had a big pile o' bacon on the cutting board. In the afternoon, Sarah and I went over to Tobacco Road to watch USA v. Ghana. Our friend D. joined us. Tobacco Road was pretty cool place to watch the game. Huge crowd, lots of TVs, even someone with a vuvuzela. And the food was excellent. I had a pulled lamb pita and Sarah had a shrimp burger. Both good enough that we'd go back even if there wasn't a game we wanted to watch. D. had a Caesar salad but I didn't get a chance to ask him how it was. Later in the game (Sarah and I got there super early to make sure we'd get a table) we got a hummus and pimento cheese appetizer. Also good (altho retrospectively maybe a bit too much food in the middle of the afternoon). And they have several local beers on draught including Triangle, Sisters of the Moon and Aviator.
Too bad about the game, though. Going in, I thought USMNT had a chance against Ghana but wasn't sure they could pull off the win. And that's about what happened. All through this year's World Cup, they seemed to be giving up early goals, digging themselves a hole that they spent huge amounts of time chasing down goals.
Not surprised to see England lose to Germany this morning, altho I was surprised to see them get beat like a drum. Sorry to see Mexico go out, altho I expected that as well.
Tonight we had dinner with an old friend who I hadn't seen in (what) eight years. He was down the road in Charlotte for a family event and popped up (okay, one doesn't just pop up from Charlotte but it's a damn sight closer to Durham than RI) and we all had dinner at Watts Grocery. As usual, they didn't disappoint. New summer menu is on now and good reviews for the trout, frogmore stew, summer pasta,chilled red pepper soup, summer berry slump, lemon coconut chess pie.