Hazelnuts Creperie - Uptown Charlotte

Mexicana Breakfast Crepe: egg fried or scrambled, bacon, black beans, tomato, red onion, avocado and swiss cheese - a great start to the morning!

I was so excited to hear that Hazelnuts Creperie opened in uptown Charlotte. Located in the lobby of 200 South Tryon Street, the casual eatery is open 7 AM until 4 PM weekdays. I met up with a friend for lunch here in August and we really enjoyed sharing the BBQ Chicken Crepe, the Florentine Crepe, which is vegetarian and the Banana Nutella crepe (below) - all so delicious.

At lunch more than 10 signature crepes, including 3 veggie, are available and you can also create your own crepe with any fillings you like. In addition to what we tried there is a Pesto Chicken crepe, a Buffalo Chicken crepe, a ham and Swiss Crepe a South West Veggie crepe and more. Dessert crepes are also available all day and locally roasted coffee is served as well. With the dessert crepes there are several signatures and you can also build your own.

When owner and chef Asi Agajan found out I was a blogger, he invited us to return to Hazelnuts to try his breakfast offerings. We loved the Mexicana (above) and the Chevere & Mozz was also very good. There are 4 signature breakfast crepes, all loaded with eggs + other toppings and, as with the lunch and dessert crepes, you can always create your own breakfast crepe as well. We also tried some sweet crepes that are suitable for breakfast or dessert - the "Not French Toast" with maple syrup, cinnamon, powdered sugar, whipped cream (also available with ice cream) and walnuts was fabulous as was the less sugary Berry Delight with strawberries, goat cheese, walnuts and honey.

Hazelnuts has seating available in the cafe itself and there is seating on comfortable leather ottomans just outside the restaurant in the lobby as well. Takeout is, of course, available. Charlotte does not have many places where crepes are available so this is a real find. It is truly worth a visit to uptown Charlotte to sample these delicious offerings, perfect for breakfast, lunch, a snack or dessert and coffee! I will be back at Hazelnuts soon for sure.

Owner and Chef Asi Agajan in action making a crepe.



Chevre & Mozz: egg either fried or scrambled with olives, red onion, mushrooms, goat cheese and mozzarella.



Not French Toast with Whipped Cream - so delicious. I could eat this every day - really!



Berry Delight with Ice Cream - love that it contains goat cheese and honey!



Nutella Banana - a classic.

Disclosure: The breakfast described in this review was complimentary. The lunch was not.

La Paz

Steak & Shrimp Veracruz.

La Paz, now located at the Metropolitan complex, has taken a downturn since it moved from the South Boulevard location. Even when it was on South I felt much of the authenticity had been lost following the move from the original location in a charming house in Myers Park off Providence Road. Now it feels like another big box chain - without being a chain! My recent dinner was ho-hum, nothing fantastic, nothing horrible. The waitstaff was obviously green and despite the huge space being close to empty on a Sunday evening it took a long time for us to find our waitress to pay our check. I appreciate that La Paz has a diverse menu including salads other than a taco shell with iceberg and several vegetarian dishes but I am on the hunt for an authentic, good and inexpensive Mexican staple in Charlotte. I have a few places I plan to try coming up - what's your favorite and why?

Veggie fajitas.



Chips - the salsa was tasty.



Char-grilled Chicken Salad.

Portabella and spinach tamales with goat cheese - interesting but lacks zing.

Cookbooks Of Note

I was recently provided with copies of two cookbooks. The first, The Daily Feast, is by Esther Rose Graber along with her five daughters and one daughter-in-law who each provide their favorite recipes as part of meal ideas. I like that this book brings in quite a few ethnic dishes such as Khmer Chicken Curry (Ann's menu) and Spinach and Paneer (Celebrations menu) but makes them much more approachable for the North American home cook. There is something for everyone in this attractive book, which features photographs of almost every dish along with background information for many of the recipes.

The second book is Fix-It and Forget-It Vegetarian Cookbook which includes hundreds of recipes plus suggested menus, many of which come from home-cook contributors. This book runs the gamut in vegetarian cooking including appetizers, soups, salads, breads, main/egg dishes, legumes, vegetables and desserts. I like the variety here and that you can probably find a recipe with just about every imaginable vegetable. Several of the soups like the sweet potato and corn chowder and the Jamaican red bean stew look especially enticing as does the lemon cheesecake and the tres leches cake with chile-cocoa whipped cream from the dessert section! This would make a great gift for a vegetarian who loves to cook - or needs to learn!

Rosa Mexicano's Foods of Baja

Conejo de Fideos - deliciously different!

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to try Rosa Mexicano's special Foods of Baja menu, which features culinary advisor Jonathan Waxman's special Baja-influenced menu from now until July 1. I dined at the Atlanta location, which recently welcomed Executive Chef Brad Weideman to the team. Foods of Baja features a fun menu with several really interesting dishes worth trying. My favorites include the lump crab meat tostadas - so much crab meat with interesting flavors that add just the right amount of flavor without being overpowering - and the fideo pasta - special Mexican dried pasta with rabbit, chicken and portabella mushrooms in an wonderfully spicy habanero chile-roasted tomato salsa. This entree is delicious and unusual - definitely a good choice.

All three desserts that we tried were fantastic as well, including the special Baja menu dessert of plum and blackberry compote with crema catalana - very creamy and fruity with crunchy crust bits on top. The churros are seriously one of the best things I've eaten in quite some time (see last photo, below). Calvin also really enjoyed the special drink (Miel de Toronja) with its unique smoky flavor and we had wonderful service from Ramon - what a great waiter! If you are looking for something different to try during the rest of the month, definitely check out the Flavors of Baja menu at Rosa Mexicano.

The Miel de Toronja (left): Herradura reposado tequila, Vida mezcal, honey, fresh grapefruit and lime.



Amuse bouche of seared scallop with slow braised beef short rib - Mexican surf and turf.



Tostada de Jaiba con Coco. One of my favorite menu items!



Zucchini a la Parrilla. Loved the most chile cornbread.

Tacos de Camarones de San Felipe (shrimp tacos)



Our expert guacamole maker.



Spicy guacamole - you can't eat at Rosa without ordering the guacamole!



Salsas and bottomless rice and beans, which accompany every meal.



Compota de Ciruelas y Zarzamoras - tasty plum and blackberry compote with crema catalana.



Pastel de Queso - apple cheesecake with cajeta and candied pecans.



Churros.

Awesome churros with three dipping sauces: chocolate, caramel and raspberry guajillo. We almost didn't order these but luckily Ramon talked us into it and we were not sorry - these are very good. The presentation is also nice - the churros come in a bag with cinnamon and sugar which Ramon shook table side to ensure each churro was coated with a nice layer of sweet goodness. The caramel sauce was my favorite but I also love that the raspberry guajillo has a serious kick!

Disclosure: The meal described in this review was complimentary.

Fern, Flavors From the Garden

The Fern Salad.

I recently tried Fern, Flavors from the Garden, a purely vegetarian restaurant on Central Avenue. My mom was very excited to bring my grandmother here since she keeps Kosher and does not eat meat when she goes out. Fern is owned by the Something Classic / Halcyon folks. Halcyon is on my "to-try" list and Something Classic is great for lunch - love their new location on East Blvd. and their awesome take-home products and baked goods. Fern's dining room is fairly small, with plants (including ferns of course!) providing a calming decor. Hanging mason jars add to the homey, farm-inspired ambience.

Our experience with Fern was mixed. We wanted to much to love this place but we ended up leaving feeling disappointed. Of course this is based on one meal and I would like to try more of the menu items offered but first impressions mean a lot. Our party of three tried several things, taking recommendations from our somewhat aloof server.

The highlight for me was the fresh Fern salad with cashews and a delicious herbed vinaigrette. Suggestion: serve some bread on the side. With the addition of avocado and cheese (available to add at additional charge) and some good bread, this would really hit the spot. The roasted cauliflower was my second favorite menu item we tried. The pistachio-pepper brittle added a nice sweet crunch and the squash/sun-dried tomato purees provided additional highlights. You can sense the chef's creativity here, which I appreciate.

The disappointments came with the veggie burger and the eggplant/zucchini parmesan. To me the veggie burger was just not that flavorful. I've had veggie burgers made with nuts that tasted so much better. Also the bun was so huge you could not eat this as a burger. I ended up giving half the bun to my mom (to have with her salad) and cutting the rest with a fork. This could easily be fixed with a smaller bun. The NC Hoop cheddar did add a nice flavor to the burger so if you are not vegan I definitely suggest cheese. The quinoa salad tasted like quinoa with lemon juice to me - the balance of flavors was off.

The eggplant/zucchini parmesan sounded so delicious but there were a couple of problems. First, grandma had a really hard time cutting it up in the bowl it was originally served in. The problem was that the eggplant skin was tough to cut and getting to it in the bowl was difficult. We finally asked the waiter to put the dish on a plate which he hesitated to do because "it would ruin the presentation". Well.... since she could not eat it that way I don't think the presentation really mattered anymore! The dish was also underspiced to me and although there was ample cheese it did not seem well incorporated with the dish - either you got a huge chunk of cheese or veggies with tomato sauce.

There are several other menu items I'd like to try at Fern including the beet tagliatelle and the Tribal tacos as well as the arancini. There is really a wide variety here so hopefully next time we will have better luck with the food. In May a Farmer Dinner was offered which sounds fun as well - perhaps they will offer this again soon.

Ferns!



Roasted Cauliflower.



OM Burger with NC Hoop Cheddar and quinoa salad.



Deconstructed roasted eggplant and zucchini parmesan.

The Original Italian Pie - Charlotte

During our last visit to Charlotte we tried The Original Italian Pie for pizza and salads. This is a franchise with a dozen outposts in Louisiana and one in Texas. This is the only location in North Carolina.

We split the Italian salad and the Caesar salad along with a large Roasted Eggplant pizza from the "Gourmet Pizza" section. The salads were pretty average, although fresh and the pizza was better than expected. This particular pizza is made with "zesty garlic sauce" and includes fresh mushroom, fresh tomato, sauteed onions and feta as well as mozzarella and the roasted eggplant. My dad previously ordered takeout here and was pleased, but for pizza it's best to eat it right out of the oven, of course. I look forward to trying the calzones and the oven-baked sandwiches here.

Ledet Ethiopian

Lamb tibs (center) with vegetarian platter surrounding. We also had the doro wat (chicken with boiled egg).

I recently met up with friends to celebrate a birthday at Ledet Ethiopian. This quality Ethiopian spot is located at what I call "Ethiopian Corner" (corner of Briarcliff and Clairmont) in DeKalb County. The service, although a bit slow to start, was quicker than most Ethiopian places (other than Desta, which is my favorite modern Ethiopian restaurant) and the food was good. We found both the sambusas (below) and the salad dressing (not pictured) to be quite spicy even for our versatile palates. The main dishes, however, were very pleasing and it didn't hurt that was had a Scoutmob to take $20 off the bill. The doro wat, which is chicken in a rich sauce with a whole hardboiled egg included, was the best dish we tried. The vegetarian sampler was also very good.

The sambusas had a lot of flavor - too much flavor for most of my dining companions as there were huge chunks of very spicy jalepeno peppers inside. I'm not usually one to ask a restaurant to turn down the spice but in this case, they should do just that, or at least have two varieties: regular and extra spicy!

Birthday Party with Delicious Indian Food

Delicious Indian and Indo-Chinese food from Chopaati in Decatur. As you can see they cater!

Our friends' baby turned one in August and we were invited to share in the festivities. In addition to hanging out with more one year olds than I've ever seen at the same time in one room, we enjoyed a delicious Indian/Indo-Chinese lunch with food catered from Chopaati. I definitely look forward to going to this place and recommend it if you are looking for Indian food catering.

We also enjoyed watching the birthday girl tear into this special cake made just for her. So cute and fun to be included in this family's special day.

The Cafe - Key West

Cold Peanut Noodles and Falafel Pita special with Sweet Potato Fries.

It rained quite a bit during our stay and one rainy evening we made our way to The Cafe, a quaint vegetarian/pescatarian restaurant on Southard St. I enjoyed the cold peanut noodles - one of my favorite things to make (and eat) while Calvin opted for the falafel sandwich, a special for the evening. Both dishes were excellent and the creative menu made me sorry we didn't have time to return. In addition to a wide array of traditional and ethnic vegetarian dishes, this place has an extensive seafood menu including clams and mussels. Definitely a good place for a little something different when you're in Key West.

Soul Vegetarian Restaurant

Jerusalem Rice Dish with sauteed Tofu and homemade Ginger sauce.

After passing this place multiple times on the way somewhere else, I decided to bite the bullet and try Soul Vegetarian Restaurant on Highland Avenue, just south of Ponce de Leon. The atmosphere is unique and rumor has it that slow service is the norm. It was a little slow (and not very crowded) on my visit, but not terribly so. The above rice dish came out hot, tasty and probably did a lot for my veggie and fiber intake that day! Seriously, it was very good and my friend also enjoyed her BBQ tofu. She also ordered a side salad that came with a tasty garlic dressing. This place is totally vegan and is purportedly owned and run by the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, an interesting group to say the least. We had no room to try it, but the restaurant's Ice Kream (non-dairy ice cream) is something I'd like to sample.

Garden salad and BBQ Tofu.