{"id":1719,"date":"2013-06-11T16:42:53","date_gmt":"2013-06-11T21:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/?p=1719"},"modified":"2013-06-11T16:42:53","modified_gmt":"2013-06-11T21:42:53","slug":"first-friday-forensics-and-feasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2013\/06\/11\/first-friday-forensics-and-feasts\/","title":{"rendered":"First Friday, Forensics, and Feasts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2013.06.11.a\"<\/a>\"2013.06.11.b\"<\/a>I took Melody to Raleigh this past weekend to take advantage of the NC capital’s monthly First Friday<\/a> event. From the airport, we drove directly to make our reservations at Second Empire<\/a>. Located in an old brick house reminiscent of L’espalier’s<\/a> original Boston location, the 4-diamond restaurant served up a delectable pan-roasted foie gras, spicy PEI mussels and polenta, overcooked black grouper, and a hearty cajun ribeye steak. With bellies full, we checked out synchronous swimming turtles at the Museum of Natural Sciences<\/a>, then perused the maze of Artspace<\/a> galleries, where Melody left happy with a flying pig canvas by Keith Norval<\/a>. On Saturday, after sharing sandwiches from Toast<\/a>, we returned to 18th-century America to liberate the patriots from the crown in Assassin’s Creed 3<\/a>. Triumphant, we celebrated at home over homemade napa cabbage pork stew while watching deduction and intrigue unfold in BBC’s modern interpretation of the Sherlock<\/a> Holmes adventures. The next morning, we awoke to wood-fired clam and crimini mushroom pizzas from Pizzeria Toro<\/a>, followed by chocolate chess pie and donut muffins from Scratch Bakery<\/a>. In the evening, we joined my co-fellows and residents for a year-end barbeque while demonstrating my lack of skill in giant chess. Putting my research Monday to good use, we went to Chapel Hill for curry at Raaga<\/a>, then returned to Durham for dinner at Nana’s<\/a>, where highlights of the regular and tasting menus include a crispy puffer fish with ginger slaw, a rich pork agnolotti with shimeji mushrooms, textbook risotto with shrimp and calamari, and a tender pan-roasted red grouper with spring veggies. With my hair cut, sheets cleaned, and freezer filled with homemade batches of cookie dough, I am well-prepared for the next two months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I took Melody to Raleigh this past weekend to take advantage of the NC capital’s monthly First Friday event. From the airport, we drove directly to make our reservations at Second Empire. Located in an old brick house reminiscent of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}