This Feeds Me Hungry Musings of a Gastronomic Gypsy – NC-based freelance writer Victoria Bouloubasis

In this week’s INDY, I write about Kipos Greek Taverna: I had the pleasure of knowing both of my grandmothers, who hailed from different regions of Greece. Yiayia Koula lived her entire life in a tiny, land-locked village high in the central mountains, while Yiayia Eleni grew up on a windy, arid island in the [...]

Yamazushi exists as an unparalleled dining experience in the Triangle, serving a traditional, high-end Japanese kaiseki menu in a decades-old strip mall. The story behind the place is a very personal one. It is one of sustenance, survival and the will to keep on. Many are comparing Chef George Yamazawa to the famed Chef Jiro [...]

Brains, kidneys, intestines: They’re all on the table.

I wrote about a fun Pop-up Ramen Shop hosted by Chef Matt Props and baker Ari Berenbaum at Ninth Street Bakery in February. “Bowls came out of the kitchen quickly, like ramen should. Props and Berenbaum confessed earlier in the week to bonding over ’90s hip-hop; the evening soundtrack swung from that era to early [...]

As incongruous as it seems, white navy beans create an impressive dessert when whipped into custard. Many attribute the original recipe to Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, who wrote the cookbook How to Eat to Live, which prescribed a clean diet for African-American Muslims in the 1960s. But in the online documentary, Bean Pie, [...]

“It’s just a bit weepy,” says Brooke Erceg as she coos over a lemon meringue. Tiny brown pearls of liquid sugar slide down the peaks of snow-white meringue as it wiggles, elevated at least 4 inches from the lemon custard pooled into the crust. Erceg settles her pie onto a table at Cup A Joe [...]

“That came straight from the coast,” owner Ricky Moore shouts, one hand knuckle-deep in flour while the other reaches for the deep fryer. “I got it this morning.” Read the full review of Saltbox Seafood Joint, a tiny takeout restaurant owned by former Iron Chef contestant Ricky Moore.

This Sunday at Fullsteam Brewery, we’ll be thanking farmworkers at a community potluck, sharing a meal with migrant farmworkers who spent the 2012 growing season planting, tending and picking local crops– all the sweet potatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, watermelon, blueberries, apples and any other North Carolina-grown fruit or vegetable that made it from the field [...]

This dairy-sensitive kid can enjoy pizza again. My contribution for the DISH pizza issue: a review of three Triangle vegan pies.

Two years ago, the group politely declined this journalist’s request for an interview in order to focus on their mission. At the time, you happened upon them only by accident or by word of mouth. Sometimes you would bump into them in public spaces, like at last year’s NAACP Historic Thousands on Jones Street march [...]

This week’s INDY is a DISH special issue. The theme: ice cream. I wrote about Raspados Elenita, a cool little truck serving Latin-American ices in North Durham.  Read the full story, and check out the slideshow by photographer Sam Trull. With a flimsy plastic drinking straw pinched between his thumb and index finger, Luis Rodriguez [...]

A year after a tornado rattled Raleigh, Earp’s Seafood Market reopened on South Saunders Street. Herbert Earp opened the market in 1968 with just $50 in his pocket, providing a family business and community legacy. Read the story in this week’s Independent.

Raleigh pulses at its downtown core. The recent piece I did for SavorNC Magazine includes five itineraries as set by the magazine’s VISIT series. I indulged most in the Epicure section, mentioning the trendy restaurants amped on an edgy, farm-to-fork wavelength, as well as the legendary, family-run businesses like Mecca restaurant. Read the entire piece [...]

KoMo KoMo opened in November as the only Korean French restaurant here in North Carolina. The unusual juxtaposition of bimbimbop and bouillabaisse on the same menu provides a true choose-your-own-adventure style meal. Read the full story here, published March 21.

It slipped my mind to post this on the site. How could I have forgotten about my day with a former boy-bander turned food personality? Thanks to Chirba Chirba, the Triangle’s official dumpling raid on wheels, I spent some time hanging out with the Chirba crew and Joey while he filmed for his new show, [...]