Welcome to WFAEats - a fun adventure where we explore all things tasty and interesting in the Charlotte food scene. We want to share stories, recipes and culinary escapades and hear about yours!
This entry is one of our Mother’s Day contest winners. We asked readers for their favorite food memory about mom.
My parents grew up poor and began their marriage in the Depression. Over time they became wealthy, but Momma remained frugal. She could not bring herself to buy an expensive cut of meat, and no leftover ever went unused. That is why it was so special when, for Momma’s 70th Christmas, her ex-daughter-in-law gave her a standing rib roast of prime beef. She even hired the city’s top chef to show Momma how to cook it.
Restaurant owner Jamile Shiekh is a refuge from Somalia who moved to Charlotte in the mid-1990s.
Credit Tanner Latham
Summer rolls, with dribbles of peanut sauce, from Ben Thanh.
Credit Tanner Latham
Many of us wrapped the chicken suqaar and greens into the canjeero (flat, spongy) bread like it was a fajita. For an extra kick, we laced it with the green jalapeno and garlic sauce.
Credit Tanner Latham
A slice of tres leches cake from El Purgarcito.
Credit Tanner Latham
Shelved spices at Cedar Land Mediterranean Market.
We’re still talking about the chicken suqaar from Jamile’s.
Yes, the shrimp rolls at Ben Thahn (Vietnamese) were fresh and delicious. And the tres leches and flan from El Purgarcito (Salvadoran) sweetly capped our afternoon.
But Jamile’s (Somali) chicken suqaar—a stewed chicken dish prepared with greens, salad lettuces, and spongy bread called canjeero—was flat out phenomenal.
You can’t have a decent meal without meat and potatoes, my mother insisted. True to her Irish roots, both were mandatory for a balanced meal – especially the potatoes.
Going on a picnic? Lunch meat or hotdogs were the meat and potato chips or potato salad was the side dish.
Having fried chicken? Mashed potatoes were expected. Meatloaf? Mashed potatoes again. Steak? Baked potatoes came into play.
Let’s admit it: Picking out the perfect Mother’s Day gift is hard. Flowers die in days. Perfume spills. And no one wants junky jewelry.
But books? Ah, a book will always fit and will never need ironing. Even better, it invites the reader to relax, so in honor of the upcoming holiday, I asked some local experts for food-themed book suggestions.
Portions and foods in general are getting bigger and bigger, but this is ridiculous. My fiance brought home some freak, mutant strawberries last week. I had to share the photo because I didn’t know you could actually buy strawberries this big. I thought they were the subjects of “whoa, look at that thing” ribbons at the state fair or perhaps B- horror movies (Attack of the Killer Strawberries?) Is this the result of some kind of nuclear radiation or genetically modified seeds grown with steroid fertilizer? I decided to investigate.
Put down the sriracha. There’s a new condiment in town. And just like the popular spicy “rooster sauce” everyone went crazy over a few years ago, this one adds depth, piquancy and spice to anything you put it on.
It’s called harissa, and I’m a little in love with it.
