Cooking Eating Durham

It’s Duke Parents’ Weekend.  DO and I went to Vin Rouge last night to discover that due to this momentous event, they have a special weekend prix fixe menu.  We sat at the bar and tucked in…

DO’s appetizer was fabulous – a goat cheese and potato souffle, served on top of beets.  I got tastes of the various elements, and aside from my love of anything to do with beets, found the souffle light and full of textural delight and and marvelous flavor.  I had the sweetbreads, served crispy this time, on a bed of lentils with pearl onions, mushrooms, chunks of bacon and a delicious broth.  If you’re into sweetbreads (you should be!), VR’s renditions are always excellent.

For our main courses, we had the snapper served on potatoes with a brown butter and caper sauce, and the macaroni au gratin (mac and cheese).  The snapper was just superb, and I couldn’t get enough of the buttery tart goodness of the sauce – smooth and rich, it will not soon be forgotten…

The mac and cheese was huge, and we have a lot left over for lunch or dinner tomorrow.  It was good, but not standout.

We also got to try a bit of the boeuf bourguignon, with melt-in-your-mouth beef, accompanied by yet more chunks of bacon.  Described by DO as an ‘orgasm in her mouth’!

We finished up with chocolate moose and apple bread pudding, and I had a glass of Banyuls, which is a little lighter than port, but along the same lines.

Anyway, if you’re in town for the weekend and looking for somewhere to have dinner tonight, I’d strongly recommend heading over to VR.  Great food, and we had a lot of fun sitting at the bar.