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July 11, 2008
Watts Grocery
Tonight Trang and I visited Watts Grocery, a relatively new place in Durham that we had sadly not gotten around to sampling until now. Trang had their basket of fried okra with a low country (for the regionally uninitiated, that means the coastal lowlands of South Carolina) remoulade to start, followed by the red wine braised rabbit with bacon, onions, and shiitake mushrooms served over creamy grits. I had the summer shrimp fritters with fried pickles and seaside tartar sauce followed by the Yellowtail snapper silets stuffed with crabmeat and topped with summer pea and local tomato vinaigrette, lubricated by a continuous stream of 2006 Giesen Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand.
My food was superb. There was a density of flavor, a kind of essence di mare, to my perfectly done shrimp fritters that, among other things, really shows up the bland mass produced Southeast Asian farmed shrimp that has become so ubiquitous on the US table. And the tartar was at once sophisticated and at the same time evocative of a thousand simple but heavenly tartar sauces at cheap sea-side joints that linger in my memories of childhood (but no, it did fall short of a full blown Anton Ego moment). The snapper was perfect, and again exhibited a density of the kind of essential flavor notes you hope it will have. The okra was good, as was the rabbit. However, the latter was slightly salty, a fault for which I can forgive Watts Grocery because, first, I really do mean slightly and, second, this is a sin I have committed many times: when you use bacon to infuse grits, polenta, etc. with that kind of heavenly rustic kiss of salty smokiness, you always walk a knife edge. Slightly too little and the effect just cannot stand up to the other flavors, slightly too much and somehow the cornmeal acts as some kind of weird salt amplifier.
In any case, we will definitely be returning to Watts Grocery.
Posted by dag at July 11, 2008 9:55 PM
Comments
Is that a restaurant, or a whole foods kind of place?
Posted by: The Good Rabbi at July 12, 2008 12:29 PM
It's a restaurant. I know: the name invites confusion.
Posted by: dag at July 12, 2008 2:25 PM