Two hits and a miss

            As I wrote in my last dispatch, this biscuits-and-sausage gravy quest cannot be rushed; my progress is quixotic.

            At last Saturday’s Carrboro Farmer’s Market, I bought 4 Neal’s Deli biscuits to take home, along with okra, figs, and a cedar scarf hanger. Matt Neal’s lineage in Chapel Hill stretches into Southern culinary history. His parents, Bill and Moreton Neal, birthed two other Chapel Hill legends: La Residence and Crook’s Corner. On our second evening here we took Dick’s mentor and his wife to dinner at La Residence, their favorite for family celebrations. We haven’t tried Crook’s Corner yet, but I digress.

            You can read the full story of Neal’s Deli here: https://www.ourstate.com/neals-deli-carrboro/. Our Reuben jones took us there, and we were well rewarded by house made pastrami and corned beef. When I encountered the biscuits at the Farmer’s Market, I didn’t resist, and I’m so glad I didn’t. They are large, crusty, and you can freeze them, slice them and toast them and they are as if fresh-baked. The staff selling them assured me that come fall, they will do gravy to go with them. I guess this means my quest won’t be finished until then.

Meanwhile, the Popeye’s/Chic-filet Kerfluffle drove me to another Chapel Institution, Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen, for lunch after my water fitness class. They’ve been selling their chicken and cheese biscuits at their drive-thru place since the late 1970s. I perused the menu from my car, and saw I could get a container of gravy and a sausage biscuit.  I pulled into nearby parking lot and taste tested both chicken and cheese and sausage gravy biscuit. Eureka! Another contender!

I must end on a down note.  Breadmen, another Chapel Hill classic, was disappointing: No crustiness to biscuits, gravy gelatinous. Onwards!