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Triadfoodies’ Favorite Things: 2020’s Holiday Gift Guide of Glorious Deliciousness!

What. A. Year it has been. Fa La La Lawdy!

We’ve been quarantined and kept from our friends, our restaurants and our monthly Chef’s Tables (we barely squeezed one in back in March before the world shut down). We miss you all very much. Honestly, with all that’s going on and all that’s not, I haven’t had a lot of desire to hop on here and blog. There aren’t restaurant reviews to churn out and I haven’t really kept track of my recipe making (except on insta…I do post pics of food). But! Pandemic or no, we’ve had a few opportunities to discover new local yummies and behold! With some new to us and some that have finally found their rightful place in our gift guide, here are just a few of our favorite things from 2020. Keep reading for your chance to win the entire list! We hope you’ll mask up and get on out there and support your local shops. All of the items mentioned make for great snacks and stocking stuffers.

Triadfoodies Favorite Things Holiday Gift Guide

Carolina Kettle Potato Chips

Specifically, the Sir Walter Cream Cheese & Chive. A riff on the sour cream and onion, they’re slightly less tangy than the latter but definitely pack a flavorful punch. We actually love all the Carolina Kettle chips, founded by Josh Monahan. You can find these chips at Mast General Store, Wine Merchants Bodega and quite a few local markets. Check the website carolinakettle.com for locations.

Memaw’s Cheese Tiddies

I hope y’all know what a Memaw is. The name is cute and attention getting and the little cheese crackers are great for snacking. Cheese Tiddies are brought to you by the same folks who make the above Carolina Kettle chips, 1in6 Snacks, so they know their …well…snacks. Give them a read when you get a chance as the company gives back to the local food bank with every purchase.You can find Cheese Tiddies at local markets, Mast General Store and online. 1in6snacks.com.

A La Brava Hot Sauce

This Winston-Salem hot sauce is gaining quite the popularity around the Triad. I love the Diablo on chicken wings mixed with a little butter and honey. Owner Marcos Medina is giving the winner one of all three hot sauces, Diablo, Habanero and La Mayan. You can find A La Brava at Wine Merchants and other independent shops, Lowes Foods, Publix, Harris Teeter, Deep Roots, GMart and several other stores in NC, SC, VA and TN. Visit goalabrava.com for more info.

Anson Mills Carolina Gold Rice

If you know, you know. Honestly, Anson Mills heirloom rice is top of the line and a chefs best friend. It is a little bit pickier to cook with than traditional store bought rice, even the highfalutin ones, but it’s so worth the extra step, which basically requires you to spread it out in a baking sheet and put it in the oven to help “dry it out” after cooking. It smells like popcorn when it cooks. It elevates any dish you prepare. No wonder it’s the choice of chefs all over. And our friends at Anson Mills not only included the Carolina Gold Rice, but also some grits! Happy day! Ansonmills.com

Smoke City Meats Pimento Cheese 833 Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem, NC

As you know, pimento cheese doesn’t pack well outside of refrigeration. I love all of Chef Matt Pleasant’s pimento cheeses but you really ought to try the White Pimento Cheese with white cheddar, parmesan and olives. Truists will also love Chef’s original and spicy pimento cheese. Follow SCM for specials, take homes and recipe ideas. Winner receives a $25 gift card for whatever they want in the store. We hope it includes pimento cheese….and MEAT (obviously). smokecitymeats.com

Wine Merchants & Vin 205 Bodega 205 S. Stratford Road, Winston-Salem, NC

Remember pre-pandemic when I had that Chef’s Table at Vin 205 and it was incredible?? As in back in February? Doesn’t that seem so long ago? And doesn’t it also make sense that we’ve had three Chef’s Table’s there? Sure does! Well, honestly I can’t decide what my favorite thing about Wine Merchants is. Caleb? Yes. Alan? Yes. Justin? Yes. The wine? Yes, yes. The bodega with all the great shopping, confections, local meat, pasta, snacks? Heck yes! The take and bake items? Oh please, absolutely. So winner gets a $25 gift card and then you can meander and get whatever you want, like a take and bake and wine. You deserve it. vin205.com

Black Mountain Salted Caramel Bar + Drinking Chocolate standing in for the BMC Fruit Cake

So because 2020 is being so 2020ish and all, Black Mountain Chocolate did some moving (literally) and shaking and at the time of this posting, they were only taking pre-orders of seasonal items. We have loved the Queen of Fruitcakes since the inception of our Favorite Things and it’s still available to order. To play it safe, BMC is giving the winner a candy bar, chocolate to drink and a $20 gift card. So, the lucky winner will also get to shop at the brand new Black Mountain Chocolate located in the Innovation Quarter. blackmountainchocolatefactory.com

Now, get shopping! But….how to win??
We’d like to thank all the makers above for giving these items for our gift bag of gloriously delicious favorite things!

Please, foodies, we implore you to support these and all local shops this season and the sooner the better. It has been so hard for so many and your support is keeping them alive. Comment below on what holiday item you are looking forward to trying this year OR drop any new finds in the comment section. We’ll give them a try and maybe they’ll make it to our finds next year. By commenting here or on Facebook and Instagram, you’ll also be entered to win the ENTIRE Favorite Things Gift Guide as a goodie bag. And I’ll have some runners-up too, who will take home one of each A La Brava Hot Sauces as well as Cheese Tiddies and Carolina Kettle Chips.

****IMPORTANT****Winner will be announced Sunday, December 13 and must be able to take possession of the goodie bag in person. NO SHIPPING. Winner should expect to pick up the goodies on Wednesday, Dec. 16 (weather permitting), in Winston-Salem and can be contactless, if preferred. I have arranged that the winning bag can be picked up at Wine Merchants at 205 S. Stratford Road if an in-person hand-off cannot be made.

As always, foodies, thank you for reading and supporting local! Merry Christmas and may your New Year be blessed and healthy.

Y’all Is For Everyone

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You can find the YES! Weekly version of this story here.

Y’all: /yahl/ : Contraction of you and all that some say is not a real word (but we all know that it is).

Y’all is also a sauce. Three to be exact (for now) and it’s made locally in Winston-Salem. Now, y’all foodies know that when I tell you about a new product, I really love it and I use it and I find the story behind the product and its maker interesting enough to bring it to you. And y’all…this sauce is definitely for me and you …because it’s trip to yumtown. And no this is not sponsored. I bought it. I love it. And so will you!

And I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. These sauces are so great that they are definitely a triadfoodies Favorite Thing and will be a part of our Holiday Gift Guide giveaway next month! (link is last year’s guide)

Y’all Sauce Co. started a year ago with the love of the Lord, bourbon, community and food. Josh McGee and Paige Harlow originally met six years ago at church in Kentucky where Josh’s wife was a pastor. “We loved to eat, but hated our jobs and were looking for an awesome way to work together and came up with the idea of doing something with food over the course of drinking some bourbon, which always gives you the best ideas,” Paige joked.

Josh and his wife eventually moved to Winston-Salem so that she could take a pastoral position at First Baptist. Josh comes from a culinary background and says, “I worked in the industry for 15 years, was a sous chef in Charleston, where I cut my culinary chops. I thought, wouldn’t it be great to pair my culinary background and her marketing background.” Around the time of the move, Josh and Paige decided to become business partners and settled on the idea of a sauce company.

But then, what in the world were they going to name their new company?

Josh remembers, “We started with some southern names, a spin on the southern culture…we kicked around all kinds of ideas….Southern Plated is the name of our company, but the name of the sauce? Nothing really rolled off the tongue. We were talking about community and our identity and Paige blurts ‘y’all!’ And that was it.”

Paige says their tag line, Eat Up Y’all is the perfect slogan. “It just made sense because y’all is such an inclusive word. Y’all goes beyond gender, race, religion. We wanted to create a company that included everyone. It’s a divisive time and it’s important to bring people together to the table and have conversation and bridge gaps.”

And in true Baptist tradition, pair it with community and make the conversation happen around food.

The sauce team says the move, the sauce and the city of Winston-Salem are a perfect match. “What we love about Winston-Salem is what Louisville was 10 years ago. The upswing of honing in on local restaurants, local ingredients and all these farmers doing great things. We want to tell the story and heritage of the sauce and how it brings community together.”

For now, there are three sauces telling those stories, with many more stories to come. The first is the iconic Henry Bain, which Paige and Josh both discovered in Kentucky. It’s a bit of a sweet and tangy version of a barbecue sauce, that Josh tweaked and modernized with a hint of bourbon. By the way, Henry Bain was a waiter and created his namesake sauce at the Pendennis Club in 1881. How’s that for a legacy?

The second sauce is the sweet and spicy Jezebel, which Josh says he became obsessed with in his native Tennessee. Jezebel is like apple butter and marmalade meets horseradish, and though no one can really agree where Jezebel sauce comes from, Josh says, “I wanted to make it more East Tennessee with sorghum and Volunteer Orange. And I love that you can use Jezebel in different ways. Back in the day you’d throw it on cream cheese, but now we use it to glaze hams. I like it on fried chicken, salmon and as a finishing sauce on veggies.” I plan on putting Jezebel on my Thanksgiving turkey. Josh tells me it will be “ah-mazing.”

I became a fan of Y’all Sauce when I scooped up the Mississippi Come Back sauce, which is a staple in the deep south and used so many ways including as a burger topping or as a dip for fries or tater tots. It’s like a white barbecue sauce that will have you come back for more, hence the name. My tip, give it a try as the dressing on a warm potato salad. It’s so yummy.

In the south, every sauce has a story and the team wants to tell all of them. Paige says, “The plan going forward is to have a different sauce for each southern state, such as Trinity Sauce for Louisiana and of course a sauce that would be cool for North Carolina.” Whatever will it be? I’m told it may be a bit more than just Eastern BBQ.

She adds, “We’re both history buffs and we love the culture here. The south is a real mix of cultures…we want to tell the story of the different sauces. It’s exciting to keep these stories alive.”

Y’all Sauce is catching on in the area, particularly in Winston-Salem where it can now be found at Southern Home & Kitchen, Canteen Market and Bistro, Washington Perk, City Beverage, Mast General Store and Lowes Foods.

Josh says they plan to be in front of the community as he continues to put down roots here. Josh says, “The community is something so unique to Winston-Salem. It’s a hub for a lot of cool things happening…from the restaurants and the farms to the craft beer scene and wineries. There’s so much great energy here and we want to be on the forefront of that and embrace the localness.”

Look for Josh with the Y’alls at the Angelo’s Artisan Market at Wiseman Brewing in Winston-Salem on November 11 from 12-5pm and at Southern Home & Kitchen with some cooking classes early next year.

If y’all want some enjoyable reading on the stories of the sauces. or if y’all want to find out where to buy or to order online visit them here.

Triadfoodies Favorite Things: A Gift Guide to Glorious Deliciousness

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Below is the annual triadfoodies Favorite Things, aka Triadfoodies Gift Guide of Glorious Deliciousness. For your chance to win, visit YES! Weekly…

Foodie fans and locavores…you know I look forward to this every year. For years, my family has created gift baskets full of our favorite things that we’ve discovered throughout the year. I dare say that at YES! Weekly, we might be making a tradition of it, as long as they’ll have me. So here’s the 2nd Annual Triadfoodies Gift Guide of Glorious Deliciousness. And once again we’re going to give our basket (or bag) full of goodies to a lucky winner (for details, click here, as the giveaway is by YES!).

These “favorite things” make perfect stocking stuffers or gifts on their own. My criteria…It must be fabulous and it must be local. We have such talented makers in our area that they deserve to be supported and loved. Another important aspect of these faves are that they are relatively easy to find. We can’t have you going all over town looking for these items. And in most cases you’ll be able find these items at a locally owned shop near you.

Shall we begin the Holiday Magic?

Brewmaster’s Malt Mustard

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We loved Al Wolf’s mustard when we featured its whole crunchy mustard seed, grainy goodness for our Super Bowl spread feature last January. And since then, we have not been without it. It’s the perfect German mustard made by a German brewmaster, with simple ingredients. The mustard, made with malted barley, is robust and thick and perfect on brats, hotdogs, smoked sausage, sandwiches, pork, you name it. We like that Al, who came to his new country searching for the American dream, found it right here in the Triad of North Carolina as the brewmaster for Red Oak Brewing. You get bonus local supporter points if you pair Malt Mustard with a Red Oak Lager and/or Lowe’s Foods SausageWorks Sausage, particularly anything with Texas Pete in it. You can find Malt Mustard at Lowe’s Foods and Whole Foods or buy online at brewmastersmalt.com

Sutler’s Spirits Gin

True to form, we must always include a NC spirit when it comes to our gift guide. And we’ve never been without Sutler’s Gin since discovering it a few years ago. As a matter of fact, the bottle is so good looking that we just keep it out on display on our bar cart. The science that goes into distilling a quality spirit is one thing, but the art that goes into Sutler’s is on another level altogether. Owner Scot Sanborn has introduced flavors into his award-winning gin that set it apart from any other. It’s really great on the rocks, where you can really appreciate the botanicals. But I also love it with lemonade and a splash of soda. Plan a visit in the near future to Sutler’s distillery in Winston-Salem. You’ll get a lesson in flavor profiles and appreciation that you never expected. Sutler’s is always holding super fun workshops and tours are available. Find your Sutler’s at any North Carolina ABC store or your limited bottle amount on site at Sutlers. sutlersspiritco.com

Little Black Dressing Company It Takes 3 to Tango

I know you know that quandary when you can’t decide which salad dressing you want. Do I want ranch? Thousand island? Bleu cheese? What if you could have all three dressings whipped into one? That’s LBD’s It Takes Three to Tango for you. You get a little of all three of these popular salad toppings. It’s just an amazing marriage of flavors and perfect for the indecisive type. The only thing is, I’ve decided that it’s one of the few salad dressings I actually want anymore. It is magic on a wedge salad or a Cobb or as a veggie dip. LBD Company is based in High Point and has a number of other interesting looking dressings but honestly I can’t stay away from 3 to Tango. You can find it in the refrigerated dressings section all along the east coast at local grocery markets as well as Lowe’s Foods and Harris Teeter. littleblackdressingco.com

Fool’s Gold Honey (Colony Urban Farm Store)

If you love honey, you’ll love Colony Urban Farm’s Honey Bar. A honey bar! Honey on tap. Honey in jars. Honey! Honey! Honey! It’s paradise for honey-lovers and Winnie the Pooh too.

Just a few days before press time, Colony announced that they’re branding their honey as Fool’s Gold Honey Co. My favorite in the Colony line-up is the Bourbon-infused honey. You get a little essence of bourbon with their wonderful local honey, from bees they raise right here. Colony threw in a Southern Wildflower and Lavender-infused because …well, because Christmas! Really the choices for honey at Colony are endless. “Because eating honey is a very good thing to do.”—Pooh. There are some exciting things about to happen in the West End in Winston-Salem and these little bees at Colony are in the mix of it, so stay tuned for some fun buzz from these folks. You can find Colony Urban Farm and Fool’s Gold Honey at their new location (opening soon) at 492 West End Blvd, Winston-Salem. foolsgoldhoneyco.com

Batistini Farms Vanishing Grape White Balsamic

Okay, okay, we know we’re not growing local olives or Modena grapes here. But Clemmons couple, Cindy and Tom Sephton, are getting us as close to the local experience as possible. About three years ago, the Sephtons began importing 100% Toscano extra virgin organic olive oil and balsamic vinegars from the heritage La Batistina farm in Tuscany. So you get the real thing and you’re supporting a local business at the same time. We love the pure, clean taste, look and finish of the Vanishing Grape. Paired with a little olive oil on a spinach salad or drizzled on cheese, or you can go wrong with crusty bread. You can find Batistini Farms Olive Oils and Balsamic Vinegars at Whole Foods, Wine Merchants in Winston-Salem, and online at b-farms.com.

Lily Leaf Soap-Handmade Soap and Spa Products

No, it’s not food. It is made with food-like, organic ingredients by Tara Kercheval, who puts so much pride and hard work into her soaps, lotions, serums, scrubs and balms and they’ve been a favorite for several years now. Tara has been so devoted that she was able to leave behind her job and focus on her soap business full-time. We love her soaps to use of course, but they make a great hostess gift or stocking stuffer. And they come in all kinds of fragrances but I like anything that reminds me of the spa, like the lime mint, eucalyptus, or grapefruit lavender. We also love the shave bar. Winner gets two soaps. You can find out more about Lily Leaf soaps, lotions, serums and balms by visiting their Facebook page.

The Traveling Bean Coffee

Words cannot express the heartbreak over here when our beloved Beans Boro Coffeeshop announced its closing in Greensboro earlier this year. But, let not your (or our) heart be troubled. Roast Master, Kyle Burge, is back in his hometown on Kernersville, right downtown, under a new name. The Traveling Bean is located on Main Street with plenty of roasting action and a family-friendly environment to enjoy your pick-me-up. Winner gets a pound of whole bean Colombian, known for its full, rich flavor with chocolate notes. The Traveling Bean is located at 126-A South Main Street, Kernersville. thetravelingbean.com

Cackalacky Beer-B-Q Nuts

Also making a return appearance from our “Super Bowl” special, Cackalacky’s BeerBQ peanuts are the perfect party snack, late night snack, car snack…well, you get it. Our absolute fave of all the nuts out there. And we’ve tried a ton. They’re just big and special. Trust us. You can find Cackalacky nuts and their other products at retailers across the state, including Lowe’s Foods and Harris Teeter. cackalacky.com

Black Mountain Chocolate Fruit Cake

And the Triadfoodies Gift Guide of Glorious Deliciousness (and Giveaway) just wouldn’t be the same without the Queen of Fruitcakes. Like I’ve said before, it’s boozy and so chocolatey and will make you completely forget about that heavy, stumpy thing you once called fruit “cake.” BMC’s fruitcake is made with next door neighbor’s Broad Branch Distilling Company’s Nightlab 1.0. And you can taste to too. Consider this your grown-up dessert and enjoy! blackmountainchocolate.com

So there you have it, my gift guide of favorite things. And you can win this treasure! Find this post on the YES! Weekly Facebook page where you’ll find out how you can win it. Winner will be announced on December. 18. And I’ll be showing this collection of awesomeness …er…glorious deliciousness on Thursdsay, December 14 on WFMY 2’s Good Morning Show. So set your DVR for 6:45am if you aren’t up and going at that crazy hour.

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