JakJin Bistro Pho & More

 

Located at 4414 Lawndale Drive in Greensboro, JakJin Bistro Pho & More serves Vietnamese cuisine from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Lunch specials and online ordering are available. There is limited seating (indoor and outside).

 

This small, unassuming, family-owned spot serves up an excellent bowl of pho. While other varieties are available, if you are OK with meatball or chicken, the $9.50 lunch special is quite a good deal. I opted for meatball and was rewarded with a large bowl served hot and fresh. It came with the usual accoutrements bean sprouts, Thai basil, etc.), but I was tempted by the mention of the chili paste being made in-house. Though the broth was plenty flavorful as-is, it added a welcome burn.

 

JakJin’s proprietor was friendly and appreciative, and service was fast. The rest of the menu looked promising (beef basil and stir fried noodles are also lunch specials here) though some of the regular menu items (I’m looking at you, papaya salad) seemed priced a bit high.

 

For those traversing the Lawndale/Battleground area, JakJin should be toward the top of your list of lunch spots.

Fridas Mexican Kitchen & Cantina

 

Located at 550 Pineview Drive in Gateway Plaza in Kernersville, Fridas Mexican Kitchen and Cantina serves Mexican cuisine for lunch and dinner daily. It is open from 11-10 Monday-Thursday, 11-11 Friday and Saturday, and 11-9 on Sunday. Outdoor seating and online ordering are available.

 

Some of the best Mexican eateries are tiny, easily overlooked hole-in-the-wall establishments, and so expecting much from Friday’s – large and prominently visible from 66 – seems counterintuitive. While Fridas may not be the best Mexican restaurant in town, it still acquits itself fairly well.

 

Having been once previously for take out, my wife and I stopped in most recently for a Cinco de Mayo lunch. We were expecting busy, and it was, but Fridas' staff seemed up to the task. There was no wait for a table, and service was prompt and efficient.

 

The restaurant is named for the artist Frida Kahlo, and her visage can be found everywhere (sign, menus, wall art, etc.) here. If that isn’t Fridas' calling card, then the margarita menu may be. This, however, is an undue slight to the establishment’s unusually strong taco game. The menu boasts two kinds of fish tacos, three kinds of pork tacos (carnitas, pastor, and pibil), birria, and even de canasta (fried tortillas). There are, of course, plenty of non-taco offerings too, ranging from fajitas/quesadillas/burritos to salads to various chicken/steak/seafood and vegetarian dishes.

 

We opted for elote, a vegetarian burrito, and tacos de cochinita pibil and were mostly satisfied. The elote came slathered and packed all the right flavors, but it was served chilled rather than hot, a confusing (and slightly disappointing) choice I’ve not seen replicated elsewhere. The burrito was enormous and full of delicious squash. At $8.25 on the lunch menu for what amounts to two meals’ worth, it was a bargain. The tacos (three for $11) were generously filled and quite tasty though absent the expected spiciness. A side of charro beans was top-notch.

 

All told, Fridas made for a better-than-expected lunch. It may not sway you from your allegiance to another spot, but it shouldn’t be passed up, either.

Sur Chilean Inspired Food

A Winston-Salem-based food truck, Sur can be found regularly at Winston-Salem and High Point breweries. It offers empanadas, sandwiches, sweets, and more.

 

The local food truck scene has exploded in recent years, and even amid a field that boasts excellent Mexican, Jamaican, Korean fusion, and more, Sur manages to stand out. First, the Chilean-inspired menu offers something different. Can you find empanadas elsewhere? Of course. But empanadas with beef, raisin, and egg? Next, pricing is reasonable (sandwiches under $10 and empanadas and sides are half that), and turn-around times are quick. What really puts Sur on the map, however, are the flavors.

 

Our group shared a churrasco (steak sandwich with tomatoes, avocado, and cilantro mayo), a completo (loaded beef hotdog with tomatoes, avocado, and mayo), and fries, and everything was delicious. The two sandwiches weren’t the easiest things to eat, but what they lacked in structural integrity, they made up for in tastiness. If calorie guilt or ethical compunction makes a hot dog a once-in-a-rare-while indulgence, then the completo should be that once. Even the fries (hot, fresh, and simply salted) were addictively good.

 

Whether at a brewery, a festival, or a random location for reasons unknown, if you happen to see Sur, you owe it to yourself to give it a try. Grab napkins and leave regrets behind.

Timmy's Hot Chicken

 

Located at 237 West 5^th Street in Winston-Salem’s Downtown Arts District, Timmy’s Hot Chicken serves Nashville hot chicken from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. A second location is planned for Greensboro.

 

As a fan of Nashville hot chicken, I’ve had versions that have ranged from fairly faithful to loosely adapted and done right to butchered beyond all recognition. This made me curious about Timmy’s, and I’m pleased to report that it falls in the former categories rather than the latter.

 

A long, narrow, dimly lit space next door to Small Batch, Timmy’s boasts a wall of plates to commemorate the winners of its Hellfire wings challenge (one order eaten in ten minutes or less without drinks). I opted for takeout during my first visit, but it seems like a casual, relaxed spot for dine-in.

 

Timmy’s menu suits its concept well and offers a fair bit of flexibility. You can get wings, tenders, boneless thighs, or fish. All are available with bread on the side and pickles, or you can opt for sandwiches that are varying degrees of loaded (Beyond Meat is also an option here) or even chicken and waffles. Sauce heat levels range from medium to the aforementioned hellfire.

 

I decided to play it safe with a medium Timothy: tenders, pickle, American cheese, slaw, bacon, and comeback sauce. At $12 for the sandwich only (sides are another $4 to $5), it wasn’t cheap, but it was well worth it. The sandwich delivered the sweet-and-heat combination I was looking for while the slaw and bacon added a welcome crunch. Surprisingly for a sandwich as loaded as this one, it didn’t completely fall apart while I tried to eat it.

While I can’t attest to Timmy’s sides or the dine-in experience, the sandwich was enough to tell me where to go the next time a Nashville hot chicken craving hits. Here’s hoping the Greensboro location opens soon.

Bobby Boy Bakeshop

 

Located at 1100 Reynolda Road in the Buena Vista neighborhood of Winston-Salem, Bobby Boy Bakeshop serves up baked good from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

 

In the few years that it’s been open, Bobby Boy has attained a loft reputation, a status reinforced by the line out the door that greeted me on arrival. Given that, I really wanted to love this place, but I will have to settle for liking it instead.

 

One area where Bobby Boy definitely did not disappoint was its selection. The bakery boasts several kinds of bread, several types of croissants and rolls, cookies, pastries, coffees, and more. If you have anything resembling a sweet tooth, you’re in for a hard decision here.

 

While everything here looks amazing, the high-ish prices may dampen some of that enthusiasm. Still, quality can override cost-consciousness.

 

For my first visit, I went with a vanilla honey raisin roll and picked up a pan au chocolat for my wife. The former was very sweet, but it wasn’t a one-dimensional sweetness. The latter packed in plenty of rich chocolatey flavor but lacked some of the buttery flakiness of croissants found elsewhere.

 

All told, Bobby Boy is definitely worth trying, but it may not blow you away.

I Have Some Questions for You

 

Bodie Kane, a podcaster famous for exposing Hollywood abusers, returns to her prep school to teach. Her students opt to make the focus of their own podcast the murder of Bodie’s then-roommate more than twenty years earlier. As they pry into whether the wrong man was convicted, Bodie is forced to reopen old wounds and examine her role in the lead-up and aftermath.

 

Taking on everything from #metoo to Twitter mobs to true crime podcasts, Rebecca Makkai’s 2023 novel screams “topical,” which is often shorthand for “desperate to clumsily assert relevance.” That may hold true in lesser hands, but Makkai excels in injecting this campus murder mystery with complexity and nuance that leaves us guessing for much of the narrative. Is the convicted killer Omar another young Black man railroaded by the justice system or a violent abuser rightly sent away? Is a predatory teacher the real culprit, or does Bodie, disgusted that he’s avoided suspicion all these years, merely want that to be true? Admittedly, the abundance of characters can make I Have Some Questions for You feel overstuffed, and the ending’s revelations verge on contrivance. But for much of the book, we’re treated to sharp writing that elevates the story above the faddishness (and, in the case of true crime trendiness, toxicity) of its subject matter.

Don Julio Cocina Mexicana

 

Located at 405 East Dixie Drive in Asheboro, Don Julio offers Mexican cuisine from 11 a.m. to 9:30 (10:30 Fridays and Saturdays) daily. There’s a full bar, and lunch specials are available.

 

We ended up at Don Julio after an Easter zoo visit because it was open and supposedly offered elote. Housed in a strip mall, it doesn’t look like much from the outside. Inside is another story. There’s some well-appointed wall art, a surprising amount of space, and a comfortably casual vibe.

 

Don Julio’s menu helps it stand apart from the multitude of Mexican eateries in the area. It includes not only elote but several items not widely available elsewhere such as potato shrimp enchiladas and mango ribs. Of course, you can find the usual suspects (burritos, tacos, quesadillas, etc.) here as well. From vegetarian options to seafood dishes to a molcajete (sizzling meat bowl), Don Julio has something for everyone.

 

My wife and I split an elote starter and went with a vegetable quesadilla and a seafood stuffed poblano, respectively. The food came out astonishingly fast, and it looked and smelled great. While the poblano dish featured a sauce that was milder than expected, the pepper itself delivered a bit of heat, and the shrimp were large and well-cooked. The quesadilla paired well with a smoky chipotle sauce, and the elote satisfied a craving. The chips and salsa may have been fairly pedestrian, but everything else was quite good.

 

In addition to the aforementioned speedy service, Don Elote boasts surprisingly reasonable prices. The lunch specials are a steal, but even seafood entrees won’t run higher than mid-teens.

 

Don Julio’s location makes it easy to overlook, but its food, value, and service are too good to pass up. It’s a great option for a post-zoo lunch.