Martin's Curry Rice

9549 Chapel Hill Road
Morrisville, NC 27560
(919) 349-2363

We checked out Martin's Curry Rice the other day. This is a brand-new restaurant on the edge of Cary / Morrisville, specializing in -- guess what -- curry and rice!

You design your own curry from a buffet of cold ingredients, including chicken, tofu, fish, mushrooms, chickpeas and veggies. There's no limit to the ingredients, so if you're planning on a chickpea and mushroom curry, but then you decide to try some chicken and broccoli too, that's fine.

There are three levels of curry, a sweet, a mild, and a hot. The mild is a great cilantro-y green curry, but it is quite mild, I'll probably try the hot next time. (Usually a hot curry in a place that specializing in curries is just too much for me) Custom curries come with rice and a salad side dish.

One side dish was amazing chunks of seed-free cucumbers and tomato in the cool cilantro yogurt. We called this Raita on Steroids since "yogurt salsa" didn't do it justice. The curry was delicious, but it's the killer raita that will bring us back.

The location is brand new, and the set-up and decor reminded me so much of Chinese fast-food, cafeteria style dining. The owner later said he was inspired by Japanese curry shops when designing his place.

Great food, not expensive and a lot of options, including vegetarian options. We'll definitely be back to try the dinner tapas.

Tzatziki Sauce

The boy's favorite restaurant in NC is either Greek Fiesta, or La Shish, and his favorite in Beijing was Biteapita. I guess you know what he likes to eat!

Tzatziki Sauce

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt (All the recipes I found asked for special thick yogurt, but I used regular and just drained it a bit. It came out fine.)
1/2 cup grated cucumber (It's hard to measure because it's so squishy, grate a couple inches of cucumber and then squish away the excess liquid.)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
garlic salt
mint

(Most recipes I found also called for 1 -2 tablespoons of olive oil but I skipped that because it seemed like needless fat. The sauce was very smooth anyway. Maybe it's because I used the wrong yogurt!)

I was a bit worried about this one as yogurt + lemon juice could easily make a curdled mess. I got around that by grating the cucumber into a tupperware container, and coating it in lemon juice, then garlic salt. Then I added the yogurt + mint.

I sealed the tupperware and stuck in the fridge for about an hour to let everything combine. I was so pleased to find perfect dipping sauce, instead of curdled disaster! YAY!

Wasabi

107 Edinburgh South Dr
Cary, NC 27511
(919) 460-7980
www.wasabicary.com

It's the Girl here with a Boy-less review! I discovered Wasabi mostly because it's in the same complex as Casa Margarita.

The Boy is not usually interested in Asian food. We'll have it from time to time, but I could eat sushi every day. I visited Wasabi with a friend, who could also eat sushi everyday. We really enjoyed the bamboo decor and peaceful ambiance, and like the best of Cary restaurants, inside Wasabi feels like it's far, far away from the outside's stripmall parking lot. Our waiter was friendly, offering to answer any questions we had, and drink refills came quickly.

The actual food is, well, sushi. There are no mind-blowing texture and flavour combinations, but Wasabi offered a solid selection of fresh veggie and fish rolls, all the basics, presented well. There were plenty of vegetarian options, which seems to be pretty typical of sushi places, but I don't eat a lot of meat, so I always like to see it. (I have been talked into accompanying the Boy to a steakhouse, now and again, but I usually perfer lighter fare)

Overall, I enjoyed our meal and our drinks, and I'd go there again, but I don't know if it's you-need-to-try-this-now good. Decent prices for nice sushi, and a good time with my friend.