Louie's Cafe - Forest City, NC

I've been absent for a bit, but I have several things I need to blog about. I've been pretty busy lately with work and such before my trip to the US for a wedding (which is where I am now).

I am currently in Forest City, NC with my Dougie-poo for my friend Jennifer's wedding (yay!!!). I think we are now very familiar with the downtown area of the town since we circled it 4 or 5 times. Garmin apparently has no clue where anything in NC is.

At any rate, we decided we would get pizza for lunch and tried to find Barley's Bar and Pizzeria, which led us to a bookstore in the previously mentioned downtown area. The nice lady at the bookstore told us where it was (actually in Spindale, which was a few miles away). We ended up getting directions from her to a different local pizza place and headed that way.

We ended up at Louie's Cafe. The address is 235 S. Powell Street in Forest City, NC if you're ever in the area and want to check it out.

Doug ordered a side salad to start (he should've just asked for a plate of lettuce since that's all he ate of it), and I ordered us some garlic twists. The garlic twists are just $3 for 6 pieces and are quite good. The sauce is a bit runny, but oh well.

For our food food, Doug ordered a spinach and bacon calzone.

He said it was pretty good. I ordered the meatball grinder.

That sucker was massive. Doug and I could've easily split it and been very full. Since it was only $5.25, I didn't think it was going to be that massive. Half of it is in the car in a styrofoam box right now. BTW, the calzone was also $5.25.
So the little cafe gets a thumbs up from me and Doug both. The food was good for really good prices.

Nilli's Pasta & Pizza

I’ve had several posts waiting to go up…I’ve just been lazy.

So we’ll start off with Nilli’s Pasta & Pizza. This isn’t a bad place to get some pasta or pizza…as you might expect. When looking for this chain, look for “Pasta & Pizza” in large letters – it took me a year of eating here at the branch by Samsung before I realized that it actually had a name. A few months ago, to my delight, they opened a branch in Yeongtong across from Homeplus. If you’re leaving Homeplus via the front entrance, cross the road diagonally to the right and it will be on that block (on the road that runs in front of Homeplus).

The Yeongtong location hasn’t been too busy when I’ve went in for dinner or lunch, which is a good thing since they don’t have a whole lot of space inside.

The prices are pretty typical for an Italian place in Korea. Pasta dishes will typically be between 9000 won and 13000 won (add about 6000 won if you want to make it a portion for two peeps), while the pizzas will run between 12500 for a margherita to 15000 for a gorgonzola. Sodas will be the typical (approx.) 2000 won that you find at Korean restaurants; however, you can get a basket of garlic bread (2 pcs.) and a soda for 3500, I think.

Speaking of the garlic bread – this is probably my favorite thing at Nilli’s because…wait for it…it’s not sweet!! Yup, at least as far as I can tell, it’s not that sweet garlic bread that so many places try to pass off on you. Granted, it is possible that my taste buds have been ruined after 4 years of living in Korea, so you’ll have to let me know if it tastes sweet to any of you.

Nilli’s offers red sauce pasta and cream sauce pasta dishes. The only pasta that I’ve tried has been the cream sauce ones (and non-seafood). The cream sauce really doesn’t have any flavor – it’s just plain white sauce. Luckily, they do season the chicken and such that they put in the pasta, but other than that there isn’t a lot of flavor to the sauce itself.
The chicken and mushroom pasta:

The pizzas aren’t bad – I’ve tried several of them (margherita, rucola, gorgonzola, etc.). They’re good for sharing with a friend as an appetizer but not really as a meal by themselves if you’re hungry. The crust is super thin and so are the toppings.
Here’s the gorgonzola pizza, which is a sauceless pizza with bleu cheese crumbles and white cheese that comes with a honey and garlic dipping sauce.

Overall, I quite like Nilli’s since it’s not very busy most of the time and the garlic bread is good. There are a couple of other places in Yeongtong (like Basta Pasta) and a new one in the Yeongtong Park area (haven’t tried this one yet), but I think I prefer Nilli’s over Basta Pasta because they seem to not be as awkward around foreigners.

Imsil Cheese Pizza

As noted earlier this week, icky weather and poopy internet connections have kept me from blogging lately – sorry! So, today I’ll be posting a couple of different places to make up for the absence.

First on the list is Imsil Cheese Pizza. This is a pizza chain that tends to be operated as kind of a mom & pop pizza shop.

Depending on the size, toppings, and crust selection, the price will range from about 9900 won – 14000 won. I tend to go for simple when I order pizza in Korea – pepperoni & black olive or just pepperoni. I just find it easier to order if I’m ordering delivery, and there are very rarely any surprise toppings making guest appearances (you know I’m talking about you, Mr. Corn!!). It’s not that I dislike corn on my pizza, I just like to have what I ordered, and only what I ordered, on my pizza.

Anyway, back to Imsil Cheese Pizza. The cheese crust pizza is only slightly more expensive that the regular crust and is quite good. They also put the toppings under the cheese so they don’t get burnt. When I was a kid back in Missouri, my sister would always ask Pizza Hut to put the pepperoni under the cheese so it wouldn’t get burnt in the pizza oven, and I’ve found over the years that this tends to work out better for most pizzas. Imsil Cheese also doesn’t overdo it on the sauce so you don’t have sauce dripping down your hand while trying to eat it. You do also get the pizza side item staple – the cup of sweet pickles and a little pack of hot sauce.

The little couple that runs the place is very friendly and the pizzas only take 10 to 15 minutes. They also offer delivery in the Yeongtong area. The store is very tiny and only has one small table for customers waiting on pizza. For a quick pick-up as take out on the way home or delivery, I definitely prefer this place over Pizza Hut. It's located kind of catty-cornered from Samsung Digital Plaza at one of the main intersections in Yeongtong right next to the 300 block of apartments. I'll be posting a map soon to make things easier to find!!

My favorite: pepperoni w/ cheese crust

Mmm..cheesy