http://www.yesweekly.com/articles.sec-248-1-chow.html It's been a long day. Real long. Don't bother yourself with the details and just take my word for it. And the way I see it, I have two choices: Go home and curl up under a blanket in a dark room, or do something nice for myself to counter the oppressive weight the world has lowered on my shoulders. ]]> The Green Bean bustles with activity. Two baristas deftly move back and forth across the L-shaped bar. It's crowded. Monday night trivia announcements echo on the high walls. By 8 p.m. the place is packed with tables full of hunched players contemplating answers. ]]> Some friends of mine recently visited Steak Street on Highway 68 in High Point and gave the place rave reviews, telling my wife we had to check it out. It had been a while since I had visited the place, so we left the kids at home and drove on over. ]]> I remember it when it was the Next Door Tavern and I was impressed with the size of the place and the long, wooden bar. I remember when it became Bar Fry, and I noted the creative concept %uFFFD a menu based on healthy deep-frying along with fresh-fruit drinks at the bar. ]]> Antonina Whaples is a senior with a double major in studio art and philosophy at Wake Forest University. Her piece, %uFFFDUnfulfilled Desires%uFFFD was inspired by her recent foray into the world of figure competition. Figure competition could best be described as a cross between a beauty pageant and bodybuilding. ]]> It%uFFFDs only fitting that Xia, the Asian fusion restaurant, is thriving just off the beaten path in downtown Winston- Salem. You have to walk a couple of blocks from 4 th Street, but it%uFFFDs well worth the effort. Located in the city%uFFFDs financial district, Xia is renowned for doing a brisk lunch and after-work dinner business. ]]> Alex Kazakos, who studied at Johnson & Wales University, has closed his Black Pearl Grill & Oyster Bar for a more moderately priced place in the same location that he is calling Gate City Tavern. ]]> I took two delicious Krispy Kreme doughnuts for buns, slapped on a big burger right off the grill, added cheddar cheese, two slices of bacon and dug in. It%uFFFDs sticky and sweet and good. The hot burger makes the donuts softer and their sugary coating gets all melty. ]]> Saturday before the Super Bowl, I had some spare time on my hands and made a decision to go to Costco. I didn%uFFFDt need anything or want anything, but I jokingly told my son, %uFFFDYou never know what you%uFFFDll find that you never knew you needed, and they have lots of free snacks. ]]> Nestled just off the courtyard in the back of the historic JH Adams Inn on Main Street in High Point, is an intimate 28-seat restaurant called Hampton's. ]]> The timing was fortuitous, as the brewery plans to release a batch this month, but today there is no Sexual Chocolate at Foothills as I sit at the bar with my film writer, Mark Burger. But what they do offer today is one of the best bar menus in the Triad, as befits a brewpub of its stature. ]]> Julie Wilson surveys the space at the Venue in downtown Greensboro. The pill bottles make a neat stack on a promo table and the T-shirts cling provocatively to nippled mannequin torsos. The cake, white, adorned with the red Hot Rawks logo, sits atop a rear table, awaiting its first slice. ]]> While everybody else is fretting about what to serve at their Super Bowl parties - Should I do chili? Nachos? Do people still eat wings? - I'm here to spit out a fundamental truth: This weekend's conference championship games are going to be way better than the Super Bowl ]]> "So what do you like," I asked my friend behind the well-stocked deli counter, "the Armenian or the Turk?" "I like the Turk," he said. Presumable this had nothing to do with politics or history - the Armenians were famously persecuted by the Turks during the days of the Ottoman empire in one of the modern world's first attempts at Genocide. ]]> As I pulled up on the crisp January morning, the frost on the grass still flashed in the sunlight and my stomach growled. It wass that time of day when breakfast wasn't exactly the right choice anymore, but eating standard lunch fare appealed about as much as free-diving with deadly jellyfish. ]]> I was encouraged to give the duck and collard green spring rolls ($12) a taste by my wife, who had enjoyed them just the other day for lunch. They were delivered to the table by Chef Kristina Fuller, who opened the place with her mother Rhonda in October 2008. ]]> Call it Indochine penicillin. So I headed over to Binh Minh, which is, in fact, not the name of a professional poker player but a fantastic Vietnamese restaurant in a city full of them. I secured a pot of jasmine tea and place an order for a dish called mi hu tieu thap cam,. ]]> Since 1816, the Old Salem Tavern has been a fixture in the historic village that has become nationally renowned for its gardens and museums. Entering the tavern on a cold winter's night is like stepping back in time. ]]> Something primal kicks in when the snow is sifting down and the air has that snappy bite to it, something that harkens back to our pelt-wearing, cave-dwelling ancestors that puts every cell in our bodies on high alert: Winter is coming, and you'd best have laid on an extra layer of fat if you hope to make it through. ]]>