“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” our server yelled. She had just dumped a glass of water on our table and it was trickling into my lap to produce that unmistakable look of adult incontinence.
“Don’t worry about it,” Wayne said as about five men attacked our table with their rags.
“She told me she was going to do that,” one of them said.
We laughed. Ha ha. The server was still pleading for forgiveness. We told her not to worry. Mistakes happen. “We are amused.” I asked for some tonic water. She left to fetch it.
We were seated on the patio of the new RA Sushi (1080 Peachtree St., 404-267-0114). Open about three weeks, the restaurant already seems to be something of a hit. The vibe is youthful, the look is Disney-meets-Vegas-in-Tokyo. This is part of a chain out of Arizona and it seems to be quite popular in all nine states where it’s opened.
Well, here’s something cool. Ezra Klein has begun a new bi-weekly column, Gut Check, in the Washington Post. It’s about food and politics.
In preparation for his first column, Klein interviewed Robert Kenner, the director of Food, Inc., and Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and a consultant on the film.
Amid all the concern over global warming, we are beginning to reckon with the fact that meat production accounts for more carbon emissions than cars. As we labor to reform the country’s health-care system, we now realize that the skyrocketing costs are in no small part due to the way our diets make us obese and sick. An IBM poll released last week found that 77 percent of Americans want more information about the food they buy. That’s no surprise. As food writer Michael Pollan says at the start of the film, “the way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than the previous 10,000.” The way we think about the way we eat hasn’t kept up.
Quite the opposite, in fact. We know rather less about our food than our grandparents did. In part, that’s because the process of creating food in a lab is less familiar than the process of growing it in a garden. Food producers might have to print ingredient lists, but no one ever passed a law saying we had to understand them. (How do you hydrogenate an oil, anyway?)
But there also has been a concerted effort to pull a curtain across the food production system. You see that twice in “Food, Inc.” Once, when a farmer who raises chickens for Tyson agrees to allow cameras onto his farm, only to have Tyson quickly call and persuade him to rescind his offer. And again, when Monsanto refuses to comment on, well, anything. It’s one thing to be kept out of Dick Cheney’s underground lair(s?). But we’re eating this stuff.
After my annual Fourth of July party, the recycling bin brims with a mountainous pile of wine bottles.
I imagine the recycling guy considers me a lapsed Friend of Bill, but it doesn’t matter — our nation’s birthday is the day to enjoy everything. In honor of our America’s independence, here are some creative tips to prepare for the celebration.
Introduce the Box
Ignore the naysayers who might not be hip to the newfangled wine-in-a-box. Once derided as an outlet for the worst vinous swill on the planet, wineries now sell good juice you squeeze from the plastic sack housed inside the box, aka the bladder. Within each three-liter “cask” — the box’s cool Aussie nickname — are four bottles of wine, hermetically sealed for your fresh drinking pleasure. Once liquid is drawn out, the bladder compresses to avoid exposure to oxygen — the element that ruins wine — so the wine stays drinkable longer, usually up to nine weeks. It’s good for a party because it’s inexpensive, unbreakable, sits handily on your countertop for easy serving, and requires no dangerous-when-drunk corkscrew. Seek out Hardy’s and Black Box selections.
Katy Love of the Dirty South Beer Club samples a saison
Once a month, about 15 members of the Dirty South Beer Club gather at a member’s abode, or perhaps a remote mountain cabin, and sample beers selected for a designated theme, share their opinions, and vote on their favorites. These are not professional beer judges or even card-carrying beer geeks, but rather a group of young, college-educated, aspiring bon vivants looking to expand their knowledge of beer while enjoying each others’ company.
The club (which has no affiliation to Dirty South Wine, the Atlanta-based wine blog) started last year, when a group of friends began to take a greater interest in the beer they were drinking and decided to get together on a regular basis for tastings and to learn more about beer. The group brought in some other friends by invitation in order to keep the meetings intimate. One of the founders, Katy Love, admits that when they started it was much more chaotic than informative. “We had way too many beers, and everyone got really drunk. We had no idea what we were doing.” The club has gradually added more structure, started taking notes, and conducts a simple yes/no/neutral vote on each beer. The comments tossed out during the tastings are refreshingly expressive (”wet dog,” “bong watery”) and honest (”this tastes like butt”). Continue reading “Talking Head: Dirty South Beer Club keeping it real” »
What a grim photograph. The soldiers are protecting the presidential house in Honduras, following the recent coup. But the background probably says quite a bit about America’s actual interest in preserving democracy in the beleaguered nation.
(Photo by Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters, courtesy of BAGNewsNotes, a terrific site that analyzes images related to current events.)
Top Flr, one of the city’s best chef-driven restaurants, is offering special three-course menus for $15 every Monday night. You do not want to miss it.
This week, I ordered a parnsip-and-celery-root soup afloat with sizable chunks of lobster, followed by slices of pimento-marinated, grilled beef (from the coulotte). Dessert was a serving of panna cotta topped with apricot jelly.
The special menus are the work of chef Shane Devereux, who recently took over Top Flr’s kitchen.
A slice of cool, fresh watermelon is a juicy way to top off a Fourth of July cookout and one that researchers say has effects similar to Viagra — but don’t necessarily expect it to keep the fireworks all night long.
Watermelons contain an ingredient called citrulline that can trigger production of a compound that helps relax the body’s blood vessels, similar to what happens when a man takes Viagra, said scientists in Texas, one of the nation’s top producers of the seedless variety.
Cakes & Ale, the Decatur spot run by chef Billy Allin, will be hosting its second monthly Sunday supper this Sun., July 5. The theme this month will be “dueling BBQ.” Price is $26 per person and children under 12 eat for half price. See the menu below, and call the restaurant at 404-377-7994 to reserve.
Of course, this was on the basis of the former menu. The restaurant was recently sold and I was told a new, more diverese menu was on the way when I visited a few weeks ago. I presume the meats will remain the same.
We visited three-week-old RA Sushi (1080 Peachtree St., 404-267-0114) last week. The instantly popular spot is part of a chain out of Arizona. It serves some Asian specialties, like the pork gyoza above, besides sushi. In fact, these dumplings were better than most of the sushi we sampled.
I have to say that the salmon skin in this hand roll was much better prepared than you find at most sushi bars, probably because it was made to order. It was exceedingly crispy and flavorful. Personally, I like this dish made with some Japanese mayo, but only soy sauce was offered to moisten the roll.
The decor of the two-level RA is kind of kitschy, but mainly pleasing. This painting of a naked woman using a dangerously pointy phallic symbol to scratch her back is in the private dining room.
I’ll have a full report in Grazing later this week.
Last December, Amy and Jason Cattanach arrived at their local post office for a special delivery. It was a Friday afternoon, one that they had been planning from the comfort of their Decatur home for months. Though they were thrilled that this day had come, the post office hardly noticed. “They handed [the package] over like a box of shoes,” Amy laughs. Inside the cardboard box were 26 newborn chicks, mail-ordered through the Internet, bunched together in a noisy bedlam of chirping and fluffy activity. After splitting the chicks with a neighbor and relative, their family of five now keeps a flock of seven hens in the back yard.
Humans started domesticating chickens in Southeast Asia, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 years ago. With respect to that history, Amy and Jason aren’t doing anything new, though it is something of a fresh approach. Keeping a flock in the back yard means that eggs travel a short walk to the kitchen table, often the same week they’re laid. Compared with our disastrous infrastructure of factory farms and semi-trucks that writers such as Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser have been critiquing in recent years, the urban hen trend makes perfect sense for folks who are trying to eat more local and seasonal food. It is, though, a bit more commitment than putting a couple of tomato plants in the ground.
Oh look, it’s a big painting by Vincent Van Gogh. Or is it by Elmyr de Hory, the famous forger of the last century whose story was famously told in Clifford Irving’s book, Fake? Whatever, Elmyr (1091 Euclid Ave., 404-588-0250) is a burrito joint with a clever theme.
We ate here recently and had a pretty good meal. I suggest you pass on the nachos with several varieties of chili peppers, including countless jalapeños (right), unless you have a cast-iron stomach. They taste good going down and then. …
Wayne ordered a burrito stuffed with grilled fish. I got one that wrapped fajitas — steak and more peppers — and red pinto beans. If you have choice, go for the pintos rather than the alternative black beans. The beans made me nostalgic for the old Tortillas.
Prices are low here and the vibe is very alternative-20s. I’m sure you won’t mind being twice the age of the rest of the customers. If you do mind, remember that it’s a restaurant that celebrates a forger. Go ahead and pretend you’re 22.
Although it’s less than a week after the start of summer, it seems like we’re deep into the heart of it now. No need to take off the party hats, except to wipe the sweat from your brow.
Taco Mac continues celebrating its 30th anniversary, as well as the beginning of summer, with the release last week of Red Brick Solstice Roggenbock from Atlanta Brewing Company. According to Taco Mac beverage manager Fred Crudder, it’s similar to the Helles Bock but with the addition of rye malt, which should add some spiciness and a grainy bite. Check your local outlet to see if it has Solstice on tap.
The Brick Store Pub’s 12th anniversary celebration continues this week, with special kegs each night, leading up to Saturday’s shindig featuring a new beer every hour and probably some silly behavior in the final hours. Be sure to ask your server for tap list updates if you go this week, since there are a number of excellent choices beyond the featured beer, including New Belgium La Folie and De Ranke Noir.
The latest entry in the city’s pizza war is Nonna Mia (980 Piedmont Ave., 404-532-2815), a Sicilian-inspired café that’s part of a new chain out of New Orleans.
The restaurant has taken over the space last occupied by Sweet Devil Moon and many others before that. In the 1970s, when I lived a few blocks from there, it was the original location of Proof of the Pudding, now a huge catering company, which at the time also served unique sandwiches and salads.
In my recollection, the longest-lived restaurant here after Proof moved was the Big Red Tomato, a New York-style Italian café with an entertaining vibe and fairly good food. Nobody has succeeded with the location since.
I might as well say at the outset that the pizza here simply does not measure up to the standard prevailing in the city now, thanks to Varasano’s and Fritti. We ordered one of the signature pies, the Siciliana, which is topped with roasted red peppers, prosciutto, kalamata olives, mozzarella and tomato sauce. Sounds great, eh?
Pizza Hut may be changing its name to … The Hut, according to Marketplace, American Public Radio’s business program that airs on WABE (90.1 FM) weekdays at 6:30 p.m. You can read or listen to the piece about the change on its website. Here’s a teaser:
Kai Ryssdal: Marketing is more important than ever in a down economy. We ran across the latest example in the trade magazine Brandweek this morning. Pizza Hut seems to think that’s just one word too many to be really catchy. The Hut, they say, would be better. Marketplace’s Rico Gagliano reports it’s yet another fast-food chain trying to change with the times.
RICO GAGLIANO: Outside a pizza hut in downtown L.A. this morning, I asked passerby a pretty obvious question.
GAGLIANO: So when you think of Pizza Hut, what food item comes to mind?
GUY 1: I think of very spongy pizza, barely edible.
GUY 2: Um, greasy pizza.
Setting aside these guys’ unsolicited editorializing, you’d think this would make the folks running Pizza Hut happy, because at least customers know what they sell, right? But problem is, more and more consumers aren’t buying pizza from chains.
Last week, the United Nations’ Food and Health Organization released a chilling statistic: More than one-sixth of the world’s people will go hungry in 2009. What qualifies one as “going hungry?” Less than than 1,800 calories a day, according to the FHO. The agency attributes the 100 million increase over last year’s figure to the global economic slowdown and consistently high food prices. Called a “silent crisis” by FHO Director-General Jacques Diouf, political instability and lack of infrastructure have compounded food shortages — shifting political boundaries and conflicts such as civil war keep much needed food from reaching people.
Want to help? Consider volunteering here in Atlanta. The Atlanta Community Foodbank accepts individual and group volunteers daily and for special events. Project Open Hand — a service organization that delivers meals to the chronically ill or elderly — needs help preparing and giving out food. The Hands On Atlanta website lists volunteer opportunities by date and interest so you can find a foodie way to be good to Atlanta.
RAW: “The Untold Sake Stories” at MF Buckhead on Thursday, June 25th, 2009. Complimentary sushi appetizers from 8 to 9 p.m. followed by a sake tasting and presentation by world famous sake sommelier, Toshi Kojima. Beats by DJ Heather B and Japanese video montage by Bean Summer. RSVP to: raw@mfbuckhead.com.
We checked out La Tavola Trattoria a few nights ago, since they are celebrating their 10th anniversary and were offering a $29 prix-fixe menu. It’s a three-course selection of the restaurant’s all-time favorites. But ended up ordering my favorites from the regular menu — this beet salad and seafood stew.
Wayne did order from the special menu — carpaccio, fregola with Littleneck clams and bread pudding for dessert.
We sat in a corner of the restaurant so dark we couldn’t read the menu or see what we were eating in detail, much less snap decent pics. But the meal was great.
The special lasts a couple days more, ending June 27. In fairness, you should do the math on the special menu because, unless you’re dying for dessert, you’ll likely spend less ordering a la carte.
RUFFLED FEATHERS: See more photos like this one at clatl.com/photos
We know you’ve been thinking to yourself, “CL should create a space for all the awesome photos they shoot.” And if you weren’t thinking that, then all the visual desires you never even knew you had have just been fulfilled.
We now have a spot where you can access all the latest galleries shot each week, a new Photo of the Day posted (you guessed it!) every day, and new videos going up every week. You can also check out the thousands of images uploaded by your fellow Atlantans to the CL Flickr feed or read up on what the deal was with each week’s Time and Place photo.
There’s international photo and video news, tidbits and gear updates, along with info on upcoming Atlanta photo community meet-ups and shoot-outs.
Missed the No Doubt concert? We’ve got the photos to make you feel just a little better about it.
Wondering how the hell they get all that sand out of the Decatur Square after the Decatur Beach Party? We’ve got the lowdown on that through video interviews.
Didn’t anyone tell Indigo Girl Emily Saliers that meat is murder? Check out her favorite Atlanta restaurant (after Watershed, of which she is part owner).
Well before the sushi craze, Atlantans were mad for Thai food. But our interest seemed to wane as Buford Highway grew to include an abundance of options from other countries. Sickly sweet options and a handful of fancier Thai eateries stuck around, but places serving authentically prepared dishes were harder to find. In recent years, however, Thai food has been slowly creeping back into our bellies, and restaurateurs are focusing on more authentic preparations. KoKai Thai Bistro (5495 Jimmy Carter Blvd., Norcross, 770-409-9219, www.kokaithaibistro.com) is one such restaurant that specializes in bringing “the streets of Bangkok to you.”
My husband and I had our two-day honeymoon in Charleston 4 years ago. We spent the whole time eating, and fell in love with the city’s restaurants. Every year since, we’ve tried to get back there at least once, always in the heat of summer, and always with an appetite. This past Friday night we hit the town to see what the city’s chefs are up to.
We only made it to three places this year, but two of them have to be two of the coolest restaurants in the country right now. We started at Fig, who’s chef Mike Lata just won the James Beard award for Best Chef in the Southeast. I have to admit that I was a little surprised at the award — I’ve eaten at Fig’s bar many times, and have always loved it but never had anything much more memorable than a deftly executed chicken liver pate. But this visit put my surprise to rest — Lata is turning out some incredible food, including what may be my favorite dish of the year so far. It takes a leap of faith to order pig’s trotters, but what a payoff — Lata takes the meat from the trotters and forms them into a cake, which is lightly pan-fried. The meat is so moist and flavorful, it’s like the best barbecue you’ve ever had, but without needing any sauce at all. Pure piggy piggyness. The accompanying salad, a jumble of field peas, lima beans, fresh corn, frissee, chives, tarragon and smoky bacon lardons, was beautifully composed and balanced, with just the right acid tang.
We stopped by the Charleston Grill for a glass of wine and a sweetbread appetizer. What impressed me the most here was the wine list and the server’s enthusiastic knowledge of it. On the glass pour list we were able to chose from incredibly cool wines such as a marsanne from Victoria, Australia and a 100% pinot noir vin gris. The server even let us do half glasses so we could taste more of the list.
We ended up at McCrady’s, where chef Sean Brock has transformed the historic restaurant into a temple of amazingly creative food, and is re-defining the idea of farm-to-table (check out John Kessler’s story about Brock in this month’s issue of Food Arts). Brock and his cooks grow much of the produce and raise much of the meat used on McCrady’s menu themselves, and the freshness of the product, as well as Brock’s handling of it, makes for some of the most exciting food in the country. The standout had to be Brock’s creamed kimchee, which appeared under a hugely fat scallop and a hunk of pork belly sourced from the restaurant’s hog farm. The kimchee had whispers of chow chow in its nature, a cultural hybrid of Southern and Asian that would never work in a less deft chef’s hands (say that three times fast). It’s a dish I’ll be thinking about for a long time. Other highlights included handmade ramp pasta (the most outrageous color green) with crab, chanterelles and nasturtium butter, and warm asparagus with a farm egg, Benton’s bacon, and bonito. Best surf and turf EVER.
Despite a weakening economy, the Nielson Company revealed an almost 25 percent jump in U.S. rosé wine sales in 2008. Since I’ve harped on the greatness of pink for the past five years, I’ll take at least a sliver of that celebratory pie, thank you very much. I’m rejoicing that Americans have finally begun to embrace the beauty of rosé wines.
With the red fruit and tannin of red, and the cool, invigorating acidity of white, rosé is a perfect marriage. One of the best food wines in existence, it’s like drinking a white wine with bright, ripe berry flavor. It matches summer fare — grilled burgers and ribs — but also spicy eats. I used to complain of their lack of availability — many wineries make dry rosés though not enough for major distribution — but I’m seeing increasing variety on shelves and lists. Pink from pinot noir, syrah, grenache, zinfandel, cabernet sauvignon and everything in between can be had for less than $20 per bottle. Woohoo!
“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” our server yelled. She had just dumped a glass of water on our table and it was trickling into my lap to produce that unmistakable look of adult incontinence.
The latest entry in the city’s pizza war is Nonna Mia (980 Piedmont Ave., 404-532-2815), a Sicilian-inspired café that’s part of a new chain out of New Orleans.
