Omnivore Atlanta

Sounds odd, yet, fantastic. Cheese is awesome. So why not have four courses of it?

Shaun Doty agrees, so on Sunday, Dec. 7th, he’s throwing a Sweet Grass Dairy dinner for the masses at Shaun’s. Well, not for everyone (reservations guys, come on!).

Cost is $55-$75.

Menu includes:

Soft polenta with pulled pork, SGD Green Hill fonduta, wild mushrooms

Beer cheese soup, SGD Thomasville Tomme, Well Bombadier beer, rye croutons

Maple-marinated duck breast, SGD goat cheese and onion tart

SGD lumiere goat cheese with fresh chestnuts and chestnut honey

Um. Yay.

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1. If you are making instant couscous (and I always do because I am a lazy cook) all you do is microwave water and dump in the grains. After that, leave the work to science and couscous magic. The granules are fast absorbing and in less than three minutes a tasty, fulfilling dish appears right before your eyes! I make couscous almost everyday and the instant absorption never ceases to amaze me. Like, I don’t have to do ANYTHING.

2. It is better than rice. Hands down. Someone should invent sushi wrapped in couscous because it would become more successful and taste one hundred billion times better.

3. Couscous is not thrown at weddings and stepped on. Why? Because it is AWESOME and deserves respect…bitches.

4. The texture: moist, fluffy, rough, ridiculous esophageal fun.

5. You can pair it with most anything; gravies, stews, meat, birds, broth, cinnamon and sugar, and steamed veggies. Scarf it down for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert or a midnight snack!

6. There’s a nightclub named after it in Manchester, UK and it is a hit French film.

7. The Egyptians ate couscous. And they built the pyramids.

8. When used instead of beans in beanbags, it produces a softer, safer toy for children to throw at each other, making eye, ear, and groin injuries less frequent.

9. It basically inherits any flavor it’s mixed with, but maintains its individuality with grace.

10. Couscous is universal. Everyone loves it. Moroccans, Africans, Europeans, slacker college students, Democrats, Republicans, the Olsen twins, koala bears, and Thor God of Thunder.

11. I ate it for breakfast this morning and that is why I’m writing this.

(Photos from Wikimedia Commons)

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A beer dinner…yet again. (But they are oh so delicious!)

This time the dinner is at Shaun’s on Thurs., Dec. 18th; holiday themed and fabulous. Supper is four courses paired with pints for the season.

Cost is $45 for non-drinkers (psh) and $65 for the dinner and brew.

Here’s a sneak peak at the grub:

First Course: Benton’s sixteen month prosciutto, local spaghetti squash salad, honey paired with Weinstephan Fest.

Second Course: Heirloom lentil soup, guanciale and marjoram with Sweetwater Festive Ale.

Third Course: Duck choucroute, homemade pretzel, sauerkraut, endive and apples paired with Anchor Christmas Ale.

Dessert: Sweet potato pie chestnut honey, vanilla bean ice cream, with Harpoon Winter Warmer.

To make your reservation, call 404-577-4358 or visit www.shaunsrestaurant.com.

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Here ye, here ye! Joel is calling all champagne connoisseurs for a cork-popping good time beginning at 6:30 p.m on Dec. 2.

Share a regal Henriot bubbly or two over five courses prepared by Chef Cyrille Holota. Don’t miss your chance to ’tis the season while feeling fizzy!

Call Joel for reservations: 404-233-3500

(Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

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Here are some Atlanta restaurants serving THANKSGIVING DINNER Thurs., Nov. 27th:

Atkins Park Tavern: A Family-style Thanksgiving dinner with all of the expected fixin’s. 5:30 p.m. 794 North Highland Ave. 404-876-7249. Reservations strongly recommended. www.atkinspark.com.

Chima: Thanksgiving menu offers Roasted Turkey, Cranberry Sauce, Stuffing, Turkey Stroganoff, Pumpkin Soup, and Pumpkin Pie. Diners are welcome to order from Chima’s regular Brazilian menu. $39.50.

2-8 p.m. 3215 Peachtree Road NE. 404-424-8281. www.chimasteakhouse.com.

Food 101-Morningside & Sandy Springs: A three-course, Southern-style Thanksgiving dinner including a family-style app and four sides, and meat for the main course. $39 for adults, $20 for kids, children under 5 eat free. 5:30-10:00 p.m. Morningside: 1397 North Highland Ave., Sandy Springs: 4969 Roswell Road Suite 200. To RSVP for Morningside location, call 404-347-9747. To RSVP for Sandy Springs location, call 404-497-9700. www.food101atlanta.com.

Justin’s Restaurant: Accepting takeout orders from their Thanksgiving Day menu: Whole Baked Turkeys seasoned with house herbs and spices, and traditional Southern Thanksgiving side items. Takeout begins Tues., Nov. 25. Orders placed over the phone, pick up is from 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. 2200 Peachtree Road. 404-603-5353. www.justinsrestaurant.com.

Star Provisions: Accepting takeout orders for whole turkeys and gourmet side items such as Cranberry Relish, Mashed Potatoes, Pumpkin Pie, Gravy, and Fresh Green Beans. Orders placed over the phone by Sat., Nov. 22 at 5:00 p.m. Pick-up is Wed., Nov. 26 and all orders must be retrieved by 6:00 p.m. 1198 Howell Mill Road. 404-365-0410 ext. 134. www.starprovisions.com.

(more…)

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As a project for his non-profit organization, the Ludacris Foundation, Ludacris is providing Thanksgiving dinner to 500 families in the Atlanta area.

What a sweetheart.

The altruistic rap star can be seen on Atlanta’s north and south ends over the next two days handing out turkeys and desserts to registered families.

The events are private and meals will only be given to families that were selected by their communities affiliated with the Ludacris Foundation.

Shout out to Sam’s Club and GM for hauling in the chow!

(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

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TROIS’s former chef, Jeremy Lieb, is heading to Cincinnati after leaving TROIS a few weeks ago. When asked if Lieb would be returning to TROIS, a source from the restaurant replied, “Jeremy has moved on.” Now, running the kitchen is Todd Ginsberg, chef of sister Concentrics gastropub, TAP.

Lieb has moved on, indeed. “Culinary legend,” Jeff Ruby, has invited Lieb to jump start his new downtown Cincinnati tapas eatery, Bootsy’s. Lieb will also be in charge of Ruby’s other restaurants in the area, but won’t be revamping the menus.

According to Ruby in a quote from The Cincinnati Enquirer, Lieb’s purpose will be “helping to individualize the restaurants” rather than turning things around, because honestly, “the food is already great.”

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Shmaltz, the celebrated Jew brew, is co-hosting a chug fest at Muss & Turner’s Mon., Dec. 15th and a “Chanukah vs. Xmas” dinner at The Porter Wed., Dec. 17th, featuring their newest beer, Jewbelation Twelve.

This was too funny to paraphrase:

JEWBELATION: Rising to 12% alcohol, brewed with 12 malts and 12 hops, bringing a nearly miraculous warming glow to store shelves nationwide from October 2008 through March 2009.

This anniversary, candles won’t be the only thing getting lit!

Behold the fifth incarnation of Jewbelation: our 12th Chosen Beer in 12 Years of Shmaltz. Coincidence? Destiny! Let’s play the Dozens:

The first batch of HE’BREW came to life in California’s 12th Congressional District. 12 pairs of cranial nerves leave the brain. 12 pairs of ribs cage the human frame. 12 inches in a foot. 12 men walked on the moon. 12 months in a year. 12 signs of the Western and Chinese Zodiac. Jacob begat 12 sons who begat the 12 Tribes of Israel. 12 Olympian gods rule the Pantheon of ancient Greece. Jesus had 12 disciples; Muhammad 12 Imams (successors). 12 angels sit at the 12 gates of heaven. Norse warrior-poet god Odin produced 12 sons. The Priests of the Temples of Syrinx proclaim the Brotherhood of Man in 12 songs on Rush’s 2112. Son of a Rabbi, Harry Houdini ran away from home at age 12. In 1912, he reigned as World’s Greatest Escape Artists breaking out of an underwater cage in NYC’s East River @ debutin ghis famed Chinese Water Torture Cell in Berlin. At 12, Courtney Love failed to join the Mickey Mouse Club auditioning with Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy.” The 12 Step Program, the core of AA, spawned over 200 fellowships including Workaholics Anonymous based in Menlo Park, CA. “A scout troop consists of 12 little kids dressed like schmucks following a big schmuch dressed like a little kid.” -Jack Benny.

To the growing minyans of the Schmaltz Tribe, light up the season with our most miraculous Jewbelation yet.

(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

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I’d like to know.

It’s like, everything I choose to eat is bound to send me straight into Chemoville.

And I wouldn’t be writing this if I hadn’t, on two occasions this week, been bombarded by my best friend and an intrusive old woman at Whole Foods, who both declared that the sugar substitute and the BROCCOLI I was enjoying “will give you cancer.”

So, in an attempt to prove that broccoli, in fact, DOES NOT cause cancer (crazy hag) and to bury my sugar scare, I dug up some helpful information.

It’s Sunday, I bought coffee. I’m using Equal. No calories, does the job. I’ve never been a fan of cane sugar and can’t really pick up the funny aftertaste people complain about with artificial sweeteners. My friend stands next to me at the coffee bar. Her thing is glaring, she glares a lot, and I felt her glaring at my coffee. She made a show of reaching for two Splenda packets, shaking them loudly together and emptying the contents into her cup. I was uncomfortable and chose to ignore her.

She sighed, “You know, my dad told me Equal causes cancer.” She references her dad A LOT, and The Colbert Report.

“Oh yeah?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “That’s why I use Splenda.” (more…)

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Last night Jean-Georges Vongerichten opened his second Atlanta restaurant, Market, in the luxurious W Atlanta-Buckhead.

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For those who are familiar with the pub crawl, this is like that, but with hors d’oeuvres and possibly a more slurry crowd.

The wine madness begins Nov. 15th at 1:30 p.m., kicking off with ENO Restaurant & Wine Bar and slowly, but surely, making way down Peachtree to the finish line at Gordon Biersch for discount wine and lagers.

Participating restaurants include: Marlow’s Tavern ($5 reds and whites), Steel Restaurant & Lounge, the Melting Pot ($10 flights/$5-6 glasses), and Silk Asian Steak & Seafood (sake & sushi specials).

$5 in advance, $10 at the door.

Registration: 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m. www.atlantabartours.com.

Portion of the proceeds goes to Small Dog Rescue (aw!).

(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

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The best part of waking up?

These recipes sound curiously edible, but you tell us:

Home Fries Roll

Cheesy Bacon Potato Sushi

The Egg Roll

Tamago Roll (…includes maple syrup…)

Fruit ‘n Nuts Sushi

Mango/Avocado Onigiri (acceptable for dessert)

Sugar Rice and Berries

Any more ideas?

(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

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Okay, so the Mormon church owns a couple orchards in Utah and Idaho that apparently yielded an immaculate crop of peaches and apricots so large the Latter-Day Saints thought, hey, let’s send some peaches to the Peach State.

Whether the church’s cheekiness was intentional or simply unrealized, the 70,000 cans shipped to the Atlanta Community Food Bank was no laughing matter.

(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

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OMG, BLUE LOBSTERS!

A Scottish fisherman spares the lives of these multicolored bottom-dwellers.

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(Photo from Cache Halloweenmart)

All ya’ll pimps grab yo ho’s for the Atkin’s Park Tavern Player’s Ball on November 20th. DO NOT come as you are, seriously. There’s a “pimp” and “ho” costume contest.

The Tavern is only accepting the freshest of the fresh, so if you aren’t ready to tilt your fedora and back it up, take your broke ass home.

Reservations are requested for the private cocktail booths, but otherwise, you’re welcome to just roll in and roll out. 404-876-7249.

www.atkinspark.com.

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In a dramatic declaration of finality and reassurance, the Thailand Federal Drug Administration set fire to over 33,000 melamine tainted products including condensed milk and snack crackers.

The blaze was intended to comfort the people of Thailand; a proclamation that the days of toxic cheese crackers have ceased and deadly dairy is no more.

I hope the U.S. is taking notes, I mean, incineration is a pretty effective termination tactic. Burning massive heaps of poisonous food items really communicates “Good riddance scary chemicals and diseases!” in a way that irradiation and ambiguous messages from the FDA simply do not.

The next time there’s E. Coli in our spinach, I expect fireworks in the fields. Salmonella in our peanut butter? Toast those nuts.

Burn baby, burn.

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The Atlanta based Southwestern eatery, Taqueria del Sol, opens its fourth location in Athens tomorrow to eager crowds. (Thanks to Molly for the heads up.)

(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

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