therese

At Restaurant Eugene make a point of including pickles in your meal, as the chef gives them their rightful due. And I always make a point of getting a dessert souffle at Bacchanalia if it's on offer, generally as part of a grouping (three things peach, three things strawberry, etc.). Really nice souffles. Also, arrive at Bacchanalia early to browse the shop (Star Provisions), where you will find something that you have to have. You don't know what it is yet, but it's there, waiting.

No, Decatur is actually very close, actually "in town" Atlanta. Decatur is a separate town with separate schools and taxes and so forth (actually the county seat of Dekalb County, with the City of Atlanta straddling Fulton and Dekalb Counties), but Atlanta grew up around it years and years ago. You can get to the restaurant very easily using public transportation: take the MARTA train to downtown Decatur and then it's just a few blocks walk to the restaurant. We're going tonight, in fact. I gave my mom the cookbook for Christmas, and tonight's their last night in town.

Richard Blais is, unfortunately, no longer at One Midtown Kitchen, nor even in Atlanta: he moved to Miami several months ago, and we certainly miss him. Voodoo's suggestions are the same one's I'd have. They're all excellent, and you won't be disappointed. My personal favorite is The Dining Room at the Ritz Carlton Buckhead, where Seeger first cooked when he came to Atlanta. The Dining Room recruits top chefs from around the world, and the present chef, Arnaud Berthelier, is no exception.

In a word, no. The Trader Vic's is there, so I suppose that you might check it out if you were in the mood for kitsch, but I wouldn't. One of the most expensive restaurants in Atlanta is in the Hilton, Nikolai's Roof. At one time it was the restaurant for big fancy dinners in Atlanta, but those days are long past. There are still people who go there for reasons of nostalgia (I'm assuming), but the rest of us have better things to spend our money on. If you do go, in spite of this warning, no whining. The downtown Hilton is a short walk from the downtown Ritz Carlton: two blocks west, two blocks south (though that will depend on which door you exit). The downtown and Midtown areas are both served by MARTA trains, and you can certainly use them. The trains are less frequent in non-rush hour periods, so consider that when you're planning your trip. Midtown is immediately north of downtown but stretches for quite a ways north on Peachtree, so the cost of the taxi ride will vary some. Not prohibitive in any case. Note that you'll be able to catch a cab easily in downtown, particularly at your hotel, but that it's nearly impossible to hail a cab anywhere else in town. The restaurant can call one for you as your dinner draws to a close. Also note that cabbies here not only don't know how to find most restaurants, they're also often not familiar with much of Atlanta, so try and have directions to the restaurant and the phone number with you.

Great blog. Voldemort. Heh heh. I noticed that the packaging in the window looked a lot like some mastic lokum that I brought back from a trip to Thessaloniki a couple of years ago, and sure enough, it's Haci Bekir brand. It's a very small world.

Thanks for the additional info, filipe. The news that the incline between Camões and Mercado da Ribeira is not punishingly steep is welcome. Any town that actually lists "elevadors" as a type of public transit clearly has some very steep runs. I think of El Corte Ingles as being Spanish, but clearly they've established themselves pretty well in Portugal if everybody suggests grocery shopping there.

Oh, and my vote for worst trifle ever was that made by an English colleague here that called for raspberry jello (yes, gelatin from a box) somehow mixed into the tinned custard. I can't recall the source of the cake, and that's probably for the best.

My family's version (which I'll be serving, yet again, for Christmas): First layer: Sponge cake or soft cake lady fingers sandwiched with raspberry jam (if using lady fingers cut them in half lengthwise and lay them in the glass bowl---glass bowl essential---such that the ribbon of jam can be seen), sprinkled with sherry. Second layer: Boiled custard (as neither tinned custard nor custard powder is widely available here, and my mother would sooner have cut off her arm than use custard powder). Repeat first and second layers if bowl depth permits. Top with whipped cream, garnish with fresh raspberries and mint.

Thanks for the info, filipe. We'll take a pass on the "expensive, but at least they were rude" dining option in favor of others in the area. Looks like the Mercado da Ribeira is a straight shot down the hill via Rua do Alecrim to Cais do Sodre (so reasonable on foot, but the return trip, particularly laden with food, might involve public transit of some sort), and Mercado do Rato is presumably near the Rato metro station. Is either Alvalade or Arroios closer proximity to Praça de Camões? And are the particular chains of supermarkets that are considered nicer than others?

Thanks for the links, MMerrill. I'd already been through them, and checked out your recommendation for Solar dos Nunes. I'll look into the others, and should your daughter happen to mention any other places she's been in Bairro Alto or environs please feel free to pass the information on here. I'll be posting re our experience when I return.

Exactly. And I pointed it out by way of encouraging you to visit The Dining Room. I've got a bit of a love/hate relationship with Seeger's, and can't bring myself to recommend it wholeheartedly, but it is an interesting experience if you happen to have a whole lot of extra cash lying around.

Notably absent from your list is The Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead. Bacchanalia and Restaurant Eugene are both excellent, but The Dining Room nudges ahead of both of them on both service and food. That said, I really like Hopkins approach to food, particularly his emphasis on local ingredients as well as his cooking style.

I'm visiting Lisbon for a week in mid-March with a friend. We're staying in an apartment in Chiado, overlooking the Praça de Camões. Nice large kitchen, so we can do a bit of cooking if we'd like, but we'll also be eating out a lot. We both like food and have adventurous tastes, so any and all suggestions welcome. Money not an object, so consider all price points. Also, what's the market situation? Small shops vs supermarkets vs open air markets? Any foods unique to this time of year?

I thought maybe a bamboo shoot, but couldn't be sure.

The second quote answers the first.

Maggie Gyllenhaal plays a baker. And Farrell's best friend appears to on a raw food diet, though nobody ever mentions it. If you go, try and figure out what they're eating.

Oh, and make sure you sit through the credits. All the credits, right up until the very end, because the very last song is about food (and it's funny).

Wow. Almost certainly the best film I've ever seen. Period. And all sorts of great food: beautiful food, odd food, food as central plot element, food puns. Go see it immediately, and plan on stopping on your way home to pick up the soundtrack.

Buy boiled peanuts in New York? Just buy raw peanuts in the shell and make them yourself. The recipe is as follows: "Boil peanuts in salted water until they are done." I use a slow cooker (crock pot) but if you don't have one you can just do it on the stove top, making sure you don't them them boil dry. The cooking time will vary with how fresh and immature the peanuts are to begin with, but you needn't worry about finding particularly young peanuts, as the final product will be nice no matter what.

Harris Teeter was doing this at least 10 years ago.

Is it this one one, right? If it is the place I have in mind, close by to Piazza Vetra, I have been there some years ago...times I used to go to aperitivo very often ← Yes that is the place!! ← A very small world. I ate there in September with friends from Milan (who'd picked the place). Web site with more details here.

Dekalb Farmers Market sells both chestnut puree and creme de marrons.

Okay, so I'm going to have to admit that I don't watch too many of this sort of show, and so was just sitting home scrolling through the channels earlier this week when I happened across a shot of a guy sitting at a table with a piece of fried chicken in his hand. And I paused because I recognized the bright yellow dining room, and remarked to my husband, "Hey, that guy's at Son's!" Since that was the very end of the show I'm going to have to tune in and see the whole episode now.

Scott does not routinely write for the AJC, but this piece was certainly right up his alley. Pretty much the best writing in the entire AJC (and some of the world's best food writing, ever) is by John Kessler. He used to be the restaurant reviewer for the AJC, but no longer does so (, in part because I got some very nice free meals out of that gig). He does still do a lot of food writing (a lot of it southern in orientation), and does some metro stuff as well. Other reasons to subscribe to the AJC are Mike Luckovich's cartoons and the editorial page.

Already on okra, Mike? You are progressing very nicely. You need to get busy making some boiled peanuts if you haven't already. Do you read the Atlanta Journal & Constitution? If so you'll likely have noticed the piece in the food section on gelatin salads, written by Scott Peacock. If not you can need to run right out and dig a copy out of your neighbor's recycling bin. There's likely an on-line version (Gifted Gourmet will provide a link, I'm sure) but they don't usually have the pictures.