Milt
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Posts posted by Milt
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My first experience with different food is impossible to remember, because of my father. Incredibly, he was the pickier eater. My mother would eat virtually anything, and enjoy it. There were lots of foods my father wouldn't touch, but he was the venturesome eater.
We lived in Kansas City from age two to age five, and during that time my father discovered a downtown restaurant - King Joy Lo - which we went to with some regularity. Whenever we returned to Kansas City for a visit, we always ate one meal at King Joy Lo. My sister and I were always served egg foo yung. Apparently, our parents were convinced that this was the only thing we would eat and enjoy. Perhaps they were right.
When I was eight, we moved to New Mexico and southwestern cuisine immediately became part of our regular experience. Sopaipillas immediately became my favorite bread. They are still hard to beat when they are still warm and a container of honey is provided.
When I was a teenager, we were driving through downtown Indianapolis at noon. This was before the interstate system was developed, and US 40 went through downtown and so did we. My father noticed a Hungarian restaurant as we passed it and while making the four right turns to bring us back to it he was saying "There's a Hungarian restaurant. Haven't you always wanted to try Hungarian food?" He didn't expect an answer and none was provided. We did eat Hungarian food for the first time. I remember that goulash wasn't all that I had hoped it would be. Maybe it was the restaurant and maybe it was my youth. Normally, I would always order a ham and cheese sandwich when possible.
One Christmas vacation, we were in Guaymas, Sonora and my father inquired about the best place in town to eat. He was asked if he wanted the best Mexican food or if he wanted the best place in town to eat. We had wonderful Greek food that night at the local A&W.
Now, as an adult, I crave new dining experiences. When we first moved to Georgia, we were eating in a venerable old restaurant - Mary Mac's - and I announced that I was going to try hoppin' john. My wife had already figured out that I would order hoppin' john. I knew what everything else on the menu was and she knew I would go for the one dish I had never heard of.
I've rambled enough, but I feel that my attitude toward ethnic dining are a direct result of my father's attitude. My children have been burdened with that heritage, but I suspect that as adults they are better able to handle whatever they may be served. They have been exposed to virtually every ethnic dining experience offered in metro Atlanta - and they know that they can almost always find something on the menu that they can handle.
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The one place we have consistently enjoyed while visiting Calloway Gardens is Crickets, which is about a mile west of the main entrance to Calloway. They do a good job on several Cajun dishes, as well as traditional foods.
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The Alpharetta area is close enough to a good many good to excellent restaurants to keep me happy. I live in the northeast corner of Cobb County, and find myself in Alpharetta frequently enough. The area is full of chains - but there are a number of independent winners also. Zola on the far north side of Alpharetta has great pizza and good Italian cuisine, in general. dick & harry's on Holcomb Bridge Road just east of Ga 400 is very well thought of for upscale dining OTP. Swallow at the Hollow on Green Street in Roswell has (in my opinion) the best barbeque in the Atlanta area. Across the street is Greenwood's on Green Street - which serves excellent southern food in huge quantities. Harry's Farmers Market on Hembree Road will be reasonably convenient for you. Since they were acquired by Whole Foods I have found myself less impressed with the operation - but they are still convenient and they have an excellent selection of fruits, vegetables, spices, and harder to find canned items. RiceSticks on Roswell Road just north of I-285 has excellent Vietnamese dishes in an upscale atmosphere. KC Pit BBQ on Hildebrand just west of Roswell Road in Sandy Springs has great brisket and burnt ends. The Silos on Crabapple on the west side of Roswell is very good, as is Van Gogh's on Hwy 92 just west of Crabapple.
There are more, but the above is enough to start with. Opinions will vary, but there are numerous restaurants to choose from.
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My familiarity is limited to the Cobb County and North Fulton County parts of the metro Atlanta area. My favorites are: Swallow at the Hollow on Green Street in Roswell, Champs BBQ on South Cobb Drive in Smyrna, KC Pit BBQ on Hildebrand in Sandy Springs, Slopes on Hwy 92 in Woodstock and Roswell and in Sandy Springs, Williamson's on Roswell Street in Marietta. All are above average, in my opinion.
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For most of my adult life, I chose independent places (when possible) by the local license plates during regular dining hours. It worked fairly well. Then one day, NPR did a story on Chowhounds. I checked their site and used their references for our next vacation. I printed out all references to good places where we would be travelling. I didn't know at what hour we would be in what community. My wife thought I was crazy - taking this stack of printouts on a vacation. It was the first trip ever without a single bad meal. Later, I didcovered eGullet, Roadfood, and several local sites.
Now, I peruse all available sites. Collectively, I have received incredible information and have discovered a number of places that I would never have tried otherwise. Still, when we are hungry and have no recommended places available, we use the old local cars in the parking lot method - which still works quite well.
Fortunately, there is very little that we aren't willing to eat. That makes travel a lot simpler. Catfish, BBQ, seafood, Thai, Greek, etc. are all worth a stop if they prepare tasty food.
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In my mind, without any particular restaurant in mind, the best dish - meal - which conveys "South" is fried chicken, black eyed peas, grits and biscuits.
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My 45th high school class reunion is that weekend. Count on us to come to Raleigh, instead. It should be much more enjoyable. Besides, this is my birthday present to me.
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We learned several years ago that ethnic dining was not the ideal Valentine's Day meal for many. We have had wonderful meals and service at Cajun, Thai, etc. with no crowds to fight - and no inflated menu pricing. Last night we went to a pleasant little Mexican restaurant in the neighborhood. My wife had an enchilada plate - one each of beef, chicken, cheese and bean. I ordered a full rack of BBQ ribs. This is the only Mexican restaurant I have seen in metro Atlanta with BBQ ribs available - and I certainly never saw them in New Mexico, where I grew up. Just the same, they were as good as or better than several traditional BBQ establishments around here. The big plus was that, as expected, less than half of the tables were occupied so we were able to linger after we finished dining. There's no bum's rush when tables are available.
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I enjoy reading these posts for many reasons. I am a rank amateur when it comes to cooking, but it is enjoyable - and I am learning. Here is where I am reminded constantly that dinner does not need to come from a mix. It also does not need to be picked up on the way home. Most of the people we know eat much more simply than we do. I like to think that they don't eat nearly as well, either. I try to balance nutrition, health concerns, and taste. It doesn't matter how high in fiber or low in fat the dish is if no one eats it.
As a rank amateur, I suspect that there are many others like myself who only dream of being able to prepare the dishes so beautifully illustrated here. The series of posts if full of dreams and goals for me. In the meantime, I do prepare a winner from time to time. I like to think that this is occurring more frequently now. In my dreams, my son tells me. Just the same, this morning he asked me to add last night's dessert to the "ok to repeat" list. He doesn't do that very often.
For the other amateurs among us, last night's dinner was chicken and dumplings from a Weight Watchers cookbook. Salad was iceberg lettuce with shredded carrots and a little red cabbage with a choice of three bottled dressings, along with croutons and almond slivers. The dessert came from the internet a couple of days ago. It consisted of cherry pie filling, shredded coconut, flour (I slipped in a couple of teaspoons of soy flour), and margarine.
Tonight's dinner will be identical to last night's - then start again. The plan next is to do a brisket, along with a Cooking Light dish of tortellini, corn and grape tomatoes. Both of these are from that short "ok to repeat" list.
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For last night, I made a pot of feijoada. It wasn't as good as previous versions and we speculate that I tried to make it too healthy. I used turkey bratwurst and turkey pastrami. Tonight, I added some ham stock, liquid smoke and hot sauce. I think it was noticeably improved. My wife couldn't tell any difference. As Emeril says, "pork fat rules".
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Coffee! When I was twenty years old, I was learning to fly at the University of Oklahoma. After our flights, we all gathered in the terminal coffee shop and everyone else drank coffee. I drank a Coke. Twenty year old males don't take well to teasing, or to seeming different so the next semester I committed to learning to drink coffee. With four teaspoons of sugar, I realized that it wasn't too far from warm Coke. By the end of that semester I had reduced the sugar to two teaspoons. Everyone had learned a new way to tease me - four teaspoons of sugar, that's not coffee - it's syrup.
Even more challenging was learning to drink black coffee a few years later. I knew that I would be better off if I could learn to drink black coffee and that many people seemed to enjoy it that way. It was literally six months of coffee nearly every morning before I realized that it was tasting just fine. Now, after about thirty years of drinking black coffee, I can't imagine adding sugar to it, and don't enjoy my coffee when it does have sugar in it.
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I scored 7/11 and feel that had I thought more, I would have scored a bit higher - but not much. Since I have never been out of North America, I feel that I did decently. This evening I am going to suggest that the rest of the family take the quiz.
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I can't believe I haven't seen this yet:
When my mom made pie, which was a couple of times a month, she'd put the trimmed raw crust on a cookie sheet, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, and bake it along with the pie.
And I must confess, I did that last week when I baked pies for Thanksgiving.
And to be really honest, what I really prefer is raw pie dough. Oh, man!
My mother worked full time, kept the house straight, watched after two children and was active in church. Dad started his own business when I was eight, and spent many long hours there. The pie crust trimmings were one of my pleasant memories from that period. They were put on a cookie sheet and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and put in the oven along with the pie. While the pie was baking, we would remove the crusts and have a snack that was almost as good as the pie (usually apple, because our home was built in a former apple orchard and we had four trees in our yard).
My other memory from home was the traditional Sunday evening meal, which was almost always cheese toast and cinnamon toast. We usually went out for a nice restaurant meal after church, and spending her limited free time cooking was not a priority for my mother. Now, fifty years later, when a light evening meal seems appropriate I frequently suggest (or prepare) cheese toast and/or cinnamon toast. In my childhood this was always on white bread, but now we enjoy a variety of breads - which makes for some pleasant variations.
The food that I remember most pleasantly from my childhood came from a local restaurant, rather than home. With both parents working, we probably ate out a little bit more than most. Della's Spanish Dining Room (Farmington, New Mexico) started out as a couple of tables in the family operated grocery store (formerly their living room) and eventually caused the grocery to close and also caused Della and her family to need move to a new home. Della was famous for her sopapillas. Her food was generally too highly seasoned for me to enjoy, but I could get the taco plate down (required to be able to eat from the bottomless basket of piping hot sopapillas). Frequently, the sopapillas were so hot from the kitchen that I had to be extremely careful in biting off a corner. Then I would pour honey inside the sopapilla, turn it so that the honey would coat the entire inside and try to eat it without having honey drip off my elbows. A couple of restaurants in Old Town Albuquerque were better known for their sopapillas, but they never were as good as Della's.
One food that I have never prepared for my family is sopapillas. The memories generated by the above paragraph has adjusted this week's menu. We are going to experience homemade sopapillas.
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Tonight I prepared a small beef brisket. Slow cooked (325 degrees) with dry onion/mushroom soup mix on both sides then wrapped in foil. Simple, but excellent. Also prepared a curry cauliflower dish, served some leftover peas from night before last, and a salad of bitter greens with a dressing of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, etc. Some refrigerator case biscuits rounded out the meal with peach/passion fruit preserves.
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For Tuesday evening, I prepared a Shepherd's Pie with turkey, corn, peas, and mashed potatoes. Quite tasty.
For Wednesday evening, I made stroganoff with shrimp, lite turkey sausage, and turkey. Part was served on brown rice and part on rotini. We don't all agree on how it is best served.
Tonight, I am preparing a brisket - to serve with barbecue sauce. Along with it, I plan to bake some carrot coins in olive oil and some seasonings.
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Apparently kangaroo in Australia is increasing. An Aussie friend of mine, who has lived in the US for nearly forty years, visits Australia about every five years. He ate his first kangaroo this past year.
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Our Thanksgiving Day meal included an appetizer of squash soup, which I made from a (part of a) cabeza squash. It included the squash, chicken stock, heavy cream, salt, pepper. Our turkey was the most beautiful and the tastiest we have had in quite some time. We usually buy a very large tom and have plenty of meat leftover for casseroles, sandwiches, etc. This time I bought a 10+ pound Butterball turkey, and we (9 of us) nearly consumed it all. One friend brought in homemade apple sauce, along with a jar of cranberry chutney she had just made and another a cranberry salad. All were excellent. We made mashed potatoes with turkey gravey, baked mashed sweet potatoes, and the best dressing my wife has ever made. I still like mine better, but I am the only one in our family who does. Two pitchers of tea - one sweet and one not. Desserts were a traditional pumpkin pie and an apple pecan pie. Leftovers held us until Saturday evening, when we tired of turkey and did a marinated pork loin.
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Thank you all for all o fyour help and suggestions. I did fail to mention that I did use Worcestershire sauce. So much for working from memory. I have used a variety of recipes in the past, and a variety of cuts of beef also. All have turned out well - of course, some better than others. This time I followed the Betty Crocker basic cookbook, and followed it to the letter for the oven preparation. I thought about onions and mushrooms when I was preparing the pot roast, but the recipe didn't call for them and, therefore, I didn't use them. My son, after tasting the meat, suggested that I should have marinated it first.
I love pot roast and am gradually learning more about the processes, ingredients, seasonings, etc. Thank you again. I'll prepare another soon.
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Last evening I prepared a pot roast, using salt and pepper, red wine, and thyme. The carrots and potatoes were great, the gravy decent and the meat was rather tasteless. Was it the meat? Or was it my preparation? Regardless, what do you suggest to do now to improve the flavor of what is left.
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Last evening was quick, tasty and enjoyable. I boiled a pound of medium shrimp in Cachere's seasoning and served it with cocktail sauce. Also served tater tots with ketchup and a tray of fresh vegetables (carrot sticks, celery and radishes) with ranch dressing. All three of us drank ice water. Nothing exotic, and no leftovers.
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Last evening I prepared two dishes from Cooking Light Five Star Recipes. We had Deviled Chicken Breasts - which are bonesless skinless chicken breasts coated with seasoned bread crumbs and simmered in white wine, mushrooms, green onions, and seasonings - covered with a sauce made of the skillet contents (less chicken breasts) plus lemon juice and honey mustard. We also had Tortellini with Cherry Tomatoes and Corn which explains itself. I used cheese and garlic tortelloni, frozen whole kernel corn, the rest of our cherry and roma tomatoes, green onion, fresh basil and parmesan.
We enjoyed what is probably our last meal on our deck. It is raining today and the unseasonably warm weather is at an end. We will be back to seasonal norms by tomorrow and the first frost is predicted for the north Georgia mountains by the weekend.
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In Mexico City the VIPS chain (looks like a Denneys) charges for the bread basket that is immediately placed on the table at breakfast before you order. You have to say no thanks or not touch it to avoid the charge.
Elfin, this is frequently done in the US - especially for breakfast - where a pot of coffee is brought to the table. Most of us want coffee with our breakfast. Most of us are expecting to pay for our coffee for breakfast. But not all!
As I read these comments, I think about my own dining experiences. Where I feel the restaurant is likely to be trying to slip a high price by me is when the drinks on the menu don't show a price - but everything else, appetizers, entrees, desserts, etc. do show prices. That generally means that soft drinks, iced tea and coffee are approaching $2. The same is true when the server announces the daily specials. This usually does not include price information. We don't usually order the daily special until we have inquired about the price. It is amazing how many times a server needs to excuse him/her self to go find out. As has been said - ultimately the responsibility to ask questions rests squarely on my shoulders - or I need to be willing to pay whatever is asked.
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Tonight we had Picadillo from Sri Owen's The Rice Book - a Mexican dish with an Indonesian twist. I have prepared this recipe several times over the years, and each time it is a little different from its predecessor versions. This time I used ground ostrich rather than beef. We also had salad with various bottled dressings and water to drink. Tasty, filling and healthy - what a combination.
Moving to Atlanta
in Southeast: Cooking & Baking
Posted
What direction from Marietta? I have lived in NE Cobb County for twenty-two years and operated a retail store in Smyrna for twenty. South, North and East of Marietta is very familiar to me. The west side is less so. The area abounds with chains, but there are some independent gems among the sea of national chains. Narrow down where you will be living, and I will be able to give you a few nearby suggestions. There are several very nice upscale restaurants, but even more of the more modest places.