NYC Mike

Good eating ahead of you Ce'nedra! We have been living that same experiement for the past year and some months. The book that got us started, and was a lot of fun to read and work with was The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock. We have tried 80% and repeated most at least twice. If you can get your hands on a copy try Shrimp Paste, Pan Fried Chicken with Tomato Gravy(do take the 2 day prep time to make it), Country Captain, Country Ham Steak with Red Eyed Gravy (with eggs over and biscuts too!), any of the hash recipes with leftover poultry meat, Hush Puppies, Beni Wafers (for us with the shrimp paste!) and the Fresh Apple Cake. Bill Neal's Biscuts and Spoonbread has all our go to biscuts, bread and muffin recipes. Enjoy and share as you go please!! mike

This is one of my TIVO favorites, I really enjoy her show. -Mike

If you really want to "cook" for a living skip both schools, save your money for living expenses and go work in restaurants. If you want to do other things in the hospitality business, go to Cornell. -Mike

There is a really good Italian restaurant across from the hospital parking lot on Main St. and really good bagels/lox etc also on Main St. next to the movie theatre. There are a few bagel shops but the movie one is the best. That McCormicks by the mall is pretty good too. -Mike

haha nice menu Lan4Dawg! This was one of the "Welcome to the South" moments for us since the closest thing we have to college sports in Manhattan is (don't laugh) Columbia University and the rest of NYC not doing much better with St. John hoops. The children however are learning right from their school mates whose parents, as you can imagine run their school colors up the flag pole in the fall. Works for me too!! Saturday is typically honey-do day round here....any excuse to say "Honey, but but the game is on!" Enjoy the season! -Mike

CPB! Great reply, I am going to google Aladdin for a start! I agree 7 miles ish is a fine distance to drive. I'm on the other side of you, the John's Creek, Duluth, Alpharetta border. I'd love to find more independent, casual places, any kind of food really. Decent enough to take the kids etc. I can't bear to see the inside of another Chilis etc. -Mike I could not disagree more with that statement. First let me tell you my parameters. I live pretty much on the border of Roswell/Alpharetta/John’s Creek area. I consider about seven miles to be “within reasonable distance”. So that encompasses parts of Alpharetta, most of Roswell, parts of John’s Creek, the westernmost part of Norcross and the northern tip of Dunwoody. Just as one example, I think Byblos is the fourth best Persian/Middle Eastern place using the above limitations. I definitely prefer Aladdin (super casual) and Davish and I’d rate Sahara pretty close. All three are just a few miles from Byblos. I’ll grant you the “special occasion” bells and whistle places are limited, though existent in these parts. However other than more obscure cuisines like Indonesian or Burmese, I can pretty much find a quality INDEPENDENT restaurant of any type within seven or so miles. What type of places are you looking for? ←

The Eating Well Magazine Cookbook would fit the bill. -Mike

Thanks to you both. We love those kind of cookbooks, it really gets us "in the mood" when we use them! -Mike

Hi All, Help me buy a 2nd Mexican cookbook? I was thinking about something from Diane Kennedy but she has so many I can't decide what is the "one" to get. We have Rick Bayless' Mexican Kitchen which we love and use a lot. Thanks, -Mike

I am on a boycott chain restaurants kick these past few months. Up by us in Alpharetta (TN if you ask Terese :-) you can't throw a rock without hitting a mass market chain. Independents are a fast dying endangered species so a good one like Byblos is really a rare find! We tried half a dozen or so mezza both hot and cold. The stand out was the kibbeh. For main we both had the mixed grill which was exceptional. Byblos 10684 Alpharetta Highway - Roswell, GA. 30075 - 678 352 0321 -Mike

Finally made it here for lunch. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I was happily surprised that it was so relaxed and layed back. I think this place could tolerate my 3 yr old just fine now that i've seen it so we will be making a dinner stop, prolly on fried chicken night sometime soon. Lunch was a bring me back to my childhood memory. Grilled ham and cheese sammich with a bowl of tomato soup. As good a soup and sammich combo as I've ever had. Washed down with a very good glass of Iced Tea. -Mike

Just found out today that 100% of the blueberry crop at the farm we went picking at last year was lost during the Easter frost....what a bummer. -Mike

Mark, Not a week goes by when I look at my wife and wish we had an Italian pork store/market/bakery like this in our area. I can't remember the last time I had real Italian bread or a canolli. We have resorted to trying to have my dad in S. Jersey and Aunt in Philly overnight us things from time to time. I imagine a place like you describe would be very successful here. -Mike

Glad you liked Pop, we have become weekly regulars and he delivers every time. Those e-mails go out twice weekly, just snag his card from the front and send him an "add me" note. Greg, we've tried some of the area rares you mentioned, the Cobia is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. He's also able to get Stone Claws and crayfish sacks and soft shells....great place. -Mike

One of my favortie books "A Taste of Southern Italy" by Marlene De Blasi has a small section on Basilicata which starts "A land of bitterness since the epochs before history" but has fair coverage for the region as does Calabria. Got to love any recipe for trout that starts with "Go Fishing" -Mike

Congrats Kevin!! :-) I'm in such a cooking rut, like a sophmore slump or something. I picked up "Food and Memories of Abruzzo" by Anna Teresa Callen when I saw this thread go up. Maybe something will reinvigorate me! -Mike

Victoria's and Albert's is the best restaurant on the disney property, its in one of their hotels. It is a very quiet, romantic fine dining setting. The drinks, wine and food were all amazing. For servicable cuban food with really good drinks and music is Bongos (i think that's the name) again, on Disney's property. Its a chain but really good at this location.

Been reading for months MP and just realized you never answer your questions of the week!!!

All. We were turned on to this place by greg_in_atl right here in EG. The fish is of the most amazing quality, hands down better than anything I've seen anywhere else and cheaper than Harry's & Whole Paycheck. Below is a cut of his weekly mailing list. If you live in Alpharetta or near and eat fish, you owe it to yourself to check him out! -Mike

I'm with you Sr. Gordo. -Mike

Boo-hoo...that's what the BOH is making without any tips.

You are my new idol doc.

I'd say yes they would really want to hear. ..yea, I heard Per Se lost its soul somewhere....

What a special place this city is!! I had an amazing time!! I was so happy to hear the music in the street everywhere we went! It was a standout memory for me last time I was there and really glad it was jumping again. If your going anytime soon you MUST check out the brass band that hangs on the corner of Canal and Bourbon. Wow! Those guys rock, hard. I was there with work folks so I got to eat and provide less input that I would normally. I didn't really get to eat the city, unfortunatly. And, I had no time to test if the NO airport would let me through with a sack of mudbugs. Had a great first day lunch at Mother's. Oyster Po'boy and a bowl of gumbo set me right straight. Most of my group had the jambalaya lunch with greens, they all really liked it too. We had dinner at Broussard. This was set up by my company. For the price...$400 for 5 I would have suggested/gone to August based on recommendations here but I really can't complain about Broussards. The service was good, the Veal Broussard was really good, they kept my cocktail full. Did another really touristy thing with the company folks from Cali for breakfast...Cafe Dumond for coffee and beiignets...what could be bad about deep fried and covered in powdered sugar! The number of kids in there were frightning, my three would bounce of the walls for hours after a taste of that stuff!! Hightlight was a co-worked dressed head to toe in black trying to keep clean! I've got to get back with the wife and kids this spring/summer. It was less crowded than I remember but much more active and lively than I expected. Very nice time indeed. -Mike