ROWDY

You can get duck fat at Star Provisions, and they usually have it... but you must ask. I think the head guy is Charles/Charlie Schwab. You can get all kinds of cool stuff there. I get caul fat from Star. Last visit, I purchased some "homemade" guanciale. Star Provisions 1198 Howell Mill Rd NW Atlanta, GA 30318 (404) 365-0410 Sawicki's can order most items including duck fat for you. Sawicki's 250 W. Ponce De Leon Ave. Decatur, GA 30030 (404) 377-0992 I have never been able to purchase isolated duck fat from YDFM. I have ordered the 7.5 pound bucket of duck fat from Hudson Valley in the past. It is awesome to always have duck fat around. Hudson Valley Dartagnan is another option Dartagnan Cheers, Matt

I lived in Knoxville for 20 or so years. I still visit a few times a year as my folks still live there. I have actually performed as a musician many times at Patrick Sullivan's. Good liquor but poor food. Knoxville is tough on a fuel freak. The safest recommendation would be Tomato Head in Market Square. It is locally owned and has tasty sandwiches. Pizza is good too. I have never been a fan of Calhoun's BTW. Litton's and Wright's Cafeteria are good local flavor restaurants. Wright's is killer southern food but skimpy hours. Soccer Taco is actually very good Mexican for Knoxville. It is located on Kingston Pike (Bearden Hill). My favorite dives (and I mean dives): Mary's Tamales, Pizza Palace (recently on Guy Fieri's show and run by a friend who is an Emory grad and CIA trained chef), Scruggs Barbecue, Ali Babas Cheers

Thanks all you guys/gals! I laughed out loud when I read syoung68's first line. I also thought the bit about struggling through a crappy cookbook was funny. Good stuff. Cheers

Thanks a ton shellfishfiend. Definitely do more recipes. I love the book. Cheers

Dear Chef Anthony "Tony" Bourdain, With all due respect, I have figuratively kicked your ass! What? I might not be the first, but that is right, I have kicked your ass. As of 8:30PM July, 17, 2007, I have cooked every freakin' dish in your Les Halles Cookbook! Man, it has been a fun (nearly) 2 years. You bastard! You couldn't cut out a couple of steps, huh? Wow! What a ride. Thanks to you man! You have managed to teach my pathetic ass how to be somewhat passable in a home kitchen, simply through your book. You literally were cussing me with every dish, but I held in there. Yes, I did your freakin' tripes "les halles" with pig ears. Yes, I did your coeur de porc a l'armagnac (pigs heart), rognons de veau a la moutarde (veal kidneys), veal tongue with madeira, foie de veau lyonnaise, and all others. Oh, yes, I even did boudin noir aux pommes!! And you know what, a friend and I made our own boudin noir with pig's blood! We even made a video of us playing with the blood and casings. It was something! You must know, I am not a cook, a chef, or anything respectable in a culinary sense. Honestly, I got your book before you were "Mr. Popular" on the Travel Channel. Damn best few bucks I have ever spent. Honestly, I did not start into the cookbook thinking every damn recipe was going to be conquered. No, I just decided to cook the skate grenobloise, tasted it, and said "freakin' craparoni!" One thing lead to another and I was cooking the best food I have ever eaten outside of my Mamaw and Papaw's kitchen. So, I thought, I am going to cook every single recipe in that Les Halles Cookbook! The absolute best part about this project was cooking the dishes I would otherwise never consider entertaining with just a perusal through a cookbook. Incredible, the beauty behind veal tongue! Like my redneck ass would ever consider tasting something that could possibly taste me back! Yea, I am a huge hanger steak fan now. I never ate steak in the past. Funny as well are my friends who would come over for some grub. Well, admittedly, my friends are not so sophisticated. So, the dishes at our house typically consisted of pathetic hamburgers, potato chips, and freaking veal kidney, bitch! Yea, it might not seem crazy to you but here in ATLanta, Georgia, a kidney's only purposes are to produce urine and stones. I actually had to start posting pictures of the dishes on a local site, just to feel less like a freak. Funny, I go to a site of freaks to feel less like a freak. In fact, I was one of the biggest fuel freak idiots of them all, and definitely the least talented and least knowledgeable. Now, I am the "French guy." Whoa! The French would really be pissed off at this one. You know what though, I sure as heck respect the French now. More importantly, I just understand. I better understand you, the culinary world, food, and really French food. Ultimately, I have learned the difference, or at least, I now see the huge difference. Tony, Thanks a ton man! You have made a huge impact on me. Cheers, Matt Many pictures of my attempted dishes from Les Halles Cookbook are under the "Fuel" and "Fuel II" headings at ROWDYfood

I last ate at Byblos about 3 or 4 years ago. We had a good experience. My wife is 1/2 Lebanese. Has Byblos changed over the past few years? Did you have baked, fried, or raw Kibbbeh? We like the pies at Jerusalem Bakery behind Tasty China in Marietta. Jerusalem Bakery is my favorite for getting middle eastern food to go. It is also cheap. Rumi's does some tasty Iranian food, but it is a little snotty. Cedars has some decent Lebanese food too. I agree, support the local. We need to get back to Byblos. Cheers

Here is a video of my latest experience at the bar of Element in Midtown Atlanta Georgia... Chef Blais III Here is an earlier video of Element Blais does Punk MRE?! Dining at Element is a lesson for me everytime. Good people here. Cheers

Things continue to be ridiculously sick at Blais. There is a plethora of talent in the Element kitchen. As kindly and appropriately listed on the menu, here was the starting line-up for last night's all-star game: Dani Freidman -center field Lok Pokhrel - right field Brandon Burke -left field Cooper Miller -SS Billy Cole -3rd base Jef Wright -2nd base Jeff Sigler -1st base Mark Nanna -catcher Richard Blais -pitcher/manager Last night: Peach nigiri (goat cheese) Foie Gras, peanut, fennel confit Black cod, kabocha, truffle, oxtail jus Smoking Tequila shots Beef tongue with horseradish foam The peach nigiri was absolutely freakin' beautiful. IMO, it would work a little better to use half as much slightly overpowering goat cheese to avoid losing the peach flavor. Still 'tis a creative, wonderful winner. Foie gras presentation was disgustingly sexy in presentation. Wow, and the taste with peanuts was reminiscent of childhood candy... not that I grew up eating foie gras. Black cod was perfectly cooked with wonderful flavor combinations. Blais owns fish. Tequila... hard to screw up... and even more exciting when smoking Finally, my fave.. beef tongue. I don’t even have to mention presentation here with arugula, horseradish foam, and the perfectly executed progressive dots. Shazam! Cheers

A touch of my experience at Element last night... Blais & Co. Cheers

Therese, nice pics on your blog. It is seems in Atlanta that (nearly all) restaurants seem to be consistently inconsistent... and dim sum restaurants are a classic example. Canton house is the cleanest and "flashiest" but not my personal fave although good. All listed by Therese are commonly quoted as good dim sum, and I like them all. The IHOP place is dangerous. Hong Kong Harbour is ok but close. My faves: Chef Liu looks like a mobile home in a parking lot good breakfast (non-dim sum) Tasty China but Chef has left the building- Szechuan... similar to Spices II off Clement in SF but more 1980s generic Chinese atmosphere China Town Food Court tripe, duck and pork at Hong Kong Barbecue and fish hot pot at Chong Qing Hot Pot are great... but it IS a food court China Inn only the stuff on the Chinese menu (there is no English on this menu- completely different menu than the lame caucasian menu)- cool kitchen window... a little too Georgia though Barbecue Corner II (Asia Square) I like this b/c it reminds me of Chef Lee Hou's on Clement Cheap and a bit dirty but I love it Same people own Hong Kong BBQ, Barbecue Corner II and Royal China per servers at these restaurants. I actually like Royal China for dinner but many are not so impressed. As ATLanta is clearly not in the league of SF and Manhatton, I actually think the Chinese food here is quite good. Make sure you check out the Buford Highway Farmer's Market and Super H Mart. Super H is impressive. Also Korean food is very good here... I actually think, dare I say, possibly wishful thinking, that ATLanta has better Korean "options" than SF. Dangerous statement I know.... Vietnamese is good here too, IMO. Also check out Blissful Glutton Welcome to Atlanta Cheers

Tonights pics from Element... Root beer float The celery chip with salsa gelee Hammock Hollow squash impasta, sweet grass dairy chevre, truffle flavor Hamachi belly, beet caviar, avocado, apple, horseradish oxtail terrine, red wine marmalade, bone marrow foam (in spoon) Smoked beef brisket, caramelized carrot... sweatbreads, corn, morels, Chinese mustard More poison by barkeep AJ Chocolate cake, freeze dried strawberry, shiso sorbet, almond per menu The crazy thing is that it tasted even better than it looked... 'twas nasty good Cheers

Blais could cook out of a station wagon and I would be there. Now there is an idea... Blais the ice cream man with bells and all... touring through suburbia ATL while entertaining kids and adults during the summer months with liquid nitrogen treats... Subtle disclaimer... I never consider myself to give "serious" reviews due to my particularly limited skillset. I do love the culinary world though. I prefer to jump in and have fun eating the unsettled frozen olive oil... before it sells out... just my inpatient style unfortunately. I agree, I think Element is off to a very promising start. In fact, I think I may even be a little sad when it fully develops. Element today is like seeing a young, super talented indie band with a huge buzz in a small venue... the way I like it. Cheers Cheers and thanks

Dave 'da Cook, thanks for the welcome. Also, nice post on Element. Fitting with your post, I think Blais also nailed it with his description of Element as being similar to a culinary "garage band." Element is definitely more my style from a culinary perspective with a blend of, maybe I am trying too hard to sound sophisticated, but... avant garde and rootsy? Regarding atmosphere, I feel there may be a bit of a temporary identity issue considering Element's pre-Blais vs. current Blais personality... but it sort of makes the exprience interesting. On Tuesday night, a DJ was busting out hits from TV on the Radio, The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs and many others. It initially caught me off guard, but I warmed up to it, especially considering the respectable song selections. I am not sure what the future holds, but it will be interesting. To me, it is about the personality of the food most importantly and Blais sings an undeniable super tasty, crafty tune. 3 more thoughts: 1. I am looking forward to Sunday Brunch at Element... with sous vide eggs. 2. I thought the beets worked uniquely well with the yellowtail. 3. It was dark and my lamb proscuitto pic didn't turn out so well. Sorry Jason M. I will order it again very soon and give it another shot. One more pic... the sold out cheese... my favorite part was the combination of frozen olive oil, tiny basil, and strawberry water... I think the burrata cheese was from some local guy named Franco who gets the cheese from Puglia, Italy. Cheers

First, thanks for the info regarding the opening of Element (Blais). Here are some pics from last night if anyone is interested: I thoroughly enjoyed: Key lime soda, citrus vodka (frozen via nitrogen tank), on the rocks Apple-ginger-Margarita (Frozen via nitrogen tank) Oysters and Pearls, meyer lemon dippin dots Yellowtail sashimi, beets, apple caviar, fresh horseradish (Jason) Mollinari's Lamb Prosciutto, yogurt ravioli, arugula salad Imported by Franco, burratina, tiny basil, strawberry water, frozen olive oil Lamb spare ribs (sous vide), goya malta, sourwood honey, scallion (pictured above) All were very tasty, but my faves were the sashimi and lamb prosciutto dishes... and probably the beausoleil oysters... and the fact that Blais is truly supporting local talents such as offering Molinari's prosciutto. The staff meal is indeed cool. Yesterday the staff meal was Spring Vegetable Risotto... barkeep AJ said it was "awesome." Cheers