Moving to Alpharetta

[NYC Mike]

Therese! You've just become my wife's new best friend! She insists we go there tomorrow. Full report incoming, thanks so much for the rec.

On a personal note, we are going to have to take a deep breath and change our people perception. In NYC, a very good neighbor is one who dosen't play their music too loud or jump up and down on the floor above and generally is so quiet you never get to know who they are.

oh! No sugar in my cornbread I swear!

I noticed that you'd posted a query re a recipe for gulab jamun here, NYC Mike, and since I'm feeling a wee bit penitent for having insinuated that you might, just possibly, be the sort of person who puts sugar in cornbread, I'm going to provide you with a really, really great tip re gulab jamun and other Indian sweets: Royal Sweets.

Royal Sweets is an Indian sweet shop/chat stand located at 1766 Lawrenceville Highway (conveniently close to Dekalb Farmers Market, so you can stop on your way home). It's a small, family-run place, and the owners are some of the nicest people I've ever met. But even if they weren't I'd still go there for the food: burfi, ras malai, dhokla (usually only on Friday), julli (my favorite, like ras malai without the sauce), samosas, spiced nuts, etc. 

While googling the address I came across this link to a video (click on the little TV icon) that was filmed for our local PBS station. The mom (Anita) is not shown, as she is away in India during the filming, but her husband and kids are. There's even footage of Mr. Desai spooning gulab jamun out of the container into a to-go box. They usually have both light and dark gulab jamun, and if they're cooking them (or anything else) when you arrive they'll run into the back and get you fresh.

There are lots of Indian resources in the immediate neighborhood, including several Indian markets (I go to Cherian's) where you can get the Gits mix if you'd like to try it. Though why on earth you'd bother with Royal Sweets right there I can't imagine.

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Edited July 28, 2006 by NYC Mike (log)

[NYC Mike]

Thanks Dave, I know Bob's, ill search it out. I've traveled in the south for work quite a bit and my all time favorite breakfast is biscuts and gravy and eggs with grits. I'd love to make that at home for Sunday mornin breakfast sometimes.

Funny about your assistant, I have also yet to meet a native Atlantan, my entire subdevelopment is from outside of Georgia it seems.

Another question. In the Krogers by us they have many kinds of "instant" grits and I couldnt find any other kind. Now don't laugh but I saw My Cousin Vinny where the guy says "no self respecting southerner uses instant grits"....question is what do y'all use.

Instant grits are the work of the devil. Instant cheese grits are too foul for words. Fortunately it's not too hard to find decent normal grits. I get mine at DFM, where you'll find them in the aisle with the pasta and flour (look in the back left corner of the "U" shaped aisle). I can't remember the name, but they're fine.

And while I'm at it, don't ask about putting sugar in cornbread. That's corn cake, not cornbread.

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No self-respecting southerner uses instant grits (according to my assistant, who, being that rare thing -- a native Atlantan -- is also my gold standard for practical southern foodways. She says instant grits "taste like poo"), but a lot of them use quick-cooking grits. Read the labels carefully and you'll see them -- just about everyone who makes one makes the other. That's not to say that quick-cooking grits are acceptable; it's to say that southerners, like most everyone else, is susceptible to the argument of convenience over quality.

Luckily, as a patron of Kroger, you have another choice. Go to the natural foods section, and seek out "Bob's Red Mill Corn Grits (also known as Polenta)." They're not made in the south (I think they're from Oregon), and they're not white (you'll get some static about this; ignore it), but they're very decent. You can get Logan Turnpike Mill grits at DFM, and they're better -- but not by as much as Bob's are better than Quaker Quick.

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[Gifted Gourmet]

Also, what do you all think of the quality and prices at the DeKalb Farmers Market? 

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We do have a discussion which Dave the Cook began some time back but much of it is still highly relevant: Dekalb Farmers Market.

Because you found it already, this might give you some ideas for future jaunts there.

I have also yet to meet a native Atlantan, my entire subdevelopment is from outside of Georgia it seems.

There are a good number of native-born Atlantans here (not just the ones under the age of 10 either!), When I came here some 30 years ago, I felt much as you do ... now I know many more natives ... and most of them are wonderfully friendly types!

[NYC Mike]

Royal Sweets is an Indian sweet shop/chat stand located at 1766 Lawrenceville Highway (conveniently close to Dekalb Farmers Market, so you can stop on your way home). It's a small, family-run place, and the owners are some of the nicest people I've ever met. But even if they weren't I'd still go there for the food: burfi, ras malai, dhokla (usually only on Friday), julli (my favorite, like ras malai without the sauce), samosas, spiced nuts, etc.

Therese! What a find! No one would ever look to it or find it unless they knew it was there. We went in with Galub Jamon and sweets on our mind but left with a bag full of savories, including the best samosas I've ever had. Nice woman behind the counter said they were mild and they blew my doors off. There was also this one peice of mango fudge, wow.

mike

[Lan4Dawg]

Fuss makes the biscuits and we are not allowed to show up for foot ball games w/o her biscuits. She prefers in descending order: Martha White, White Lily, Gold Medal but will use what ever if she has to do so. Just find real butter milk and not that low cal imitation slop they are peddling.

Thanks for this, I did see the lowfat buttermilk but thought it kind of defeated the purpose! We have gone through a few jars of jam already over here!

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Okay, once and for all and forever, there is no such thing as full fat buttermilk. You can culture whole milk and call it buttermilk, but it is actually farther from the real item than the cultured skim milk product marketed as buttermilk. Real buttermilk is the liquid left after butter's been churned from clabbered (cultured, soured) cream, and it is essentially fat free (because all the fat's been globbed up into the butter). You can only buy it from somebody who makes butter this way, and because there's almost no cultured butter made for the U.S. market you cannot buy real buttermilk in the U.S.

Another question. In the Krogers by us they have many kinds of "instant" grits and I couldnt find any other kind. Now don't laugh but I saw My Cousin Vinny where the guy says "no self respecting southerner uses instant grits"....question is what do y'all use.

Instant grits are the work of the devil. Instant cheese grits are too foul for words. Fortunately it's not too hard to find decent normal grits. I get mine at DFM, where you'll find them in the aisle with the pasta and flour (look in the back left corner of the "U" shaped aisle). I can't remember the name, but they're fine.

And while I'm at it, don't ask about putting sugar in cornbread. That's corn cake, not cornbread.

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re: butter milk----granted and you are correct but the regular is better than the stuff they pass off as "low fat"

As for grits---I was in a small "Mom & Pop" type market and asked about "real grits" figuring if any one carried them they would and the woman said, "Oh! you mean 'sho 'nuff grits'. We do not carry them b/c no one asks for them." I like to road trip up towards Helen every couple of months and swing by Nora Mills for grits, polenta, flours, &c. They are not the best in the world but reasonably priced, ground there, and it makes for a great trip as you can also visit lots of water falls, hiking trails, mountains, and scenic spots while in that part of the state. It is not terribly far fr/ Alpher Tater. Avoid Helen if possible (well go once to say you have been) but the surrounding area is lovely.

[NYC Mike]

How do you think these look? Whole milk buttermilk, white lily flour, shortining etc.

I picked up some Amberhead Mills white corn grits, I think they are the "quick cook" kind since the boxtop claims 8 min cook time. Well they tasted real good!

-Mike

[Gifted Gourmet]

How do you think these look?  Whole milk buttermilk, white lily flour, shortining etc.

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Honeychile, you're on your way to being a genyoowine southerner!

Bravo, Mike, for making 'the transition' so smoothly!

[Lan4Dawg]

How do you think these look?  Whole milk buttermilk, white lily flour, shortining etc. 

I picked up some Amberhead Mills white corn grits, I think they are the "quick cook" kind since the boxtop claims 8 min cook time.  Well they tasted real good!

-Mike

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now you serve those along side some pork brains and mixed up "cackle berries", country ham, red eye gravy, rat trap cheese, muscadine preserves, saw mill gravy, and greased collards and you have your self a break fast!

[therese]

Royal Sweets is an Indian sweet shop/chat stand located at 1766 Lawrenceville Highway (conveniently close to Dekalb Farmers Market, so you can stop on your way home). It's a small, family-run place, and the owners are some of the nicest people I've ever met. But even if they weren't I'd still go there for the food: burfi, ras malai, dhokla (usually only on Friday), julli (my favorite, like ras malai without the sauce), samosas, spiced nuts, etc.

Therese! What a find! No one would ever look to it or find it unless they knew it was there. We went in with Galub Jamon and sweets on our mind but left with a bag full of savories, including the best samosas I've ever had. Nice woman behind the counter said they were mild and they blew my doors off. There was also this one peice of mango fudge, wow.

mike

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Glad you enjoyed it. Did you try the gulab jamun? Or any of the other sweets apart from the mango burfi?

[NYC Mike]

now you serve those along side some pork brains and mixed up "cackle berries", country ham, red eye gravy, rat trap cheese, muscadine preserves, saw mill gravy, and greased collards and you have your self a break fast!

Looks like I have some homework to do!

Glad you enjoyed it. Did you try the gulab jamun? Or any of the other sweets apart from the mango burfi?

We did try the Galub Jamun, they were great and the prices are fantastic but that and the mango were the only sweets. Reason to go back....

-Mike

Edited July 31, 2006 by NYC Mike (log)

[Gigi4808]

I know a few other BBQ places have been mentioned but the one I love is Dreamland.

For Indian if you don't mind a short drive over to Woodstock/Townlake I cannot say enough good things about Cedars Taverna I personally believe that Ken (the owner/chef) couldn't make a bad meal if he tried.

Edited August 14, 2006 by Gigi4808 (log)

[viva]

Just bumping this to say bless you all... I am at a client site in Alpharetta this week and quickly jotted down the names of the restaurants mentioned to look up later.

As I was driving to my hotel I made a wrong turn and wound up on Hwy 400. In the process of making a u-turn at the next exit, I saw a sign for Slopes BBQ, remembered the name from this thread, and followed the signs. 10 minutes later I had BBQ chicken, pork, mac & cheese, collard greens, and blackberry cobbler. Awesome. Totally made up for the fact that I got completely lost.

[Doodad]

Just bumping this to say bless you all... I am at a client site in Alpharetta this week and quickly jotted down the names of the restaurants mentioned to look up later.

As I was driving to my hotel I made a wrong turn and wound up on Hwy 400.  In the process of making a u-turn at the next exit, I saw a sign for Slopes BBQ, remembered the name from this thread, and followed the signs.  10 minutes later I had BBQ chicken, pork, mac & cheese, collard greens, and blackberry cobbler.  Awesome.  Totally made up for the fact that I got completely lost.

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I don't know if it was mentioned, but hidden in downtown Alpharetta is a great secret. Cafe Efendi. Seek it out and get the grouper.