When I’m alone, I really love dining at the bar. This may sound kind of dorky, but when I’m at the bar I always find it easier to eat less and savor my food more. Usually I can get away with one or two small plates and a very carefully sipped glass of wine, and I feel like I got to experience a restaurant without the caloric overload so often associated with a full meal out.

Here are three bar meals I’ve really enjoyed lately:

At Zen on Ten Asian Bistro & Sushi Bar I ate this really tasty plate of hamachi serrano ($10) — a riff on Nobu Matsuhisa’s recipe. The sauce on the bottom is a blend of soy, yuzu (Japanese citron) and olive oil. I got a bowl of wonderfully chewy brown rice still in its mahogany husks and a small house salad. After the fish was gone, I surreptitiously poured the sauce over the rice. (Hat tip to Jonathan Baker at Citysearch for the recommendation.)

This restaurant has a pretty typical Thai/sushi bar thing going on, but it’s a lot less busy than other …

Continue reading Eating at the Bar »

The folks at Slashfood have spoken, and they give the animatronic chickens hawking breakfast at Denny’s the top spot on their list.

Writes Michael Thomas Hastings:

“They squawk. They bulge their eyes. They move their little beaks as if controlled by puppeteers. They probably were. It doesn’t matter — like a bizarre Conan O’Brien skit, the inept special effects just make it funnier. Bravo, Denny’s!”

You can read the full comments and see the list here.

Do you agree, or were you more a fan of the Betty White Snickers commercial?

Continue reading Top Super Bowl Food Ad: The Denny’s Screaming Chickens? »

Left: Korean "big popcorn;" right: Peruvian chulpe

On last week’s visit to the Buford Highway Farmers Market I found two interesting kinds of popcorn that Orville Redenbacher wouldn’t recognize if they bit him on his bowtie.

On the left we have Korean-style popcorn — one of many puffed grain snacks collectively called pung twi gi. I remember trying similar puffed rice and corn snacks being sold as street food in Japan when I lived there.

It is very lightly sweetened, which I find appealing. This 6-ounce bag contains 5 recommended servings, which seems generous. I’d estimate each serving at about 2 cups, with a calorie count of 121. I find it a satisfying snack, and my kids like it in their lunchboxes.

On the right is  chulpe, which Peruvian restaurants often serve with beverages before the meal. I had no idea it was a popcorn, and the bag doesn’t give you any indication. It simply instructs you to toast the corn kernels in oil in a skillet until they begin to brown and smell …

Continue reading Alternate Popcorn Reality »

Yes, people, it’s here.

The “Sandwich Wonder-izer” app — available for your downloading pleasure at the Apple iTunes store — will rock your PB&J.

According to the press release, this must have “enables consumers to create unique sandwich combinations from a list of more than 120 ingredients – from cheddar cheese to cucumbers and sprouts to salami – while calculating the sandwich’s nutrition values in real time with each added ingredient.”

You think that’s all? You can also name your sandwich and upload it to Facebook. And all your friends will think you inhaled a little too much methane gas in Farmville.

You can check it out here.

Continue reading Cue Armageddon: The Wonder Bread iPhone App Has Arrived »

Pineapples at Super H Mart

Starfruit at Buford Highway Farmers Market

Now here’s a delicious dilemma:

Buford Highway and its environs have two great markets to choose from.

The newly renovated Buford Highway Farmers Market is cleaner, brighter, better organized and better stocked with more international foods that it has ever been.

But new it has some serious competition from the national chain of Super H Mart stores, which already has several branches throughout metro Atlanta. Super H recently opened its Doraville branch about a mile away in a new mall near the Peachtree Industrial exit off I-285. This market isn’t nearly as large as the BHFM (nor as large as the local Super H flagship in Duluth) but the groceries are well curated.

To compare the two I spent a long morning walking through both and examining the wide array of international foodstuffs. Both markets have baseline specialties in Korean and Mexican groceries as befits the local population, but they both also run …

Continue reading Shopping Doraville — Buford Highway Farmers Market vs. Super H Mart »

Southern farm-to-table cooking certainly has its appeal, but don’t you think it’s about time we had a restaurant named for a city in the Canadian prairie with a menu featuring high-plains game?

Wait no longer, Saskatoon is here.

Located in the Atrium in the Buckhead Village complex (in the space that was the very short-lived Harry Bissett’s), Saskatoon offers an anything-but-trendy bar and grill menu with an emphasis on game.

Elk tenderloin, ostrich fillet, buffalo flank steak and venison rib chops are the headliners, but there’s also a menu of “tame game” options — steaks and such, simply seasoned and grilled over hickory.

The decor features a mounted buffalo head and a sideboard filled with duck decoys. And the first 30 diners tonight get to field dress their dinners. Okay, I’m kidding about that last part.

[UPDATE] While the Web site promises a poolside dining option, the restaurant’s publicist assures me there is no pool. I’m bummed…was thinking of bringing my …

Continue reading Saskatoon opens in Buckhead »

Image: Amazon.com

In the comments section of a recent post, readers and I got into our mutual distaste for the word “foodie.”

That brought to mind a column I wrote about a year ago that was pegged to the inclusion of the word “locavore” in the Oxford English Dictionary.

I gently suggested we could do away with the word “foodie” to make room for it. But what is a better word?

Time to Retire This Distasteful Appellation

(originally published January 2009)

Apparently the word “locavore” has entered the lexicon. It has even, praise arugula, won the title of New Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2007.

That means we have one too many barfatronic food neologisms in common parlance. Which should we lose? Not “barfatronic” — it doesn’t specifically relate to comestibles and is far too useful.

I propose instead that we lose the heinously overused and patently annoying word “foodie.”

Anyone else out there think that Ms. Foodie has overstayed her welcome? Her cheer has …

Continue reading Is there a better word than “foodie?” »

“There’s a restaurant at Ikea, we can eat there.”

“I don’t want to eat at Ikea. Let’s just get our shopping done quickly, then we can go out and eat somewhere nearby.”

“I’m just saying…”

“Listen. We know what we want. We’ll just go in, get it, and leave. We can do this.”

THREE HOURS LATER

“I can’t decide between the Malm and the Melbu, or even the Aneboda could work.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Bed frames. Pay attention.”

“I can’t. We’ve been in this place for three hours looking at signs with umlauts on them. My brain doesn’t work anymore. At some point I think we crossed the state line into Alabama. I’m hungry.”

“So let’s go to the cafeteria. It looks good.”

“If we can still find it.”

TEN MINUTES LATER

“Are you going to get the meatballs?”

“I’m not going to get the meatballs. They’re probably 90% beef and 10% snørg.”

“So what are you getting?”

“Maybe the gravlax plate. And some of this vegetable soup. What about you?”

“Comfort food. Chicken fingers, fries, …

Continue reading Snørg! Dining at Ikea »

Courtesy of the Shumacher Group

The Decatur Metro blog is reporting that Depeaux in Decatur has closed. This Cajun restaurant reportedly spent around $1 million refurbishing the town’s historic train depot. The building had to be moved away from the tracks.

I tried — really tried — to like this place, but I gave up after a third or fourth visit where the food or the service or both left a questionable taste. I remember one order of red beans and rice that was so beyond salty it was funny. Still, it was nice to see some care lavished on this iconic, long-empty building.

UPDATE: According to Decatur Metro, owner Bill Sharkey says he will keep the restaurant open on weekends only.

Continue reading [UPDATED] Depeaux closes, but will reopen on weekends »

Becky Stein

I noticed some new comments on my ancient Community Q BBQ post, surely occasioned by restaurant critic Meridith Ford Goldman’s recent praise for this Decatur barbecue newcomer.

A lot of folks who live on the east side of town compare it to Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q and come down on one side or the other.

I like both for different reasons — Fox Bros. for the chicken wings and the option of a barbecue salad entree, Community Q for the pulled pork and the mac ‘n cheese (even if it does clock in at 1,400 per large serving!!!).

But, overall, I favor Community Q because I applaud their use of locally raised meat and find the flavors of the ingredients and the smoke so clean. It appeals more to my sensibility. I also have to admit that the gut-bomb signature dishes at Fox Bros. (such as the “Lopez” made with Tater Tots, chili and an Exxon Valez slick of melted cheese) hold no personal appeal.

But, really, Eastside Atlanta has upped its barbecue paradigm a lot thanks to both these …

Continue reading Do You Community Q? Or are you a Fox Brother? »