Seafood is good for you

In addition to Indian food, I had a lot of seafood recently, too. A lot of it was homecooked, and I didn't think of taking pictures of it. Let's just say that now I know I'm allergic to shrimp when I eat too much of it...

To extend the allergy issue, it seems like I am allergic to crustaceans in general. How do I know that? Well, after consuming way too much crawfish at a crawfish boil. A bar in Buckhead had all-you-can-eat/all-you-can-drink-beer event that Cashew and I couldn't miss. The crawfish was flown in live from Louisiana that morning and cooked on the premises for a nice, fresh taste. The spiciness level was just right, too.  It wasn't that hot that I wouldn't be able to eat it, but it did have some kick to it. And which is even better, there were potatoes, sausage pieces and corn on the cob included to the boil. They all had absorbed the juices from the crawfish and tasted amazing!

To show you exactly how much Cashew and I can eat, the all-you-can-eat crawfish wasn't enough for us... Well, technically, we didn't get that much because we had to wait 30-40 min between batches, and we ate just a few crawfish from each batch. So after a day of seafood, we headed out to get more seafood in the form of sushi. We decided to go to MaLi in the Highlands. I had been there before, and to my knowledge, the sushi was really good. Well, I had forgotten how overpriced and tiny it was! We got a simple salmon roll, an eel roll, and a tuna avocado roll. I think we ended up paying $15-20 EACH! Unbelievable... And the worst part is, the sushi wasn't all that good. Zuma is definitely better.

Last week we were in the mood for sushi again. We were on Emory campus and wanted to get a quick dinner before a concert, so we walked over to Emory Village. I had heard that Falafel King is good, so we walked in. Well, our quick dinner turned into waiting to simply order for 40 minutes, plus maybe 20 minutes to get the food after that. Falafel King is strange that it offers both Mediterranean food and sushi. We ordered a shawarma plate (no picture) and 2 sushi rolls: something with avocado and something with crabstick. Yes, they were that memorable... Even if the service is 10 times faster next time, I don't think I want to go back.

Spice up Your Life

I went through a phase the last few weeks where I was craving spicy food. Hence, going to Indian restaurants on two separate occasions. First, Cashew and I had a coupon for Mirch Masala and we went there one Saturday night. It turned out that the coupon is valid only Monday through Friday :( Well, we decided to stay and try their buffet. I tried pretty much everything they offered: chicken curry, goat curry, vegetable curry, some kind of sticky orange rice, a lentils dal and a chickpeas dish. Some of the things were really spicy, others were rather plain. I think my favorite was the lentils dal because it was also one of the spiciest :) Again, I have limited experience with Indian food, but everything seemed authentic. Cashew also confirmed that. The only negative was the very rude server we had!

Just a few short days later, Pumpkin was visiting Atlanta, and we went to Chat Pati. This is an all-vegetarian restaurant that serves Indian fast food items. Fast food or not, I love that place! They have a laaarge selection of chaat, or snack-like foods. My favorites are the puri dishes: hollow fried dough balls that are then stuffed with a bunch of things like potatoes, chickpeas, etc. This time we got the dahi sev puri.

We also ordered a mixed appetizer platter so that Pumpkin could get to try a bunch of things. I don't even remember all the things on it... I just remember everything being really tasty (and mostly spicy). The only thing I didn't like was the fried ball in some kind of super sweet sauce.

We also had methi gota balls (chickpeas with herbs). Because we weren't sure this would be enough (we all eat a lot...), we ordered the aloo tikki plate that had potatoes and chickpeas. I seriously like all the savory things at this place. I've also had the dosas before; they're also delicious.

So what does one do after consuming exorbitant amounts of Indian food? Go get gelato, of course! We drove to Paolo's gelato in the Highlands on a nice warm night. I had the coconut, kiwi and lemon. The lemon flavor was especially good. It was tart, but not too tart to make it unpleasant. By the way, I'm usually not a fan of gimmicks, but I do love the wafer they give you with your gelato :)

Aja in two takes

This week is Buckhead restaurant week. That means that participating restaurants offer 3 course meals at a pre-set cheap price. When most areas of Atlanta have it, the prices of the menus are usually $15 or $25. But because Buckhead needs to uphold its glitzy and pretentious reputation, its restaurants offer dinner for $25 or $35.

Anyway, on Friday night Cashew and I decided to try Aja, a so-called Asian fusion restaurant, i.e., they admit they serve Americanized Asian food... Well, the menu did look amazing, so we were excited to try it. For appetizers, we chose the Green mango salad with dried beef and the Spicy Cambodian fish soup. I liked my soup. It was light (read, no coconut milk) and not over-salty. The mango salad didn't have any mango flavor, so I was a little disappointed. I liked the dry beef, but Cashew says that it wasn't as good as traditional Vietnamese dried beef. Sometimes it is advantageous to never have tried the original version :P

Our entrees were the striped bass and the Masaman curry with beef. I loved both dishes. The bass tasted like really good pork, but with the light texture of fish. Sounds impossible, but I swear that's what it seemed like to me. The bass came on a field of rice with some kind of pesto. Again, the rice was really really light, especially compared to the sticky rice I got with my curry. As to the curry, it was the best Masaman curry I've had. Well, I have to admit that the only other place I've had curry is at Top Spice, and it is not a place for light food... Again, Cashew pointed out that real Masaman curry is better than what I got. It seems like I need to find a way to try more traditional Asian food...

Finally, our desserts were the Mango lassi and a parfait with pomegranate seeds and pistachios. The mango lassi was amazing. It tasted as if it was made with real fruit and not some weird juice concentrate. The same can't be said about the parfait :( I do like plain yogurt that's pretty sour, but the parfait had a really weird sour flavor that I couldn't figure out. Well, the pomegranate seeds and pistachios saved what it would have been an uneatable dessert...

The title of this post is "Aja in two takes." That's because I went to Aja today as well... Yup, that's right. I was supposed to meet up some friends from school for dinner, and they ended up making a reservation for Aja... The other choices on the $25 menu didn't seem too appealing to me, so this time I ordered off the regular menu. I got the miso soup and the wok-seared tuna with sauteed greens. The miso soup wasn't much better or worse than any other miso soup I've had. Haha, maybe miso soup is a fool-proof item that's impossible to mess up.

The tuna was pretty good, but not the best I've had (that honor is still held by Pura Vida). It was well seared, but it seemed a little dry. The sauteed greens were amazing, though. They consisted mostly of bok choi and something that looked like spinach (or a similar plant). They weren't soaked in oil, yet they had plenty of moisture. They were perfect!

While there were some good dishes at Aja, I'm pretty sure I won't go back. The two things I really liked, the tuna and bass, could be found at most good restaurants. I guess I'm not too excited about the idea of fusion Asian cuisine. The regular dinner menu at Aja had a section called dim sum. However, most all but 1-2 items in that section were not what I would think of dim sum. Aja did make me crave dim sum again, so I hope I can have it soon!

P.S. Especially for Pumpkin, I edited the pictures I took on Friday with my phone. I did remember to bring my camera today :)

Comfort food

There are days when all you crave is some delicious fried food... I had one of those about a week ago. It was a Tuesday, but Cashew and I decided to go get dinner at a place called The Nook. It's right next to Piedmont Park, and I guess they're famous for ginormous drinks... (Huh, my spell check is not flagging "ginormous," must be a real word now.) Well, we didn't feel like trying them. All we wanted were the Coca Cola hot wings :) I don't think the wings actually tasted like Coke, but they were insanely good! They had a very deep flavor that was very different from all other hot wings I've tried.

Because it's me and Cashew after all, the wings weren't going to be enough to fill us. So, we also ordered a side-sized version of the brisket tater tots and a full version of the Asian salad with fried chicken. The tots were so cheesy and oh-so-good :) The salad was also great. We ate it last, and that felt right for some reason. I did enjoy the freshness of the spinach after a greasy fiesta. The dressing was also quite refreshing after the heavy tater tots. Plus, we got our daily serving of veggies with that salad; let's just ignore the unhealthiness of the rest of the dinner :P

Wine and cheese

One Friday afternoon Cashew and I were hanging around Atlantic Station. All the stored started closing, but we weren't feeling like going home yet. Instead, we decided to try The Grape, a restaurant with a good wine selection. After taking some time to pick out a glass of wine (and enjoying free samples in the meantime), I chose a glass of white wine and Cashew decided on a sweet rose champagne. We had already had dinner, so we didn't want to order a full meal. As a result, we decided to try some of the appetizers that the menu suggested to pair with wine. I guess we were in a truffle mood because we settled on Cypress Grove truffle tremor cheese and Truffle mousse pate. The cheese was really nice and creamy. The pate looked like it was homemade (not the pink canned stuff, which is still tasty, though!). The came with a simple French bread and whole grain crackers. I liked how the bread and crackers had very subtle flavor on their own and didn't overpower the cheese and pate. To me, that's the perfect pairing. If the bread or crackers are flavored, they should be eaten by themselves.

The regular dinner menu had some interesting offerings that attracted my attention. I'm curious to try them, so I'll be going back. In other words, expect another post from The Grape.

MY Moussaka

My mom's moussaka is one of my most favorite things to eat. You might have seen it on the menu of Greek or Mediterranean restaurants and even ordered it. But let me tell you, my mom's version is NOTHING like the ones they sell in restaurants. The most obvious difference is that my mom uses potatoes instead of eggplants. She also makes it with ground pork rather than a pork/lamb mixture. Finally, from the one time when I actually tried it, the moussaka in restaurants resembles a stew, and my mom's is a lot drier. In summary, you probably have no idea what my mom's moussaka tastes like. So just take my word for it when I say that it's amazing :)

Anyway, the reason why I'm writing about moussaka now is because I made it myself today. Well, it was probably my 5th attempt to re-create my mom's moussaka, and all other attempts failed pretty miserably... Today was different, though! This is the closest I've gotten to getting the recipe right! I did use ground turkey rather than ground pork, so I'm going to attribute any differences in taste to the different meat. Other than that, it had the familiar taste and texture that I love :D I'm so proud of myself, haha. Now I can make my favorite dish whenever I want :)

Out All Day/Eat All Day

This last weekend there was an Oysterfest at Park Tavern. Both Cashew and I love seafood, so of course we were there. Our friend Virginia (her state of origin) also came with us. Truth be told, the festival was more about the bands and the alcohol than the oysters, but we still had fun.

We tried both the fried and the steamed oysters. The fried ones were battered and oily and deep-fried and oh-so-good! I couldn't detect any oyster/seafood taste, but who cares, the fried taste was great by itself. At least we got some oyster taste from the steamed oysters. They were still in their shells, so we had to open them up. Some shells were completely closed, but a safety pin and a plastic fork were the only props we needed to get the meat out. It seems like the steaming process removes some of the fishy taste and slimy texture. I'm not sure yet whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. On one had, it makes them easier to eat, but on the other hand, they're no longer what I think of as a quintessential oyster.

After spending several hours in the sun and listening to live music, we were hungry again. Cashew and I left the festival while Virginia remained there with some friends from Virginia :P Cashew and I agreed that we wanted some Indian food, so we drove over to Little Five Points and ate at Niramish for dinner. I'm no expert on Indian food, but even I could tell that it wasn't supposed to taste like that. We were both very very disappointed. We shared the Vegetable Thali (a tapas like dish) and the Begoon Bhorta (a traditional eggplant dish).

First of of all, since when are spring rolls Indian?!?!?!? Yet, they were part of our thali dish. The other components were: naan bread, mixed vegetable korma, shaag aloo (potatoes with spinach), and tarka daal (lentils dish). The potatoes and the lentils dishes were actually pretty good. They did have the flavor that I typically think of as Indian. However, the mixed vegetables didn't have any flavor at all (despite being served in heavy coconut milk).

The eggplant dish is supposed to be one of Cashew's favorite Indian things, so I was pretty excited to try it. However, I bet that what we got is not what it's supposed to taste like! Technically, the dish we got had absolutely no taste: no salt, no Indian spices, nothing... It was so inedible, we asked for something spicy that we could add to it. And what were we given? The hot sauce that you add to pho soup - not Indian either!

We did finish everything eventually and received the dessert that was part of our vegetable thali. I don't know what it was supposed to be, but here's how I think they made it: they steamed some white rice and then mixed it with canned evaporated milk. For good measure, they added a bay leaf that didn't contribute any flavor to the dessert because it wasn't cooked together with the rice. By the way, leaving a bay leaf in a dish is a big no-no. You're supposed to remove it before serving.

The only good part of the dinner was that we had a 50% off coupon, so we each ended up paying only $9. However, we agreed that we wouldn't go there again even if someone paid us to.

After dinner we did some shopping, but the eating wasn't over yet. I had made chocolate pudding earlier in the day, so it was time to try it. I personally loved it. It had a perfect mousse texture and a rich chocolate flavor. It tasted professionally-made. I don't think I'll be buying mousse ever again when I can make it myself :)