Category: Food (page 10 of 30)

January 8, 2013 / 0 Comments

Vegetarian Eats, Savannah Edition – Part 1

Isn’t it shameful that I have lived more than nine years in the Peach State, and not once have I visited Savannah? I suppose it was one of those places that we thought we’d visit some weekend but never ended up doing so. Anyway, that was rectified this last weekend when P’s cousin came a-visiting. We traipsed all around Atlanta: checking in at the Georgia Aquarium and World of Coca-Cola, driving to Tucker so she could get a spiffy new haircut at Studio Sarita, tucking into South Indian fare at Udipi Cafe, Smyrna. The weekend was reserved for Savannah.

Set out on Friday evening, arrived in Downtown Savannah close to midnight. The starched sheets and covers at Springhill Suites were sweet luxury! Such a relief to fall into bed after a long drive…

Saturday was the loveliest day ever… golden sunshine, brilliant and luminous! We walked through Downtown, checking out the cool apparel and gift stores. Pacing down Broughton Street, we chanced on The Coffee Fox and decided to stop for breakfast. A good decision, indeed. Such a cool space with a huge collage wall, riveted metal swivel chairs, dark walls, wooden floors and delicious snacks and coffee. Vegan Brownie! Fig + Chocolate Scones! Gluten-free Peanut Butter Cookies! Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies… Oh Yum.

The Coffee Fox, Downtown Savannah

P ordered a cup of Cafe Con Leche (with soy milk) while his cousin got hot chocolate. I went a little crazy ordering Kolache with cheese, one vegan chocolate chip cookie, and a fig + chocolate scone. Well, the plan was to split them between the three of us, so not all that crazy. I sneaked sips from P’s Cafe Con Leche. It was pretty good (considering how unfamiliar I am with the sophisticated world that coffee aficianados inhabit) but I would have liked it with regular milk. Kolache is a baked sweet pastry filled with cheese. It was strictly so-so, one of those baked goodies that goes well with coffee but does not necessarily stand up to scrutiny by itself. The vegan chocolate chip cookie was The Bomb! Soft and crumbly, mildly sweet, rich with the taste of chocolate… A Most Excellent Cookie Indeed.

Our hunger sated, we tramped off. Walked along the gorgeous blue river, sauntered in and out of candy and specialty stores, took pictures with the gulls, checked out artist studios and their wares in City Market… and then it was time for lunch. Walked back to Broughton and stepped into Ruan Thai.

No sooner had we walked in and placed our orders, a huge Asian family with close to 20 members came in. The smiles on the faces of the hostesses couldn’t have been wider. At Ruan, $10.95 gets you a lunch entree with a choice of soup or a spring roll. That day, there was a choice between Coconut Soup and Lemongrass Soup. P selected Lemongrass while his cousin and I opted for a Spring Roll each. For the entrees, we went with Thai Ginger, Garlic Lover and Drunken Noodles. The food came super-fast. Piping hot, perfectly spiced, light and hearty… I think Thai food is a lifesaver for vegetarians. It is generally choc-a-full of lightly cooked crunchy vegetables, light (unless you pick the coconut-based curries), easy on the wallet. P’s Lemongrass soup was tangy and sour-spicy, reminiscent of the South Indian rasam, mushrooms and green onion added!

Ruan Thai, Downtown Savannah

In the afternoon, we went to Tybee Island. There were few people on the beach. The wind was chilly and persistent but the sun blazed on. The light was perfect, the blue of the sky mirrored in the ocean waters below. It was a gem of a day, one that I will remember for a long time to come.

Next up… Kayak Cafe and Pakwan Indian Cuisine, Savannah!

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December 27, 2012 / 0 Comments

Lunching at Persepolis

When you drive along Roswell Road in Sandy Springs, you pass a stretch of Middle Eastern grocery stores, gyro joints, restaurants, etc. There is Rumi’s Kitchen, Makara, Fanoos, Shahrzad… then Persepolis. Actually, you may encounter Persepolis first, depending on the direction you come from, of course. Anyway, Persepolis was where Grant and I decided to meet for lunch. Grant and his lovely wife Marie write Marie Let’s Eat, a travel-food-restaurant blog based in and around Atlanta and the greater South. I think ‘Marie Let’s Eat’ has to be cutest name for a site. It conveys love, gusto, enthusiasm and zest… for life, food, each other, what have you. When Grant suggested meeting up, I scouted online for new restaurants and found that Persepolis’s menu had a vegetarian section. I was sold. So off we went.

We walked into the restaurant just when it had opened its doors for lunch. The decor is simple at Persepolis. Think oil paintings, large vases of flowers, instrumental music with Middle Eastern beats and rhythms, fragrance of grilled vegetables wafting through… Grant surveyed the lunch buffet and found it to his liking, so he went ahead and filled his plate. I ordered the Must-O-Mooseer and the Vegetarian Zereshk Polo. The restaurant was empty when we walked in but within minutes, it filled up. An old couple, then a family with kids and women in headscarves, a group of friends… soon enough, the dining room was bustling with noise and activity, servers rushing with plates of flatbread and glasses of water, etc.

Our server first brought us a plate with a giant flat bread, its surface flecked with little black seeds. Nigella seeds, maybe? A little later, a platter with herbs, cheese, little slabs of butter, soaked almonds and sliced radish was brought to the table. I wish the flatbread and the second platter had arrived together. Then came my order of Must-O-Mooseer. I broke pieces of the flatbread, layered it with sliced radish and almonds, dipped into the Must-O-Mooseer and tucked in. Not bad at all. The cheese was too tart for my taste, so I gave it a pass. Must-O-Mooseer is a bowl of diced sun-dried shallots mixed with yogurt and spices. Our server mentioned that it is generally eaten as a dip with flat bread. But $5.99 for a bowl of shallot-spiced yogurt is too steep, in my opinion.

Next up was my platter of Vegetarian Zereshk Polo. I was intrigued by the menu description that went ‘Basmati rice steam cooked with barberries which are sauteed in a special glazed saffron sauce. A sweet and sour dish with a skewer of two vegetable kabobs.’ For $13.99 this one better be worth it, I thought. I need not have worried. See for yourself.

As I discovered, barberries taste similar to cranberries. Tangy and sweet in equal parts, they made an interesting addition to the Saffron Basmati Pulao (I am guessing that ‘Polo’ is Persian for ‘Pulav?’). The rice was cooked to perfection, the skewer of grilled kabobs providing the crunch and quintessential burn marks to make the dish attractive and eye-catching. This is a huge platter, half of which came home with me. Looking forward to leftovers tonight!

Will I visit Persepolis again? I don’t know. There is another vegetarian dish on the menu that includes basmati rice, cooked lentils, sauced raisins, onions and vegetable kabobs… Mmm, tempting! Then there is dessert that we skipped this time. How do you like the sound of traditional Persian sweet fritters and ladyfingers made of honey, yogurt, saffron and rosewater? Maybe another visit will happen, Inshallah!

Persepolis Persian Cuisine
6435 Roswell Rd NE
Atlanta GA 30328
404-257-9090

www.persepoliscuisine.com

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December 13, 2012 / 0 Comments

Hearth Pizza Tavern

One of the perils of meeting good old friends and going out to eat is that there is a potential to overeat spectacularly. The conversation is flowing, the jokes are great, the food tastes fantastic… Somewhere amidst all that bonhomie and good cheer, it is easy to overlook the fact that you are on your fourth slice of pizza already, the cheese, runny and warm and rich, is beginning to weigh down your tummy, and it feels like you want to curl up in your chair and take a nap.

Sigh.

Not to fault the food at Hearth Pizza Tavern at all… It may very well be a testament to its deliciousness (and my lack of awareness, gulp) that I overate at lunch, skipped dinner that night and ate very little the day after. Even my sturdy digestive system (touchwood!) realized that it had to take a break.

All that being said, Hearth Pizza Tavern has an excellent selection of appetizers, pizzas, salads, sandwiches and burgers. Too bad that I couldn’t try more items off the menu!

The first time we went with friends (yes, the time we went overboard, at least I did, with the food), we ordered an assortment of appetizers: Roasted Broccoli (we told our server to leave out the salami), Eggplant Chips, Missy’s Intense Hearthbread. The broccoli was roasted to perfection and it jived perfectly with the caramelized onions. The Eggplant Chips felt a tad greasy, not too much. But it is a dish worth sampling in little doses, yes. Missy’s Intense Hearthbread was fairly good. I wish I could remember more but it’s been weeks since we visited, my memory is dim. Yes, I should have written up this post earlier, I know. Lethargy hits and it hits hard.

It was time to order the pizzas. We got the Ring of Fire (sans chorizo), Mom Says, “Eat Your Veggies!” and Leaf Kickers. Ring of Fire has a spiciness to it, courtesy the garlic chili oil, and the cherry peppers lent the pizza a piquant kick. The crust was perfectly crisp, done to perfection. Leaf Kickers had phenomenal flavor what with roasted pumpkin and butternut squash, kale and sage browned butter, pistachios and pumpkin seed oil… oh Yum. It was easily the best pizza we ordered, I think. Mom Says, “Eat Your Veggies!,” unlike its preachy title, is not a veggie-overloaded pizza at all. It comes with spinach, roasted red peppers, broccoli, roasted cremini mushrooms, butternut squash, homemade marinara and Hearth’s premium cheese blend. I think we asked the server to skip the butternut squash since Leaf Kickers contained the same.

Most of the Hearth pizzas come with their premium cheese blend that comprises of fontinella, fontina and mozzarella, shredded in-house and blended. This, I learned on my next visit to Hearth a few weeks later. I was meeting Malika Harricharan, noted Atlanta-based restaurant blogger and author, for lunch. This time, I was more prudent. We kept things simple. Malika and I split an order of Crispy Brussel Sprouts. The dish contains pancetta but Malika, in lieu of my preference, asked the server to skip it, so that’s how we got it. Yummy indeed in that roasted-caramelized-burnt brussel sprout style! The balsamic-port reduction added a layer to sweetness.

Malika ordered a Mass Pike pizza while I opted for a Simple White with homemade marinara, spinach, basil, roasted red peppers, black olives. It was excellent. It was light (if that’s possible with an 8-inch pizza that contains a blend of three cheeses), fresh tasting and flavorful. And the size was perfect.

Dessert was skipped both times, so another visit is due. Plus there are so many interesting sounding items on the menu calling my name! Roasted Beets and Goat Cheese, Queen’s Right pizza, Fun Guy…

Hearth Pizza Tavern
5992 Roswell Rd NE
Sandy Springs GA 30328

404-252-5378
www.hearthpizzatavern.com

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December 4, 2012 / 2 Comments

Apple Pie for Breakfast!

Imagine an apple pie so healthy that you can eat it for breakfast every day. One that is choc-a-full of coconut, pecans, dates, apples, cinnamon, nutmeg and other spices, an apple pie that is vegan and gluten-free, spicy and sweet, healthy and nutty and all that good stuff…

I got the recipe from John and Brenda Strickland, good friends from Atlanta Unity. I believe they got it off the Internet although John couldn’t remember the source. Thanks, John and Brenda!

This is a keeper of a recipe. I have made it twice already. P loved it, so did I. I remember eating a slice for breakfast each morning! A food processor is mighty useful to make this pie unless you like to chop up six apples into tiny bits and bites. I put my cute little Kitchenaid to good use here. I had no pecans, so I used walnuts instead. Also, I used lime juice instead of lemon juice.

The first time I made it, I followed the recipe. Second time, I halved the proportions but used the same 9″ pie plate. End result? A delicious apple pie that was a sliver high. Note to self, use a smaller pie plate if you halve the recipe.

Crust
1.5 cups shredded coconut
1.5 cups pecans
0.5 cups pitted dates
0.5 teaspoon salt

In a food processor, combine the coconut, nuts and salt. Process until fine. Add the dates and process until a dough is formed. Press the dough into a 9″ pie plate or tart dish.

Filling
6 cups peeled and chopped apples
Juice from half a lemon
1 cup of pitted, soaked and drained dates
2 heaped teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Combine two cups of the apples in food processor along with the rest of the ingredients. Blend well and pour the mixture over the remaining apples. Mix well. Pour the apple mixture into the pie crust. Refrigerate for an hour or longer.

Tada!

Raw Apple Pie

John and Brenda made this pie a day ahead and chilled it overnight. That’s what I did as well. It helps the pie to firm up and set. I used Fuji apples but I am sure it will taste great with other varieties as well. This is a recipe that you would have to try real hard to go wrong with. You can’t mess up this apple pie, really.

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Category: Food (page 10 of 30)

Vegetarian Eats, Savannah Edition – Part 1

Lunching at Persepolis

Hearth Pizza Tavern

Apple Pie for Breakfast!

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