Simply Being | Simple Being

Category: Food (page 20 of 30)

Peace within World Peace Cafe

World Peace Cafe sits on a little street, a minute or so away from Roswell Road. The instant you enter the cafe, the quiet envelops you in a loving embrace. There is a quiet hum of cheerful activity that permeates the expansive space with colored lamps and plants and the meditating Buddha who sits quietly between the plants. Colored teapots line the shelves behind the counter and paintings of Oriental women line the tall walls. Sunlight streams in through the multiple windows and you can see the quiet street below.

What did we get?

A pot of Raspberry-Ginger Tea, a plate of vegan Cranberry-Orange Pancakes and a plate of Tofu Scramble.

 

 

The pancakes were fairly good. They had the perfect level of sweetness, and didn’t weigh me down all day long (as most pancakes are wont to do). Syrup and maple syrup were part of the table condiments. The server asked me if I wanted honey. Guess I should have said yes. But the maple syrup went just fine with these pancakes. The orange-cranberry combo lent a faint sourness to the pancakes but all in all, it was a great pick. P’s Tofu Scramble was quite nice. I sampled just a bit off his plate. I am not too fond of potato wedges first thing in the morning (fried!) but I think it went well with the tofu scramble. This dish can be super-Indianized by the addition of cumin, cilantro leaves, slices of tomato, roasted peanuts… Yum.

These were the only two non-egg dishes on the breakfast menu. Every other item on the menu included eggs in some form. Hope that changes in the near future. The tea was wonderful! Mild and warm, it didn’t have excess sharpness (ginger) or sourness (raspberry). Just perfect.

A long time back, we’d visited this place for lunch and ordered their unique burgers. Innovative flavors, attractively presented, delicious sides… Mmm, it is time for a second trip, this time for lunch.

World Peace Cafe
220 Hammond Drive, Suite 302

Sandy Springs, Atlanta GA 30328
404-256-2100

Liberté Méditérranée Yogurt

Another delicious cup of yogurt, and not so expensive either. Well, relatively, that is.

This is the first time I bought Liberté Yogurt. Publix had a deal where you could get 10 cups for $8. So I got five of them. Hmmm, I think getting five more wouldn’t have been a bad idea at all.

This is one fabulous cup of yogurt. Creamy and sweet without being too rich or sour, I think it tastes even better than Stonyfield. The ingredient list at the back of the cup makes you feel pretty good about eating such delicious stuff too!

Again, I couldn’t help throwing in some chopped strawberries and blueberries in there. Talk about gilding the lily!

A Sweet-Sour Affair with Yogurt

Growing up, yogurt was my most hated food. Probably it had to do with the fact that the yogurt-buttermilk churned at my home was of the sourest kind. My younger sister and I had such an aversion to it; its mere presence on the dinner table would make us cringe. It could make my skin crawl, I exaggerate not. Then Mummy got it into her head that we MUST be fed yogurt/buttermilk (like all good South Indian kids?). Each morning, before leaving for school, my sister and I had to drink up a glass of buttermilk. Pleading and threatening in equal measure, Mom would try her level best to make us gulp it down. It was never easy. Much crying and shouting accompanied by multiple ultimatums ensured noisy school mornings.

I had decided that as an adult, yogurt would be one of those things I could skip consuming. Most grownups are not allowed to have any food aversions, are they? But yogurt would have to be mine. I couldn’t imagine it being otherwise.

Many years passed by without yogurt even crossing my sight, let alone my lips. Marriage happened and then I came to the United States. A change of heart came about (not sure what caused it!). I started sampling organic fruit yogurts. Stonyfield has a good selection. But spending 99 cents on a cup of yogurt meant that it became an occasional summer indulgence.

Long story short, I enjoy my cup of yogurt now. I also sprinkle chaat masala over home made yogurt and slurp it up with much enthusiasm. You can also find me polishing off plates of dahi-puri at local Indian chaat joints. My current favorite?

Trader Joes has its own brand of Greek Style yogurt that comes in two flavors – Honey and Apricot Mango. Yum, oh yum. Oh, the cup also mentions that the milk for the yogurt comes from cows not treated with rBST (growth hormone). By the way, that cup of yogurt costs $1.29 but it’s substantially larger than a cup of Stonyfield yogurt. Serves as a great snack when combined with chopped berries (as seen in the thumbnail picture).

Smooth texture, a filling snack, wonderful summer treat… I think I am a convert.

Remembering Asheville

I am sure I raved more than enough about the lovely Sunday morning we spent in downtown Asheville. I missed writing about the Thai restaurant where we lunched. It was a casual place and there weren’t many people that day. We lounged around, ate and drank in leisure, chatted endlessly before finally stepping out in the sun.

The tea was infused with fresh ginger shreds and lime juice. I added a generous measure of honey to sweeten it… very nice indeed. Very very nice.

Miso soup with tofu, Spring rolls, Pad Thai, California sushi rolls, ginger tea… Oh delicious.