Simply Being | Simple Being

Category: Food (page 22 of 30)

Jasons Deli… Delish.

Jason’s Deli is not a place I frequent a lot.

No specific reason really; it isn’t exactly a dining place and so P and I haven’t visited for dinner. At work, one time someone got me lunch from there. It was a huge Muffaletta sandwich, I remember. Only a quarter sandwich but it was H-U-G-E.

S and I went to my favorite salon in Tucker last week and stopped by at Jason’s Deli in a nearby strip mall for a sandwich lunch. I got the Quarter Muff deal that comprises of quarter of a Muffaletta and a cup of soup. I picked the Tomato Basil soup (vegetarian).

I love the combination of fresh tomatoes and basil, as is evidenced by all the posts from last summer. The Muffaletta contains grilled portabello mushrooms, provolone, organic spinach, tomatoes, red and yellow bell peppers, purple onions and an olive mix. Sounds like a helluva lot of ingredients to stuff into a sandwich, doesn’t it? It really is! I wonder how they pack them all in there but a good job they do! However, eating the sandwich is a messy affair, as you can imagine.

It is a delicious sandwich. Choc-a-full with healthy and tasty ingredients, this is a satisfying lunch. It could even do well for two people, especially when combined with the cup of soup. My husband is not particularly fond of this sandwich simply because he felt rather weighed down after eating it (the one time that he ordered it). I can see that happening possibly due to the grilled mushrooms. Take them out, and you should have a relatively light sandwich. Wasn’t very cheesy either.

The soup was delicious. The serving size was perfect too. Tomato, fresh basil, cream, a smattering of cheese… Oozing deliciousness.
Jason’s Deli is a place I can definitely recommend to vegetarians. The menu has many other options too, and they all look reasonably priced. I am sure I’ll be back there again, one of these days, sampling another one of their delicious sounding dishes.
Jason’s Deli
4073 Lavista Road
Tucker, GA 30084
770-493-4020
www.jasonsdeli.com

Whole Foods… Sigh.

This is not a post about Whole Foods Market. I was at the branch on Roswell Road last week. S and I had stopped there for getting groceries, and I thought she would like taking a look around the store with its fabulous products, assortment of cheeses, chocolates, herbal products, snacks, etc. She loved the place, obviously. She couldn’t stop gaping at the amazing array of products, aisle to aisle.

We decided to lunch at the in-store cafe. There is a hot bar, a cold bar, a fresh salad bar, a pizza station, prepared meals section. And maybe another category that escapes me. For vegetarians, the options are many, oh-so many! The soups are good (do check the ingredient list written up on the card placed before each soup pot), my favorite being the Tomato Zucchini one. Although I am not a big fan of cold foods, the cold bar has a million attractive options ranging from crispy tofu and stir-fry vegetables salad to chocolate mousse. The food is displayed attractively under low-light lamps. The only complaint I could possibly have is about the price. If I remember right, it is $7.99 per lb. of food in your plate. I don’t eat here often but I’d probably pay that price, if I had to get lunch in this neighborhood.

What did I get for lunch? Unusual for me, I picked up two slices of pizza. Or maybe it wasn’t so unusual after all. I had had a meager breakfast, and my tummy was making its usual embarassingly loud rumbling sounds. I picked a slice of Roasted Red Pepper and Portabello Mushroom Pizza, and another of Sun-dried Tomatoes and Basil. The sweet girl behind the counter offered to put the slices back into the oven so they would be piping hot. By the way, the display slices are placed on a heated surface anyway. I am just a little anal about the temperature of my pizza.

Excellent! It was not my favorite traditional flatbread Italian pizza but a deliciously cheesy American one it was. I managed to chomp my way through both the slices, leaving behind the thick ends of the crust. I could have done with lesser cheese but this is such an occasional indulgence for me that I let go. Besides, it was a gorgeously sunny day, the store was quietly bustling, and we had a day of good fun ahead. Who am I to resist?

Here is a picture of the fabulous display of pastries and sweet treats from the store. With such an array of choices, I am plain dumbfounded.


Whole Foods Market
5930 Roswell Road
Atlanta, GA 30328
404-236-0810
www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/sandysprings/

Back to L’Thai sans Scoutmob

P’s cousin is visiting us from London, and she was in the mood for Thai food. Despite the not-so-great dining experience at L’Thai Organic Cuisine and Wine Bar (I think it detracted from the food; as I read the last post, I see that I have written very little about the actual food – Sorry.), we decided to go again.

It was a Saturday evening and the crowd was sparse. There was no keyboard player this time but a guitarist graced the same chair. I suppose he needed frequent cues through the evening, at least when it came to playing ‘Happy Birthday’ for the various diners that evening who were celebrating their birthdays with friends. I noticed the servers gesturing to him (in an almost-frantic manner!) to play along as various tables started singing the birthday song.

To start off with, we ordered a plate of Por-Pia-Tod or L’Thai Spring Rolls. They come, three in a plate, each roll resting in a cute shot glass filled with the sweet-spicy dipping sauce. Smart presentation, I thought. The rolls were nicely done too, with no additional grease dripping, and a good crunch to them. The filling is made of finely shredded vegetables and bean threads, all organic. S ordered a plate of Pak Tod (Vegetable Tempura) that came with its own sweet citrus dipping sauce. I picked a mushroom from that plate that released a LOT of water. Thank goodness that it wasn’t oil! As good a plate of Vegetable Tempura as any, I would think.

We got two orders of Tom-Kha (Galangal Coconut Soup) with tofu. Delicious! I love the texture of this soup preparation, light yet creamy. Coconut and lemon grass is a great combination that results in a refreshing play of flavors, one rich and another tangy. The downside of the wide bowls was that the soup ran cold pretty soon. Or maybe it had to do with the fact that we lavished much time and attention on the pretty appetizers and dipping sauces!

P ordered a plate of Pad-Kee Mow (Drunken Noodles) and Jungle Curry (cannot locate the actual dish on the menu) for the two of us. S ordered a curry with shrimp in it. I am guessing it was Priaw-Wharn Goong (Sweet and Sour Shrimp). She said that it was nice but fairly spicy. I think she asked for a spicy preparation but didn’t think that it would be this hot! The Jungle Curry was spectacularly spicy. Make that spicy and spectacular. The dish featured green peppercorns that added a special degree of heat to the dish. I found myself entranced by them, and served myself a generous portion of the curry. Yum, as spicy as it was, it was delicious. The Drunken Noodles were good too. Juicy and crisp, sweet and sour, a great one-pot dish of noodles is this one. I wish the portion size was larger, though. An old complaint, right? But come on, guys… this is dinner when the prices are higher and the portions tend to be larger – no?

Dessert was a plate of fried bananas with three scoops of ice cream – Mango, Coconut, Strawberry. The ice cream was great, the bananas not at all. Unripe bananas that lacked sweetness of any kind could not be salvaged by the ice cream, as tasty as the flavors were. A dish to be avoided, for sure. But at least, I gave it a shot!

L’Thai Organic Cuisine and Wine Bar

One of the Scoutmob coupons that came this week offered a 50% discount at L’Thai Organic Cuisine and Wine Bar in Smyrna. The last time I visited L’Thai was in 2009 when Mom and Dad were visiting us. I have faint memories of the place but I remembered that the food was excellent and well-presented, and they had lots of options for vegetarians. So off we went, P and S and P and I.

Unfortunately, many others had the same idea, and so when we got to L’Thai around 8:50 pm on a dull Friday evening, there was a wait time of at least 40 minutes, as the hostess told us. As per S, she might as well have said, “You guys better find some other place tonight!” We debated on it and decided to wait.

A little later, the hostess called to us, “10 minutes more!” before whizzing away. I loved what she was wearing (red sarong, flowered top, sandals) but she looked oh-so harried. Soon after, we were shown to our table. A keyboard player played his solitary melody, as the water fountain gurgled on behind his seat, illuminated by a giant red disco-globe.

So much for describing the space! The menu at L’Thai is long and elaborate with a separate section for vegetarians. Proudly inscribed at the top of every page is ‘Our ingredients are 95% organic,” or something along those lines. S wondered if we should order a plate of Por-Pia-Pak-Sod or Fresh Organic Basil Rolls. But it was past 9 pm already (way past anyone’s dinner time, really!) and so we decided to give the appetizers a skip. We ordered a plate of Basil Fried Rice (minus egg) and Mat-Sa-Man Curry (also known as ‘yellow curry?’). We also ordered another dish whose name I cannot recall (or find in the online menu) but it mentioned ‘Thai Chilli’ in the description. Then we waited.

We waited.

It seemed like ages before the food began to arrive. It was a busy night, and our server told us that he wasn’t even supposed to be working that evening. The food was fairly tasty. I have a grouse with most (if not, all) Thai restaurants about the lack of vegetables in their dishes. Sure you’ll have carrots, daikon radish, cashews, potatoes, snow peas, broccoli, peppers, some baby corn (maybe), mushrooms… spread across all dishes. So if you order 3-4 vegetarian dishes, you would have probably sampled every vegetable from the pantry.

I remember a trip we made to Washington DC a couple of years back. For dinner, a few of us stopped by at a small Thai restaurant. There were very few customers that night and only a couple of servers. But the food was absolutely fabulous. What I remember the most is the abundance of vegetables in the curries. Not your usual carrot-snow peas-daikon-tofu combination but so many other vegetables too! I wish I could remember the name of this place… 🙁

Back to L’Thai… the flavors were great even if they seemed to repeat from one dish to another. But the portions were too small. For dinner, the serving size was meager! We realized that we would need to order another dish. We asked for a plate of Pad-See-Ew (flat noodles, carrots and broccoli in a soy sauce) but I think what we got was a plate of Drunken Noodles. It contained basil, peppers and mushrooms (not part of the original dish). When we asked our server about the tiny portions, he remarked that we should have ordered two plates each!

Cheeky waiters and flavorful food aside, this experience has put me off the Scoutmob coupon frenzy.

Terrible service and measly portions for overpriced dishes – Why would I want this experience again? Besides, all the Scoutmob coupons cleverly disguise the fact that there is a cap of $15 on the discount amount. Rather, you need to read closely to know that there is a cap of $15 on the discount amount. At most of these places, it is infinitely simple to get a bill topping $40. You do the math.

L’Thai Organic Cuisine and Wine Bar
4500 West Village Place, Suite 1017
Smyrna, GA 30080
770-434-4344
www.lethai.org