Atlanta Street Fashion

Another feature on Atlanta Street Fashion! A photo he took of me may end up in Atlanta's Jezebel magazine... I'll keep you updated!

Antico Pizza///first bite

To differentiate themselves from the competition, they turn their boxes inside out. Effective disguise?

We spend a lot of time on the West Side eating.  Abattoir is our go-to for out-of-towners (the $10 tripe soup is the best deal in town and that chess pie is divine), West Egg's $10 Wednesday burger deal plus milkshake is a good go-to, and as time passes, more great restaurants keep popping up.  Not to mention, there's a decent coffee shop over there.

Because of this, it may come as some surprise that until yesterday, we had never had Antico Pizza (warning: if you click on the Atlanta section of the site it will play an insipid Dean Martin song, and loudly).

We've heard numerous times that Antico is the only pizza in town worth eating. So on the way home the other day I stopped and picked up a margherita to go.

The drive home was excruciating. My car smelled delicious. And there was road construction on 10th. The torture!

When I made it home, the pizza wasn't exactly fresh-from-the-oven hot.  But it was definitely still delicious.

Chewy, with a decent amount of char (though not as much as I like), a beautiful sauce and just the right thinness, we certainly enjoyed it for dinner, as well as breakfast the next day.

Next time I eat Antico, I'm going with a crowd to try that funghi pizza, and I'm dining in.  To be continued.

Dim Sum /// Royal China Restaurant

A few weeks ago friends took us out to a dim sum restaurant off Buford Highway, called Royal China.

This was our first dim sum experience in Atlanta and we were pleasantly surprised.  For those unfamiliar with the style of food, dim sum consists of small dishes prepared in a Cantonese style.  It originates from Southern China and is typically eaten during the day with lots of tea.  The small dishes are usually pretty heavy, but man are they good.

The dining hall with covered seats is, for me, as key to the dim sum experience as the ladies pushing carts of food.  These women push carts laden with different items through the aisles, stopping at each table to see if the diners are interested.  The items are then marked off on a receipt to be tallied at the end of the meal.

We started with duck with hoisin sauce and crispy skin.  I'm sorry to say I have no idea what this dish is called; I'd never had anything like it before.   The skin was as crisp and thick as a cracker, with a toasted-rice flavor (possibly a coating?).  Anyway, delicious.

Lo mai gai, or lotus leaf rice, consists of stick rice wrapped around a meat or egg (or both) filling, all packaged and steamed within a lotus leaf for color and flavor. 

Taro dumplings, lightly sweet and crisp-fried on the outside.

Another new dish for me; shrimp wrapped in bacon, coated and fried, with a mayonnaise dipping sauce.

Daikon radish cakes with dried shrimp and sausage! a personal favorite

chee cheong fun, or shrimp wrapped in a rice dumpling, and green vegetables.

the fried taro balls again.

Here's the cart containing the daikon cakes, which the woman fried to order.

She also fried these shrimp dumplings for us.  Chinese restaurants are the best for taking photos.  I'll admit sometimes I'm shy about busting out the camera, but at Royal China the woman frying daikon cakes was an enthusiastic camera assistant, pointing out dishes to photograph and smiling the whole time.

Congee, or rice porridge.

Barbecued pork bun.

There were no misses at this meal; everything was delicious.  There's not much for vegetarians at a dim sum restaurant.  As you can see, even the shrimp dishes had plenty of pork!  

I was disappointed that the meal didn't include phoenix feet, aka fried chicken feet.  We saw other tables eating it, but I guess they ran out by the time they got to us in the third row!  I left satisfied however, and content in the knowledge that we'll return and get those chicken feet next time.

Food Highlights from Wm's visit

Alex's good friend Nick Wm H-M. (for realz) visited us last week in a trip that resulted in each of us gaining 10 lbs.

We went to Waffle House...

Double buttermilk waffles with pecans...

plus, 3 egg & cheese biscuits...

and large hashbrowns, smothered and peppered.

After that we had our Seder.

We also went to Farm Burger...

(pictures courtesy of Nick and his sweet camera)

Farm Burger with bacon

from another angle

boiled peanuts

For dessert, Atlanta's answer to shaved ice: Suno.

original flavor shaved ice with red bean & mango.

While it wasn't as amazing as the real thing in Taiwan, Alex and I were nevertheless completely engrossed.

The last full day of Nick's visit was a doozey.

We started the day with matzoh brie. 

For lunch, we visited Hankook, a Korean taqueria we'd heard good things about.

Daeji Gogi Sliders

Sesame fries (a MUST-order)

bulgogi taco

fish taco

 Hankook is in a small building with an even smaller parking lot. While we were there we witnessed a hit & run.  All part of the Atlanta experience, am I right?

After Hankook we stopped at Star Provisions to ogle the amazing merch.  Didn't take any pictures, but I was very tempted to get the silver julep cups, exotic salts, and a braided buffalo penis treat for Didi.  

After Star Provisions, we headed to Flip Burger for dessert/a mid-afternoon snack.  

chocolate mole shake.

strawberry shortcake shake

Flip Burger is owned by Richard Blais, who won the most recent season of Top Chef, Top-Chef All-Stars!  Alex and I were rooting for this home-town-hero all the way, and were gratified to hear he's investing his winnings into a new Atlanta restaurant.  A waiter at Flip Burger told us plans are underway for a hot dog restaurant in the Highlands, conveniently walking distance for us.  Here's hoping the milkshakes are heading to the Highlands as well!

After a trip to the High Museum to see the Cartier-Bresson exhibit (fabulous) and selections from the Vogel Collection (there's a cute documentary about the Vogels that details the backstory of these amazing and unassuming collectors), it was back to the Howell Mill area for dinner at Abattoir.

chicharones!

duck "ham" with ramps.

amazing steak.

rabbit leg stuffed with rabbit sausage.

fresh baguette hot from the oven (we went through several of these)

chocolate chess pie with toffee brittle and creme fraiche.

coconut tres leche with dulce de leche ice cream and a burst of meringue.
Not pictured: Abattoir's home-brewed ginger beer (it burns!  in a good way!)
and how full we were after this day.

Every part of our meal was amazing from start to finish.  Abattoir is one of the few restaurants we've been to in Atlanta that I felt delivered from start to finish (and oh, what a finish!  It'd be worth going back just for those desserts).  

Thanks Nick for being such a great guest and indulging with us!  

More to come this week (maybe next week) on some of the actual sights we saw while Nick was in town.