Chow Down Atlanta

I had a quick lunch with a bunch of friends over at Cameli’s Pizza on Ponce. Cameli’s is a family-owned pizza joint next door to Atlanta’s City Hall East inside the non-descript Kroger plaza. While there’s not much to say about the decor (excuse the mess as they’re in the process of expanding), the pizza surely makes up for it. Well, at least my friends’… not mine.

I ordered the Pax Americana pizza with chicken, spinach, and mushrooms. I was sorely disappointed with the crust — it was thick, hard and crunchy which is what you got from your grocer’s frozen section way before they invented good frozen pizza. It was like eating days-old toast. The pizza overall was so dry and tasteless I had to have a heavy hand on the pepper flakes just to give it some flavor. Anyway, it was so bad, it doesn’t even deserve a picture. But like I said, I ordered wrong.

My friends’ pizzas were all oozing with bubbly cheese and their crusts were thick and doughy or thin and crispy. The pepperoni pizza was very good as well as the vegetarian pizza which had spinach and mushrooms. The calzone was huge with tasty filling.

I definitely have to go back and try other pizzas. I’m not crossing them out of my list completely yet.

Insider tip:

Personal piizzas are a good 10 inches. Daily specials available.

The scoop:

Cameli’s Gourmet Pizza
699 Ponce De Leon Ave NE,
Atlanta, GA 30308
404-249-9020
M-TH 11:30-10:00
FR 11:30-11:00
SA 12 noon-11:00
SU 5:00-10:00

Technorati Tags: pizza, Cameli’s Gourmet Pizza, Ponce De Leon Ave, Downtown Atlanta

This is not your typical Buford Highway joint. First of all, it has ambiance. The place is ‘zen-fully’ decorated with contemporary design. Due to this ambiance, the clientele is also different as most everyone is garbed in their Sunday best. The restaurant is huge, comprising of two floors each with its own hostess stand, cash register, kitchen, and servers.

Myung Ga Won sits in a brand new plaza off Venture Dr. in Duluth and opened about two months ago. It serves cold noodles, soups (tang), and traditional Korean barbecue (gi). Although prices are a bit more and portions are generally small, the pay-off is in the quality and taste.

The banchan (appetizers) included items not common to most Korean restaurants in town. Most notable were the mashed potatoes topped with a sweetish yellow gravy, paper-thin slices of fresh radish, sliced onions in sauce, wasabi potato pancakes, and chunks of radish kimchi.

Thick pieces of meat are used for the bulgogi and each order comes with a basket of fresh romaine lettuce leaves, chili paste, slices of fresh garlic and jalapenos. For those not familiar with what to do with these sides, what you do is take a piece of lettuce leaf, spread some chili paste, add garlic and jalapenos, add the barbecued meat, roll like a burrito, and eat. Most traditional Korean barbecue places serve such sides with their barbecued meats. Anyway, MGW’s bulgogi was superb — there’s a perfect blend of sweet-salty taste to the flavorful marinated meat. It is also grilled perfectly: slightly browned on the outside and pinkish in the center. I loved that the grilled meats came with a few slices of grilled zucchini, mushrooms, and squash.

The beef soup (Sulung tang) was terrific and comforting — it was slightly milky and wonderfully seasoned. It had slices of lean meat as well as chunks of fork-tender beef. As authenticity dictates, it was served with a side of sliced green onions to add as much to the broth as one pleases. There were other items that were ordered during this visit including the tasty Seafood Pancake that was thicker than in other restaurants, and Bibimbap that came with chunks of meat. Both were equally delicious.

While prices are generally higher and portions are smaller, all in all, I was impressed with the taste, quality, and authenticity of the food. It’s definitely a new favorite place of mine. We came in at 5pm on a Sunday and the place was packed. Not a single table was empty. Half an hour later, there was already a wait. Good news travel fast. By the way, this place is open 24 hours.

Insider tip:
The upstairs dining area requires climbing two flights of stairs.
Located in a brand new plaza next door to the plaza where Venture Cinema and Santa Fe Mall is located.

The scoop:
Myung Ga Won
also goes by Korean House
1960 Day Dr, Duluth, GA 30096
770-622-1300

Technorati Tags: Venture Dr, Duluth, Korean cuisine, open 24 Hours, Korean barbecue

Sorry for the brief break — I’m trying to get rid of the bad taste in my mouth. One of the worst Asian food I’ve ever had was in Noodle. I’ve been to this place twice. The first time I had to meet a bunch of friends. After that, I swore never to come back. That was a couple of years ago. Then I had to meet some friends for lunch last week and I can’t remember how I agreed to go back to this place. Big mistake.

All I can say is that my food left such a bad taste in my mouth that I’m still trying to get rid of it a week later. I had the Thai Peanut Noodle bowl which arrived looking so presentable. It had big pieces of shrimp and crisp veggies on top of flat rice noodles. The dish really looked great. I already knew how it was going to taste so I came in with really low expectations. Still, I was hoping to be proven wrong. Not. The pasta, for some reason, was very starchy. Not only that, it was also over-cooked. The simple soy-sauce and coconut milk sauce was paste-like in consistency and simply put, it wasn’t good at all. It was a bad attempt at Thai cooking and this time, I really swear I will never eat there again.

Insider tip:
Kids menu available. Three locations.

The scoop:
Decatur
205 E Ponce de Leon Ave.
Decatur, GA 30030
404.378.8622

Midtown
903 Peachtree St. Ste. A
Atlanta, GA 30309
404.685.3010

College Park
3693 Main St.
College Park, GA 30337
404.767.5154

Technorati Tags: Noodle, Decatur, Asian, noodle house

CDA’s favorite food festival, Taste of Atlanta will take place on October 13-14 from 11AM to 6PM at Atlantic Station. This year’s event includes more than 70 Atlanta restaurants. Each participating restaurant will offer sample sizes of their menu items and will cost from 1-3 taste coupons. Ten taste coupons are included in the regular admission ticket and additional coupons may be purchased at $5 and $10 increments for 5 or 10 coupons respectively. This is a wonderful
opportunity to savor each restaurant’s fare in a fun, casual, outdoor setting.

Included in the weekend’s events are cooking demonstrations by celebrity chefs such as Ted Allen (Queer Eye), Rocco Dispirito (The Restaurant) who will also hold a book signing under the CBS46 tent, and Julia Williams (Hell’s Kitchen). The VIP event Wine Experience presented by Robert Mondavi Private Label will be held both days in Ten Pin Alley from 12:30PM - 6:00PM and will feature wine for tasting and delicious hor’dourves. Also slated to appear are New Orleans artist Frenchy who will create real-time paintings and other musicians and entertainers who will perform live throughout the weekend. There will be a Silent Auction to benefit the Hospitality Education Foundation of Georgia.

Here are photos from last year’s event courtesy of Princess Bride Photography:

Taste of Atlanta started in 2001 as a vehicle for people to try many different restaurants all in one place. Tickets prices are as follows:

General Admission Ticket:

* $25 Advance or $35 Day of Event
(Includes 10 Taste Coupons)

VIP Ticket:

* $50 Advance or $60 Day of Event
(Includes 20 Taste Coupons, VIP access into the Wine Experience at Ten Pin Alley, and the first 500 people to arrive at the event each day will receive a Taste of Atlanta gift bag.)

To purchase tickets and more ticket info, click here.

Technorati Tags: Taste of Atlanta, Atlanta, food, festival, Ted Allen, Rocco Dispirito, Julia Allen, Ten Pin Alley, restaurants

It’s sad that not much have been written about Ethiopian cuisine and, thus, such has not caught on in Atlanta as it should. To me, Ethiopian cuisine is fun; not only is it wonderful, it’s an experience. Meals typically consist of stews called Wat and stir-fried meats called Tibs. Both are served on and eaten with Injera which is a flat, spongy, crepe-like, sourdough flatbread made with fine-grain flour.

Here comes the fun part: dishes are served on a huge round plate similar to an extra-large pizza pan which is lined with injera. The entrees are then arranged side-by-side with each other and a side salad serves as the centerpiece. A plate of rolled injera is also provided. Ethiopian meals are eaten with bare hands. What you do is you tear a piece of injera (a 2-inch square is sufficient) and use this to pick up morsels of food by placing it directly on top of what you want to eat. It’s really quite easy — much like using a tissue to pick up something dirty off a floor. If you do it this way, you’re assured that no one will get any food on their hands nor will any of the food get touched by any hands since meals are eaten family-style.

My favorite Ethiopian restaurant in town is Queen of Sheba. On this visit, our party of 4 adults ordered an assortment of tibs. Tibs resembles Mexican fajitas: seasoned meats or veggies stir-fried with onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, and spices. We got the Goden Tibs (beef riblets), Doro Tibs (chicken), Derek Tibs (sliced lean beef), and Mushroom Tibs. The chicken was served with a chickpea-based thick sauce on top which made it sort of like a stew. It was superb. The chicken pieces were tender and seasoned with mild spices. The sauce was almost Indian in flavor and consistency and complemented the chicken well. Together, it made for a flavorful stew. The riblets were also tasty but a little on the tough side. The sliced beef (I highly recommend getting this instead of the riblets) were delicious and tasted very much like beef fajitas except more lemony and herby. The mushrooms were equally as good and still had enough crunch in them. The side salad centerpiece was nothing fancy: crisp lettuce, tomato wedges, and onion slices drizzled with a spicy lemony-vinaigrette dressing. Every so often, we’d rotate the plate a quarter turn to allow each diner a chance to savor each entree (although good friends that we were, we just reached in front of each other).

The best part of the meal is eating the gluten-free injera after it has soaked the drippings from the food. Injera borders on the sour side and this is because of the fermentation of the flour for a few days before using. It is cooked the same way as crepes or pancakes. It is also a good source of calcium, protein, and fiber. Queen of Sheba promises great tasting food, attentive servers, and great atmosphere.

Insider tip:
Be warned that the Doro Wat (chicken stew) consists of just one chicken leg. Both the riblets and sliced beef tibs taste the same so opt for the sliced beef instead. The injera tends to sit heavily in the stomach.

The scoop:
Queen of Sheba
1594 Woodcliff Dr. N.E
Atlanta, GA 30329
404.321.1493

Technorati Tags: Ethiopian cuisine, Ethiopian dining, Ethiopian meals, tibs, wat, injera, Atlanta, Ethiopian restaurant

Another great restaurant closes in Atlanta:  The Epicurean is now closed.  As of August 28, the restaurant and the wine shop closed its doors permanently.  The new owner will focus on catering instead.  Sad news.

Technorati Tags: The Epicurean, Decatur, Atlanta, French Cuisine, restaurants