Chow Down Atlanta

Close to a decade ago, I landed a cushy job on Cumberland Parkway (my first real job after graduation). My hours were so great that I could go on 2-hour lunches. I worked with Eastern European software developers who used to go to this meat shop religiously. So I tagged along one day and discovered meat heaven. It was a mere 20-minute drive from work so going there on my lunch hour became a regular habit. It also meant I didn’t have to wait for that first Saturday each month to get my meat fix. I’ve been a regular customer ever since,  still visiting at least once or twice a month.

Patak Meat makes a wide variety of European meats on the premises. The store is literally meat heaven. They have fresh and processed sausages, fresh cuts of beef, pork and chicken, smoked meat and sausages, dry-cured products, cheeses, and Eastern European grocery and food items such as biscuits, cookies, candies, chocolates, sauces, and the like.

Patak’s products are almost all natural. Almost, because there’s this one, single ingredient that they use that prevents them from being classified as such. This is the reason why you will never find their products at Whole Foods. People flock to Patak’s daily. My last visit was a week ago on a Thursday. As usual, they had a line out the door. But the line moves fast.

My regular purchases have always included bacon, Boston butt, garlic beef bacon, and Czech salami. These are my staples and I get them at least once a month. This visit, I added a few things to my essentials: turkey, black forest ham, fresh sausages, a pound of Polish sausage, and smoked pork chops.

The meats keep really well (refrigerated in air tight containers) and I’ve found that they will last up to two weeks (the salami lasts far longer). I really, really love their bacon. It is mild tasting and comes in wide strips. My family has a unique way of serving bacon (my dad always made it this way for us) — the strips are fried lightly in a skillet (without oil) just long enough until the edges curl and brown lightly. The strips are then drained on paper towels then sprinkled with sugar. I thought bacon was always eaten this way until I was maybe 5 or 6 years old when I was astounded to find bacon served crispy in restaurants. I refuse to eat crispy bacon to this day.

The Boston butt makes for fantastic sandwiches. The taste is just amazing and I highly recommend getting this cut. Although, the turkey and black forest ham are quite as good. The fresh sausages are best grilled, and served with grilled onions and green peppers.

My mom, a devotee of Murphy’s, is a huge fan of their smoked pork chops which are only available on their spring/summer menu (they are replaced by the pork shank in the fall/winter). Murphy’s gets these pork chops from Patak’s. The 18 pieces I got for her totaled a little over $72 so they were roughly $4 apiece. Give it a good re-heating on a charcoal grill and you have a fantastic main dish.

You must try this place. Once you have, you’ll never buy grocery deli products ever again. The high quality (and taste) of their meats is just unbelievable and prices are so inexpensive (cured, and smoked deli meats average $2.50 a pound). Also a must-try are their fresh ribeye steaks, baby back ribs (fresh and smoked), fresh bratwurst, salami (they have tons of different kinds), fresh porkchops, and the assorted sauces.  Don’t go when you’re hungry or you’ll end up buying the entire place.

The scoop:
Patak Meat Products
4107 Ewing Rd
Austell, GA 30106
(770) 941-7993
Hours:
Monday: 10-5, Tuesday: 9-6, Wednesday: 9-6, Thursday:9-6:30, Friday: 9-6:30
First Saturday of each month: 9-4

Technorati Tags: Patak Meats, Czech, Polish, cured meat, deli meat, meat processor, Austell

I’m not really a big fan of Han Il Kwan. It’s good but it’s not drop-whatever-you’re-doing-and-get-here-now good. With so many Korean restaurants in town, there’s always a better one right around the corner. I don’t know if I’ve already mentioned this before but I didn’t realize how many Koreans live in Atlanta until I bumped into one of the officers of the Korean Association of Atlanta a few years back. He told me that there are 100,000 Koreans who immigrate to Atlanta (specifically Gwinnett) every single year. That’s a lot.

My favorite Korean places are Myung Ga Won, Cafe Tohdamgol, and Tofu House 88 (the latter is on my top 3 because it’s the only place in the city where you can get Kimchee Fried Rice). But Han Il Kwan will do sometimes. It’s middle of the road — good but not stellar. I remember when this place used to be Szechuan Gardens (a Chinese restaurant my classmates and I use to frequent for their inexpensive food.) They did a good job renovating the place with an area in the back for charcoal barbecue.

To use the charcoal grills, your party must order 2 types of meat from the barbeque part of the menu. We did the usual galbi (shortribs) and ribeye. The galbi meat were sliced a little too thin than most other places but they were marinated really well and the flavor is just perfect.

The winner here is always the ribeye. They are good sized pieces; thick with lots of marbling. Although your server will take control of the cooking, do pay attention to the cooking time and start transferring the meat from the grill and onto your bowl as soon as your desired meat doneness is achieved. We made sure the ribeye were cooked medium but the galbi a little well-done because that’s how galbis are supposed to be anyway. Plus, well-done galbi ensures you get the perfect caramelization from the marinade.

Service is very good and food is fresh. Our bill came to $45 before tip which is quite expensive for lunch, however, do note that we had 2 big pieces of ribeye with our meal. Incidentally, my sister and I finished everything so nothing was wasted.

Insider tip:
Located next to a car wash right inside the perimeter.

The scoop:
Han Il Kwan
5458 Buford Hwy NE
Doraville, GA 30340
(770) 457-3217
Mon-Sun. 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 a.m

Technorati Tags: Han Il Kwan, Korean cuisine, barbeque, Buford Highway

I grew up eating at Tavern. When we were young and our mom would go shopping, tagging along meant eating at The Zodiac, Brazerie Le Coze, or here. It’s a family tradition that I look forward to regularly up to today. Last week, I lunched with mom at Tavern for the hundredth time. After all these years, dining at Tavern still feels like you’re visiting family.

Tavern is probably the first gastropub in Atlanta. It serves good food in a hip and trendy pub (okay, tavern) setting. I remember stepping into their revolving door the very first time when I was 14 and it made me feel so cool to be able to be in a bar where all the grown-ups were hanging out. These days, the beautiful grown-ups are still around — they still hang out at the bar, but most have now small children in tow and has made the feel a more family friendly one.

My favorite here is the burger. And the Tavern Chips. I’ve tried all of their chips and the Thai Chicken, Barbecue Chicken, Traditional, and Cajun top my list. On this visit, the chips of choice was the Cajun. It comes with a huge pile of warm, freshly-baked tortilla chips then topped generously with crawfish tails, andouille sausage, and cheesy, creamy lobster sauce. This is so good. So good.

For our mains, we went with dishes we’ve never had before. I chose the broiled trout and my mom had the fried trout. My entree came with a de-boned whole trout broiled to perfection. It was very flavorful and clean tasting and the fish was very fresh. It came with the usual mash potatoes and green beans. The sides are ho-hum but the fish was really good.

Mom’s fried trout was a winner (and better than mine). It was a big-sized fish, lightly battered then fried golden. Both the batter and the fish were seasoned well and the tender meat played well with the crunchy outside. I would get this again next time. This dish is topped with sauteed crabmeat and toasted almonds that my mom opted to be served on the side. Her cheesy mashed potatoes were also much, much better than mine.

For dessert (we’re both not fans of dessert), I ordered a basket of their famous freshly-baked croissants drizzled with warm honey. I finished 3 and mom ate the other one. This is such a perfect dessert for the bread-loving me.

Tavern is a great place to grab a bite to eat while at Phipps Plaza. It is such a fun place. I highly recommend the burger and Tavern chips.

Insider tip:
Lunch for two average $65 before tip — chips, 2 fish entrees, sodas, coffee, and bread.

The scoop:
Tavern At Phipps
3500 Peachtree Rd NE
Atlanta, GA 30326
(404) 814-9640

Technorati Tags: Tavern at Phipps, gastro pub, Phipps Plaza, Buckhead, tavern chips, American cuisine

This place opened in December 2008 and serves lunch buffet daily. There are about 20 meat entrees including the best pork ribs in green sauce dish (fork-tender meat braised in spicy chile sauce). The entrees have substantial pieces of meat and all dishes are freshly cooked and are pretty good tasting.

There’s also a salad bar and a dessert bar. The salad bar is pretty straight forward but the dessert bar has some (expensive) items you don’t usually find in buffets — fresh cherries (currently, these are $3.99 a pound), fresh mangoes, frozen strawberries in cream sauce, fresh tangerines, Mexican flan, and fried cinnamon tortilla chips.

$6.99 buys you all you can eat lunch daily (M-F). A great value in today’s economy. The place is spotless and the staff is very friendly. Located next to Jason’s Deli. Don’t let the dark-filmed windows fool you into thinking the place is closed. It’s open and has the big sign Buffet Mexican on top of the door.

Insider tip:
Closed on weekends.
They have cheese dip!

The scoop:
Buffet Tex-Mex
4073 La Vista Rd.,
Tucker, GA 30084
Phone number unavailable as of this writing.

Technorati Tags: Buffet Tex-Mex, buffett, tex-mex, Mexican cuisine, Tucker, La Vista rd.

CLOSED — as of the week of April 27, 2009. Apparently moving to 1300 Indian Trail.

I was so excited to find out that there’s finally a Filipino restaurant in Atlanta. Okay, it’s not really a real restaurant, it’s more like a fast food stall (in a food court of an Asian supermarket), but nevertheless, it’s better than nothing. Opened less than two weeks ago, I’ve visited 3 times. The best Filipino restaurants outside of the Philippines can be found in California and New York. Having said that, don’t get your hopes up too high on this one. It pales in comparison — at least, in taste. But they make it up on price and quantity.

The daily menu consists of the following dishes where you can choose 2 items for $3.99 or 3 for $5.99. Steamed rice is included.
- Chicken Adobo — stewed chicken in soy-vinegar sauce
- Pork Adobo — stewed pork in soy-vinegar sauce
- Pancit Bihon — stir-fried noodles (similar to Singapore’s meehon)
- Grilled Porkchop
- Chicken Tinola — ginger-infused chicken soup
- Lechon Kawali — deep-fried pork tenderloin with skin
- Mongo — lentil soup
- Pork Sinigang — tamarind-flavored soup with pork and vegetables
- Fried Tilapia — deep-fried whole fish (average length is 8 inches or more)
- Beef Tapa — grilled marinated beef

Outside of the daily specials, they also offer deep-fried whole or half chicken, Lumpia (pork eggrolls), Crispy Pata (deep-fried ham hock), Shrimp Sinigang (tamarind-flavored soup with prawns), and Chop Suey (stir-fried mixed veggies in white sauce). While the soups are watery, the noodles are dry, and the stews and veggies are bland, the deep-fried dishes take center stage here. Meats are seasoned then deep-fried to perfection. The result is crispiness that’s out of this world.

So run, don’t walk, and get some artery-clogging goodness that’s simply exceptional.

Insider tip:
Best time to go is during lunch when everything is still available. By 7pm, most everything is gone.
Buffet on weekends for $7.99.
Located inside the new Hong Kong Supermaket on Jimmy Carter Blvd where Cub Foods (later on International Farmers Market) used to be.

The scoop:
Pinoy Cuisine
5495 Jimmy Carter Blvd
Hong Kong Mall
Norcross, GA 30093
404-806-9685

Technorati Tags: Pinoy Cuisine, Filipino food, Filipino, restaurants, Atlanta, Norcross