Han Il Kwan (Yes, in Atlanta!)

Oh yay! There is real Korean food in Atlanta! Lindsay Kim, my Energizer-Bunny friend, took some of us to this Korean BBQ joint, Han Il Kwan, off Buford highway in Doraville (5458 Buford Hwy). I had the dol sot bibimbap (돌솥 비빔밥), which is a savory medley of beef, spinach, bean sprouts, carrots, seaweed, and fried egg over a bed of rice served in a sizzling hot stone bowl. I was so happy, I almost thought I was back in K-town in NYC. I kept taking big sniffs of my clothes afterwards for wafts of that yummy soul-satisfying Korean BBQ aroma. Thank you Lindsay! Atlanta is finally starting to feel a little like home...Now I just have to find good sushi here (which may just be mission impossible, since I will not cheat on Sushi Azabu).

I love Sushi Asabu

I just can't get enough. I just can't get enough. Alaskan King Salmon sushi pictured below. Oh, you soft little pillow of perfection, you.

The Fat Radish

Andrew took me to The Fat Radish for brunch - a gastropub on the lower east side that takes its vegetables as seriously as its meats. We did not see a lot of the beautiful people as described by Amelia Lester in the New Yorker, but perhaps that was because we were there at 11:30am on a Sunday morning - too early for the fabulous peeps. Sunday brunch doesn't really start until 1pm in NYC anyway. We did dine with a lot of hipsters all dressed in the obligatory wool beanies (worn erect, just so there's a bit of room at the very top, and not slouchy which would be soooooooo 2009), Moscot glasses, and Steven Alan plaid shirts obligatory for the Winter 2010 Hipster Season. Or maybe those were the hipster-waiters. But I digress. Here is the place and its yum yum yum yummy food, nevermind the scene. From top to bottom: Deep fried egg with panko crumbs with candied bacon and squash spaghetti. Peekytoe crab with homemade linguine, waaaaaaarm banana bread with homemade blueberry jam and butter on the side (heavenly!). And we had a delicious sample of the beet and radish juice and another of the Kale/Celery/Apple/Ginger juice, which was deliciously satisfying despite what seemed like an odd combination of vegetables and fruits for a juice.
Addendum Feb 1, 2011: Sam Sifton reviewed The Fat Radish in The New York Times today!

Fat Matt's Rib Shack

Atlanta has stopped functioning because of a piddly 4 inches of snow. Apparently, the city only has 11 snow plows, and cannot cope with the "inclement weather." Hundreds of flights have been canceled. To my benefit, this meant that the second leg of my friend Dan's flight from Guatemala to NYC via Atlanta was waylaid, and I had a chance to catch up with an old friend. Since this was Dan's first time in Atlanta, we went to Fat Matt's Rib Shack to check out the famous Atlantan BBQ joint (between a dry rub BBQ and wet-sauce-dripping-everywhere-Texan style BBQ) and the local live blues scene. The succulent ribs were so deliciously tender that everything (and I mean EVERYTHING: meat, cartilage, etc.) all fell off the bone upon the first bite. Oh, and the live blues band kept ROCKIN' despite the snow storm!!

BTW, if you have time to read this blog, you should really be spending your time reading Dan's new book, instead: Outrageous Fortunes: Twelve New Trends That Will Reshape the Global Economy. Available now via Amazon (and in Kindle version too). And if you end up making shitloads of money after reading his book, please come back and take me out to lunch at Per Se.

Table 1280

Haute shrimp n' grits is available at Table 1280 next to the High Museum of Art at the Woodruff Arts Center. A perfect place to stop by for brunch and then wander over to the High Museum to check out the contemporary pieces on the top floor. And if you haven't seen it, go check out the Dali exhibit at the High - this weekend is the last weekend to see this show. I'm not usually into surrealism (too egocentric, literal and illustration-y for my tastes) but the later Dali pieces (i.e. sans boring dripping clockfaces) were interesting and kind of breathtaking- especially when he reinterprets religious imagery in a surrealist fashion. I never really thought that religion and surrealism would pair well together...they're odd fellows to be in bed together, and yet it kind of works, kinda like shrimp and grits.

Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Noodles!

Two of these bowls are from Atlanta (Chong Qing Hot Pot and Peter Chang's). One of these is a bowl of genuine dan dan mien served at Chuan Ban (川办餐厅) Beijing's best Sichuan restaurant, located inside the Sichuan provincial government representative office at 5 Gongyuan Toutiao, Jianguomennei Dajie, Dongcheng District (东城区建国门内贡院头条5号). I'll leave you guessing. Bwahahahahaha! p.s. if this is torture to you, you can click on the photos to find out. The photo that links back to this post is the best bowl of 担担面 I've ever eaten, 2 blocks down the street from my old office in Beijing.

Jackpot! Chong Qing Hot Pot!

Woohoo! I found another decent Chinese restaurant (food court, actually) in Atlanta! Chongqing Hot Pot on 5385 New Peachtree Rd is located inside a Chinese strip mall on the north side of Atlanta. The chef hails from Chengdu, Sichuan and the shuizhuyu 水煮鱼 ($7.50) is just heavenly. I asked for extra ma-la numbing spice on mine, and slurped and gulped down half the heavenly fish and cabbage before I couldn't eat anymore. Took the rest home and heated it up with more of my personal stash of ma-la and finished it all the same day. Yummy!

Peshawri, Mumbai

Husbands should not be allowed to travel to India by themselves and then go feast on lobster tandoori and send photos of said lobster tandoori back to their wives. That is simply cruel and unusual punishment. My 135-pound husband managed to fit all of this food into his stomach (note the lamb mutton above the lobster). I'm beginning to think that he must be a distant cousin to Takeru Kobayashi. Andrew definitely won that solo competitive Indian eating contest hands down! P.S. Thank you to the globe trotter Emily for this restaurant recommendation. Please go buy some Colgate toothpaste to support Em's employer so she can continue traveling around the world to save people's teeth and give us more restaurant recommendations in the distant corners of the world!

Genius

These are only available if you have incredibly talented in-laws like I do.

L'Aventure

Nothing quite like bonding over food and wine! I went on a road trip to central coast California to check out the wineries in the region (Justin, Tablas Creek, L'Aventure, Linne Calodo) with my in-laws over the holidays. We wanted to check out Californian vineyards beyond the usual Napa/Sonoma, and drove south to El Paso de Robles (Spanish: the passage of oaks; the locals call it Pass-O Row-Buls ). During the summer, the temperatures in the region reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and drop back down to the 50s and 60s in the evening. This hot summer sun gives the grapes a high sugar level, which then results in a high alcohol content in the wines from the region. Almost all the reds that we sampled had an alcohol content between 15% to 16%! Perfect for the lush in me! The only other region that I know of which produces delicious smooth red wines with such a high alcohol content is in Salta, Argentina (Salta wines beat out Mendoza Malbecs anyday. Just ask any Argentine you know.) As far as I can tell, the only downside to the high alcohol content is that these wines should be drank within 5-7 years and cannot be keep in the cellar for years and years (unlike the French Bordeaux). At least, that's what the people at the vineyards were telling me. Of the Paso Robles vineyards that we visited, my favorite was L'Aventure which was founded by Stephan Asseo, a self-proclaimed "maverick" vigneron who left France and came to California so that he can pursue his dream of making a wine that blends Cabernet Sauvignon with Syrah. And how lucky we are that Monsieur Asseo decided to pursue his dream! His L'Aventure wines have received scores of 95+ and 97+ from Robert Parker. Delicious (but pricey)! I wonder how much restraint I can exercise in restraining myself from opening these wines and drinking them in the next few days. Discipline! Discipline!

Artisan

We also tried out a couple of excellent farm-to-table restaurants in el Paso de Robles! Artisan was just mouthwateringly yummy. I had two appetizers - the Cayucos Red Abalone with abalone mushrooms and sunchoke, and also the Chanterelle Toast, topped with bacon, soft poached egg, and crème fraîche, and they were both DELICIOUS! Chanterelle mushrooms are in season right now, so that toast was especially umami-fully delish! I wish we had enough time to go back for another meal. Sigh.

Thomas Hill Organics

The other farm-to-table restaurant we went to was Thomas Hill Organics, where the atmosphere was more casual than at Artisan, but the food was just as fresh and solidly good and wholesome. I especially loved my light dish of grilled sea bass on a plate of stir-fried bok choy and mushrooms. My brother-in-law tore down his plate of braised Colorado lamb shank vindaloo, root vegetable puree, arugula, Buddha hand yogurt, with flat bread like there was no tomorrow.

Farmstand 46, the perfect pitstop

Serving wholesome organic goodness in the form of hot soup, fresh sandwiches, cold sodas and hot tea and coffee to tipsy winetasters along highway 46. Oh, and they have fresh Chanterelle mushrooms for sale as well ($14/lb).