Archive for category food
chicken andouille gumbo.
I have this sudden craving to whip up a big pot of chicken andouille gumbo and enjoy Creole’s ultimate comfort food basking in the warm (not really, it’s a LCD) glow of my television.
A Serious Eats adaptation of John Besh’s My New Orleans recipe is after the break to remind myself to do this before the weather gets too warm, otherwise competing cravings involving smoked pork shoulder and other summer-y foods will begin to overtake.
two urban licks – sunday “splurge”
So we went to Two Urban Licks (or using their trendy capitalization, “TWO urban licks”) for their “Sunday Splurge” last night. It was their first one, I believe, and the food of the evening: lamb. I figured, I like lamb, and so does L, so the two of us along with 4 other friends made reservations like a month ahead of time for last night.
I’ve never been to Two Urban Licks, but I HAVE been to its older sister restaurant, appropriately named, One Midtown Kitchen (okay fine, “ONE. midtown kitchen”). Maybe it was because it was many years ago and Richard Blais was on hand in his pre-Top Chef days, but it was quite a delicious dining experience. Also, the Atlanta restaurant blogosphere in general have given it some favorable words. And for $15 for all you can eat ($21 for all you can eat AND drink), it was too good of a deal to pass up.
Well, I’m glad I went in with not a lot of expectations. When we got there, while waiting in line for the valet, I was explaining to L why we’re eating in renovated warehouse in some out of the way abandoned industrial area. We concluded that it was because restaurants are poor, and so they’ve wound up marketing their cost-savings as something “trendy”. As soon as I opened my car door to the valet, it started going downhill, just as you would expect for dining in an abandoned warehouse. It started with them trying to give my reservation away. We got there a few minutes late, but Aaron had boldly gone in before us to get our table, only to be shot down to discover that our table reserved for 6 got cut down to 4, claiming it was a first-come first-serve basis. Yeah, that wasn’t going to fly with me and my month-old reservation. By the time I stormed in there, they magically had a table for 6 for us. Weird.
The place was packed out. Once we sat down, the food started coming. A cast iron dish of hummus, a Mediterranean cucumber salad, some small pita rounds, and a place of smoked lamb and roasted potatoes. I shared a similar sentiment with my fellow diners when they looked around and was like, “That’s it?” It’s hard to use the word “splurge” for the equivalent of one entree, one side, and one appetizer.
Regardless, our hunger surpassed any complaint and we dug in. Quick initial food review:
Cucumber salad – mediocre
Hummus – garlicky, with a hint of peppers
Pita rounds – somewhat stale
Lamb – smoky, but cold
Roasted potatoes – mushy
The all-you-can-drink part of the meal consisted of a cheap Spanish red and a white that I didn’t pay a particular amount of attention to. Bottles were all open and not full by the time they landed on our tables, which leads me to suspect some discrepancy between what’s on the label and what’s in the bottle. I personally didn’t have any, but it didn’t seem like I was missing out on much.
Service was also fairly abysmal. Granted, the server to table ratio could have been better for such a busy night, but our server definitely paid more attention to the table behind us than us. Automatic gratuity was added on for our table of 6. That probably had something to do with it.
Successive food refills were delayed and inconsistent. The second plate of lamb was so raw that JW thought it was an entirely different dish. When we finally grabbed the attention of our server, she tried to pawn it off as medium rare. For someone who takes pictures of everything he eats, this meal was so unmemorable that it didn’t really matter. Besides, I forgot my camera. But had I brought it, I think I would have taken a picture of “medium rare” raw lamb. The third plate had maybe 5 pieces of lamb and 48 chunks of mushy potatoes. The fourth was the most tolerable, as it was a) warmer than room temp, b) actually cooked, and c) we all got at least 1-2 pieces. Unfortunately, having no other scapegoat, the lamb wound up being overcooked and became an exercise in not cramping up your jaw muscles.
During the course of this meal, the kitchen ran out of pita circles as well as red wine, with a run on the white. That’s okay, by this point we were legitimating discussing Taco Bell as a finisher.
So that’s that. There are two more “splurges” scheduled for March – one for chicken and one for seafood. Caveat emptor.
Maybe their actual order-off-the-menu items are better. But Two Urban Licks (I will use proper capitalization thankyouverymuch), you did not leave me with a very good impression. I’d choose your big sister over you, but at the end, it’s still Concentrics Restaurants that gets my money.
jamaica blue mountain.

Yes. That’s right. Be jealous. It’s a completely normal feeling. Embrace the envy.
That’s like almost $100 worth of coffee you’re looking at right there.
We’ve redefined office coffee.
another one!
I should score better on this one:
Appetite for China’s 100 Chinese Foods to Try Before You Die
- Almond milk
- Ants Climbing a Tree (poetic, not literal, name)
- Asian pear
- Baby bok choy
- Baijiu
- Beef brisket
- Beggar’s Chicken
- Bingtang hulu
- Bitter melon
- Bubble tea
- Buddha’s Delight
- Cantonese roast duck
- Century egg, or thousand-year egg
- Cha siu (Cantonese roast pork)
- Char kway teow
- Chicken feet
- Chinese sausage
- Chow mein
- Chrysanthemum tea
- Claypot rice
- Congee
- Conpoy (dried scallops)
- Crab rangoon
- Dan Dan noodles
- Dragonfruit
- Dragon’s Beard candy
- Dried cuttlefish
- Drunken chicken
- Dry-fried green beans
- Egg drop soup
- Egg rolls
- Egg tart, Cantonese or Macanese
- Fresh bamboo shoots
- Fortune cookies
- Fried milk
- Fried rice
- Gai lan (Chinese broccoli)
- General Tso’s Chicken
- Gobi Manchurian
- Goji berries (Chinese wolfberries)
- Grass jelly
- Hainan chicken rice
- Hand-pulled noodles
- Har gau (steamed shrimp dumplings in translucent wrappers)
- Haw flakes
- Hibiscus tea
- Hong Kong-style Milk Tea
- Hot and sour soup
- Hot Coca-Cola with Ginger
- Hot Pot
- Iron Goddess tea (Tieguanyin)
- Jellyfish
- Kosher Chinese food
- Kung Pao Chicken
- Lamb skewers (yangrou chua’r)
- Lion’s Head meatballs
- Lomo Saltado
- Longan fruit
- Lychee
- Macaroni in soup with Spam
- Malatang
- Mantou, especially if fried and dipped in sweetened condensed milk
- Mapo Tofu
- Mock meat
- Mooncake (bonus points for the snow-skin variety)
- Nor mai gai (chicken and sticky rice in lotus leaf)
- Pan-fried jiaozi
- Peking duck
- Pineapple bun
- Prawn crackers
- Pu’er tea
- Rambutan
- Red bean in dessert form
- Red bayberry
- Red cooked pork
- Roast pigeon
- Rose tea
- Roujiamo
- Scallion pancake
- Shaved ice dessert
- Sesame chicken
- Sichuan pepper in any dish
- Sichuan preserved vegetable (zhacai)
- Silken tofu
- Soy milk, freshly made
- Steamed egg custard
- Stinky tofu
- Sugar cane juice
- Sweet and sour pork, chicken, or shrimp
- Taro
- Tea eggs
- Tea-smoked duck
- Turnip cake (law bok gau)
- Twice-cooked pork
- Water chestnut cake (mati gau)
- Wonton noodle soup
- Wood ear
- Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings)
- Yuanyang (half coffee, half tea, Hong Kong style)
- Yunnan goat cheese
85/100. That’s a little more like it.
the omnivore’s hundred
How did I not do this before?
Taken from here:
Here’s what I want you to do:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.
The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake
Only 55. Somewhat disappointing.





