Reader Works / Technological Devotee / Bakery

My Valentine

I try not to write about sappy nonsense, but love isn’t nonsense, guys, and I’m really in love with Zach. I know that sounds kind of silly, but it’s a big deal to be in love with someone and know that they’re there for you too.

This Valentine’s day I was really surprised— I got back to the hotel room and we were going to karaoke as a group. I was just coming back to change but when I went to use the bathroom, there was a note on the toilet that led me to another note… in the microwave. 

You get the idea.

But seriously the cutest thing ever. It was a hand-colored heart and this handwritten message. It made me all gooey inside. I was surprised that he’d even gotten me a present because we’ve been living at the W for a while and they don’t really go out.

Apparently they had taken the Acura car service (man… now I really want an MDX) and gone to the Phipps mall to go to Tiffany’s. He got me the lock pendant for my turquoise key. 

It was sweet.

Richard Blais got it right!

Backlog of posts, guys! I’ve got a bunch of photos and things to say.

First— I’ve been to Flip Burger a few times here in Atlanta now. It’s pretty great. I do have to say that the wait staff is a little snooty. The first time I was there, our server was pretty friendly, but not too many other people were. Maybe it’s the clientele they get and my friends and I are just perpetually casually dressed— I don’t know.

The interior is posh and modern. The red carpet with the minimalist white furniture makes me feel like I’m in a lounge more than in a restaurant that serves… burgers. The lighting is modest— It doesn’t have that it’s too dim for you to eat your food vibe but it’s not incredibly stark lighting either. We ate outside the first time and it was good weather. I had ordered the d’lux burger, which was black diamond beef, seared foie gras, wild mushrooms, fried shallots, and truffle aioli. 

I got a side of the fries as well with their smoked mayo. Fries were good, not too greasy, but the smoked mayo made me slightly nauseous. Just a preference thing. The beef was incredibly rich. It was like inhaling all this meat. I had to try really hard to finish my meal. It was succulent and flavorful, but I think it was all too much for me. Maybe I should’ve tried a lighter burger.

I regret not taking a photo, but I absolutely should’ve— my Nutella milkshake was AMAZING. I was blown away by the perfect balance. It captured everything that I love about Nutella. It was topped with lightly burnt marshmallows and it was just ridiculous. I had to order some of it to go for Zach because I was so impressed. I’m not a big milkshake person but this was definitely a 10/10 in my book.

The food ranks 8/10, but that milkshake, man, 12/10. Definitely.

High Museum of Art: Photo Set

South City Kitchen

Bryan and I went adventuring last weekend and while we ended up having multiple adventures in the same day, this post is dedicated solely to South City Kitchen.

We were originally heading only to Target to grab some supplies, but we both realized that neither of us had car keys (Really? 6 cars and we didn’t have keys to any one of them… We sucked at planning this Target trip).  That being said, we decided to just take the car service. It was Sunday, though, and we only had the car service til 2:30 and it was already around 1pm. 

The hotel brought the car around and Milton was going to be driving us for the day. Suddenly, I had this great idea that maybe instead of spending our Sunday quite dully at Target, we should go find some Southern fried chicken! I mean, we’re in GEORGIA. Shouldn’t we be savoring the best of this city right here?

We told Milton about my awesome plan to hunt some fried chicken down and asked him if he could recommend any places. He said he was going to drive us down to Midtown to a place called South City Kitchen.

Fast forward to Bryan and I standing outside this amazing little restaurant in the middle of bustling Midtown. It was a gorgeous little venue. Too bad it was freezing outside, otherwise I think I would have enjoyed sitting out on the small patio.

It wasn’t incredibly busy, but there was certainly a lively air inside the restaurant. Our server, Kysha, was funny and incredibly nice. We told her we were visiting Atlanta and wanted the best fried chicken.

I didn’t know this, but apparently Atlanta is well-known for its chicken and waffles. I’d never heard of such a thing before, honestly, so I didn’t really go for that item on the menu.

Bryan went and ordered it. I thought the chicken looked amazing, but the waffles + syrup made me slightly dubious. I was in doubt, but he seemed to genuinely enjoyed it and he declared that we definitely were going back to eat there.

My order of buttermilk fried chicken arrived, served with collard greens and mashed potatoes on the side. OH MY GOODNESS. That’s some real fried chicken. Not at all greasy, perfectly crispy skin, and the perfect portion, too. I didn’t quite comprehend how on earth they were able to come up with this amazing recipe for fried chicken and how they decided on this Raiza-sized portion. Heavenly.

It seriously didn’t even take me 10 minutes to finish my meal (or at least it didn’t feel like it). I was pretty stunned by how quickly I ate through that chicken.

Definitely recommend South City Kitchen, 9/10, just because it seemed like a relatively small space indoors. Food is a definite must-try when you’re in Atlanta, though.

Room Service

Since we’ve been staying at the W, we’ve been getting a good amount of room service, but I wasn’t really compelled to write about it. This afternoon, however, I ordered some lunch (if 6pm is lunch) and it blew me away.

(PS isn’t the camera quality amazing? I love my 4s)

I ordered the slow-cooked Scottish salmon from Market, cooked medium well. It arrived on a small bed of mashed potatoes, topped with amazing, fragrant kale. 

I’m not a super food-conneseur, but I can absolutely tell when seafood is made well. This meal was worth raving about. I tried to eat slowly and appreciate the different flavors and textures, but I’ve never been so eager to finish a meal before. It was delicious, to say the least.

It was a simple, filling portion— perfect, in my opinion. 

For dessert, I was craving something sweet, so they brought up this perfect little chocolate cake, topped with a dusting of cocoa and sugar. The vanilla ice cream added a great contrast to the dark chocolate filling.

Again, perfect. I have to say, this has been the most impressive meal I’ve had from Market. The food has always been an 8/10 or a 7/10— but tonight this was a 10/10, made perfect by two plates that exceeded in both flavor and simplicity.

I love that they dished out well measured portions that was just enough for someone like me.

Such a great experience— i will definitely recommend Market!

sidestory

Zoey and I went to Market this morning for breakfast since she woke up the same time I did (pretty early). Didn’t want to give her a bath and risk waking Zadie so we snuck off to Market in her PJ’s and I took this awesome photo that just says enough about my kid:

I love Zoey. I swear she and Zadie are the best little people in my life.

Buckhead Pizza Co.

Last night was Elle’s birthday dinner so we had gone out as a small group to Buckhead Pizza Company, about 4-5 minutes from here. It was a small venue, although I’m pretty sure it was connected to a hotel. I wasn’t extremely alert at the time (note: sleepy) so I didn’t see which hotel it was. This neighborhood is fantastic for hotels and restaurants, it seems.

I had just had California Pizza Kitchen for lunch then so it was kind of like, good thing I didn’t have pizza! I was actually hungry but decided on ordering a personal size white pizza which is about four slices of white pizza goodness.

I liked the atmosphere at the pizza place, although it was kind of cramped. It had a vaguely bar feel to it, even though it wasn’t like that at all. I enjoyed the company— Aaron and I ended up having this conversation about movies and foreign films that we both enjoy. I ended up revealing my network name to people (says a lot about me) and I cheered inside to know that they recognize Ozymandias.

Anyway, the pizza itself was okay. I thought it was pretty good and didn’t have that burn-your-toungue right out of the over feel. 

The ricotta was in these relatively larger chunks so I didn’t enjoy that too much because although I like ricotta, I don’t particularly like it in chunks. The pieces were large enough that I could pick them up with two fingers so I was very meh about it.

I have to say, though, that personal size pizza left me feeling hungry. Maybe it was because it was a white pizza and was pretty much just cheese and basil, but I really did want it to be a little more filling than that.

A Quiet Lunch

This afternoon we looked for a no-frills lunch that wasn’t going to take too long and we had come down to either California Pizza Kitchen vs. Panera. I’m not a huge fan of Panera— although I do like it on some days when I’m craving it.

We ended up voting for CPK, which in my opinion was a good choice. I’ve only ever been to a CPK once and that was a great experience, although I personally didn’t think the food was wow.

It was crowded— maybe because of the lunch hour— but it wasn’t incredibly loud. We were sitting in this open space so maybe that’s why it wasn’t so noisy.

Andrew and I ordered this drink which I thought was going to be magnificent:

Ugh. Underwhelming. I feel so whiny when I write in my blog sometimes but I just want a REALLY good meal. Seriously. There’s a part of me that wants to schlep over to my mom’s house and just EAT. This mango-lime soda had a definite bite to it that kind of burned— not ideal for lunch.

I wasn’t super hungry, and lunch is kind of my small meal of the day since I don’t really like getting stuffed and feeling lethargic after a mid-day meal.

Andrew had gotten these lettuce wraps and I tried one. It was chicken with a bit of peanut sauce. It was okay, not terribly awesome. I had one but didn’t have more after that.

I did get these chicken dumplings with soy ginger chili sauce. Pretty good. The dumpling skin (?) really was kind of bland. Didn’t appreciate that too much. Sauce was okay. Jeez maybe I should stop before I sound like I’m whining about food?

I mean, I’M NOT. It’s just that I want something GREAT.

This artichoke-broccoli soup though was really quite hearty and filling. This is kind of what I was poking for seeing as I don’t really feel that good right now.

I’ve decided that I will probably not be trying California Pizza Kitchen again anytime soon since I’m not that into their cuisine. Definitely love pizza and am craving it— but will probably not be going to CPK for that anytime soon.

#astonmartin

Heartbreak at the Lenox Grill

As of my writing this, it is 4:27 P.M., 2/6/2012 and I am mildly heartbroken. I sound incredibly selfish saying this, but this afternoon, I had lunch with some of my friends at the Lenox Grill. I’ve never been there so I was incredibly excited since there is nothing that gets my foodie going like a new place.

The venue is gorgeous. I felt that while we were casually dressed people, we didn’t really look too out of place, but the atmosphere was slightly more formal than I expected from the name.

I was actually pretty hungry, but I took the opportunity to take a few photos since we were waiting from a few more people from our group to show up. I wondered what kind of food they served since it looked fairly upscale.

After we got seated, I looked over the menu and didn’t really find anything that I was too interested in: usual burgers, hotdogs, grilled this and that. I wanted to try some fried okra, but I really just wanted something simple.

I decided on two appetizers: chicken tenders and the she-crab soup. The soup sounded wonderful from the description. 

A cream-based soup and DELIGHTFUL texture. I loved it. Tasted amazing. I rarely give out such a great compliment for seafood soups since I think I have yet to be wowed by one, but this one was such a hit with me. I really wanted to inhale it more than anything else.

I took three sips of this soup and thought, wow, they got this right. I had some bites out of my chicken tenders then I figured, okay, I’ll have more soup. After doing that, though, I realized, wait a minute— I feel very slightly queasy. 

I could tell it was the soup that was making me queasy. I felt really sad— no, devastated at this fact. I mean, this wonderful, amazing soup was making me sick. I don’t know if it was just my stomach not used to the cream, but I had to stop eating it. I had some of Bryan’s fries and depressedly finished my meal.

I liked it enough to give Lenox Grill a try again. However, I don’t think I will be having more of that soup any time soon, sadly.