Catching Up!

Ugh! Long time no write!  To my faithful friends, I am sorry for my lack of new material lately.  Rest assured, though; you would have been bored, much of the past month.  My life has pretty much consisted of learning a new industry during the day (brand new job) and attempting to cram my head full of calculus and physics at night.  Oh, and with a few public speaking assignments, thrown in for good measure.  Yeah, not.  

So prepare for a lengthier-than-normal post, by way of catching up.  (I feel this pent-up chattiness threatening to spill over...)  And, on the bright side, May is travel month!  This last weekend was Atlanta (more on that in a minute...), next weekend is Las Vegas, followed by a few days in Telluride, a couple of days in Moab, Utah, then a nice, long drive home.  I won't be hitting home turf again until Memorial Day, oh the bliss!  So get ready for a whole slew of blog posts coming up...

First off, I have to mention that I finally tried 4 Rivers Smokehouse last weekend.  In all honesty, I probably wouldn't have bothered, had it been left up to me.  I won't lie, if a place is neatly packaged and marketed and franchised; if the menu and decor has been focus-group tested; if my Facebook feed is cluttered with check-ins, I've pretty much lost interest before I even start.  But my dates for the night wanted to eat there, and their company being well worth any shortcomings the menu might present, I readily agreed.  (It was also 4:00 in the afternoon, another benefit of these particular companions.  Well, the male one, anyway...)

To my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed it!  I spotted burnt ends (a particular preparation well known to Kansas City barbecue lovers in particular) on the menu, and being I've always wanted to try them, I couldn't help but order them.  I enjoyed them quite a lot, along with baked beans (best I've ever eaten), macaroni and cheese (awesome, if you like Kraft), and a stuffed jalapeno (it was really good in theory, but I'm just not used to so much smoke with my peppers).  I would still like to try the real Kansas City ones, but these were pretty good.  My dates got this stack thing, with grits on the bottom, pulled pork, peppers, pickles, and who knows what else; I tried a bite and it was pretty great.  Side note, do NOT order the Spiffy Cola; it is disgusting.  Granted, I am no barbecue expert (for serious barbecue cred, I recommend my friend Caleb's blog, Smoked Pig and Sweet Tea) but, this place was good, far better than I expected, slick packaging notwithstanding.

NOOOOO!!!!  DON'T DO IT!!!!

Two of the funnest people I know.  I am a blessed woman.

See?  We made a pretty big dent in that pile of food!  Notice the half-full bottle of Spiffy...

So that was a pretty fun outing.  Then, this last weekend, I was up for a slightly overdue visit with my city-slicker sister in Atlanta.  I drove up Saturday morning, and, once I arrived, Kate and I set out to explore Marietta.  Now, I wouldn't recommend it for just anybody; Marietta has a bit of...grit to it.  But, being the adventurers we are, it was right up our alley.  We dodged the intermittent raindrops (Katie the prepared one had two umbrellas stashed in her purse, of course) along with the trains that seemed to come through every few minutes, and flitted from lunch at Willie Rae's (fried pimento cheese and house-cured pastrami on homemade rolls with coleslaw, homemade pickles and hand-cut fries, all accompanied by jammin' guitar music provided by a snazzy, dreadlock-bedecked gentleman on the corner, who told me I was beautiful, uh huh) to browsing in the plethora of shops that lined the square, to soaking up the unique combination of bluegrass music, orchestra and choir singing we happened upon in the Baptist church on the corner.  

  

  T-Man.  Three shots of espresso, chocolate, macadamia-nut syrup and whipped cream.  Plus, I always wanted to drink a coffee drink with one of those cool swirly thingies on top.

This was a unique experience.  The choral and orchestral music was truly beautiful; so very polished.  Yet, the whole thing made me a little sad.  So many gray hairs and so little youth.  These churches offer such proud tradition, and yet, one gasps for a breath of life. I thank you for the beautiful music and your gracious hospitality, but I'll stick with my heartfelt, close to Jesus, no-holds-barred worship.

Our dinner reservations were at 9:15 (this is what you get for calling to reserve a Saturday night table at a hot restaurant on Saturday afternoon...) so we had time to go and get our nails done.  (I love summer nights.  The long-lasting evening light makes the day seem so much longer and more productive.)  Then it was off to collect Mr. Rocco himself, and dinner.  

I've been wanting to eat at Empire State South for awhile now.  It's one of those places that's creating a bit of a buzz these days among the sort of people whose opinions tend to influence where I want to eat, and so I was extremely excited to try it.  If you check out their menu, you'll notice a predilection for produce, and a definite Southern accent, both of which traits I find very intriguing.  

So here's a rundown of what I ate...

This was absolutely AMAZING.  The dish is called "In Jars", and it's just that.  Five little Mason jars full of yummy things.  Pimento cheese with bacon marmalade (I am DEFINITELY going through a pimento cheese phase...), trout mousse (with a hint of orange: purely delectable), deviled ham, red pea hummus, and house-made pickles, plus a whole pile of toast to be used as carriers.  So you sit and swipe and swallow, and it's all delicious and quite fun.

Tripe Stew.  Yes.  For the uninformed, tripe is cow stomach.  See that bumpy, pale, limp looking stuff?  Yeah, that.  Honestly, it didn't taste that bad, and the texture wasn't horrible once you got it in your mouth, but whooey.  It took a heap of self-control to put that spoon into the mouth...  The hominy and egg and slightly vinegary broth was really good, though!  And anyway, how does one know if one never tries?

Halibut with romanesco (cauliflower flowers), favas, pea puree (I think) and yellow flowers, among other vegetables I can't remember

And another favorite.  Baked cake donuts with pistachio streusel and mint ice cream.  Very worth stuffing oneself for.

Needless to say, between getting up at 5 AM, running all day, and eating oneself into a stupor at 11 PM, we slept very, very well.  It was an incredible luxury to stagger to the bathroom for a drink of water at 7 AM as though it were the middle of the night, then promptly fall back asleep until 9:30.

Kate made me a fabulous breakfast of English Muffin with coconut oil, peanut butter and cherry jam and then she and I hit the Lenox Mall.  It's hard to describe how wonderful it is to have a sister that I can so thoroughly enjoy doing things with.  It's really a treat to have someone in one's life that one can be perfectly at ease with, can spend two days gallivanting around and doing a variety of things with, and never get bored or awkward or run out of things to talk about.  I am very, very blessed to have the family I do.

So we shopped our little hearts out, stopping for little but a bit of refreshment (a Salted Caramel cupcake from Sprinkles in my case...) and then we met Andrew for a last dinner before it was time for me to head South.  This time, it was his turn to pick where we ate, and he directed us to Poor Calvin's in Midtown.  First off, I've decided that Midtown is definitely my favorite part of Atlanta.  It has just the quirkiness that I love in a town - a little eclectic, a little gritty, a whole lot fun.  This place was a really unique mix of Asian and American, and it was really good.

I was so tempted to do the Pop Rocks Duck Pate (yes, real Pop Rocks!) but my love of pork belly and Asian buns won out, and I did the sliders, instead.

Lobster Won Tons - the caviar and mango glaze provided a really nice change of pace!

Andrew's Fried Chicken and Lobster Mac.  As in seriously amazing Lobster Mac.  (See what I mean about fusion?)

Oh, it's blurry!  It's also some seriously yum pineapple fried rice.  Just the right amount of crusty.

Katie's Pad Thai.  Pad Thai tends to not look so glamorous on the plate.  Fortunately, it makes up for this shortfall by tasting really good.

Toasted Pound Cake.  Caramelized Bananas.  Caramel Sauce.  Whipped Mascarpone.  Peach Brandy Ice Cream.  Yes.

Some of my favorite people in the world to pal around with, straight up.

And, because I couldn't resist.  The decor was absolutely wonderful.  I wouldn't be opposed to living in a place like this.

Who serves dessert on plates like this?

 

So that's all, folks.  This pretty much wrapped up my Atlanta weekend.  Home I went, and back to my work/school world.  But, yes, Vegas and Colorado, coming up!  Stay tuned!