After 23 days, I realized that I completely forgot about 101 Days of Words and in turn skipped the previous two days.  This is after I skipped another day in the middle somewhere.  Honestly, it’s just too much for my little brain to handle to write something creative every day.  In fact, none of the 23 minus 3 days were really creative at all.  Maybe there was a random short story and a random poem, but I think I’ve come to face defeat regarding my declining creativity.

After all, I finish all my statements with a semi-colon instead of a period now.  How much creativity can that even surmount to?

I think I prefer the random postings here better.  No pressure to do it every day, and I can save up some creative juices to unleash all at once so at least it will be more entertaining.

0 more days.  :)

Instead of an endeavor to cook 536 recipes in 365 days, I’m starting smaller.  Much much smaller.

Also, the likelihood of my experiment being turned into a book/movie is far less likely.  If somehow American cinema reaches a new low and every movie idea on earth has been officially been exhausted, I reserve the right to pick who gets to play me in the film adaptation.

Anyways, the premise of the experiment is simple.  101 days of writing.  That’s it.  I just have to make it through 101 days.  I might follow a specific topic.  Maybe several.  Maybe none.  Who knows.  I just have to write, largely to retain whatever creative capacity I have remaining in this dull logic-processing brain of mine.

Want to follow along?  You’ll find me for the next 101 days here:

http://101daysofwords.wordpress.com

I’ll try to do some guest spots on this blog in the next 101 days, but if I’m MIA, you’ll know where to find me.

Till then, take good care of this place for me.

I shall call it, for a lack of better terms, the cycle of fatness.

You see, this is how the cycle begins.  First, you eat.  This is simple enough.  I am actually a certified professional in this field.  If you need professional advice on what you should be eating, you should be coming to me.  Surgeon General’s Warning: Strictly following my advice can result in obesity, diabetes, unpopularity, and in most cases, death.

After a period of such eating, there will be the need to counteract all the deliciousness.  This can stem from a variety of reasons – body image consciousness, a significant other, health issues, or just plain difficulty getting from the bed to the couch to watch TV without being complete exasperated.  Let’s not even discuss any kind of side route to the kitchen for a snack.

So, in order to fulfill such need, you decide to hit the gym.  A noble decision indeed!  You throw on some exercise clothes, grab your iPod or an alternative non-Communism-supporting portable media device, strap on some running shoes, and you feel like you’re ready to take on the world and pare down your collection of stretchy pants.

At this juncture, one of three things will happen.

1) You will go to the gym, walk inside, and be completely intimidated by all these crazy medieval torture devices.

2) You will go to the gym, only to find that the place you pay an exorbitant amount of money for on a monthly basis has been rented out for something ridiculous like a high school swim meet leaving you with nowhere to park and excessively high blood pressure from your wasted dollars.  In your fury, you head home and/or your nearest cheeseburger purveyor and eat away the anger. (note: this has only happened to me twice.)

3) Someone calls you to see if you’re ready to throw down all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue.  Federal law dictates that it is a felony not to comply.

It becomes obvious that the cycle comes around full circle if situations #2 or #3 were to occur.  That was easy.

But what if you find yourself in situation #1?

You feel like your very presence in this mausoleum of calories is already the victory that you came to reach.  You stroll through the gym convincing yourself that you totally belong there with your unwaivering confidence.  Any fear is masked under a guise of looking at no direction in particular, yet avoiding eye contact with anyone and everyone.  You hope and pray that something – anything – looks even vaguely similar to the gym equipment you have in your prized virtual mansion as a result of countless hours of The Sims 3.  Finally, out of the corner of your eye, you see something that is both recognizable and not so daunting..

A bike!  It looks bolted down pretty well, so there’s really not much risk in finding yourself careening uncontrollably at that somewhat cute girl/guy that you tried not to stare at as you walked in.  Besides, you learned how to ride a bike when you were a kid, and you never forget, right? RIGHT?!

Hop on that familiar machine, you fitness guru you.  What’s this?  Buttons and screens and lights?  While unlike the Huffy you used to cruise the mean neighborhood streets with, you leverage your adept logical reasoning skills to master this technological behemoth in front of you.

Start!  The only button you really needed to press, because let’s face it, you totally lied on your weight for calorie calculations and maybe even your age if you got that desperate.  You take off pedaling, reliving both your bicycle-based adventure-seeking youth and your equally blissful dream of donning the yellow jersey at the Tour de France.

Wiping sweat off your brow, you take a big swig of water from your newly purchased “This may be overpriced but it proves I really work out a lot” water bottle.  The intensity is so high at this point that you wonder if it’s bad form to just pop open the top and douse yourself with the rest of the water.  You glance over at fellow cyclers near you, giving them a sly grin as your imagination visualizes them as competitors on a winding mountain road.  You know you have to keep pressing on as they’re neck and neck with you, though that probably has a lot to do with how the gym sets these machines side-by-side in a line.

Muscles aching, you look forward to the end of this strenuous workout, thinking about the washboard abs you’ll have to show off once you get off this devil-possessed machine.  Eventually, your legs give out from under you and you collapse onto that blinking, taunting screen, with the following blurry text scrolling across your now-somehow-tired eyeballs.

Elapsed Time: 2:30
Remaining Time: 27:30
Calories: 14
Average Heart Rate: 184

Awesome.  Simply awesome.  Your hard work can now be rewarded.  No, MUST be rewarded.  You drag your tired body back to the car, thinking about what to reward yourself with.  A new TV?  Hmm, no.  A new car?  Eh.  A new water bottle?!  Maybe.

Then suddenly, it comes to you.

As you shout your order through that drive-thru speaker box, you sense that sweet gratification that this double cheeseburger is going to be 14 less calories than usual.

2010 was kind of weird.  On the upside, it was the first full year of being married.  On the downside, it’s the last year I got to spend with my grandmother.

I realize that there has not been a lot of literary genius gracing this page in the past year, though every year I’m swearing to “post more, write more, express more, etc etc etc”.  It would be so much easier to just let this go completely, but this blog is my labor of love.  It’s my outlet.  It’s the virtual antithesis of my Chinese upbringing for me to say what’s on my brain and unload what’s on my heart.  The best part is, the more controversial or judgmental my rants are, the more random readers tend to respond.  They may not be the greatest of responses, but at least it gives the warm fuzzy feeling that someone out there is reading this.

In fact, this is the outlet that has caused the rift between me and the woman who birthed me.  I don’t regret it for a second.  Some people have asked, “Well, do you ever wish that you never wrote that stuff and published it online?”  No, I really never have.  On one hand, it may seem terrible that she’s disowned me and expressed her hatred towards me.  On the other hand, this has really exposed what the real situation is in my family – not just to the public, but also to me.  I was just as blind to everything as the next person, and I’m the oldest son.  How terrible is that?  Besides, knowing my temper, something like this would have exploded at some point in the past 5 years anyways.

Anyways, here’s to 2011.  Who knows what will happen this year?

Though the roots of Thanksgiving are decidedly northern (U.S. History pop quiz: where was the first Thanksgiving held? AND NO GOOGLE/WIKIPEDIA), the South quickly transformed some of the staple foods into more delicious and therefore more unhealthy versions.  After all, southern cooking has its roots in simple farm foods, not unlike those pilgrims and native Americans.

So with that, I present a recipe I stumbled upon today that was reprinted by The Amateur Gourmet – in the comments section, no less:

Sweet Potato Casserole
from The Gift of Southern Cooking

Ingredients:
5 pounds small sweet potatoes (about 10 potatoes)
8 Tbs (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 3/4 tsps salt
3/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsps vanilla extract
3 cups milk, heated
1 Tbs unsalted butter, softened

Topping:
1 cup light-brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground Ceylon cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
8 Tbs (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Wash the sweet potatoes and put them on a foil- or parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for 1-1/2 hours, until they are very tender. Remove from the oven and allow to cool briefly, then peel. Put the peeled sweet potatoes into the large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with beaters or a whip attachment. Mix the hot sweet potatoes on low speed to begin mashing them. Add the butter, and mix until it is absorbed. Add the salt, nutmeg, honey, and both sugars, and mix until they are thoroughly blended. Add the lightly beaten eggs and vanilla, and beat on medium speed for two minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low, and slowly add the heated milk. When the milk is incorporated, taste carefully for seasoning, and add more salt or nutmeg as needed. Thoroughly butter a 9-by-13-by-2-inch baking dish with the softened butter, and pour the sweet-potato mixture into it.

Raise the oven temperature to 375.

Make the topping: put the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt into a mixing bowl and mix well. Use your fingers to work the chilled butter into the mixture until it resembles oatmeal with some pea-size pieces of butter in it. Stir in the pecan pieces, and mix well. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the top of the sweet potatoes, and bake in the 375 oven for 30 – 45 minutes, until the topping is golden brown and crisp and the sweet potatoes are set but still slightly loose in the. Serve hot. Like yo mama.

“But George, what does that mean?”, you might ask.

Well, I’m glad you asked.  Not only does this mean our house is filled with kids multiple times a week, which I love (so does the Wii, it finally gets some use), it also means we have an entire new and extensively growing neighborhood of food to discover.

When we were in the apartment, our proximity to Buford Highway generally made food a no-brainer – to this day, there are still a number of places there that we never ate at but have always wanted to (ahem El Rey del Taco).  But it was easy to default to old favorites, especially for someone like me who gravitates towards the familiar and the dependable.

But now things are different.  We’re bordered on one side by the rapidly developing Westside and White Provisions area and on the other with the cosmopolitan Midtown, where a number of excellent (and non-Asian/Mexican) dining outlets await us.  We’ve tried a few, but we’re always discovering a new place en route or reading about a new place in a magazine.  We’re also fairly close to the Va-Hi/Inman Park/Old Fourth Ward area as well, which has even more stuff.  Don’t even get me started on Decatur.

Yet, with all this, we still have a hard time deciding where to go for dinner sometimes on the rare occasion that we do go out and eat.  Maybe it’s because there are too many choices and it becomes daunting.  Or maybe I just forget all the places that are nearby as a result of a subconscious mental block stemming from my penchant for familiarity.  Regardless, I decided that listing some of these places out would help the next time something like this happens.

List after the jump.

So here we go (in no particular order):

Westside:

• Miller Union
• JCT Kitchen and Bar
• Yeah! Burger
• Bocado
• West Egg Cafe (for dinner)
• The Real Chow Baby
• Crazy Cuban

Midtown:

• The Vortex (it’s been a while)
• South City Kitchen
• Noon
• Empire State South
• Steamhouse Lounge
• Papi’s (also been a while)

Old Fourth Ward:

• 4th and Swift
• Miso Izakaya
• Fuze Burger

Decatur:

• Sawicki’s
• Cakes and Ale
• Watershed (fried chicken!)

Elsewhere:

• One Midtown Kitchen
• Lunacy Black Market
• Nuevo Laredo

As of this update, we’re up to 104 different places.

This list covers 688 days – 8/23/2008 to 7/12/2010

We eat at a new place approximately once every 6.6 days.

We’ve eaten in 7 different states: GA, CA, PA, IL, TX, FL, NY

22 of 26 letters have been covered – missing letters: Q, V, X, Z

So, here’s a quick round-up of where we’ve been and what we’ve been doing.  This should really be cross-posted to georgeandlinda.com, but that means I actually at some point need to revamp it to make it applicable to post-wedding life (we’re over 9 months now!).

May 28-31 – Memorial Day Weekend.  We were down in Jacksonville, FL for the conference.  It was disgusting hot.  Not Heatpocalypse kind of hot, but uncomfortably warm for the end of May.

June 5-6 – Dallas.  Out there to see my dear grandmother, as well as caught up with some kids that I’ve been completely MIA/out of touch with, not unlike this blog.

June 12-13 – Birmingham.  Took a little road trip out to be with the migration training there.

June 25 – July 5 – California.  Summer training and hanging with the fam and stuffing our faces with more food than should be legally allowable, even in the most liberal of states like California.

So for those of you keeping score at home, that’s right; 5 different states in 6 weeks.  Foursquare was struggling to keep up with my massive number of check ins, and probably at one point thought I was cheating – I mean, does anyone really get boba 7 times in one week?  Yes.  This guy.  *points to self*  And his wife.  *points to wife*

So yeah, once again, here’s my empty promise that is destined to be unfulfilled, which largely explains my lack of readership: I’m going to write more, I promise.  More as in quantity and in quality.  You will be so entertained that you will do nothing but continuously hit refresh until something new comes up.

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for warn out keyboards or mouse buttons.

I think I’m hitting my limit.

All these weekends away are starting to take a toll on me.  I feel like I can go into hibernation mode for a few weeks with no problem.

To give you perspective, I’ve been in 3 different states the past 3 weekends.  One of those states is not Georgia.  We’re staying put this coming weekend, and then we’re off to the semi-annual training.  5 of 6 weekends not in Georgia.  Add in the 40+ hour work weeks of stress sandwiched between these weekends and you’ve got a inevitable mental revolt on your hands.

I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining (though it’s probably coming out that way) – I’ve enjoyed all my trips for their corresponding reasons.  I like my job, even though it makes my brain explode sometimes.  I’m just tired, that’s all.

It doesn’t look like I’m going to get a bona fide vacation this year either.  One day I’ll get enough vacation days (and salary!) to account for conferences and trainings AND a real actual vacation.

I’m not seeing what the issue is here with the following law.

834b.  (a) Every law enforcement agency in the State shall fully
cooperate with the United States Immigration and Naturalization
Service regarding any person who is arrested if he or she is
suspected of being present in the United States in violation of
federal immigration laws.
   (b) With respect to any such person who is arrested, and suspected
of being present in the United States in violation of federal
immigration laws, every law enforcement agency shall do the
following:
   (1) Attempt to verify the legal status of such person as a citizen
of the United States, an alien lawfully admitted as a permanent
resident, an alien lawfully admitted for a temporary period of time
or as an alien who is present in the United States in violation of
immigration laws. The verification process may include, but shall not
be limited to, questioning the person regarding his or her date and
place of birth, and entry into the United States, and demanding
documentation to indicate his or her legal status.
   (2) Notify the person of his or her apparent status as an alien
who is present in the United States in violation of federal
immigration laws and inform him or her that, apart from any criminal
justice proceedings, he or she must either obtain legal status or
leave the United States.
   (3) Notify the Attorney General of the State and the United
States Immigration and Naturalization Service of the apparent illegal
status and provide any additional information that may be requested
by any other public entity.
   (c) Any legislative, administrative, or other action by a city,
county, or other legally authorized local governmental entity with
jurisdictional boundaries, or by a law enforcement agency, to prevent
or limit the cooperation required by subdivision (a) is expressly
prohibited.

“The Burger”, at Holeman and Finch Public House, here in Atlanta, GA.  While a good standby favorite (on the occasion you can actually score one), I’ve enjoyed everything else off the menu that I’ve tried there.  Pork belly, pig tail, charcuterie – I’m ready to explore the rest of the menu.

Anyways, I saw this via Twitter from Adam (@amateurgourmet) who authors The Amateur Gourmet, one of the many food blogs I’m constantly perusing through.  As he is an ex-Atlantan, I subconsciously instill more faith in his food-brain and tastebuds.  Besides, if you peruse deep enough, you’ll see that he manages to bang out some serious stuff out of a not-so-big New York apartment kitchen.  That alone is quite impressive.

So here’s the recipe (after the jump), shamelessly stolen off his site.  The whole vegetarian thing sets off some serious red flags, but I’m sure a little pork shoulder or roast chicken should fix it right up.  I really like how it’s been borrowed and tweaked via a variety of sources.  Crowd-sourced recipes are great!  (By the way, consider this to be my official claim of ownership and inventorship of the phrase “crowd-sourced recipes” and all its punctuational and capitalization varietals.)

From http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2010/04/white_lasagna.html:

“The Best” (Vegetarian) Lasagna
by Morgan Tingley
via several friends, with breadcrumbs borrowed from Suzanne Goin
Serves 8-12

2 large onions, thinly sliced
4 sprigs of thyme
6 medium zucchini, sliced evenly into 1/3” rounds
3 plum tomatoes, sliced very thinly (less then 5 mm)
Lasagna noodles for 3 layers (no-bake or parboiled, up to you)
1/4 cup basil pesto (fresh or purchased)
1 pound ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
zest of 1 lemon
1/8 c + 1 T chopped parsley
8 oz shredded mozzarella
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1 T Dijon mustard
8 T olive oil
3 T butter
Optional: Greens from 1/4 pound ramps

1. Add 2 T olive oil and 1 T butter to a large skillet and heat on low until butter is melted. Add onions and leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme. Sauté over low heat about 1 hour until onions are caramelized. If not sweet to taste after 1 hour, increase the heat to medium till onions are browned.
2. Preheat oven to 300 °F. In a large bowl, toss zucchini slices with 4 T oil, and salt to taste. Arrange rounds on 2 baking sheets and bake 40 minutes until tender and slightly desiccated. Increase temperature to 400 and bake 10 minutes more until tops are browned.
3. In a medium bowl, mix ricotta with shredded parmesan, lemon zest, 1/8 c. parsley, and salt and black pepper to taste.
4. In a small pan, melt 2 T butter over medium heat until foamed. Add in leaves from remaining 2 sprigs of thyme, 1 T Dijon mustard, and 1 T finely chopped parsley. Remove from heat and whisk vigorously. Add in breadcrumbs, toss to combine, and set aside.
5. With all materials prepared, assemble the lasagna layers in a 9 x 13” baking dish, in the following order, remembering to lightly season between layers:
a. 1/3 of onions
b. 1/3 of zucchini
c. 1/3 of tomato slices
d. 1 whole layer of prepared pasta
e. evenly brush pesto over pasta in a very thin layer (use 1/3rd or less)
f. 1/3rd of ricotta mixture, spread evenly to edges of pan
g. If using, evenly cover ricotta mixture with 1 layer of ramp greens
h. 1/3rd of shredded mozzarella
6. Repeat to create 3 full layers, using up most of your ingredients (you may have some leftover, just eat it all in a sandwich). Over the top, sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture. Cover lasagna in aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight.
7. Preheat oven to 350 °F. Take lasagna out of refrigerator and place directly in the oven. Bake covered for 20 minutes, then remove foil and bake an additional 40 minutes till bubbly.

This means that I need to find myself an office away from the office.  The real office is just too far of a drive – and too quiet, if there was such a thing, and working at home is far too distracting with all my little toys and whatnot.  No, what I need is a chair, a table, some ambient noise, preferably coffee, and a subtle distraction every now and again.

My ex-go-to-places have started to get overrun by…outsiders.  White Windmill, Maum as a desperate second, even Library Coffee despite them having all of 4 outlets for the entire place.

What I need is a new hidden gem.  Somewhere where I can hide that no one else really knows about.  Somewhere like White Windmill a year or two ago.

Anyone want to share their secret place with me?

Or do I really need to go open one up for myself?

So L has been having this craving for sushi recently, and as a means of filling her cravings as well as further our restaurant repertoire, we bypassed the standby Sushi Yoko and went online to find somewhere to broaden our somewhat barren horizons for sushi in Atlanta.

Our requirements were fairly simple – it had to be affordable (MF and Hayakawa were out) and somewhere new (so was Sushi Yoko).  It was also preferable that it wasn’t a buffet (*sob* bye Nori Nori).  L knows I have this thing against Yelp, because I have some egotistical thought that people who post reviews on Yelp are uncouth heathens with uneducated palates who would rather get a double cheeseburger from McDonalds.  Then I remembered that I like double cheeseburgers from McDonalds.  Regardless, Yelp is always a last resort for me.

Since the forums on Atlanta Cuisine closed down (for the umpteenth time), I didn’t have anywhere else to quietly lurk to get my inside Atlanta restaurant info. Fortunately, the regulars from Atlanta Cuisine rebanded under a new forum: 285Foodies.com.  It was there where I carefully perused all the thread titles under the restaurant section to look for my unicorn cheap sushi place here in Atlanta – some authentic hole in the wall place by some trained Japanese sushi chef that’s trying to make it big in the States. Unfortunately, if such a place exists, it still hasn’t been a) discovered, or the more likely b) leaked out even to the food connoisseur community.

At the end, I rediscovered Thaicoon – a Thai/sushi place that has a fairly silly name over by Emory.  I ate there a number of years ago, when Andy came to visit and it made for a nice weekend lunch with like 12 other people.  It obviously was not good enough to leave a very lasting impression on me food-wise, and never even really came up mentally as a working solution to the sparse Thai cuisine here.

But on to the actual experience.  We were greeted at our table by a lady who tonged us some hot towels, which reminded me of the similar service when you fly trans-Pacific on a decent airline (Air China != decent).  The sushi roll section of the menu (despite its ethnic authenticity, was what L really wanted) was surprisingly extensive, and even better is that they have specials on Monday and Tuesday from 5pm-10pm.  The constant stream of people coming in were evident of the weekly specials, and made us wonder what the place looks like on a Wednesday night.  Specials were $1 for most nigiri and $2-$3 for a 4 piece roll for select rolls.  Not too shabby, I thought, but we decided to order something off the menu anyways.

What we ended up with, via my awesome cell phone cam, after the jump.

Tuna nigiri, salmon nigiri, spicy tuna roll, super crunch roll

Double fantacy (sic)

Pad kee mao with beef – had to try some of their Thai, even though we just had Thai the night before.

Mini food review:

Nigiri: thin, bland, and not worth the effort to split it into two bites. L suggested that maybe the $1 nigiri on Monday and Tuesday is to get rid of their excess weekend fish supplies. I think L is spot on.

Rolls: spicy tuna was actually a chunk of tuna and not the crushed up and mixed with spices spicy tuna rolls I’m used to, and that’s pleasantly surprising. That said, it wasn’t very spicy, as it was dependent on the sauce for spice. Super crunch roll was meh, seeing how it was just panko breadcrumbs wrapped in rice and seaweed, then topped with salmon. The Double Fantacy roll was slightly better than their attempt at spelling its name, and was probably the best (and needless to say, most expensive) out of the bunch.

Noodles: “Whoa, these are actually al dente!” was L’s comment, and it’s true. It’s been a long time since I’ve had non-mushy Thai noodles, whether it be in pad thai or pad see ew, and the fact that the noodles in the dish had texture and flavor was quite surprising.  It IS fairly spicy though, and my typical disregard for the number of chili peppers next to a dish name became apparent halfway through.  Note: 2 chili peppers at Thaicoon actually has some kick.

Conclusion: Thaicoon is probably not somewhere where we’d return for sushi, but definitely a fairly viable place for Thai food.  At least this visit has given us another possibility for decent Thai in our area, and can be a good bench player to support the starters like Little Bangkok.

- bagelicious
- bageltastic
- bagemazing
- inbagelable
- the bagel-diggity
- round and toasty

Most important, this is what we ate:

Cheese slice at Gaby’s Pizza
Porterhouse Steak at Peter Luger
Cheesecake at Omega Diner
Dumplings at Joe’s Shanghai
Boba at TenRen’s Tea Time
Hot dog from a street vendor
Americano at Stumptown Coffee
Gyro from a Halal street vendor
Pastrami and corned beef at Carnegie Deli
Strawberry cheesecake at Carnegie Deli
Sausage pizza at Bravo Pizza
Red Velvet Cupcake from Magnolia Bakery
Gelato at Golosi
Blueberry pancakes and sugar cured bacon at Clinton Street Baking Co.
Shack Stack and Black and White Shake at Shake Shack

and of course, 14 bagels from Pick a Bagel for the road/freezer.

Not bad for 3.5 days, right?  That’s not even including a wedding and a reception and all the touristy sightseeing stuff.

Pictures of deliciousness after the break.

It’s tucked away in a non-descript section of Lawrenceville Highway in Tucker, and you would never find it unless you knew to look for the wrong sign.  The signage still bears the marks of its previous tenant, Beef Stix.  If you’re looking for the place, just drive down Lawrenceville Highway until you see a modernish white and maroon sign labeled Beef Stix.  It’s located between Flanigan’s and The Milk Jug but across the street, for you Tucker locals.

We were a little afraid when we pulled up because the place was fairly deserted.  There were one or two cars parked out front, and a table of two inside.  For context, this was about 7:15 on a Tuesday night.  But through some voracious mobile Yelping, our fears were assuaged as review after review recommended a healthy handful of dishes.  Inevitably, we ordered them all.

Quick food review:

Baan Chav – A huge nicely textured crepe with an amazingly flavorful meat filling inside.  It’s excellent with their dipping sauce.

Fish Amok – Definitely get the fried version.  Even though the fish is covered in delicious sauce, it somehow still maintains a good crispiness to it.

Beef Sticks – Very flavorful, with a touch of sweetness to it.  The beef they use is fairly good quality steak, and is quite tender.

Noodle Soup with Chicken – This might have been our least favorite dish of the evening, largely because the soup is unexpectedly sweet.  Granted, we’re no Cambodian food experts, but it was somewhat of a turn off.  The chicken was also a bit dry, but the rice noodles had a good mouth feel and not overcooked.

Curry Saraman with Beef – Our feeling toward this dish might have been somewhat muddled due to the fact that this was the last one out and we were pretty full by then.  There is definitely a LOT of flavor, but that may also be why it didn’t appeal so much at the end of the meal.  I can see myself eating the whole plate of this with a big bowl of rice as a nice big hungry lunch.

All in all, the food was surprisingly good.  There was so much flavor in every dish.  Large portions, along with being incredibly affordable, was more than enough for me to grab a take out menu to ease this place into our rotation of go-to quick-and-cheap eats.

The owner was incredibly nice too.  He served us the entire evening, and his wife does all the cooking.  On weekends, his daughter comes in to cook as well.  It’s a true family affair, and it shows.  The restaurant, although sparse, is the result of this family doing what they do well – serving up good plates of home cooking.

If you haven’t had a chance to go, make some time to go.  It really is a hidden gem in the middle of Tucker.

Some shamelessly stolen pictures from Linda’s phone after the jump:

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.

Chicken and Smoked Sausage Gumbo

- serves 10 to 12 -

Adapted from My New Orleans by John Besh.

Ingredients

1 cup rendered chicken fat or canola oil
1 cup flour
2 large onions, diced
1 large chicken, cut into 12 pieces
2 tablespoons Basic Creole Spices (recipe follows)
2 pounds spicy smoked sausage, sliced ½ inch thick
2 stalks celery, diced
2 green bell peppers, seeded and diced
1 tomato, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Leaves from 2 sprigs fresh thyme
3 quarts chicken stock
2 bay leaves
6 ounces andouille sausage, chopped
2 cups sliced fresh okra
1 tablespoon Worcestershire
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Filé powder
Tabasco
White rice for serving

Procedure

1. Make a roux by heating the chicken fat or oil in a large cast-iron or heavy-bottomed pot over high heat. Whisk the flour into the hot oil. It will immediately begin to sizzle. Reduce the heat to moderate and continue whisking until the roux takes on a deep brown color, about 15 minutes. Add the onions, stirring them into the roux with a wooden spoon. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue stirring until the roux is a glossy dark brown, about 10 minutes.

2. Season the chicken with Creole Spices. Add the chicken to the pot, raise heat to moderate, and cook, turning the pieces until browned, about 10 minutes.

3. Add the smoked sausage and stir for a minute before adding the celery, bell peppers, tomatoes, and garlic. Cook, stirring, for about 3 minutes. Add the thyme, Chicken Stock, and bay leaves. Bring the gumbo to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally and skim off the fat from the surface of the gumbo every so often.

4. Add the andouille, okra, and Worcestershire and season with salt and pepper, several dashes of filé powder, and Tabasco. Simmer for another 45 minutes, continuing to skim the fat off the surface of the gumbo. Remove the bay leaves and serve in bowls over rice. Pass more filé at the table.

Basic Creole Spices

- makes 1/2 cup -

Ingredients

2 tablespoons celery salt
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

Procedure

Mix together the celery salt, paprika, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, and allspice in a bowl. Transfer the spices to a clean container with a tight-fitting lid, cover, and store.

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.