Peter Cheng's Tasty China II

This is one of Mr. Cheng's several outposts. My colleague at the University of Virginia mentioned that Mr. Cheng has a (very good) restaurant in Charlottesville as well. Tasty China II is located on Powers Ferry. I couldn't see the river at night, but they did have some cute Christmas decorations. I found the service to be pretty good.

I started out with an appetizer of chicken in translucent noodles. It's a cold dish, which emphasizes the subtlety of all the elements. The chicken was very tender and flavorful. The noodles had just the right amount of bite. Small cucumber spears made a great complement in both flavor and texture.

My main course, spicy fragrant duck, couldn't be more different. It's done in the "hot and numbing" style: fried duck with no sauce, but covered in pieces of red pepper and scallions. The idea of frying a duck may seem redundant since it already has so much fat, but trust me, it's extremely flavorful and the flavor of the duck really comes through. Since we are in the South, comparisons to fried chicken immediately leap to mind. The crust's flavor didn't come just from the red pepper. I'm not sure exactly what he had in the coating but I really enjoyed it. It was very crispy as well. The duck was outstanding: succulent, tender. Some of the pieces contained bones, which is great for flavor but bad for chopsticks. I ended up eating it by hand. Let's just say there wasn't any duck left to take home...

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Eating Around Georgia Tech: Ecco

Our Texas Instruments colleague Cathy Wicks was gracious enough to host several of us at Ecco tonight. This is one of those restaurants that has been on my list for a long time. Even though it is within easy walking distance of Georgia Tech, I hadn't made it there until tonight. The menu is a combination of Italian, Spanish, and French that make use of some local Georgia ingredients. The combination of those three countries is sometimes a little forced, although the georgia ingredients (fruit, cheese) were all great and perfectly appropriate. We started out with a meat and cheese board. This actually reverses the French tradition, where cheese usually follows the main course. Everything was excellent. The Georgia cheese was a big hit, as was the French cow/goat cheese. I thought the sauscisson was very subtle and very good. The waitress said that the roast pork pasta was their signature dish, so I had to try it. It had traditional broad pasta (fresh, of course) ...

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Pressure Cooker Candied Ginger

I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b...

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