Chamblee: High Road Ice Cream Factory Store

Why didn't I know about this place? I found out about it from the Alton Browncast, a podcast that I highly recommend. The factory store is located just off the perimeter. It's a real factory, so the location in an industrial park is pretty low key.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but the store features tasting and to-go pints of ice cream; don't expect to drop by for a sundae. I tried three flavors. The banana chocolate had a wonderful banana taste; the coffee was a much more subtle coffee taste than I've ever had in an ice cream; and the vanilla sel de mer was sublime. In addition to superb flavors, the texture was perfect.

I happened to visit during a factory tour, so I hopped on. It was led by the chef and very enjoyable. This is very much handcrafted ice cream. They also spend a lot of their time on custom orders for local restaurants and we heard some very interesting stories of unusual requests. We also got to try yet more ice cream straight out of the machine---soft and rich, reminiscent of soft serve but so much better.

This is truly great ice cream and the factory store experience is well worth the trip.

Comments

Asheville NC: Luella's BBQ

Luella's is a nouvelle BBQ outfit on the north side of Asheville. It is nestled among the trees in a lovely neighborhood. The restaurant has lots of windows for inside seating and plenty of outside seating. Service was courteous and amazingly fast. This is a combination plate with pork and brisket. Both were very moist and tender. For the pork, I tried both the mild and hot vinegar sauces. To my surprise, I preferred the milder one because it didn't assert itself too much. I enjoyed the spicy tomato sauce for my brisket. The hushpuppies were very good. The fried okra was fresh out of the fryer and excellent. The slaw was of the vinegary variety, which I usually enjoy, but this version is heavy on the white stuff and didn't have quite enough variety in tastes for me.

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...

Everybody's Pizza

Everybody's Pizza is across the street from Emory University. It was founded in 1971 and has a seventies college feel. But it isn't musty or dated---you don't feel like you are eating in a museum. It's just pleasantly funky. They played a Big Bird song while I was there. What's no to like? The pizza is college-style as well, as contrasted to the Italian neighborhood style that is (or should be) the goal of a New York style pizzeria. I think that the cheese is the ingredient that most leads me to this feeling. In a New York pizza, the cheese would be central (even if it came from a low-grade Mob supplier), while in more suburban pizzas, the cheese is seen as one in a medley of ingredients that form the topping. (I think that cheese-centrism should be the essence of pizza. Remember that the modern pizza was created by adding cheese to traditional tomato sauce-covered bread.) I think the biggest fault of this pizza is the crust, which I found to be just a lit...

Atlanta etc.: Marilyn Wolf's Food Blog and Restaurant Blog

Search This Blog