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

Opa's Best seems to be a new restaurant. The staff was very enthusiastic and the food was pretty good. The meal started with this very generous and delicious plate: bread, yogurt dip, hummus. My main course was an excllent plate of vegetarian moussaka---hearty and plenty of umami.

You know it's fall in Atlanta when the Greek Festival arrives. The Greek Orthodox cathedral's grounds overflow with people and food for the weekend. A timely article in Serious Eats reminded me to try the frappe. This Greek tradition is made with Nescafe instant coffee shaken to create a head of foam, a gift of the chemistry of instant coffee. I ordered mine with two spoons of sugar and some milk. I enjoyed my frappe with a show of Greek dancing. Check out these lambs slated for a dinnertime feast. And the Theater of Pastry is truly amazing.

I finally made it Zuckerino. This little pastry shop has been situated next to the Perimeter for several years now. I had always assumed that Zuckerino was an Italian name but is in fact Greek. The proprietor was very friendly and clearly proud of his work. Here are my cookies. I started with the ginger cookie, which was delicious: a great balance of tenderness and flakiness, a distinct but gentle ginger flavor, sweet but not overpoweringly so.

Dimitrios brought me these candies from Greece. They are a little softer and less stringy than taffy, closer to a jellied candy. The liberal coating of powdered sugar helps to handle them without sticking. They are delicious and surprisingly not overbearingly sweet.

My University of Maryland friends decided to take me to Kapnos for our lunch discussion. This very nice Greek restaurant is located in the new hotel across from campus. We started out with some finger food. The olive selection was particularly impressive---a good olive is a real treat, distinct but subtle and with a firm texture. The bread that came with the beans was extremely fresh and wonderfully soft. The lamb was very moist and tender. The lamb flavor came through very clearly without being overpowering. The falafel had a good crust and a rich interior. This is fried eggplant in an unusual form factor that gave a nice ratio of crunchy exterior to soft interior. And these are fried zucchini, which were a big hit. We ended up with a very nice baklava. The sauce combined honey and caramel for a distinctive taste and texture.

I enjoy salads when I go out to eat. And I often order Greek salads, which I like. But let's face, it, what passes for a Greek salad in the U. S. bears little resemblance to the species in its native environment. Here are two salads I ate on my recent trip to Greece. They each have a nice Greek cheese, tomatoes, onions, green pepper, wonderful olives, olive oil, salt. But no lettuce. Not one shred. To be fair, Dimitrios explained to me that village salads vary by the season, depending on what is available. During some parts of the year, they might feature greens. This configuration became known as the Greek salad because it is the summer version, the time when foreigners come. I will continue to eat Greek salads in diners and restaurants. But I will always dream of these wonderful salads from Greece.

My hosts took me to dinner at this very nice restaurant to continue our discussion. Many of them are regulars so the owner came out to greet us during our meal. A nice lettuce salad. And, of course, a Greek salad. These grilled mushrooms were outstanding, not to mention huge. This grilled cheese is a very mild cheese with a distinctive taste. These grilled peppers and zucchini were a big hit. The couscous makes a perfect accent. My sausages were meaty and porky, a very nice contrast to some of the other food. The serving size was just enough given the huge amount of food we ordered. You can never have too much dessert.

My friends at the University of Patras took me to dinner at this wonderful restaurant on the waterfront. They told me it featured great seafood and they were certainly right. The meal started with this wonderful presentation of bread and tomato salsa. I have seen this done a piece at a time but never at this scale. Some tziki... And Greek salad. Spanakopita. I really enjoyed this eggplant dish. The octopus was superb, very tender, particularly for such a big one. The octopus was bathed in lemon juice to help tenderize it. This plate has two different kinds of fried fish. Both were outstanding, with moist flesh and a thin coating that gave texture without being overpowering. I don't remember what type of fish this was but it was superb: very meaty, very moist. Its freshness was obvious. This combination of olive oil and lemons is quite different from the straight olive oil used on the Italian table. It works extremely well on fish. This digestive is rich in local...

I was in the mood for a simple dinner so Dimitrios and I debriefed at the hotel restaurant. I of course ordered a Greek salad; more on the Greek salad experience in a later post. For my main course, I ordered a pork steak that came with a very porky sauce. Dimitrios explained that this is a favorite dessert and one that I hadn't seen before. The body of the cake has a filligree composition; it is covered by a layer of phyllo. Everything is soaked in an orange syrup that is at the center of the appeal of this dish. It was very flavorful and just rich enough.

We interrupt our regular programming to bring you this special announcement---the Atlanta Greek Festival is on! This festival, run by the Greek Orthodox Cathedral, is a longrunning tradition. The drive-in lane, that amazing innovation, is open Thursday Sept 28; the full festival opens on Friday. I drove through for a pastry sampler. Not only are the pastries expertly prepared, they are also extremely fresh. These are without a doubt the best Greek pastries I've ever had either in the U. S. or Greece. We now return to our regular programming...

Leslie introduced me to Blu, a small restaurant in old downtown Marietta. The building itself is charming (sorry, no photos). I started off with a Greek salad. It was good, but it did follow the mold of American-style Greek salads by concentrating on lettuce. In Greece, the mother's salad concentrates on tomatoes, onions, olives, and feta cheese. I had a pork souvlaki for my main course, which was very enjoyable. It was complemented by some fruit---papaya, etc.---which was a welcome refresher.