Decatur: Maddy's Rib & Blues Joint

Maddy's BBQ is embedded deep in suburban Decatur. The decor emphasizes music. Their favorite musician seems to be Ray Charles, the father of soul. They seem to have live music regularly; unfortunately I haven't made it to any concerts. Their location and decor emphasize that BBQ is now a culinary subcategory. It's come a long way. Barbeque is food for poor people, made with the lesser cuts of meat, cooked slowly to make them tender. Twenty years ago, many of the BBQ places I went to were local places where most of the clientele were not like me, either racially or socioeconomically. It's harder to find that sort of place these days.

When my half rack of ribs came, I had a flashback to 5th Street. Their sauces look nearly identical and are served in the same type of paper cup. The sauce gives the meat the same light red tint. But there are differences. The meat at Maddy's falls off the bone. (Although I must say that the middle ribs were more attached. I'm disappointed that the cooking wasn't more consistent.) Very tender and tasty. The cole slaw was good but not memorable. The staff was very courteous and friendly.

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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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Cava is a DC area chain with light Mediterranean food. Saibal encouraged me to try lunch at their airport location and I was very happy with the experience. I ordered falafel on SuperSalad with assorted other toppings. The falafel was tasty. The SuperSalad was light, flavorful, and very easy to eat. Overall, a healthy and enjoyable lunch, something you can't always say about airport eating.

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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