Skip to main content

Is Atlanta an Italian-free zone?

This is the first in a series of blogs on one of the dark secrets of the Atlanta food scene---the entire Atlanta metro area has been declared an Italian-free zone.  I'm not sure how it's done---dragnets at the state border, perhaps---but passable Italian food is as scarce in this town as ice cubes on the sidewalk in August.  The truly horrific situation is in the pizza domain.  Atlantans seem to think that pizza is bread with cheese and meat piled on, sort of like a red sandwich.  But other varieties of Italian food are equally hard to find.

I should explain that I'm primarily talking about Italian-American food, which is a distinct species from the food one eats in Italy.  Italian-American food is heavier and heartier, rich in both meat and carbs.  Red sauce is known as gravy.  Pizza comes in several styles, but in America it's a meal, while in Italy it is a snack.

There are a few bright spots and I'll devote the remainder of this entry to one of them.  Bambinelli's is near Northlake Mall.  It is run by a family that moved here from Connecticut.  The restaurant has most of the requisite badges of Italian-Americanism: photos of family abound; very friendly wait staff.  All they are missing is the Sinatra soundtrack.

The defining quality of Italian-American restaurants is the red sauce.  Bambinelli's is slightly sweet for my taste but it has a good balance of flavors.  I usually get something with red sauce. But tonight I wanted something a little different, so I had the shrimp scampi, which hit the spot. The rolls that come out at the start of the meal are excellent. They are based on pizza dough but buttered and I think with a hint of cheese. We also had calamari, which was my taste of red sauce for the evening. No dessert tonight, but they have the usual complement of desserts, including cannoli.  A good cannoli is hard to find in this town, so grab one when you can.

Here is a 2013 update. This is my vegetarian lasagna. The cheese makes the dish satisfyingly rich but the lack of meat means it isn't too heavy, which lasagna can sometimes be. The pasta in the lasagna was just right. The sauce tasted great.

Bambinelli's Italian Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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.
Post a Comment
Read more

Hapeville: Pit Boss BBQ

I just had a very satisfying meal at Pit Boss BBQ in Hapeville. I missed it on my first drive down the street---its location in the back of a liquor store is pretty low key. However, I considered that location to be auspicious for the quality of my meal, and I turned out to be right. The smoke billowing out of the chimney greeted me as I pulled into my parking space. The restaurant offers pork ribs and pulled pork, chicken, brisket, wings, and burgers. This is a popular place, so expect to wait a few minutes in line and then a few more minutes for your plate to arrive. In the mean time, you can entertain yourself with the Theater of BBQ that the store presents. The counter is a frontpiece to the main stage of BBQ as revealed by the kitchen window. The front of the kitchen centers around the grill with its burgers. The doors of the smoker fill the back of the kitchen. When they open, they reveal a full company of smoking meats. I was so entranced by the huge stack of ribs tha...
1 comment
Read more

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...
2 comments
Read more