Decatur: Johnny's New York Style Pizza

Still going with the pizza theme here. Johnny's is near the Decatur MARTA station. It has a refreshing college look. It's lived-in. References to bands and concerts abound. I've been spending too much time in suburbia.

The pizza does live up to the advertising as New York style. I got two slices, one vegetarian and one meat. Once again, your mileage may vary since this wasn't a fresh pie. But they were good. You should also beware that I got through half of my first slice thinking that the meat slice was lacking in meat before I realized that I was eating the vegetarian slice. But it was good---I loved the strong presence of olives. The meats on the other slice were well-spiced and tasty. The crust was quite good and of the proper thinness and chewiness. My only fault with this pizza is my general complaint with Atlanta pizza, namely the cheese. I think there are two ways to go with pizza cheese. Either you use an extremely fresh mozarella or you go with the gluey Mafia-style cheese. One of the mob's rackets is to require their local pizzerias to buy third-rate cheese at inflated prices. The taste is one of those so-bad-its-good things.

I can't resist commenting on the name for the benefit of Atlanta pizza entrepreneurs. If you're really going for the New York feel, you have only two choices of name: a variation on Ray's or the blue-label generic choice, Tony's Pizzeria.

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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)

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

DCA: Cava Mezze Grill

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.

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

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