Decatur: Southern Sweets Bakery

This is the start of a short series on cakes, thanks to my upcoming birthday.

On a recent trip to the DeKalb Farmers Market, I noticed a sign for Southern Sweets Bakery. It's a little farther away from Ponce than one might expect, so don't give up too early. It's buried in the middle of an industrial park. Despite the unglamorous location, it has great baked goods and serves lunch as well.

I decided to try a piece of red velvet cake, one of my reference dishes that I use to compare establishments. The photo doesn't entirely do justice to the size of the piece, which was really larger than I deserved. The cake fit all the classic requirements of red velvet cake: good moist cake that is satisfyingly, artificially red; and a real cream cheese icing. The side of the cake had a texture made of small pieces---it looked like pieces of white chocolate although it tasted like the cream cheese icing. It was very pleasing but not overly sweet or cloying. It wasn't cheap ($5.30) but the size and quality justified the price.

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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.

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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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