Restaurant Eugene

Restaurant Eugene, on Peachtree in south Buckhead, is one of the best restaurants in the country. Chef Linton Hopkins has been nominated for a James Beard Award and his Southern-inspired cuisine has received wide attention. A visit from my old friend Mark Horowitz seemed like the perfect occasion to try it---Mark must get tired of all that California cuisine in Palo Alto.

The menu has an interesting organization. Each section---fish, vegetables, meat, has several tasting-size items and a few main course-sized items. It's very easy to mix and match.

I started with a salad, then had shrimp with rice cheese grits. The rice grits is pretty much what it sounds like---rice prepared as grits (presumably including the lye treatment). They are very mild, making them an excellent complement to the shrimp.

This is the black pork belly, with the black coming from sorghum. It wasn't quite as black in appearance as I had been led to believe by the name, but that's OK. The texture of the pork belly was wonderful. The exterior was browned just enough, the inside was extremely tender, and the mouthfuls of fat were as tender as anything I've had (and I've had Kobe beef in Kobe).

For dessert, I had a sweet potato creme brulee. It was very well executed with just the right amount of sweetness.

The restaurant was jam-packed by the time we left. That's a pretty impressive feat in this recession and speaks to the quality of the food. The service was also excellent; my only qualm was that it took quite some time to bring the dessert.

Comments

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)

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.

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

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

Search This Blog