Eating Around Georgia Tech: Fava Mezze

Category: Great local midtown place

Verdict: Excellent food, wonderful service, and you can even park!

Fava Mezze has been around for a few months and I finally stopped by on a whim. I'm glad I did. It's on Hemphill near 14th Street. The restaurant is very simple and intimate but it is backed up by a catering kitchen so the menu is very complete.

The service here was extremely gracious. When I came in, the owner explained the menu to me and suggested that he could put together a combination plate for me. Since I haven't had falafel in awhile, I decided to try that with a small Arabian salad. The result was delicious. The falafel was very crispy on the outside and tender on the inside with just enough dressing. The salad---tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, etc.---was very refreshing. Once again, the service was outstanding: the chef came out to ask me how I liked it; the food was served on an elegant piece of china.

The owner was nice enough to let me sample his baklava. It's dangerously good. The butter in the pastry came through very clearly, something that I've never experienced in baklava before. I'm not a baklava scholar but I think this is the best that I've ever had.

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)

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

Search This Blog