Stephanie introduced me to several new things in Clayton, including her friend Jenny who runs Fromage. We started off with a sandwich at the Fromage booth at the Clayton fair. That's Jenny's mom showing us our roast beef and brie sandwich. The sandwich was element and I snuck a taste of their chocolate and peanut butter fudge thingie, which was wonderfully rich.
I took myself to dinner at the restaurant, which is located on a quite side street just down the hill from old main street, and proceeded to overindulge.
I started with a cheese platter. I'm always a sucker for goat cheeses but I also particularly loved the Wisconsin cheese on the left. The fruits and nuts were a superb complement.
Next came the tomato bisque soup. This one was surprising: very creamy and fairly salty. I really liked the combination, it's just very different from the tomato-centric way I make a bisque. (I just take a jar of homemade tomato sauce and throw in a little cream and some herbs.)
I really didn't need an entree, but I couldn't resist the pesto with happy pork belly. The meat portion isn't quite as overwhelming when you consider that a lot of it is fat (my mom trained me to cut off the fat), but it was still very generous, as were the portions of all the courses. The pork was succulent and tender. The pesto did an excellent job of balancing the basil with the cheese and nuts.
I couldn't make it to the dessert course; perhaps next time. Fromage is largely a lunch place, as with many of the establishments in Clayton. But they serve dinners on the fourth Friday and Saturday of the month all summer.
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)
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