Sandy Springs: Double Zero Napoletana

On Monday, I went to Double Zero Napoletana with the Atlanta Food Bloggers Society. It's located on Roswell Road just north of the Perimeter, more or less across the street from Ruth's Chris Steak House. This is one of those places that has been on my radar for awhile so I'm glad that my fellow bloggers gave me the excuse to go.

The restaurant provided us with an appetizer, the l'arrosto. Believe it or not, that roast pork with sides is on the small plates part of the menu. The chef explained that the pork was roased for about 6 hours. The garnishes included roasted garlic (amazing), eggplant, and peppers. The pork was exquisite---succulent and with a very roasted flavor.

I was on my own for the pizza so I tried one of my favorites, the quattro stagione. The traditional version has four different cheeses, one per quarter of the pie, in honor of a location near the Vatican, as I recall. This one had some extras, including roasted artichoke and roasted garlic. I was originally a little hesitant about fooling around with a classic and artichoke in particular. (I still remember my dad's insistent claims that artichoke was a weed that California farmers decided to market as a delicacy.) But the artichoke turned out to be almost my favorite part of the pizza. The sauce on the pizza was amazing, the perfect balance of tart and sweet. The crust itself was very thin in the Italian style, as compared to the slightly thicker New York or much thicker Chicago. But it still achieved that perfect balance of tenderness and chewiness.

And this is what food bloggers do when they eat---they take photos of everything that comes to the table. This shows Leslie of "The Food and Me" and Grant of "Marie, Let's Eat" taking photos of the latest arrival.

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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)

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

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