Skip to main content

The Melting Pot

Hyesoon and I were in the mood to talk. We decided to try The Melting Pot in midtown. It's very near campus and I've been by it dozens of times but never tried it. Fondue is a great meal for talking. Things go slowly when you cook only one or two pieces of food at a time and talk is the natural thing to do.

Their menu is much more complex than a typical fondue restaurant. They emphasize a 3/4 course meal: cheese fondue, salad, meat fondue, and possibly chocolate fondue for dessert. They have a dizzying variety of options for all the fondues.

This is our cheese fondue course. As you can see, they give you a variety of dipping items, including the traditional bread and fruit as well as some other items. The cheese fondue contains both kirchwasser and wine. We both really enjoyed the flavor of the fondue. It must have been the variety of wine they chose that gave it a very lively flavor.

Their meat fondue course can be made with the traditional oil for cooking, but they also have broth-based cooking baths. Good Marilyn was in attendance that night so I went with the broth. I had a surf and turf meat fondue: chicken, beef, and shrimp. The broth was surprisingly tasty, particularly on the shrimp; the seasonings they put into the broth are most noticeable on the shrimp. It cooks everything surprisingly fast, too.

Our chocolate fondue course had darn and white chocolate chocolate swirled in a yin-yang pattern. Sorry I didn't get a photo, but I was pretty full at that point. The presentation was very skilled and it tasted great. Once again, they gave us a wide variety of dipping items, both traditional and not-so traditional.

The Melting Pot on Urbanspoon

Comments

  1. I hate to write with a downer, but we've spotted this new site that has pilfered this and another of your recent stories, apparently in full. Were you aware of it?

    http://atlanta.the-restaurant-directory.com/atlanta-restaurant-news/

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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.

Hapeville: Pit Boss BBQ

I just had a very satisfying meal at Pit Boss BBQ in Hapeville. I missed it on my first drive down the street---its location in the back of a liquor store is pretty low key. However, I considered that location to be auspicious for the quality of my meal, and I turned out to be right. The smoke billowing out of the chimney greeted me as I pulled into my parking space. The restaurant offers pork ribs and pulled pork, chicken, brisket, wings, and burgers. This is a popular place, so expect to wait a few minutes in line and then a few more minutes for your plate to arrive. In the mean time, you can entertain yourself with the Theater of BBQ that the store presents. The counter is a frontpiece to the main stage of BBQ as revealed by the kitchen window. The front of the kitchen centers around the grill with its burgers. The doors of the smoker fill the back of the kitchen. When they open, they reveal a full company of smoking meats. I was so entranced by the huge stack of ribs tha...

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...