My University of Georgia colleagues took me to a wonderful lunch at the Savannah Room in the UGA Hotel and Conference Center. The service was very good and the room was the perfect spot to discuss work and academic life.
Lunch started with a delivery of rolls; when we demolished this first basket, another promptly appeared. Each basked offered a variety of rolls. I went for one with a soft, pillowy texture.
Next, we shared this huge cheese plate. All of the three cheeses were outstanding. I always enjoy a good blue and this one definitely caught my attention. The plate also showed off Georgia peanuts, Georgia pecans, and a small slice of Georgia honeycomb.
My main course was the excellent mahi mahi on a bed of kale and quinoa. The fish was great and the quinoa bed really hit the spot.
I had to try the room's famous strawberry ice cream pie. Everything about it was outstanding, starting with the homemade, flaky crust. The pie itself is made of a very rich ice cream with a very subtle strawberry flavor. The Georgia strawberry topping brought the strawberry home and played off very nicely against the ice cream. This was a huge piece of cake. I didn't come even close to finishing it. I clearly owe the UGA campus another visit to concentrate on this wonderful pie.
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.




Comments
Post a Comment