Tucker: Southern Seafood

Southern Seafood, located in the Happy Stores strip mall on Lawrenceville Highway, is a neighborhood stalwart. I have bought fresh fish there a few times but this trip was my chance to try their steamed seafood. The setup is simple---watch the monitor for the menu to come up, figure out what you want, step up to the cash register and order. I spent longer than usual deciding since the menu kept being swallowed up by animated graphics. I finally chose a pound of spicy crayfish and a piece of spicy corn. The proprietors used a scoop to load a plastic bag with my crayfish out of a giant vat. The corn came in a styrofoam box. It's really that simple. The price was very low. The store has a couple of long tables but both were filled by other customers. I went outside to my car to eat.

There is only one way to eat this---get busy. I grabbed a crayfish, broke it open, and worked out some flesh. It was very good: meaty, spicy enough to give my lips a tingle, a gentle seafood taste. Once the crayfish was done, I put the shell in another part of the bag. Like any manual skill, one improves with practice. I interleaved bites of corn into the process. My car managed to escape with only a couple of stray bits of crayfish scattered around its interior. Once I was done, I took the bag to the trash can in the parking lot. Simple and satisfying.

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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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