Atlanta etc.: Marilyn Wolf's Food Blog and Restaurant Blog

I just tried a wonderful dish at Mamak named Yong Tau Foo. Based on the description, I thought it would be a simple and homey dish, but it was actually quite sophisticated. As you can see from the photo, it has three distinct components. Two large cubes of soft tofu were capped with some fish stuffing. They absorbed the sauce very well and the softness of the tofu was comforting. A pair of peppers stuffed with fish and shrimp paste was at the opposite end of the scale---hot in that sneaky, wait for 5 seconds before it hits kind of way. And the pair of stuffed eggplant slices were in the middle, the eggplant nicely conveying the flavor of both the stuffing and the sauce. I really enjoyed all the flavors in this dish. And it was a very satisfying meal.

I just had a satisfying, quick meal at Penang. I always enjoy the handcrafted wood decor that is common in restaurants of this part of the world. The service tonight was short on charm but very efficient, which fit my mood. I started with bean sprouts, a dish Mom has enjoyed for years. The main ingredient in the sauce was soy sauce. But it also had a slight sprinkling of ground peanuts and perhaps something else. Not pictured, due to yet another Android camera snafu, is my stuffed tofu, which I really enjoyed. Fried tofu triangles are hollowed out, filled with cool cucumber, and topped with peanut sauce. None of the elements overwhelm the others. The contrasts between hot and cold, crunchy and soft, green vegetable and nuts are all very nicely balanced.

Malaysian food is one of the hidden treasures of Buford Highway. Tempo Doeloe is a little hard to find, nestled in one of those two-story strip malls that line the highway in Doraville. It is a very simple, cafeteria style place where you bus your own table. A small Malaysian grocery store is attached; they seem to specialize in sauces, something that I will have to try. My lunch was a beef plate. (Actually, I'm not sure that is what I ordered, but I enjoyed it.) Underneath that peanut sauce is bean sprouts and green vegetables. The beef was a little dry, but overall this was a hearty, satisfying, and fairly healthy meal. Of course, I'm always a sucker for peanut sauce...

I just had a superb lunch at Mamak on Buford Highway. The restaurant is small but very well decorated in a colorful, abstract style. The service was extremely gracious and efficient. This is street food but don't expect tiny dishes---the servings are hearty. I started off with a roti. It was nothing short of amazing, a perfect combination of crispy, chewy, and soft. The sauce that you put inside was light and flavorful without distracting from that superb bread. This is my sambal okra, which was also excellent. Southerners usually either fry okra, which pushes it toward the crispy side and tends to eliminate the okra slime, or add it to a stew, which can make it hard to pick out. This okra was very tender and soft, which I found to be very comforting. The taste of the okra came through very clearly. The sambal offset the okra slime just enough so that the combination added to the soft, reassuring texture of the dish. Pretty amazing stuff...

Category: Excellent neighborhood Thai restaurants Verdict: Very flavorful food that can be both familiar and unusual at the same time Top Spice is one of those places I like so much that I didn't get around to blogging about it until now; I always knew that I would be back again.  It has several locations and I've eaten in two of them over the years.   I of course enjoy Thai food for all the reasons that so many people do: unusual yet understandable, wonderful and new combinations of spices, and relatively light and healthy.  I've always considered Top Spice to be an excellent example of the genre. Top Spice actually serves both Thai and Malaysian food, which we'll get to in a moment. I didn't really need an appetizer, but I decided to try a roti murtabak, which I don't think I've had before.  It's a flatbread/pancake filled with ground beef, onion, and spices.  The filling was dry and I think that my mood would have been satisfied with something ...