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

My Fridays are pretty well booked, but I took advantage of an opportunity today to try Food Truck Fridays. It's at the storage center at 14th and I-85. Saibal and I drove over to check it out. As you can see, about a half dozen food trucks showed up. The storage center provided plenty of shady seating and live music. The crowd skewed heavily toward tech types. I loved my lettuce wrap from Village Kitchen. The filling was chicken, mango, onion and some pepper, all served cool. The combination of savory, sweet, and spicy really hit the spot, particularly on a hot day like today. For dessert, I tried the Ricky Bobby taco from Taco Buggy. That was really good too, particularly the sauce. Saibal tried the Cuban sandwich from the Latin food truck. He said he liked it and was too stuffed to try anything else.

I decided to check out S&S in Tucker through the unusual route of a visit to Technique, the Cordon Bleu cooking school. While I was waiting for a table, some of the other couples discussed restaurants and mentioned S & S. Since I hadn't tried it, I thought that this was the perfect excuse to get myself over there. Cafeteria food can be tricky---it isn't easy to maintain flavor through large batches of cooking and staying out on the steam table. I thought that my meal held up pretty well. My roast beef was very meaty. The cole slaw was very crisp. I also snagged a bite of the cornbread, which was great with their bits of Jalapeño. And the entire meal was amazingly cheap. The service was extremely gracious and courteous. Matthews Cafeteria up the road is still king, but overall, I would rank this as a very successful cafeteria meal.

The Silver Skillet was one of the first entries I posted on this blog and, being new to the area, had only been there a few times. I decided that the Skillet deserves a more reflective review. The Skillet is a good 60 years old at this point. It's a Georgia Tech institution. I see colleagues there regularly (sometimes that's good, sometimes not so good). But clearly it has a wide following---the 14th Street bridge construction put a dent in their business, so a lot of people must cross the great I-85 chasm that separates geeks and suits in order to have their breakfast. The Skillet wears its age well. It doesn't play up its quaintness or its fame. It's just one of those places that never changes. The piece de resistance of the Skillet is the biscuits and gravy. The gravy is silky smooth. Luscious is the best term I can think of to describe it. The biscuits hit the perfect balance between flakiness and moistness. I think that lunch at the Skillet isn...

Macarthur Park has been one of the favorite locations in Palo Alto for several decades now. It is housed in a beautiful building designed by Julia Morgan, the renowned 20th century architect, located next to the Palo Alto train station. My friend Ken Doran and I went there for dinner. Macarthur Park is very well known for its steak and I indulged myself. Ken had the salmon. My steak was quite good, although in my view not up to the level of someplace like Harris Ranch. But the well-executed food complemented the sturdy and beautiful century old building perfectly. The restaurant gave us exactly what we were looking for---a relaxing, convivial experience and chance for us to catch up with each other's lives.

For our lunch meeting, Chris took me to his favorite Mexican spot, Taqueria El Grullense on El Camino. It's an efficient and popular place. There's a big set of pictures on the wall for a menu with items ranging the gamut of Mexican-American food. I'm a tamale fanatic and I went with the pork; Chris ordered the carnitas. My tamales were very moist and tasty with a big helping of masa. The refried beans (there doesn't seem to be an option on beans) were quite good. I'm sure that their substantial volume helps them keep the items fresh and full of taste.

For our morning meeting, Chris and I convened at Joanie's. It's on California Avenue in Palo Alto, a low-key part of town that hasn't fundamentally changed over the decades. Joanie clearly knows her breakfasts. This is the spot for hearty breakfasts. Ben and I both tried the brioche French toast with fruit. The bread was thick and gooey in the middle, crunchy on the outside. My strawberries were very fresh, firm, and sweet. In a fit of guilt, I also ordered some oatmeal, which was excellent. It seems to have been made with milk because it really didn't need any extra cream.

For our lunch meeting, Kimberly, Ben and I retired to Tamarine on University Avenue. It is a Vietnamese restaurant but many of the dishes remind me of Thai. We started with the lychee-orange salad and the Tamarine taste platter. The salad was a little disappointing---the pistachios in the salad didn't really pop out. Overall, the tastes in the platter were pretty subtle. But these sorts of dishes are very refreshing without being heavy. I had the Madras chili tofu. Once again, the flavors were subdued. This time, the dish wasn't as hot as I expected. Everything was very well executed but I do wish the flavors, particularly the more unusual ones, stood out more.