East Atlanta Beer Festival

This Saturday is the annual East Atlanta Beer Festival. While tickets just sold out, you can still come to the event to drink and experience one of Atlanta's most interesting neighborhoods. I have lived in East Atlanta since 2003 and have seen the shops and bars in the village change many times. Today there is an eclectic mix of food and drink. I hope you will all take the time to visit a great part of town and to support the local bars and shops in my neighborhood.

Travel Post-Tasty Tavel

Most of you know I am headed to France in less than two weeks! Last night I spent some time reviewing our plans for Provence. After spending a day and night in Avignon, we will be renting a car and heading out to explore several small towns in the area. A recent NY Times article inspired me to explore the town of Tavel.

Tavel is only 14 km north of Avignon and touted as the birthplace of Rose wines.

Although I think Rose in the recent past has been overlooked here in the US, this pinkish wine is making a comeback especially as we enter the months of summer. This is not white Zinfandel and not Boone's Farms! Rose is a long standing traditional French wine dating back to when the Pope ruled from Avignon. Tavel along with Chateau Neuf de Pape was home to vineyards charged with creating wine fit for the Pope! Today, in France, the sale of Rose wine outpaces white wine.

Tavel is the epicenter of great Rose. With over 30 wineries, there is plenty to taste and to see. We will be visiting Domaine de la Mordorée to sample some of the wines of the region followed by lunch at L'Auberge de Tavel a cute little hotel and restaurant built in a former school house.

This tiny town of 1,600 will hopefully be a perfect place to dive into small town French culture and sample some amazing food and wine.

Korean BBQ

For a Southern girl like myself, BBQ is a staple of family gatherings and summertime cuisine. I love to find a perfect out of the way spot with great sauce and the perfect cole slaw. More on that later, this post is dedicated to Korean BBQ. I was first introduced to this by a friend who had moved to Atlanta from San Diego. At first taste, I fell in love with the smokey flavor of the meat, and the cool fresh taste of the condiments.

In case you don't know (because I didn't), when eating Korean BBQ (as I was shown by our great waiter) the meat is grilled at your table over hot smokey coals. It is then typically served with lettuce and an assortment of banchan (side dishes), like kimchi, radishes, bean sprouts, peanut or soybean paste, scallions, and other vegetables. The grilled meat is placed inside the lettuce to make a lettuce wrap and can be eaten with the side dishes.

Hae Woon Dae has been voted best Korean BBQ in Atlanta several years running. This small out of the way restaurant sits in one of the many obscure strips of shops off Buford Highway. I was pleased the first several times I ate there to be the only non-Asian customer. The menu consists of many traditional Korean dishes and appetizers. I prefer the Kimchee Jun a moist crepe like appetizer with kimchi and onions. We have also enjoyed the Goon Mandu a fried dumpling stuffed with beef and cabbage, much like a Chinese dumpling.  For entrees you can choose between traditional rice and stew dishes likeBi Bim Bab, shredded beef & vegetables over rice with hot sauce or my favorite the Dol Sot Bi Bim Bab which is a veggie version of the dish. This comes served in a cast iron hot pot so the rice becomes moist but slightly crunchy.

For the main event though it is hard to pass up the BBQ itself. I pair it with a Korean beer Hite. Guests choose from an assortment of familiar and maybe not so familiar meats. Many feature exception marinades. I recommend the short ribs which are marinated and very tender, also the Joo Mool Ruk  which seems to be marinated beef tips, as well as the Dak Yang Nyum Gui  marinated chicken that melts in your mouth. I have also tried the Dae Ji Bul Gogi  pork marinated and grilled. For more adventurous eaters, they feature tripe, tongue and various seafood choices.

This restaurant is a destination dining experience. I have been taking friends new to Korean BBQ here for a few years. The service is friendly and the food is fun and delicious. Well worth the drive just outside the Perimeter.

Savoring Serenbe

Yesterday for Mother's Day, my parents and I ventured 35 minutes south of Atlanta to Serenbe Farm. We had been planning to visit for over a year. Upon arriving we were transported to an idyllic country setting.  Serenbe is a planned community near Palmetto. The community is a neighborhood with small shops and restaurants similar to Watercolor Beach in Florida, but it features an Inn with an amazing restaurant The Farmhouse. 

 The Inn at Serenbe consists of a main house constructed from a resurrected 1905 farm house and  is surrounded by various out buildings and barns new and old that have been renovated into additional guest quarters. Rooms at the Inn are quite reasonably priced in comparison to other resorts near Atlanta, and the ambiance is exactly what you seek when you try to get out of the city. Picture a Countrytime Lemonade commercial and you are there. Wildflowers were in bloom, horses stood lazily in the pastures, and the garden behind the Inn was lush with lettuce, and herbs used in our Sunday lunch.

Being Mother's Day, we were there for the Sunday fried chicken lunch. We were greeted and seated on the beautiful screened in porch overlooking the garden. The Sunday menu is pre fix featuring a green salad, your choice of fried chicken or ham, various seasonal side dishes, and a dessert. For only $25 this was a deal.

The meal started with a green salad, featuring the lettuce we could see growing in the garden! It was tasty, but nothing out of the ordinary. The accompanying bread stole the show. These little biscuits were perfect. Slightly crusty on the outside, totally moist and buttery on the inside and full of fresh chives.

The entree arrived with a huge portion of fried chicken served  with chive cheese grits in a casserole, fresh carrots (also from the garden) and a tomato, cucumber and onion salad. The chicken was amazing, crispy and moist with plenty of black pepper in the batter, delicious. The cheese grits were so creamy. To finish we were served a homemade old fashioned style lemon pound cake with fresh blue berries and whipped cream.

The meal was a perfect way to celebrate the day. I am looking forward to returning to Serenbe for the day or for a weekend. Throughout the summer and Fall they have events for families and couples. This is one retreat worth venturing outside of the city to find!

Mi Favorita Margaritas ( My Favorite Margaritas)

Cinco de Mayo is tomorrow and that calls for margaritas. There are plenty of places to drink them around Atlanta, but in my humble opinion a good margarita here is hard to find. About 5 years ago a friend of mine made margaritas for a dinner party. She had taken a cooking class at Nava in Buckhead.  The chef had shared the Nava margarita recipe. Since that day, I have been perfecting the recipe to my taste and have become sort of a margarita snob.

Here is my version of this classic and pretty easy recipe:

1 cup fresh squeezed lime juice

1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (blood orange is really good too)

1 1/4 cup tequila (I prefer Don Julio Anjeo, but your favorite will do)

1/2 cup Cointreau

**1 cup of simple syrup (see recipe here)

** instead of simple syrup, you can substitute one cup of Splenda powder. Place this in a measuring cup, then add water. The Splenda powder will dissolve. Add enough water to bring it back up to one cup.

For other places in Atlanta to buy pretty good margaritas check out my favorites list:

1. Agave
2. Nava
3. Taquiera del Sol
4. Nuevo Laredo
5. Lupe