World Dish with Gene Lee

Have you ever wondered what those numbers mean in Vietnamese restaurant names?

The short answer: The Vietnamese use numbers to signify something personal to them. A “71” could mean the year the family fled their war-torn country; an “83” could be the birth date of the owner’s first child.

Quan Ba 9, a cozy, 5-year-old Vietnamese restaurant on Buford Highway, has a unique story behind its numerical name. Owner Henry Nguyen’s father was the ninth and youngest child in his family. After Nguyen’s mother married his father, his parents’ friends started referring to his mother as Ba 9 or “Missus 9.” The word quan translates to “store or restaurant.” So put it all together, and the restaurant is simply named after Nguyen’s mom.

Mrs. Nguyen’s recipes also appear on Quan Ba 9’s menu. You can find some solid versions of pho (noodle soup) and com (rice) topped with your choice of meat or seafood. The kitchen also puts out a palate-tingling version of bun Thai, a …

Continue reading World Dish: My Quang at Quan Ba 9 »

Credit: Bravo

Read this recap and this week’s episode will be as SPOILED as a trust fund kid with a gummy bear fetish…

Just as the chefs began settling into their television-studio home in San Antonio, Padma opens this week’s episode with the news that this rodeo is moving to Dallas. The chefs pack their gear into a Toyota something-or-the-other and we get a nice little montage of road tripping where get to know some of the key players a little better.

My favorite revelation from the ride? That Bromance – the cheftestant formally known as Chris C. – used to sport 70 extra pounds dulling the edges of that chiseled chin. His shot from the Chef Works catalog wasn’t going to land him a supporting role on any Fabio cover art any time soon.

In what was clearly not a staged encounter with the law, the parade of product placements comes to a screeching halt at a mid-afternoon roadblock on a deserted access road in Middle of Nowhere, Texas. This rattles Dakota, as she has some …

Continue reading Top Chef Texas recap, Episode 5: The rich and tasteless »

(image courtesy of www.paula-wolfert.com)

This Saturday, Dec. 3, food writer Paula Wolfert will sign her new book The Food of Morocco at the Emory Barnes and Noble starting at 1 p.m.

Wolfert, a regular contributor to Food and Wine magazine, has won the Julia Child, James Beard and M.F.K. Fisher awards for previous works that include The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean and The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen.

Paula Wolfert, 1 p.m. Saturday Dec.3, Barnes & Noble at Emory, 1390 Oxford Road, Atlanta. 404-727-6222.

In other news:

Bell Street Burritos opens a new location

Matt Hinton, proprietor of Bell Street Burritos in the Sweet Auburn Curb Market, has officially opened a second location in Atlanta’s Westside neighborhood. Today is the official grand opening where there will be discounts and giveaways offered at the Westside restaurant between 6-9 p.m.

Below is the formal press release (edited for length):

Atlanta, GA- After only one year open at the Sweet Auburn Curb Market, …

Continue reading In the news: Author of Moroccan cook book in Atlanta, Bell Street Burritos opens new location »

As part of our ongoing Top Chef Texas coverage, Atlanta Top Chef alum Hector Santiago of Pura Vida and Super Pan Latino Sandwich Shop will drop in from time to time with an insider’s perspective on the week’s events on the show. Here is Hector’s take on episode four….

This is a crucial moment thru the competition as everybody starts thinking of themselves and how to win or save themselves through the challenges to come. Some may put it all out there, some may play it safe, and some will try to ride the line between not getting eliminated or being in the middle.

Quickfire

Chiles, all kinds of them, and 20k on the line! You know that for all our love for chilies and hot foods (chefs in general) they are not used as much as they could be. Many chefs fear the heat factor that can overpower a dish if not used correctly, and you can see it as most of them go for the less hot ones. My experience with chilies is that the tastier they are, the hotter they are. The trick is to control …

Continue reading Behind the curtain with Hector Santiago: Top Chef Texas, Episode 4 »

Table & Main is one of the restaurants participating in Historic Roswell's first annual restaurant week.

Restaurant week. Buckhead has one. So does Inman Park, Midtown and Downtown. And starting in January, historic Roswell will become a member of that club.

With a rapidly expanding restaurant scene, historic Roswell seems just the place for a restaurant week. Over a period of nine days, Jan. 14-22, participating Roswell restaurants will serve three-course prix-fixe menus for $15 and $25 (alcohol, tax and gratuity additional). Low-cost menus during restaurant weeks allow customers to sample the fare at local restaurants for a fraction of the cost.

Ryan Pernice, owner of the recently reviewed Table & Main in historic Roswell, credits Sally Johnson of the Historic Roswell Merchants Association for initiating the project after the group comprised of historic Roswell business owners expressed interest. Pernice says they scheduled restaurant week for January because it’s a slow …

Continue reading Historic Roswell to host first restaurant week »

Credit: eatmorekale.com

Associated Press is reporting today that Chick-fil-A is trying to prevent a Vermont folk artist and clothing producer, Bo Muller-Moore, from using the phrase “eat more kale” on a line of t-shirts he sells online. The article states:

“In a letter, a lawyer for Chick-fil-A said Muller-Moore’s effort to expand the use of his “eat more kale” message” is likely to cause confusion of the public and dilutes the distinctiveness of Chick-fil-A’s intellectual property and diminishes its value.” “

The article goes on to say that the Atlanta-based fast-food giant listed 30 instances in which it compelled others to stop using the “eat more …” construct in slogans and phrases.

Muller-Moore plans to fight. He told the AP, “Our plan is to not back down. This feels like David versus Goliath. I know what it’s like to protect what’s yours in business.”

Continue reading Chick-fil-A threatens Vermont t-shirt maker over slogan »

Mia’s Pizza and Eats in Cumming rebounded to a high-level food safety score recently after facing poor results on a routine exam.

The score for the restaurant at 91 Market Place Blvd. dropped to a 77 (C), according to an Oct. 24 report. The grade was improved to a 96 (A) after Mia’s Pizza corrected the mostly procedural-related infractions, such as an employee not wearing a hair restraint, one person not wearing gloves while preparing green peppers for a salad, employees leaving their drinks in the kitchen with no lids, the inspection report hidden behind the counter and an absence of a sanitizer-solution bucket for wiping cloths.

The owner, Matt Geiger, said he met with the employees and re-emphasized that they must follow the food safety rules and regulations related to all of the violations, specifically the hair restraint item that spilled over to the follow-up exam as a repeat violation.

“I explained that everyone in the kitchen is required to wear a hair restraint,” he …

Continue reading Restaurant Inspections, Mia’s Pizza and Eats »

Dinner was a chilled pint container of beet juice that was the color of a psychedelic freak-out and tasted like sugary dirt if you thought about it. I tried not to.

Instead I pushed myself to savor this slight meal for the few calories of energy it might afford me.

After a couple of days of nothing but juice I was beginning to feel like a Victorian maiden, prone to a sudden onset of the vapors that required my collapsing onto any nearby divan.

Why had I decided to go on a juice detox? It’s a good question, but one I can only answer with difficulty weeks after the fact.

As the restaurant critic for this newspaper, I live by the omnivore’s code of conduct. I will eat anything, and I do eat anything — often quite a bit of it. Dinner in a restaurant means a cocktail, appetizers, entrees and desserts, all of it passed around the table in a never-ending buffet of tastes. If a little joint on Buford Highway is rumored to serve the spiciest Sichuan food in town, …

Continue reading So a restaurant critic goes on a juice fast… »

Jonathan St. Hilaire, owner of Midtown’s Bakeshop, announced this morning on Bakeshop’s Facebook page that the bakery will close early next year. It will be replaced by another restaurant which, according to What Now Atlanta, will be Lime Fresh Mexican Grill.

Hilaire conceded in his post that Bakeshop has been struggling with current space constraints to manage its growing wholesale business. He also said, “I can’t release any details on the two things I’m working on now, but hope to by the end of the year. I can promise that you’ll be able to find Bakeshop breads and pastries in Atlanta.”

Bakeshop will be open through the holiday season to fill holiday baking needs.

–by Jenny Turknett, Food and More blog

Continue reading Midtown’s Bakeshop to close early next year »

LeRoy's Fried Chicken

Joe Truex and Julia LeRoy. Both are associated with fried chicken: Truex at Watershed and LeRoy at her former fried chicken stand. With neither location open at this point, they are teaming up to prepare a family-style Sunday supper. What will they serve? You’ve got it: anything but fried chicken. This four-course meal with wine pairings will take place at The Goat Farm on Sunday, Dec. 4. For tickets, email theDeviantChef@gmail.com. 1200 Foster St., Atlanta. $85 donation.

Update on Watershed:

Watershed sent an email recently to its customers announcing that it will reopen in the Brookwood Building on Peachtree Street next spring. The email quoted chef and partner Joe Truex, who said the menu will infuse “flavors from the Georgia Coast to the Louisiana Bayou and everything in between including the diverse ethnic flavors found throughout the South.”

In other news:

• Slate Table and Tap in Roswell announced on their Facebook page yesterday that it will open …

Continue reading Anything but fried chicken, Watershed update and more news »