In some of the chapters here over the last couple of weeks, we have spotlighted a few of the restaurants that have, happily and wonderfully, kicked down our biases and our preconceived notions about Chinese cooking. That’s not to say “out with the old,” permanently. Marie will, unaccountably, get occasional cravings for Golden-This-Happy-That stuff for the rest of her life, just as I will, equally unaccountably, get occasional cravings for El-This-Los-That Tex-Mex food for the rest of mine despite since learning to appreciate authentic cooking, because when you find a “favorite food” around the time that you’re in high school, it’s nigh impossible to get rid of it for good. Continue reading “Gu’s Bistro, Doraville GA (CLOSED)”
Tag: atlanta
Chow Bing Chinese Grill, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)
This is Marie, contributing a description of a visit to Chow Bing, a Chinese restaurant in a tough location that I hope it can overcome. With any luck the Grady Hospital staff will discover the place and prop it up as more people discover it. It’s just around the curve from the hospital in the new Pencil Factory Lofts building. Continue reading “Chow Bing Chinese Grill, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)”
Big Joy, Marietta GA
Big Joy is the first of two restaurants that we have visited recently – come back Saturday for a story about another – that offer a fun, modern American-style take on traditional flavors from Asia. This time out, the flavors are Korean, and they’re offered principally in either wraps or in bowls. The inspiration behind this place seems to be fast casual burrito joints like Moe’s or Willy’s, where guests walk down a line selecting ingredients to add to their order. All of their principal dishes of bibimbaps or burritos start as vegetarian offerings, although a few meats can be added. The veggies looked so good and so fresh that I didn’t figure that I needed any chicken or steak this evening. Continue reading “Big Joy, Marietta GA”
Scratch Fresh, Alpharetta GA
Several months ago, Todd at A Hamburger Today (linked below) wrote another of his indispensable reports about an Atlanta-regional burger that I needed to try. As you’re no doubt tired of reading, it then sat on my to-do list for the better part of forever until Lee at Roots in Alpharetta mentioned it in passing recently. Scratch Fresh is located in a strip mall just north of Windward Parkway on GA-9, in a space that, when I worked in this community five or six years back, was home to a Jersey Mike’s Subs. Now it’s home to a family-owned business that packs ’em in every morning for biscuits and, at lunch time, serves up one of the best burger options in the area. Continue reading “Scratch Fresh, Alpharetta GA”
Bei Jing Kabobs, Doraville GA
One of the many benefits to come from expanding our knowledge of authentic foods from other countries has been learning that I actually do like some food from China a whole lot. Of course, I have suspected forever that the stuff that I’ve shrugged about and tolerated all these years because it makes other people happy while I find it inoffensive is all made from ingredients in giant cans from Sysco of Szechuan. I’m not intentionally being judgmental, but it’s the same reason I ask whether fries are hand-cut or frozen before I order them. I know what Sysco fries taste like already, and I equally know what the Moo Goo Gai Pan tastes like in every city in America. I’d like to sample the tastes and flavors of food that hasn’t been made for mass appeal. That said, here is the first of three stories sprinkled over the next two weeks in which we sample some Chinese food quite unlike the Golden-This-Happy-That mall standard and come away really enjoying the new experiences. Continue reading “Bei Jing Kabobs, Doraville GA”
El Pollo Dorado, Marietta GA
About a year ago, Marie and I visited a restaurant on Collier Road in Atlanta called Patrick’s Sub Shop. It is set up in a former Shrimp Boats building, one of an estimated 95 that were erected around the southeast in the 1960s and 1970s, before the chain, a small-player rival to the likes of Cedric’s and Captain D’s, folded. When I wrote that entry, I wondered whether we would run across any other repurposed Shrimp Boats buildings. Continue reading “El Pollo Dorado, Marietta GA”
Jeanne’s House, Doraville GA (CLOSED)
This is Marie, contributing a visit to a Chinese place with a singularly unusual name.
Sometime a while ago, Grant started calling generic Mexican places “El-this-Los-that” and generic Chinese places “Happy-this-Golden-that” because honestly, how many Mexican or Chinese places in the suburbs have you gone to that DON”T use that pattern for their names? And if you go to the Golden China in the mall, isn’t that pretty much a guarantee of a choice between incandescent red glop versus opalescent whitish glop, over chicken or beef? Plus broccoli and carrots, of course. Continue reading “Jeanne’s House, Doraville GA (CLOSED)”
Marie, Let's Eat! 