Perfectly Spiced Cold Zucchini
Now, you see it. Now, you don’t.
We ate these tasty nibbles at light speed. This was an ideal dish to wake up our appetites.
Dumplings, 3 Kinds
We could have eagerly made a meal out of these. Each one was bursting with the sweet essence of the sea. While they were all delicious, we both independently chose the shrimp and mushroom combination as our favorite.
Crispy Garlic Chicken
In a word, divine.
Hidden under a pile of crispy deep fried garlic mixed with green onion, this golden crusted beauty was crispy on the outside and melt-in-your-mouth tender on the inside. We’d love to make a meal of this every day of the week. And, since we crazily ordered a whole chicken, we can!
Frog Legs With Black Bean Sauce
This was the perfect dish to finish the meal.
We’ve eaten almost this exact same dish in NYC. Was it better in NYC? Well, that wouldn’t be fair to say. We may have been blinded by the bright lights of a big city. But, this was one fine dish ….or casserole.
Look at that garlic.
Just look at those charred bites of whole garlic cloves mingling in there with chunks of onion and tender bites of delicate white frog meat. So rich, savory, and salty, the sweetness of the onion helps to round out that salty richness.
A Peek At The Menu
Next time, black pepper oyster.
For More on Golden House, check out: Chow Down Atlanta & The Blissful Glutton
Golden House
1600 Pleasant Hill Road
Duluth, GA 30096
770 921 2228
Bacon Cheeseburger With Sweet Potato Fries
On highway roadtrips, Starbucks is our mothership. But, if no Starbucks are available, we’ve been known to consume foods that should not be named in polite company. We were happily surprised by this bacon cheeseburger. It was shockingly good. The bun was hearty, the bacon was super crispy and the sweet potato fries were nicely browned with a scant drizzle of honey.
Bacon Cheeseburger with Baked Sweet Potato
Both cheeseburgers were properly cooked to our requests. And, those burgers were absolutely loaded with cheese, two slices per burger. If we’d known, we might’ve skipped the cheese option. But, if you’re starving, this is a good road trip option. It’s a road trip. Who’ll know? It’s your own dirty little secret.
What happens on the road trip stays with those on the road trip. That is, unless you choose to wear one of the most ridiculous shirts on the planet. Then, you’re fair game.
Road Trip Bonus Points Added:
Within a minute or two of being seated, they shove a warm wheat bun with sweet butter in your face.
Outback
Meatball, Sausage & Spinach Calzone
Chicken Philly & Ruffles Potato Chips
It’s what’s for lunch!
The Mad Italian
2197 Savoy Drive
Chamblee, GA 30341
770 451 8048
Coconut & Chocolate Frozen Yogurt With Sweet Coconut Shreds
This is the small bowl!
If you find yourself at Discover Mills after a day of holiday shopping, you might want to reward yourself with a little treat. That place is a family friendly people zoo. Even, the small bowl holds what looks to be about a pint of frozen yogurt. So, we always choose to share a bowl. This bowl of coconut and chocolate yogurt topped with sweetened shreds of tender coconut flakes was about $ 5. That was more than enough for us. Actually, it was still too much. But, it was an acceptable splurge after many (MANY) hours of shopping for shoes and boots.
Tutti Frutti
Quicos de Chocolate
Chocolate Corn Nuts
These large kernels of corn are fried, dipped in chocolate and dusted with cocoa. You might see these same kernels of deep-fried corn dusted with salt or chili powder at your local convenience store under the name of Corn Nuts or Beer Nuts. But, we found these much more interesting. The contrast of bittersweet chocolate with the mildly salty, toasted corn nut will keep you reaching for one right after the other.
Alon’s Bakery & Market
4505 Ashford Dunwoody Road NE
Dunwoody, GA 30346
678 397 1781
If you find yourself in need of pizza & a beer or two in Raleigh, North Carolina, Lilly’s fits the bill. Their pies offer one gigantically puffed up and bready crust.
Seriously, this is one big fat pie.
The Five Point
This puffy pie is topped with pesto, roasted garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, mozzarella, parmesan, and fontina. It might not be the best pizza pie to cross your lips. But, it sure won’t be the worst either. If we grade this pie on a pass/fail basis. It’s a sure fire pass any day of the week.
Lilly’s Pizza
The Half Moon Dolce
(Fontina, Capicola, Dates, Walnuts, Honey & Minced Rosemary)
This pie was practically begging for a glass (or bottle) of wine. Sadly, we were too early.
Note to self: Delay all future brunch meals til noon or later.
It felt a bit lonely. But, it was still delicious.
So, we reverted to another pair of vices.
Caffeine meet sugar, doughnuts (or, sweet pizzettes) meet coffee.
Chocolate & Nutella Dusted With Cocoa & Powdered Sugar
Lovely.
Caramel & Pecan
This one was a bit too sweet, but, still wickedly tasty.
That didn’t stop us from devouring every super-sweet bite.
Varasano’s Pizzeria
2171 Peachtree Road
Atlanta, GA 30309
404 352 8216
The Fall Colors At Ray’s On The River
The Bread Basket
Cauliflower Soup With Scallops
If we were superficially grading this soup on its looks, it would’ve received a failing grade.
Not only did the overly thick soup sit stiffly in place like a pudding, but, this unattractive bowl of beige was sloshed over almost every edge of the bowl and a number of drips were the only decoration.
The taste? It was fine. The tiny bay scallops were tender. But, it was utterly forgetable.
Gumbo
“When you have nothing nice to say…”
Ray’s New Orleans BBQ Shrimp On Fried Grit Cakes
There’s not much to see here. But, these grit cakes were feathery light and fluffy with crispy edges on every side. Simply put, the grit cakes were delicious. And, the shrimp were nicely cooked and dressed appropriately in a sweet and spicy sauce.
Seafood Platter
Even prettily fluffed, that was one of the smallest lobster tails we’ve ever seen. And, it was overcooked. The salmon was cooked to perfection, the two sea scallops were gorgeous and delicious, the two shrimp were overcooked so bad they were rubbery, and the teeny tiny crab cake was an extremely unattractive and misshapen (but, tasty) lump. This “Signature Entree” was $38. For, that price we were seriously shocked by the mixed bag of quality.
Praline Basket with Ice cream, Caramel and Berries
Crispy dark caramel brittle with ice cream and berries drizzled with more caramel… Yeah sure, it was tasty. Caramel and praline brittle are hard to resist. We started to glance around for the wedding singer. But, then, the bill was served.
Ray’s On The River
OB’s Smoky BBQ Spare Ribs
At first glance, the ribs appeared quite dry. After pulling off the first rib, the smoky crust revealed a tender, moist interior. The ribs had plenty of smoke and a decent spice rub. We expected to like these more than we actually did. Somehow, they just didn’t wow us…
…at all.
Chicken & Rib Combo
The chicken was “fine”. Yet, something was off with the flavor.
Hush Puppies, Baked Sweet Potato, & Fried Okra
Of the three, the baked sweet potato is the only side dish that deserves a “pretty good”.
Brunswick Stew
This stew was seriously bland and almost flavorless. The one distinct flavor was that of nearly raw, canned (You know, that unpleasant metallic taste of the can that low quality canned foods have?) tomato. And, obviously, that’s a flavor that does not appeal to either one of us. This stew is teetering seriously close to being one of the worst brunswick stews we’ve ever tasted.
Pulled Pork Pizza
Do not order this… ever. Just don’t do it. You’ll be sorry. The pulled pork might be surprisingly tasty. But, the hockey puck crust is literally inedible. Somehow, that crust manages to defy the laws of cookery by tasting of raw dough. Then, you break off a piece of that pure white doughy crust. It’s HARD-AS-A-ROCK tough and crumbly. You realize that mysteriously it’s been overcooked. There must be some form of dark magic at work here.
We really wanted to like this place. The staff is super friendly and absolutely charming. There’s a gorgeous fireplace near the front door. Floor to ceiling wood and chunky wooden beams decorate the ceiling. There’s plenty of old-fashioned country appeal dripping all around this place. But, this is a restaurant after all.
OB’s BBQ
Biscoff Spread
(AKA Speculoos)
We’ve known for quite some time that you can buy two bottles of Biscoff Spread on Amazon for about $20 (if you have Amazon Prime). Our curiosity was piqued. We’ve seen it in Europe. There, it’s called Speculoos. But, we’ve never been motivated enough to shell out $20 bucks for the equivalent of cookie butter. So, when we found Biscoff Spread at the Buckhead Cost Plus World Market, we decided to buy a couple jars. It’s definitely tasty. It tastes just like Delta’s favorite cookie in a buttery suspension. (Though, butter is not an ingredient. They use an assortment of vegetable oils.) And, like the Biscoff ads, it’s yummy on a wedge of apple or as a butter substitute on a toasted bagel. Still, it is 88 calories per tablespoon. We’re not exactly sure what else to do with it. We’ll try it on a peanut butter sandwich, next. We’re sure it’ll be tasty… a very tasty calorie bomb.
We like it. But, what exactly do you do with cookie butter?
$4.99 a jar at World Market
(We found our two jars in Atlanta at the Buckhead location of Cost Plus World Market.)
World Market
Biscoff
(If you’re a fan of Speculoos or Biscoff Spread, there’s a crunchy version on Biscoff’s website.)
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