Recently Around Town

I've cut way WAY back on eating out since moving into a new apartment and more than doubling the size of my kitchen, but this week in particular has been a good one for going out for food. Here are some highlights!


The "Angry Mussels" from JCT Kitchen that inspired my own Manly Mussels, as well as a bowl of truffled parmesan fries. This was such an amazing lunch. My friend had their great fried chicken, while I had a bowl of their Potato and Vidalia soup, which had an adorable goat cheese fritter floating in it (couldn't get a great shot of it with my phone, believe it or not). Normally I can't really do goat cheese, but it perfectly complemented the soup. YUM.


The fried peach pies we had for dessert were the perfect finish to the meal. By itself, the pie was a little ho-hum, but the caramel sauce and home made vanilla ice cream really brought it together. I might really be biased towards the Fried Apple Pie at H&F though... still probably the best pie I've ever had.



After lunch at JCT, we went around the corner to browse Star Provisions. Their Halloween Decorations are so impressive! I totally love this display of Chocolate!


The xiao long bao at Chef Liu!! We got the crab version this time, but I prefer the pork dumplings more. Our staples there are the scallion beef and sweet rice cakes, and a random assortment of dim sum, but really, we have yet to have something there that I didn't enjoy.


Black Bear Tavern, conveniently located across the street from Piedmont hospital, deserves more love (note: ignore those annoying meters in front of the tavern, which have popped up all over Atlanta. There is free parking in the lot in the back!). I really encourage everyone to just swing by for lunch one day, and get any of the burgers on the menu. I would take Black Bears Bacon Swiss burger over any at Vortex any day. The food here is just really really good. And, okay, full disclosure, my boyfriend is a cook there on occasion, but I've only ever been there when he wasn't working, so I know ALL the cooks there are consistent.
ANYWAY. Despite trying to get over a really nasty cold, I was convinced to go in for lunch the other day, in order to check out their new 'Big and Sloppy' menu. It's no lie, everything is... big and sloppy. This pork tenderloin 'sandwich' was bigger than my face. There really is a bun somewhere under all that. It was enough food to last me two days, and it was SO GOOD. I haven't tried anything else from the new menu, but I will vouch that if you like southern style chicken sandwiches, but with a million times better flavor, you'll like this.



So a few hours after that insane sandwich, I went to Souper Jenny’s Super-Secret Underground Food Truck Extravaganza!!!!!
I was a regular customer of Hankook for a while when they opened, but moved much further away over the summer, but as much as I miss the tacos, I wanted food from somewhere I hadn't been before (also the Yumbii line was always CRAZY! Go Yumbii!) I ended up getting the poodle dog from The Good Food Truck, and was blown away by the combination of a hot dog on a French Toast Bun (yes.), topped with Apple Slaw and drizzled with Maple Syrup and Dijon. Then I stopped by Westside Creamery's truck for a coke and caramel ice cream float. Finally, I know what to do with the rest of the salted caramel ice cream I had made this summer *_*


Finally for dinner tonight my boyfriend and I went to the unassuming Sushi Bar Yu-ka. It's not on the menu, but don't be shy about asking for Tamago Nigiri, especially if you're at the bar. It was wonderful, and very sweet, but almost smokey on the finish. As much as I like Japanese Food, I'm honestly not a huge fan of sushi, so I stuck with a tempura shrimp maguro roll, which was very tasty.