A few Atlanta eats

So I've moved to Atlanta for medical school. Just like I had a "First Post From New Apartment" when I moved into my Amherst place, I figured I should post something or other from my new residence. I am excited that I now have a gas stove to play around with, and have ordered a round-bottom wok/ring off of amazon. There's also a Whole Foods right next to my complex that I can walk to. Unfortunately, it isn't that large so it's missing things like bulk spices, has a limited selection of bulk grains and staples, and doesn't even have puffed kamut cereal, which means it's difficult to make the granola on my sister's blog. They were running a special on bone-in pork chops however, so I made this:


Brined pork chops with mushroom risotto and grilled zucchini. I installed some ceiling light fixtures from IKEA that can accommodate compact fluorescent bulbs, but food looks disgusting under them. Oh well.
Atlanta is home of The Varsity, which has curbside service.


It doesn't feel that cool in a Honda Civic coupe...the car just feels kinda cramped and it gets really hot, but if I had my dad's old Chevy Nova I'm sure it'd be super badass. They're famous for chili dogs (apparently they serve over two miles of hot dogs each day) and the chili slaw dog was freaking delicious.


Onion rings are good, but fries are so-so. As great as it is that places like In-N-Out and The Varsity freshly cut their potatoes...this usually means that they aren't fried twice and end up being a bit soggy.
On the drive down here, somewhere at a gas station in South Carolina, I had a fried chicken biscuit, which was the most delicious food item I've ever gotten from a gas station.


I'm sure there'll be more stuff to write about...either that or med school will occupy my entire existence and I'll never post on this thing again.

America in Crisis

Hungry FDA Official Orders Massive Pot Pie Recall

What is one to do in these trying times when no store-bought pot pie is safe?

Make your own chicken pot pie. This pot pie is completely safe...with a puff-pastry crispy flaky golden brown crust for added protection. I didn't get a good picture of the filling, but I used whole wheat flour for the roux and a minimal amount of heavy cream (because I had to save it to make Joe-Joe custard ice cream...as a reward for making such a relatively healthy pot pie).

The Real Iron Chef is Finally Here Again

Thank you Fine Living Network for bringing back the original Iron Chef (even if it is dubbed), but shame on you for replacing the Backdraft theme with some crappy .midi that seems like it was hastily cobbled together by a four year old with GarageBand.

Mushroom Risotto Among Other Things

It's been awhile since I've posted anything and the 3 people who read this blog have been wondering what's been going on. I suppose that the novelty of having my own kitchen has somewhat worn off and now that I'm cooking all the time it's just kinda like...meh. I keep thinking when I cook something new that I should take a picture of it and put it on my blog, but inevitably I just end up eating it and forgetting about the picture. That is why you will not see pictures of prosciutto and ricotta stuffed cappellaci with truffle cream sauce, chipotle hush puppies, or Mexican style "lasagna" made with chicken in a roasted tomatillo and cilantro puree layered with black beans and queso blanco. I do have a smattering of random pictures I remembered to take which are presented now:

Kimbap - It took me freaking hours to make this stuff. I never realized how much work it involved. Pretty though right?


Gyoza - Made these with Toki. She's responsible for them looking neatly crimped.




Recently I made something that demanded I take a picture of it, because I can safely say that it was the best dish I have ever made, and I'll probably never make anything as delicious ever again. When I go home over the holidays to Lafayette and I see the popular high school kids at the Round-Up (local dive bar) because they never left town I always used to enjoy how hilariously depressing their lives were. Now I understand what it's like...I've peaked and from here on out it's all downhill. Ah well...here are the steps to making porcini mushroom risotto.

Night before: Open porcini mushrooms brought back from Florence that were GhettoVac Packed (TM). This involves sucking the air out of a ziploc bag containing dried porcinis until the air and porcini dust are solidly in your own lungs, no longer in the bag. Soak.


Heat liquid and chicken stock in pot. Briefly toast arborio rice in olive oil. Open bottle of white truffle infused olive oil snuck through customs in shoe and curse euro-dollar conversion rate, then add a few drops to pan shortly before addition of dry white wine. Slowly incorporate stock/soaking liquid mixture into pan.


When rice is nearly finished absorbing liquid, lightly chop and add porcinis to pan. Add pat of butter, then open jar of white truffle butter which cost too much (optional: curse euro exchange rate again) but take comfort in the fact that you bought the good stuff and didn't end up with the monosodio glutamato-laden mystery paste your sister bought. Hahahahahahahaha sucker. Add small spoonful of MSG-free white truffle butter to pan.



Grate parmigiano reggiano into pan. Stir. Plate. Eat.



Recommended Garnishes:
Grated parmigiano
Black pepper
Fresh thyme
2-inch thick dry-aged porterhouse steak - Rare