Highlight #193: Great lunch spot - Restaurant: Waterhaven

The name sounds funny. It makes me think of Kevin Costner's horrible all brown movie Waterworld. But waterhaven is not brown and there are no men covered in fishscaled leather walking around. There are, however, plenty of seating outside in the shade of tech square. We parked ourselves there and got an excellent lunch.

What you can't see that well in the back of the above photo are the fried green tomatoes. I am always wary when ordering it because it so often turns out soggy or bland. These were none of that. Super crunchy and salted just right, even the one that grew up on fried green tomatoes loved them.

In the foreground is the daily flatbread. While it looks slightly thick in the photo, it was in fact rather thin and crunchy throughout. Evenly covered with cheese and olives, it was easy to put away despite the large size for an appetizer.

Here is a perfect example of lost perspective in photos. This salad was, in life, the size of my head, but appears puny here. The dressing surprised me. The menu said only buttermilk, at least that's what I read without reading too carefully. What I didn't expect was the powerful dash of curry powder in the buttermilk. It wasn't a problem as I love curry and have used it on my own seared salmon before. It was only surprising because my first bite was of an apple chunk and I had not thought about pairing apple with curry. Once I got acquainted with the curry, it was a pleasure to eat.

I was had at the first utterance of "icebox pie." I love that term! Something chilled and old fashioned, perfect for a summer day lunch. As the name promised, the little wedge was cool and light, anchored by a denser cookie crust. It was the perfect ending to enjoy while watching the lively square that never got too noising to disturb our lunch.

Waterhaven
75 5th St
Atlanta, GA 30308-1019
(404) 214-6470

Highlight 192: Lowcountry charm - Restaurant: 82 Queen (Charleston)

Michael and Jane Stern wrote a few of my favorite books on road food. Back in the 70s when "foodie" was a term foreign to most Americans, the Sterns were already driving across the country tasting and writing about their beloved "American" food along the highways. Today, they have a website roadfood.com dedicated to these eats. Most of what they seek out and recommend are specialities from diners and other hole in the wall establishments. So when I came across this "too fancy" recommendation and read Michael's review that claimed 82 Queen's shrimp and grits as the "best," we had to go there. I mean it beat out the highly regarding Hominy Grill and Jestine's Kitchen, both Charleston favorites.

We ran through what appeared to be a monsoon to get inside the cozy bar of 82 Queen. An excellent dirty martini almost got us to forget about our wet clothes before we came to the realization that to get to the dinning room one must cross the courtyard, which is of course uncovered. While we sipping on our drinks, we watched the dripping servers make trip after trip delivering food covered in trays in the pouring rain, looking completely calm and unaffected. Crazy!


When our turn came, the hostess walked us out into the wetness and slowly up the stairs to the 2nd floor dining room. I was getting drenched so quickly, I almost shoved her along to move as fast as possible. Once inside, it was all much better, especially when the she crab soup came.

Full of cream and heavy with roe, it was heavenly on its own, but was even better with a liberal splash of dry sherry, which came on the side. Luckily I got my fill before Jason went too far with the sherry. Perfect for dipping were these Cheddar chive mini biscuits.

After the soup, we split a crab cake. Having grown up in Maryland, where crab cake is a religion, I'd say that this is pretty up there in terms of quality and percentage content. The "cake" was short on bind agents and fell apart easily to show off lot of big crab chunks. What really put it over the top was the creamy sauce. Again very rich, a theme of this cuisine.

We got our mains in half portions, but looks didn't reflect that fact at all. Without me saying you can probably already tell the cream and butter content in that grits. It stayed soften and loose for quite some time. The shrimp surprised me. They looked and tasted of bbq sauce, a very very good one, but nonetheless different from the transitional preparation. Had I not expected a comparison with my favorite in the atl from JCT kitchen I would probably have fully embraced these. But the slight sweetness got me off guard.

Now here is what really blew my socks off. This jambalaya was so full of shrimp, crawfish, sausages, etc., I couldn't even get just a bite of rice by itself. The best part was that the sausage, rather than being added in chunks, were cooked into the rice, so every forkful was imbued with intense sausage flavor. We ate so much to only find the plate looking almost exactly like it arrived. The leftover went back to the hotel with us and became breakfast when we really saw the binding Cajun butter in its solid form. Let's just say we were glad that the dish didn't come with a nutritional chart. :)

According to the server, the owner's wife used to be the pastry chef at the restaurant, but now only makes a single thing on the dessert menu and that is this peach cobbler. Let me first say that I am no huge fan of cobblers, but I do love ice cream and found this topper very pleasing. The warm bottom was good, but not something I would dream about like the jambalaya.

82 Queen
82 Queen St.
Charleston, SC 29401
1-800-849-0082

Highlight #191: The dependable - Restaurant: Aria

Despite the economy, a fair number of new places have opened, some with much buzz. We are all for trying the new, but when a true occasion comes up and nothing short of a great meal would do, we head to the old dependable. And there are only a handful of those. This time we wanted a bit of privacy and not too much meat, so we ended at Aria.

Aria is not our normal hunting ground. Not that the food isn't good. It's just that we don't normally mingle with the Buckhead crowd. But it's perfect this day when we showed up late without a reservation and just wanted a cozy table in the corner.

Having just ate a big snack, not knowing that this dinner was coming up, I picked out the lighter items from the menu. The above appetizer starter was fantastic despite the difficult to maneuver vessel in which it was served. I particularly liked that the lobster meat was slightly warm, rather than chilled, which complimented the equally warm and intensely umami pea puree.

The main of seared scallops echoed the sweetness of the lobster earlier. Really good scallops don't need much else and not much were done to them in this case. Great showing of restraint.

Between the two of us, Jason is the chocolate dessert fan. Without looking at the menu, he asked for the Valhorna chocolate creation that used to be served there. Our server suggested the chocolate dome instead, but brought us one more, the mousse. I ended up liking the freeby much better for its lightness and hints of hazelnut. The dome was somewhat difficult to eat due to the hardness of the shell. Both desserts were more or less predictable, but were all tasty.

Aria
490 East Paces Ferry Rd NE
Atlanta, GA 30305
(404) 233-7673

Highlight #190: We have caught the weekend travel bug - Restaurant:

Ever since I finished up the case that occupied all of my weekends, we have been going places. This time Greenville, on a whim. The cute downtown was vibrant on a Friday night. There was even an outdoor concert between buildings with a beer stand in front. A great idea!

We walked around some and then looked for the all important food. Soby's was described to me as modern southern. I used to be skeptical of that term until Watershed was coined as such. I can certainly do with more fresh looking greens and less grease. The ultimate plus was a two top bar table right in the middle of these french doors that opened into the busy street. A perfect spot to enjoy the breeze and people watching.

What you see above is my favorite plate of fried green tomatoes. I am normally not the biggest fan as I find the breading soggy and the tomatoes bland. These were super crispy and the sauce was awesome. A little tangy and maybe a little mustardy? Also perfect were the fried sweet potato curls. Pretty and tasty.

We were told that the hush puppies are their best seller. They were indeed quite good. a little sweet with a good rough texture and big kernels of corn. Butter on the side makes everything better.

While beautiful, these non-southern seared tuna things weren't the best. Mostly it's because the pita pieces were hard enough to chip a tooth. The pea puree, however, was very nicely seasoned.

These deviled eggs started Jason's new obsession with this egg preparation. A good dose of mustard in the very smooth filling distinguished these from primarily mayo laden versions. The ham also gave them a nice salty kick. These were the perfect snacks for a summer evening. Happy days.

Highlight #189: Asian bakery desserts can also be sufficiently rich - Bakery: Maun's

Finally an Asian dessert pastry that is creamy and rich.

Cafe Maum
3182 Steve Reynolds Blvd. Ste 110
Duluth, GA 30097

Highlight #188: the one that everyone likes - Restaurant: Red Bar

Every time I asked for a must go place on the emerald isle, the red bar came up. So here I was, but not during the most popular drinking hours. I was there bright and early for breakfast.

From my quiet table on the back patio, I enjoyed the house special shrimp and crab omelet in the morning breeze. Plenty of shrimp and crab coexisted in this omelet and the red bar had no problem melting plenty of cheese onto the seafood combination. Equally cheesy grits stood up to the omelet and the very buttery biscuit. It's amazing that I didn't go promptly back to sleep after this loaded meal.
The sad truth is the little town of watercolor had much more fabulous macarons than the whole of Atlanta. These were found at Fabrice, a french bakery newly relocated to a charmingly street corner across from the Watercolor Inn. I had a hard time deciding between the raspberry/lemon and the lemon/chocolate bags. In retrospect, I should have just gotten them all. These were wonderful because of the perfect filling to macaron ratio. Delicate and delicious, they reminded me yet again why macarons are my hands down favorite.

I also took a slice of chocolate cake back to our guest condo for our afternoon coffee. Very intensely chocolaty, the flavor was spot on, but the cake layers were slightly too dense, bordering on being dry. Nonetheless, it made good accompaniment for a cup of black coffee.

Highlight #187: Beach and fish - Restaurant: Bud & Alley's (Watercolor)

I so needed a quiet beach, a place to forget about people and work. Despite the summer high season, such a place was found away from the crowd at the brand new Watersound resort on the gulf. Miles of white sand and blue sky were ours and ours alone for most of the weekend, one of the unexpected benefits of the horrible economy.

We had plenty of room to hang about in our suite and a very nicely outfitted kitchen in which to cook. But we were in a lazy mood, so mostly just assembled our lunch with the exception of pan frying some potatoes and mushrooms for the salad. Looking at this photo makes me happy. Champagne and snack food just shout out vacation.

At night fall, we ventured out to where the people are and found us a two top in front of the band at Bud & Alley's, a local favorite. One glance around the room and we had no doubt that we'd be getting seafood (that's what everyone is eating.) The menu confirmed our observation. Of the short list of eight entrees, six were fish.

We started things off with a crab salad of sort. The presentation was impressive and the tomatoes weren't all for colors either. They were bursting with brightly flavored juices. Most lovely, of course, was the crab meat. Translucent and firm, the tasty morsels needed no extra flavoring and were indeed treated with a light hand.

I was told that grouper is the fish of the gulf, so naturally I ordered it. This B&A special was pan seared and still showed the bright colors on the skin side (unfortunately blocked by the mango cubes in this photo). The meat was moist, but firm. This I learned is not a fish that flakes or falls apart easily. I liked everything including the plump shrimps that came along for the ride, even though they weren't exactly needed on this plate.

Jason's pan fried flounder knocked it out of the park. Lightly coated with panko, the fried fish combined an extremely satisfying crunch with very flaky white flesh. The homemade tartar sauce did a great job of introducing just the right amount of tartness.

When in Florida key lime pie is a must for me. I took this photo to show the cool way that Jason learned from his mama to squeeze juices out of a slice of lime. First he cut the slice so it is only attached on one side of the rind, then he stabbed the halves with forks and twisted in opposite directions. I was amazed that he was able to get every last drop of juice out of the single slice without breaking it. Very cool! Mama really knows!

The extra tang from the lime juice elevated this already very good dessert to awesomeness. Creamy middle and buttery crust, what's not to like?

An exception meal to end a great beach day!

Bud & Alley's
2236 E County Highway 30A
Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459