FoodieBuddha.com

Sorry folks, I’ve been absolutely swamped with work and such.  Alas, my blogging has been essentially non-existent.  However, I promise to get back on the hobby horse momentarily.  While you were sleeping, I’ve been out and about and taken a couple of trips to Hugh Acheson’s Empire State South.  While y’all wait on that … check out Cliff’s notes!  Now on to the sad but true.

Wan Lai (4897 Buford Hwy) is apparently the latest BuHi Chinese hot spot to go tits up.  Infused by EatDrinkMan [If you don’t follow him – you are dead to me] and confirmed by DrZachary thru their own website, this place is gone to the Dead Pool.  Take it upon Spark Plug to have the goods as well … her photo is the one above.  

Let’s all mourn for a restaurant that most every foodie in the city hit up more than once.  I’m sure there’s more to the story, but I’m not privy to any of it.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, might I suggest that ignorance is bliss.  If you have a hankering to find out more about that chicken, check out my first impression.

Chinese Soup Dumplings (xiaolongbao and tang bao) courtesy misoponia

In Atlanta, and many other cities across the states, the popularity of Asian cuisine seems to be growing.  In years past, it was essentially relegated to take-out status whereby hurried families grabbed their nearest American-influenced Chinese food (see: Mongolian Beef, General Tso’s Chicken, etc…).  Nowadays, we just can’t seem to get enough of the stuff.  Thanks in part to the education doled out by blogs like Take Thou Food (website), Chow Down Atlanta (web), and Eat, Drink Man (web), foodies from all walks of life can’t seem to get enough of that far off cuisine that drapes Buford Highway.

Though the methods used to both execute and consume Chinese food are as varied as the people themselves, I see many a people anxiously dive into dumpling buckets in a fashion that might not be ideal for the task at hand.  This habitual flocking of forks and hands leads me to ask and answer two questions: What are soup dumplings? and How do you eat them?

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A few days ago on my way up Buford Highway, a couple of changes to the Doraville section of the thoroughfare caught my attention.

1) 88 Tofu House is now closed.  If you’re the type that likes to reminisce, you can check out Chow Down Atlanta’s review of the now defunct 24-hour joint.  If you can’t tell by the watermark, it’s her picture that I stole for this post.

2) Meanwhile, Pung Mie, a longstanding “upscale” Chinese restaurant just down the street from 88 Tofu House, is also closed.  It appears though that this closing is simply a part of the relocation process.  According to their website, Pung Mie is moving to 1605 Pleasant Hill Rd.  That address used to house Corky’s Ribs in Duluth.

Call it a chicken biscuit … call it a sandwich … call it a coronary heart attack … I don’t care what you call it, so long as you make it a point to grab Noon Midtown’s “Stack” sooner than later.  Katie Birmingham’s top notch restaurant has been kicking ass and taking names since I first stumbled in there a little over a year ago.

Though it has grown beyond its conceptual roots as a lunch place, Noon Midtown has become one of my favorite dinner spots and best bets for a noon time meal.  Case in point, I’ve been there enough times that they can pick me out in a crowd.  However, until this past weekend, I had never ventured over to try their Saturday brunch.  After watching my beloved Oranji win them some football, I took advantage of the break in the action to meet up with Atlanta’s favorite bachelorette blogger.  Having seen Noon’s brunch menu some time ago, I was particularly inspired by Live to Feast’s memo and Chow Down Atlanta’s love note.

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Since my introduction to Yakitori Jinbei in late 2009 (thanks Spark Plug), the restaurant has worked itself into my regular rotation.  I’ve introduced several people to the joint, told countless others, and return whenever I get a hankering for some ramen. (occasional acts of indiscretion at Haru Ichiban notwithstanding).

Having successfully convinced many a foodie that I am not actually cuckoo for cocoa puffs, the newly minted Ramen Brigade set out late last week for a little Hi, Hello, and some much needed sustenance.  Having grabbed Spark Plug and @NoKungFu in route, we met up with Dea (website) and Weigy (website) for some good ole fashion yakitori.  Needless to say, I had no business at the table with people who might as well bleed Asiatic cuisine.  Still, I managed to sneak a seat, and the Ramen Brigade was up and running.

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It’s amazing how often one can drive by a restaurant and never even think to enter.  It’s even more astounding when one breaks from tradition (Peking Duck), samples the grub, and finds that the restaurant is a real gem.  Such is the case for Wong Kee BBQ & Peking Duck, a stealth bomber Chinese restaurant in Norcross, GA.  Even if the meal wasn’t flat out perfect, there isn’t a single reason to think that our abbreviated lunch experience at Wong Kee won’t go down as one of the more scrumptious samplings of this calendar year.

Tucked in the corner of Ben Thanh Plaza (know to us Gaijin as Oakbrook Square Shopping Center), foot traffic for this strip mall usually goes the way of Hong Kong Supermarket.  To (Peking duck) complicate matters, Wong Kee’s immediate neighbor is the widely overrated Bento Café (which I’ll recap in the next few days if not hours).  As a consequence of those two hot topics, this “little Chinese restaurant that could” seems to get a little lost in the mix.  After a single glance, that appears to be a real shame.

Having just spent a good 30-minutes stuffing my face full of Celia’s, Spark Plug and I left Brother Chris behind and went to top off over at Bento Café (Peking Duck).  On our way through the Ben Thanh parking lot, two words of mystical harmony caught my eye: “Peking Duck.”  One look in the window and we were hooked.  Adventures were in order and Wong Kee gladly obliged.

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It seems almost shameful.  Not only am I deeply passionate about Japanese culture and cuisine, but I pride myself on visiting most anything that resembles a Japanese restaurant here in the Dirty.  Such was the basis for my dismay as I met up with ChowDownAtlanta (website) for a little grub late last week.  After our usual game of who’s gonna make the call, we finally settled on the long standing Yakitori Jinbei for our lunch endeavor.  Located up Cobb Pkwy, just outside I-285, it is beyond shocking that I had never before ventured into the tiny strip mall eatery.  Open since ‘02, I lived not more than 3 miles from the place for many a year.

Walking into the 40 some-odd seat room, you can’t help but identify the formulaic Japanese décor.  Heavy on the soft, and accented with the deep, the simplicity of the space is both expected and demanded.  It is a style that I will never tire of.  My affinity for the layout, however, is inconsequential.  What is of importance is that the place is clean and the furniture and such are all of relatively high build quality.

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Let’s keep this short but sweet.  Atlanta is full of foodies, full of bloggers, and full of foodies who blog. (I’m looking at you ChowDownAtlanta.com, EatBufordHighway.wordpress.com, EatDrinkMan.blogspot.com, EatItAtlanta.com, TheQuickandDirtyDirty.com, SavoryExposure.com)  The list goes on from there (this is where you take a look at my blogroll about halfway down the page), but those are just a few.

Not surprisingly, more than a handful of local restaurateurs and chefs also put their thoughts down on digital paper.  I have a long list of those that I follow, but here are just a few that grease my monkey (in alphabetical order):

Marla Adams : Babette’s Cafe : http://www.chefmarla.typepad.com/
Adams, who may be the most sporadic of the bloggers listed here, only posts once every handful of weeks.  The blog seems to double as both a inside into some of the goings on at her operation and as a place for her to express herself.  The posts are often deeply personal and it’s always interesting to read someone who puts their plate on a platter (so to speak).

Taka Moriuchi :Taka Sushi : http://sushiandpassion.blogspot.com/
Moriuchi, who has been a fixture in the Atlanta sushi scene since his day’s at Soto, now runs his own joint on Pharr Road in Buckhead, aptly named Taka.  His postings used to be somewhat sporadic, but he’s really picked up the pace since March.  Though there are intermittent stray posts, the majority of them focus on sushi and his restaurant.  He is even kind enough to share a few recipes with us … like this one for okra tempura.

Todd Richards : Lush Life Group : http://cheftoddrichards.blogspot.com/
Richards, who has several establishments around town (Rolling Bones BBQ and One Flew South), drops in about once every couple of weeks.  His posts range from the deeply personal to the deeply off topic.  While it may not always be NSFW, it’s always entertaining and enlightening.

There are a whole bunch of them out there folks, but that list is a good place to start.  Buddha … OUT!

Tommy: Brothers don’t shake hands. Brothers gotta hug.

That’s the kind of atmosphere at an event hosted by Jen & Ryan Hidinger (the line of course is a quote straight out of Tommy Boy).  In fact, we tried to get out of there on a handshake, and the better half insisted we hug it out.  For those of you not privy to my past posts on Staplehouse, let’s get ya’ll up to speed.

Ryan Hidinger is the Chef de Cuisine at Muss & Turner’s.  He, with the help of his lovely wife Jen, hope to open their own joint sometime in the foreseeable future.  The restaurant will open under the name Staplehouse (formerly two words – now one).  The concept will be a neighborhood eatery backed by fresh, staple-driven food. In the meantime, what we have is A Prelude To Staplehouse.  Prelude is quite simply a small gathering where a handful of diners get together, sample a good amount of Ryan’s food, and then are given an opportunity to give him some feedback.  PS … before you hit “read more” you may want to brace yourselves.  This is another post that’s far too long for the net.

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It started with a stare … tepid at first.  Gradually, a brow furrowed, the lips quivered, and the eyes turned on me … I had sinned.  Mortally sinned for that matter.  Her hand shot across the table and into the left over tin foil cone, the former home of my gyro.  Seconds later her hand emerged.  Like King Arthur and his sword or Link and his Triforce, the woman held her prize up for all to see.  The meat glistened momentarily only to be summarily swallowed.  We all have our purposes in this world … in the case of this delectable morsel … it was to inspire.

Hit up that link to see what Madame Chow had to say about my beloved Café Agora.

Café Agora Restaurant Address & Information:
262 E. Paces Ferry NE Atlanta, GA, 30305 // P: 404.949.0900 // Cafe Agora Website // Cafe Agora Menu