Hot Dish Review

It’s been a while since I attended one of these food and wine free-for-alls. Last Thursday night was the fifth annual (and my first) Aqua Vino at the Georgia Aquarium which, as far as I could tell, was to benefit the Georgia Aquarium. LC and his family were all in attendance.

Held in the Oceans Ballroom and surrounding galleries, attendees dressed in semi-formal attire were surrounded by enormous fish tanks as they tasted tiny dishes and tried wines from domestic and international wineries and distributors.

Seems the idea is to race around and eat a sample of every mini dish offered while swilling as many wines from as many vendors as possible. It can be rather disconcerting to hear the comments from the uncultured masses as they ponder why they are being served such miniscule amounts of wine or why there is a bucket of “excess wine” on each table. Excess wine? Hell, that’s not possible!

Not everyone can be lumped into the aforementioned category, however. This event draws its share of wine snobs, foodies, and industry folks that come to schmooze. As for me, I kinda like grazing. It’s the same concept as tapas, where diners can try a variety of tastes without commiting to one big entree, just on a much more outlandish scale.

Many local restaurants participate and it must rather redundant after a while with as many as a dozen of these “tasting” events held each year, particularly in the Fall.

One restaurant with a table at Aqua Vino was Livingston. Having taken over the kitchen from Gary Mennie, his former sous chef Zeb Stevenson was dishing up a savory spoonful of lamb topped with a salad of dried fruits and pistachios, instantly calling to mind the Moroccan spiced duck that was my favorite dish at the now defunct Globe. It was served with a spicy yogurt sauce and a similar pairing of dried fruits and pistachios.

Just as I was chewing a big chunk of tender, spicy and truly delicious beef from Eclipse di Luna, Zeb spotted me, ran around to the front of his station and gave me a big hug. Ahhh….I miss hanging out at the bar at Livingston with B and Zeb. We’re gonna have to do that real soon!

Another favorite bite was the simple duck confit, goat cheese mousse, and honeyed figs on lavosh presented by Peasant Bistro. Their menu features a few dishes that spark my interest like the pork chop with corn bread pudding, the duck breast with chocolate balsamic jus and blackberry gastrique, and the parsnip and carrot ravioli appetizer…..yum!

Many restaurants served tiny versions of their signature dishes like Dogwood’s grits with various toppings or the mini desserts from Seasons 52 (actual size!), while others such as New York Prime showcased their macaroni and cheese and a chocolate dessert rather than steak….guess that would have been a costly tidbit.

Conclusion? You can dress a pig in finery and feed it truffles and champagne but at the end of the day, it’s gonna go back to it’s regular trough….LOL.

Next weekend is Taste of Atlanta, where they charge extra for additional “taste tickets” so festival goers pay for their gluttony with more than mere heartburn and weight gain. See you all there!

Home cooked meals don’t have to be all home cooked. It’s not the ’60′s anymore honey, we got jobs now!

A couple of years ago I met Sandra Lee, the queen of semi-homemade, at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival in Miami. Rumor has it she’s a little on the wild side. Some of her autrocities were clearly concocted while tripping like the now-infamous Kwanzaa Celebration Cake.

Regardless, using some store bought parts is just smart cooking. So when recently planning a home cooked dinner for a friend I decided to use Sandra’s strategy.

I put together a lovely spread of cheeses and accompaniments to nibble on as the appetizer, perfect with a bottle of Marquis Philips Sarah’s Blend.

A rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods would be the centerpiece with baked sweet potatoes and fried green tomatoes on the side. Obviously the only thing I had to do with the sweet potatoes was to wrap them in foil, leaving the bulk of the real cooking for the green tomatoes.

You might think the chicken requires no work but that would be incorrect. My complaint with Whole Foods rotisserie chickens is that they are often missing lots of skin which is the best part! If the skin is intact it is soggy, not crispy. What can you expect when it’s getting all steamed up inside a bag? So I always put the bird under the broiler for a bit to make the skin crispy.

Thankfully, this was my third batch of fried green tomatoes. Even after having most of the bottle of wine, I found my technique fool-proof.

It wasn’t the prettiest meal but it was really delicious. The chicken’s skin was intact (until I got my hands on it!), and the sweet potatoes were a wonderful sweet and buttery counterpart to the tangy fried green tomatoes.

So do like Sandra says and “Keep it simple, keep it smart, and always keep it semi-homemade!” Then do like Sandra does and have a cocktail.

Me and B must be the most optimistic bitches on the planet. Enduring 12 hours of trauma and drama, barely escaping injury, we still managed to laugh our asses off and made it home alive.

On our way to Helen to meet my Mom and go to the Taste of Sautee this chick opened her car door as we were driving by, effectively ripping off my passenger side mirror and scraping the shit out of my car doors. Awesome. Great start to the day!

I called the police to make a report. Her neighbor, who was not even a witness, kept trying to imply that I might be at fault. Ugly lesbians vs. hot blondes….guess who won. After obtaining a police report that clearly showed her at fault, B duct taped the mirror back on so it wouldn’t be flopping around as we drove north on GA400.

No more than ten minutes later, some dude had a blowout and was swerving out of control almost rear-ending us. We finally got to Helen and made our way to the Taste of Sautee.

Like a mini version of Atlanta’s many “taste of” events, Sautee’s weekend of food and wine featured tastings from several local wineries and restaurants.

Yonah Mountain Vineyards, Habersham, and Sautee Nacoochee each offered tastes of their white and red varieties. I really liked Habersham’s muscadine and I always enjoy their reisling. The best red was Yonah Mountain’s Genesis, a heavy spicy blend of merlot, cab, and mourvedre.

Entrance to the festival was only $15. We were hoping small bites were included but they were not. In fact, full-size sandwiches were for sale from Sweet Breads Bake Shop, tapas-size dishes from Bernie’s and Nacoochee Grill.

My Mom got the bean salad and pasta salad with cheese, olives, and bread from Bernie’s. B started off with a pasta salad from Sweet Breads, and I ordered the BBQ duck tacos from Nacoochee Grill. I didn’t care for the flavor of the sauce and there was too much of it, not to mention they were served in what seemed like store bought hard white taco shells. A dollop of slaw drenched with mayo topped the shredded duck. A smattering of cheese and lettuce was lost somewhere in between. My Mom’s plate looked like the best choice of the three.

Me and B sampled every wine, then we all shopped a bit. SS was blowing up my phone which was a bit odd. Turns out his 4 year old son had passed away the night before. He was crying and I was miles away sweating my ass off in the blazing hot sun in Sautee, of all f*ckin’ places.

A bit more food and we’d call it a day. B got the bean salad dish my Mom had earlier, while I tried a steak and caramelized onion sandwich on a mini baguette. Problem was the bread was hard and the plate was slippery. Each bite was a disaster, squirting the beef with copious amounts of sauce (seems to be a theme here) all over my hands, then to top it off the beef was hard to chew. Again, the bean salad dish had more flavor although it didn’t blow me away.

There were lots of artist booths with everything from jewelry to wooden birdhouses. B got one of those for her sister-in-law.

We had to pace ourselves on the drinking since B and I would be visiting Montaluce Vineyard for a tasting and a tour later in the afternoon, then dinner at their restaurant, LeVigne.

Sautee was just the beginning of our food and wine adventure….here we come Dahlonega!