It's not such a Wonderful accounting year..

Linking from an article I wrote for another blog

The Craving

Have you ever had The Craving? You know what I mean, it’s some odd time of day and you see something on television, a familiar smell hits, or someone mentions a foodstuff you haven’t thought of in a good while. And BAM! The Craving. It comes up on you before you know it, and it doesn’t relent, no matter how much you try to take your mind off of it, play tricks, recite mantras. Doesn’t matter if it’s Christmas day or Sunday afternoon, The Craving respects no hours of operations, state of being, or handicap. It chews up your palate and spits it out into a canyon with high walls that you can’t possibly climb out of, leaving you to drown in a sea of longing for that one unique, singular, incredible taste.

Two weeks ago, I got it. I got it bad. A rough week of business and responsibilities ended with a Friday of rest and relaxation with my good friend Viva Pinata, but after hours of raising Mexican-inspired creatures to send to a tasty baseball-bat fate, I began to hunger. Did I hunger for candy? No. Was it Greek or Italian that taunted my senses? Not today, my friend. It was the newly familiar acquaintance that I’ve been learning about and exploring through its wild world: Indian cuisine. Dreams of saag paneer danced in my brain, samosas ran across my vision, and I could taste the tikka masala in my tongue as I left the house.

So I hit the road. First stop, Raja on Peachtree, whose vegetable-and-potato-deliciousness I had enjoyed previously for a lunch outing. Prior to leaving, I had made sure to check online for what I thought to be Indian places open all afternoon, since it was almost 4pm, but jumping out of the car I notice *oh no!* Raja was closed. Ok, that’s fine, sometimes rating websites don’t have accurate hours. So I hit the road for Smyrna and Swapna (my standard Indian fare). Guess what? Closed.

An hour later, dejected and upset after touring around town looking for open Indian food, I gave up and went Hawaiian (Waikikie on Briarcliff), which was delicious as always, but ultimately unfulfilling for my needs. The Craving remained with me until the next day, when it was fulfilled at Swapna to the delight of my taste buds.

I know what you’ll say, “But Stegosaur, Zyka was open!” Yes, but I’m not a huge fan of Zyka, and prefer my Indian food in a restaurant with waiters most times, not a glorified takeout window. It makes me sad, but every other Indian restaurant in metro Atlanta is closed from 3.30 to 5pm. God forbid I ever get a 3am craving for Indian like I do with Korean….

Note: Zyka is a good place, but I’m looking for other Indian places with long/odd hours, any suggestions?

~Stegosaurus

When the Bee stings..

I’m new to this blogging game, a bit behind the times I suppose, but in the past I’ve never been one to put much stock in reviews. Things like movies, events, etc. vary so much from person to person that I can’t imagine anyone that can take a single reviewer as law for everything they review, without looking at alternatives or doing a little outside research. Maybe I’m putting too much time into finding out about things I like to do/watch/eat, but it makes me feel like I have a more holistic view of something if I do a little research.

When I started reading local food blogs it was because I was excited. Randomly one day, I discovered someone online who had an endearing love for Korean food just like I had, and it was thrilling! I binged on her reviews of places I’d been and ones I wished to go, jumping from tag to tag like a basset hound on the scent of a bacon strip. Then I read some comments…

*Ouch!*

Places that I love, whether for camaraderie, locale, or just fun food, were being lambasted for single dishes, or, worse still, being written off ENTIRELY due to a single factor (like flour tacos or non-freshly-made pasta)! I have very much respect for bloggers, reviews, and editorialists who try to find something good in a bad time (or something that needs improvement in a great place), but it just stings a little when people write off somewhere that I’ve loved for years or say something awful about a place because it was not to their taste.

My favorite sushi place might not be the most authentic, and my favorite BBQ buffet may be the unhealthiest thing this side of Paula Deen, but I don’t want to hear about how it should be closed down and the operator hung from his toenails on the highest pillar, it just brings me down. I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don’t feel…. like crap.

~Stegosaurus

Honey Pig: Korean Host Club experience

Joy and BBQ

Let me preface this with a little self-description: I'm a boring southern-born white girl. Nothing special, no swell ethnic back-story, no fascinating history. I get the feeling that this fact is psychologically why I am more drawn to ethnic cuisines than standard American fare, and take great joy in experiencing the weirdest and most intriguing cultures' foods (may Andrew Zimmern have mercy on my soul).

That being said, my absolute fantastically #1 favorite food ethnicity is South Korean. If you have not had the glory and the rapture that is Korean food, my friend, you are missing out on a singular joy in life, a massively multi-faceted mouthful of memories. It is a verifiable smorgasbord of sumptuousness, and I've been in love with it since my first bite in 2005. Since then I've been on an ongoing pilgrimage to discover what Atlanta (itself a large multi-cultural hotpot) has to offer, from Bi Bim Bap to japchae. Don't be scared by the strange things you hear about eastern cultures and their foods, Korean cuisine can be just as friendly to a meat-loving, big-boned American football fan as it can to little ol' me.

The Scene

Honey Pig is an experience, more so than other Korean BBQ-style restaurants that I frequent around town. Taking savings where they can, they use brass cymbals from a local music store that was going out of business to cook your meat (see below), even going so far as to spit shining them between each serving to get that middle-school-band-geek smell out. The location is surrounded by other curiosities: an ivory-hunter's emporium, the local West African witch doctor's office, the Jules Verne national museum….This part might be a lie.

First up was the kimchee and spicy bean sprouts being added to the grill, of which I promptly partook. Luckily I was dining with a pretty strict carnivorous dinosaur, so all of the banchan belonged to me. When the 'meat additions' (materials to wrap up with the meat to add different flavors) arrived, I cultivated my growing love for fermented beans, which the Travel Channel has taught me are quite prolific in Korean cuisine, and marveled at the interesting addition of three types of wraps: lettuce, sliced radish (I'm assuming it was daikon-type radish, but I didn't ask), and rice paper (which went over well with my carnivore partner).

Meat-wise, beef was first up, followed by the signature pork that carried the name of the restaurant on its piggy shoulders. Our waiter was quite attentive, explaining what each plate contained and answering questions about the methods of cooking. The beef proved to be an acceptable taste and consistency (might have preferred a little more taste from the marinade, however), but I think I may not be a fatty pork lover, for it didn't seem to have a lot of flavor and none of the garnishes (chili paste, kimchee, bean sprouts, garlic, sesame oil mixture, and/or fermented beans) seemed to aid in my quest for more taste.

Eating my way through life

Portions must be the name of the game at this lovely establishment, however, and my favorite part of the meal illustrated this aptly. After most of the meat was consumed by myself and my prehistoric comrade, the waiter brought rice and made what looked like a combination between dol sot and fried rice with the remaining kimchee, bean sprouts, and a rice mixture he brought out. By the time he was finished mixing, the pseudo-dol sot was a PERFECT consistency! The little bits of crusty rice that were touching the cymbal were excellently mixed and tasted like a little slice of heaven (which I was happy to enjoy at super-spicy-breakfast-hour the next morning).

But wait…

At this point in the meal, I noticed something: all of the waiters were 20-something and male! In fact, to my knowledge, there was only one female in the place (the hostess)….

It was a Korean Host Club!

Each one of the waiters fit a certain trope: a megane, a tough guy, one that looked overly effeminate. I felt like I'd stepped into a shoujo manga…

The experience, quantity, and excellent 'fried rice' after the meal made it well worth a return visit, even without adorable Korean guys to entice my visual palate. I hope to bring other dinosaurs to this non-standard (at least for me) establishment. =)

~Stegosaurus

Introductions

Welcome to Dining Dinosaurs, a friand feast of culinary exploration, taken on by a group of just-out-of-college adventurers in the heart of Atlanta, GA. You may have read Atlanta food blogs, you might even be a foodie or epicurean expert yourself, and this blog will be no different in terms of introducing you to new food and interesting perspectives on it. However, we will integrate a few things that you may not see in other blogs, or see together in the same blog, including a distinct breakdown of price for restaurants (since our bank accounts are not exactly brimming with anything beside possibility) and local points of interest close to the places we go.

Amateur Hour

We are not chefs. We are not trained in any form of culinary arts, some of us can't even boil water. But we like to eat, and we hope you do too. Our selections range from vegan health food to legendary heart-attack meals, so don't expect any dieting advice in the posts contained here. If you disagree, comment and let us know. Hell, we disagree with each other most of the time, so we're pretty used to it. Just remember that we do not have the ... sophisticated palates that you may possess, we are just fans of food.

Why Dinosaurs?

Who doesn't like dinosaurs? Each different person posting in the blog will be assigned a different dinosaur icon so you can link them together easily. I am the stegosaurus. =)

Bon appetit!