Evening Edge

So, for this final column of 2007, I pitched Food & Drink editor Susan Puckett some of the many esoteric cooking projects that are high on my obsession list. There was my reasoning behind cooking polenta in a cast-iron Dutch oven (to toast the grain); the manifest deliciousness and superiority of satsumas (why even buy clementines?); and the fact that goat-milk yogurt and honey make a fantastic and ridiculously easy sorbet after a spin in the ice cream machine (1 quart goat-milk yogurt, 2/3 cup honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, juice of 1 lime: Try it).

Susan nodded and told me it all sounded interesting, but ...

John Kessler writes food features and a column about food and more for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution E-mail John Kessler Recent Kessler columns Who has the best baguettes - H&F or Alons?  Sweet! Kid goes for more than Yogos  A new appreciation for after-dinner drinks         More John Kessler Related: AJC Food & Drink Evening Edge Atlanta Restaurant reviews and search Recipes from Atlanta restaurants Search AJC recipes

But?

But it is the end of the year. Isn't this the time to write something wrapping up trends and developments?

I suppose it is. This column covers cooking, dining and drinking in Atlanta. So here goes:

Cooking

Was there anything that got people talking this year? I kept looking for the next breakout tool (the Microplane zester, silicone bakeware) or the next technique (beer-can chicken, no-knead bread). I did get a lot of response to a column about salt-brining turkey, but in all fairness I was recycling a technique I'd found in another story from last year.

The only breakout cookbook sensation was Jessica Seinfeld's "Deceptively Delicious" (aka "Secretive Vegetable Puree with Jerry's Wife").

The rise of food blogging documents a new generation of food-obsessed young adults who prepare lavish meals and photograph everything. Their patron saint is Julie Powell, whose account of working through the entirety of Julia Child's canon, "Julie & Julia," is being made into a feature film by Nora Ephron.

A small but growing population of home cooks seems to be looking for the "probiotic" benefits of foods that contain live bacteria and enzymes. Examples include the lightly fermented tea called kombucha, new-style frozen yogurt served at area Yoforia and Juicy Green shops, and raw milk. The latter is illegal for human consumption in Georgia, but fans find a way around the law.

Dining

Kind of a strange year, don't you think?

On the one hand, Atlanta patted itself on the back for its seemingly elevated national profile. The James Beard Foundation and Food & Wine magazine staged lavish events here on the same weekend. StarChefs.com cherry-picked a selection of the brightest new talent for its Internet hall of fame and held its own gala event. The popular Bravo TV reality show "Top Chef" came sniffing around for contestants, and rumor has it that not one but two Atlantans will compete next season. This is all nice attention, but we have to remember that food entertainment is big business, and hometown heroes drive readership/rating/recognition.

So what's the other hand?

Well, we've lost many of our best chefs. Sotohiro Kosugi and Guenter Seeger are both in New York. Bruno Ménard from the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead is now a chef at a Tokyo restaurant with three Michelin stars. Atlanta still doesn't support much on the high end.

In terms of genre, Atlanta restaurateurs have left fusion by and large to the flashy imports (Steel, Geisha House) and instead focused on cooking with a sense of place. Today's local/seasonal mandate plays well in the South, and everything from the nine-course extravaganza at Quinones at Bacchanalia to Rare's soul food tapas, to the contempo elegance of JCT Kitchen speaks with a Southern accent. You know something's afoot when you can snack on fried pies in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton.

Drinking

Besha Rodell, the food editor over at Creative Loafing, has a funny term for the kinds of cocktails that have been popular in recent years: melted popsicles. You know what she's talking about, right? The -tinis.

Well, -tini time is over.

Today's drinks — sometimes called "culinary cocktails" — are exciting, offbeat and sometimes just plain weird. I'm not sure I loved a martini made with celery juice and honeydew at Room, but I was nuts for the gin and elderflower syrup concoction at Beleza, as well as the peerless passion fruit caipirinha. The Chocolate Bar in Decatur puts serrano chiles and amaretto in its old fashioned to unusual effect. Shaun's just added a hot chocolate spiked with chipotle vodka and Kahlua to its menu, while Restaurant Eugene mixes gin with a house-made lavender tincture, grapefruit juice and edible wildflowers. The Bar at Trois may consider its lime-and-green tea martini the signature drink, but I'll always love the place for introducing me to real rye Manhattans.

The other alcohol-fueled trend of note concerns the emergence of so-called "gastropubs." The term has been overused and misused, but basically we're looking at creative riffs on bar food and dishes designed to complement sophisticated beer lists. The most obvious newbie in this genre is Tap in Midtown, the best is the Glenwood in East Atlanta and the most promising is Holeman and Finch, which is soon to debut in Buckhead.

Trend or no trend, I still like wine with dinner.