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Thursday, January 3, 2008
My Best of 2007
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A new beginning is always a time for reflection, and dining this past year held a plethora of passionate eating. Looking back on the reviews of last year, here are my favorite dishes of 2007. What are yours?
1. Early in 2007 I reviewed Shaun’s, from chef-owner Shaun Doty, in the perfect neighborhood setting — Inman Park. Lovely to look at, the restaurant exudes what’s right about today’s American bistro: it’s intimate, charming and serves the kind of meal we all wish we could make at home, right down to desserts. (Doty is actually one of the best pastry people in the city.) My fave: Doty cooks seasonally, but the Sardinian flatbread can almost always be found on the menu, providing a crunch factor at the start of a meal. Bartendress Lara Creasy goes to a lot of trouble to make sure her cocktails match the menu just right.
2. When you eat at Palomilla’s Cuban Grill House in Norcross, it’s not just the food — which is hands down the best Cuban in the Atlanta area — that lulls you into submission. There is a strong sense of community here, and it’s transcendent, as if that dish of grouper in salsa verde came with its own white dove and olive branch. One bite, and everyone is happy. My fave: masas de cerdo, chunks of pork so tender they shred from the fork with the tiniest of nudges. The thick chunks of pork are marinated just enough to give flavor and juiciness, then are deep-fried and served with a Cuban mojo sauce and lime.
3. Brothers Alex and Chris Kinjo have a big, beautiful second success on their hands with the newly opened MF Buckhead. No detail has been ignored - especially the quality and freshness of the fish. My fave: snow crab, asparagus and salmon roll with a creamy Japanese aioli. Omigod good.
4. An evening at Joël since its dramatic makeover this past summer is different, but change, as the bumper sticker professes, is good. Out of 30 dishes or so (many tried twice), I had one dish I didn’t like, leaving very little to complain about. Raving is easy: homey sides of buttered parsnips, beautifully dressed with salt and butter in a tiny copper pot? Unbeatable. And the grits? Made with cream and truffle oil, they’re the height of indulgence — such a seemingly effortless dish elevated so simply to creamy, savory transcendence. My fave: a bowl of fleshy chestnuts with porcini ravioli in a light cream sauce followed by a tiny tian of meringue swimming in a creme anglaise (like a tiny oeuf a la niege).
5. Tamarind Thai’s new location at Colony Square might not have as much character as the old locale, but the food is better than ever. My fave: fiery yum nuam nam tok (designated on the menu with only a two-chile heat rating, so a dish with four must remove part of the roof of your mouth). This beef salad, made with strips of sirloin tossed with lime, mint leaves, lemon grass and onions is laced (did I say laced? I meant loaded) with hot peppers. Order a beer. Do not drink water. Have tissues on hand.
6. Inspired by trips to Brazil, Riccardo Ullio (who is Italian) has brought to Juniper Street a small space with a big personality — the beautiful Beleza. It offers some of the best — if not the best — culinary cocktails from mixologist Lindy Colburn doubled with a menu inspired by Brazil but certainly not beholden to it. My fave: If I’m going to drink my dinner, it may as well be one of Colburn’s excellent acerola mojitos, made with the tart cherry native to South America and full of vitamin C, which is of course, ahem, why I drink it.
7. Brasserie le Coze moved downtown and morphed into FAB — French American Brasserie. Other than an overly large dining space that leaves me cold, the food is as good as ever, with many of Brasserie’s old standards. My fave: The skate wings are crisper, saltier and even bolder than before, scrumptious in their brown butter sauce with fat, Pantellerian capers.
8. When people ask me what my favorite restaurant in Atlanta is, I always respond La Oaxaquena Taqueria, which is actually in Jonesboro. The flavor of masa, formed into the various constructions the different regions in Mexico offer — tortillas, sopes, huaraches, gorditas and giant tlayudas — is irresistible, a musky, corn-flavored mass that seems to hold within it an entire culture’s history. My fave: tlayudas, a Oaxacan specialty street food, are things of great, messy beauty — a thin, griddled, oversized tortilla smothered in shredded lettuce, gobs of beans and spicy Mexican chorizo, fresh, ripe tomatoes, avocado, and string cheese from Oaxaca called quesillo.
9. One of the best things about dining out these days is when a pleasant surprise comes my way — something that happened when rereviewing Babette’s this past fall. Old friends are hard to keep, but Babette’s is a Poncey Hi gem. My fave: tufts of crusty French bread dipped into the balmy au jus of an exquisite bowl of roast chicken with juicy tomatoes, Nicoise olives, red bliss potatoes and shreds of grilled radicchio.
10. There are very few things Hugh Acheson of Athens’ Five & Ten does wrong. And one of his rightest, bestest qualities is a keen attention to detail — seasonally inspired offerings, a cherry-picked, extremely affordable wine list, and pickles. Yes, pickles. This guy can “put up” veggies better than your Aunt Mable. My fave: okra, green tomatoes and bread and butters. Add a serving of house-made pimento cheese with a glass of red wine and a meal is made.
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