Tea Time

This is my second post on Green tea. The first one was Stabucks’s Green Tea Frappuchino, very satisfying but laden with calories! This post is on Green Tea in its truest form. I’ve always know that this ancient Chinese drink is high in anti-oxidants and is therefore good for your skin and complexion. That's all I needed to know. Apart from occasionally ordering green tea at a Chinese restaurant, I’ve tried a couple of retail brands as well. The best by far has been the one home-brewed by Trader Joes. It’s pretty expensive though, viz a viz the Arizona Green Tea that sells at the same price for a gallon! ‘POM’ is another brand; they bottle Green and White Tea in different flavors, very natural but again, pretty pricey!

Today I decided to read up a little more on the much hyped Green Tea and realized that there are a whole lot of other health benefits associated with its consumption as well. In an article titled “The Miracle of Green Tea”, the author has listed a few medical conditions in which drinking green tea is reputed to be helpful.

* cancer
* rheumatoid arthritis
* high cholesterol levels
* cariovascular disease
* infection
* impaired immune function

There’s an ancient Chinese proverb that says "Better to be deprived of food for three days, than tea for one."

If it’s going to make my skin glow, SURE.!

Cup Cakes

Chocolate cup cakes on a Sunday afternoon, reminiscent of the good old days back home. I made them from a box though, not from scratch .... almost as good as Mom's, ALMOST!

Cracker Barrel

I love Southern food; not the idli-dosa-wada-kind (I love that too) but more the fried chicken- corn on the cob-sweet tea kind. Cracker Barrel serves just that – old fashioned southern food. You can’t miss the brown and yellow Cracker Barrel sign every few exits on the highway. It’s a chain that’s half store, half restaurant and all country.

Every restaurant has a quaint retail store upfront; one that sells an odd assortment of wares like fishing rods, oven mitts, Elvis Presley records, scented candles and caramel apples. You have to make your way through the store before you reach the restaurant behind and if you’re like me, you will succumb to temptation and wind up buying something from the store, even if it’s just a bit of home-made fudge. The restaurant really does transport you back to small-town Georgia, probably back in the 1970s. The juke-box that belts out one country number after the other, the walls that boast Marilyn Monroe memorabilia and the staff are all quintessentially Southern. The menu conjures up every possible traditional recipe from the peach cobbler to the meat loaf.

I have tried a lot of different things on the menu and have always enjoyed my food here. I’ve only been to the one on Windward Parkway; it’s an occasional week-day lunch spot. Every time we visit, I wish I could stay on and idle like the other patrons. So my only tip is that if you ever visit Cracker Barrel, make sure you have time on your hands; to fully enjoy this southern home style store and restaurant at leisure!

One - Midtown Kitchen

This is unquestionably one of the top three restaurants in Atlanta I’ve patronized so far. It’s the perfect answer for anyone looking for that Saturday night, classy, urban hotspot. The cuisine is all American, right from the steak frites to the complimentary assortment of breadsticks. My recommendation would be the wood oven pizza and the side of parmesan herb fries. And since it was a certain someone's birthday, the dessert was on the house too! There’s far more to One than the food though. What was originally a warehouse has metamorphosed to a high energy restaurant complete with a well spread out bar and lounge area. I loved this place; it gets an absolute G star.

The success of One – Midtown Kitchen has launched Two – Urban Licks and Trois, both just waiting to be discovered. And if 'One' is anything to go by, I’m sure they’ve done a splendid job with ‘Two’ and ‘Three’ as well!

Tarte Au Chocolat

This post, like my previous, is grace a G junior. Both the recipe and the pretty visual are hers; and it comes to me directly from France!

Crust:
200 g four
100 g butter @room temperature
50 g sugar
Mix ingredients together until it gets crumbly (sand) texture. Add 1 Tbs of water to obtain dough. Leave in plastic film and keep for about 1 hr.
Roll pastry as thin as possible and put in a baking dish.
Make holes in the base of the paste with a fork.
Bake for about 15 minutes in an oven at 200 c.

Chocolate Mix:
200 g dark chocolate
200 ml of whipping cream
20 ml of milk
1 egg

Method:
Put whipping cream and milk in sauce and heat together until it starts to boil (little bubbles). Incorporate the chocolate cut into pieces to the cream and milk mixture. Mix until a perfectly smooth texture is obtained. Add 1egg and whisk energetically to obtain a smooth mix. Pour this chocolate mix into the precooked crust. Cook in an oven at 200 C for 10-20 minutes, depending on the size of the tart. Garnish with fresh strawberries.

I haven’t tried this recipe as yet. I’ve never made a pie crust from scratch actually; from what she says, it wasn’t that bad. We shall see, until then, Bon Appetite.

Greek Salad

Who hasn’t had a Greek Salad? Here’s perhaps the simplest salad recipe that ever was. It’s absolutely wholesome and delicious.

Ingredients:
1 large cucumber
2 firm tomatoes
½ red onion
Feta cheese

For the dressing:
5 Tbs Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Oregano

Method:Cut the onions into fine rings. The cucumber, tomatoes and feta cheese have to be chopped into big chunks. Combine the vegetables and cheese with the dressing and toss in a big salad bowl. Simple cooking, easy eating. Thanks G.

Cafe Intermezzo

And continuing with coffee shops, here’s perhaps Atlanta’s most popular one by far – Café Intermezzo. It’s a European bistro in suburban Atlanta. They call themselves the largest Espresso/Cappuchino machine in the world, quaintly fashioned from small town Vienna. They boast a scintillating array of coffees, from the unassuming Mocha to the nutty Gianduja. The desserts are as scrumptious as their coffees are eclectic. My favorite by far is the Tiramisu, no one makes it like they do. The best part about Café Intermezzo is that it wakes up when the rest of Atlanta is asleep; literally. It’s probably the only place that’s still bustling at 2:00am on week-ends.

So, for that after midnight kick, when the only other option is a decrepit Waffle House, Café Intermezzo is definitely the place to go!