This week I met up with a PR rep for Chik-Fil-A to sample the spicy chicken biscuit, the second of the spicy launches they’ve done in a year. I’ve wondered why the spicy sandwich, biscuit, and nuggets were going to be released separately and have been going through individual testing phases, so I had a chance to ask. I figured it was just a way to have more launches thus generating maximum consumer interest/profit.

But apparently the spicy formulas are all slightly different; the heat of the new spicy sandwich has been toned down for the biscuit. I think the spicy sandwich is fairly tame, but then again I snort ghost chile powder for kicks. It does wonders for my virility!

As I chowed down on the breakfast, a random Chil-Fil-A person was clearing tables and asked me how I liked it. I told her good. She said, “I don’t like the chicken, it’s too spicy”. Interesting. I guess Chik-Fil-A was wise to spend a significant amount of time trying to figure out that exact point where they will satisfy the greatest number of chili-heads/customers.

Thinking about it now, it shouldn’t surprise me. I took some management statistics and science classes at Georgia Tech, which often involved taking processes or scenarios with certain assumptions and formulaically solving for maximum profitability. I have to presume large companies like this are keeping a close eye on test market demographics and ordering patterns and tweaking the product formulas to see what happens. It’s somewhat interesting to me, but also a little bit crazy to imagine statisticians staring into spreadsheets and profit and loss statements, sending emails down to the test lab asking them to increase onion powder by .25 grams and decrease cayenne by .5 gram per unit, because that’s the Scoville sweet spot that is statistically likely to increase sales by a million dollars.

But I digress.

The sandwich? I liked it well enough, but I fall into the not-spicy-enough category. The chicken definitely trumps the biscuit.

Personally, I am waiting for the spicy nugs, which I tried in Augusta. They were the hottest of all three spicy items I’ve tried, and the nuggets are my favorite Chik-Fil-A item anyways.

FTC Disclosure – this sandwich and a glass of tap water were provided free of charge. I also received two free sandwich coupons, which I’ll give to the first hungry person I see on the street.

I pretty much never make pancakes. I used to make a lot of them back in the late 80′s when I was rocking the Boxcar Children Cookbook. Those kids lived an exciting life out in the woods in their fancy railroad car, and damned if they didn’t have pancakes too.

On occasion I’ll order pancakes after my real breakfast, a dessert of sorts. That’s what these pancakes were.

I forgot I had the Gourmet cookbook, a massive collection of recipes larger than the Joy of Cooking. The recipe for Ruth’s pancakes is very simple, but what makes them good is the excessive amount of melted butter incorporated into the batter. I actually cut the amount of butter in half because it seemed unnecessary.

While the pancakes cooked I threw cut up pieces of banana in canola oil for a few seconds, added a splash of brandy, lit on fire, cooked the booze off, and finished them with agave nectar.

Really good dessert breakfast.

I had breakfast at The Social House the other day while my car was getting worked on at Gordy Tire (highly recommended). It was my second visit for breakfast here. The first wasn’t very memorable, not awful, but just not good I enough that I desired to return.

This second visit was another matter.

I ordered the mother daughter reunion eggs “benny” (fried chicken, eggs, get it?) Right off the get-go, the two eggs were very unappealing looking and one egg yolk had already been punctured. The potatoes tasted reheated and the chicken had a strange day-old texture, such that I couldn’t bring my self to eat any of the bite sized pieces after the initial taste. The accompanying hash brown cake was mushy and bland. It all tasted a bit….sad.

The coffee was good and strong!

I don’t usually use this site as a platform for negative posts, but in this case, I really can’t recommend going here if other options are readily available.

I started by making refried beans. I had some Rancho Gordo black beans soaking in a water/garlic/bay leaf mixture from the previous day. Shown beside it are the Napa-based Rancho Gordo Rosa de Castilla beans, part of a joint venture called the Rancho Gordo-Xoxoc project, a partnership with Mexican bean growers to promote and ensure the survival of heirloom Mexican bean varietals. 

You can get a lot of great bean cooking ideas from the RG blog. The next day I ended up sautéing the rosa de castilla beans in bacon fat with onions. These beans are fantastic. You can buy RG beans online for $5-6 a package, or you can also pick them up at Star Provisions for $8.50 a package. $5 a package is expensive, but you get a lot of varietals that you won’t find around Atlanta, and the taste is 300% better than store brand beans.

I also ordered some Mexican oregano from RG, which has a slightly stronger and more distinct oregano flavor.

The beans weren’t quite tender yet, so I sautéed some onions and garlic, then added the beans, water, fresh ground cumin, chile powder and cayenne until they were soft and the liquid was almost totally reduced. Actually, these black beans never really got as tender as I wanted. And I cooked them a long time, probably an hour, adding water a few times.

I don’t have a masher, so I used my “mallet”, which also has the potential to be the most dangerous weapon in my kitchen. I mashed up the bean mixture, added some olive oil, and turned up the heat to finish the beans.

While all of this was going on, I also cooked some bacon and crisped potato cubes. I began creating the burritos – tortillas, then refried beans, then queso, potato, and bacon.

Followed by rice and scrambled egg. When I cooked the scrambled egg, I cooked it like an omelet, keeping it in one large piece. My thinking is that there would be less surface area of egg exposed to the deep freeze, so there’s less chance of textural issues when they are reheated.

I ended up making five burritos.

I ate one right away.

And froze the other four. I wrapped them tightly in aluminum foil. I should have wrapped them first in plastic wrap, then in aluminum foil, as the aluminum foil stuck to parts of the burritos when I tried to unwrap them later.

Here is a frozen burrito. The frozen bean end looks gross. I cooked it in the microwave for three minutes at 70% power. Don’t ask me why I selected 70%. I’m slightly neurotic about choosing microwave power levels. I come up with all sorts of internal justifications regarding why I chose a particular setting. “I’m warming up a pint of chili? Well Jimmy, we don’t want to cook the exterior of the chili, we want to slowly warm the chili, followed by a quick nuke to ensure the chili surface is hot enough to melt shredded cheese. Let’s go four minutes at 40%, followed by sixty seconds at 100%”.

Guess what, they were pretty good. I ate one almost every day for the following six days, and I never noticed a degradation of quality from day one to day six. The eggs didn’t even taste weird. I wish I had used more cheese, which I think helps balance out the rice and beans, which get a bit dry upon reheat. But additional salsa helps with that too.

I drive to South Carolina one morning every week, so these were especially convenient for that trip. Right before I jettisoned Atlanta, I microwaved the burrito, wrapped it in foil, and went on my way. It was still warm by the time I hit Monroe, GA.

Burrito success!

Muss & Turner’s is only a few miles up the road from me, and I don’t go as often as I should, but I’ve hit them up a couple of times over the last two weeks. The first time I went for some bar snacks and a few glasses of wine with Ed from Wine Tonite. The popular Vinings dining destination has recently updated their dinner menu, with an increased offering of small plates, perfect for sharing, and they always have a few unique selections of wines by the glass. We had a great time; I really enjoy sitting at their small bar, chatting up their friendly bartender, and trying a few new things.

The other visit was for brunch this past Sunday. They seem to do a solid brunch business – there’s always a good crowd, and they have very enticing selections. I usually have a hard time deciding what to order.

On this visit it easy. The special was a duck confit filled herb crepe, topped with two poached eggs and macerated blueberries. That’s quite the description, and the dish delivered on the special billing.

The crepe was stuffed full of plenty of tender, savory duck confit. They could have easily skimped on the duck, but they didn’t, and I thank them for it.

The blueberries weren’t doing a whole lot for me, but the poached eggs were perfect. I’ve been on a poached egg mission of sorts lately. I order them everywhere they’re available, and it’s amazing to me how many restaurants will serve a crappy poached egg – I’m constantly running into rubbery egg whites and solid egg yolks. I wish more places would take care in their preparation, a great poached egg is a beautiful thing (rant done).

Adding to the appeal of Muss & Turner’s brunch, they always have the giant Big Green Egg smoking near the restaurant entrance. The smell is intoxicating, it’s the Muss & Turner siren song calling me from across the parking lot, dragging me past all the suckers waiting in line for the brunch at J. Christopher’s.

Don’t get me wrong, the food isn’t terrible, I’m quite comfortable in their large leather booths, and the service is outstanding. But is the thirty minute figure listed on their exterior wait-time LCD warranted? Not to me.

Particularly in regards to breakfast, I think Buckhead as a whole lacks originality, opting for the more traditional breakfast items such as various meat/egg combinations and pancakes. I much prefer the creative offerings and the surrounding vibe at Radial or Ria’s.

This got me wondering – why is there this separation in style between the various geographies of Atlanta? Would it appear that the suit-clad business man is much more apt to prefer a breakfast of two eggs over easy with toast and potatoes, than perhaps a sampling of chilaquiles verdes with soysauge? That sort of stereotype shouldn’t apply, right? Maybe it’s not the clientele. Maybe it’s the locale which dictates the style, driving the tastes of the consumer. Would Ria’s, which is slammed on weekend mornings, be as popular at Roswell & Peachtree? I don’t know, but if I find something like that in Buckhead, you’ll see my dissenting, J.Crew clad ass there.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

lots of branding around OK Cafe – I like this lamp base

the booth

vegetarian “breakfast” plate – tofu stir fry. pretty bad actually.

two eggs with potatoes and link sausage: it is what it is

dessert

If I have the choice between the last few ounces of a porterhouse for two, or diving into the mostly beautifully described and moaned-over-good dessert I’ve ever seen, my carnivore lust is going to win out, without remorse, nine times out of ten. The word “savory” gets tossed around too often, but in general I guess you could say I’m a savory over sweet kind of person.

So even though I fell in love with Sublime Donuts, and they were calling out to me while I waited for my coffee this morning at Octane, when I noticed Octane had salt bagels, it was an easy choice.

A long time favorite of my New Yorker mother, I feel the salt bagel is oft over looked. This is one case where over salting is intended -when paired with the richest cream cheese you can find, each bite is a tight rope balance of deliciousness.

I usually buy my salt bagels from Goldberg’s, and while I still prefer their actual bread (boiled, doughy, heavy, chewy), the light crust on the bagel from Octane was perfect, and I find the amount of salt on the Octane bagel to be a bit more appropriate than Goldberg’s. In fact, I’d say the whole thing was awesome.

Put down the coffee cake, get to Octane, and try yourself a real breakfast treat.

When Eat Buford Highway made his recent visit to Sublime as part of his donut week, the pictures were too much to resist and I made my way over there this past Sunday.

The owner, Kamal, was there to guide us through all of his offerings, but don’t ask him to help you choose between two different donuts. When Katie asked which of the two she was thinking of ordering were best, Kamal replied, “It would be unfair to ask me to choose, I love them all the same”. It’s clear that this CIA Hyde Park graduate is proud of every offering on the menu, something I respect.

We each chose two donuts and a cup of coffee, which Kamal makes to order in a French press. I’m a sucker for anything with peanut butter, so the favorite donut I had was the Reese’s with peanut butter. Incredible. The s’mores (with burnt marshmallow of course) was also insanely good.

I fear that I’ve found a new place where I’ll be a regular…I’ll go ahead and apologize to my waistline now.

More on Kamal and the story of Sublime Donuts can be found in this AJC article by John Kessler.

We arrived on a Saturday early enough to beat the crowds that I’ve seen form on the weekend, probably around 8:45AM. That may seem early, but working in the construction industry, this is a late breakfast for yours truly.

Our extremely friendly waiter takes my order of coffee and water and I settle in to the menu. Wait a minute…is that the new Kanye album they are playing? Indeed. They actually played the entire album during my meal, getting me in the mood for a righteous meal/entire Saturday.

Anyways, good problems were at hand – too many enticing choices! In addition to the regular menu, where I was eyeing the black bean cakes, they had a brunch menu attachment that was calling out to me. My decisions was between the machaca breakfast burrito and the huevos tejanos, but when I thought about it, I have breakfast burritos probably 4 out of 7 mornings, so I went with the tejanos.

I tried to urge my non-meat-loving girlfriend into ordering the banana bread French toast, but she predictably went grits and a cheese biscuit. Lots o’ cheese.

The huevos tejanos wasn’t some mind-blowing, intriguing breakfast combination, but it was one of the more solid breakfasts I’ve had in a while. The scrambled eggs were cooked into a thick cake, but weren’t the slightest bit burned or runny. They were mixed in with a healthy dose of red onions, peppers, jalapenos, then topped with a just-right dollop of salsa and sour cream. I also chose to add cheddar cheese and felt good about that decision.

The potatoes were the bees knees though. I imagine these are made by either steaming or boiling whole, small potatoes, which they then allow to cool. Once the order is placed the potatoes are smashed so that some large chunks remain, then placed on the griddle, seasoned, and fried a la a hash brown cake (flipped once). If this isn’t how they make them, well, sorry.

The outside had a crunchy crust of potato-awesomeness, while the center of the “cake” was just warm enough, soft, a bit mushy, but a pleasant contrast to the crispy texture of the crust. It was refreshing having hash browns where I could actually taste real potato. Often they still have that frozen taste, or they are fried to the max so just taste fried-ness and no potato.

Yeah, I liked it.

We also ordered a red velvet cake cupcake to go, and am happy to report that it was up to snuff.

I have a post all queued up for tonight in the Land of Plenty cooking series, but I made some breakfast the other day and it was ridiculous so I wanted to share it.

Eggs are somewhat the run-of-the-mill breakfast item, but for some reason they never get old. As of today, a feature of Gordon Ramsey’s scrambled eggs is the most viewed item on tastespotting in the last month. Of course there are a variety of ways to cook them, but I think what makes them interesting is that just a slight touch of difference in how you cook them can result in a greatly varied finished product.

I’ve had the worst, burnt, grainy scrambled eggs a few times in my day, and I’ve also enjoyed the lush and extravagant eggs with caviar at The Plaza in NYC (not sure that restaurant is open anymore since The Plaza converted to condos).

Yeah, caviar is cheating, but creating fantastic scrambled eggs can be done easily as long as you treat each step in the process with care and respect as you would a risotto.

Step 1 – The Eggs

Working with two eggs, gently beat them with 1 tsp of water. The water creates a softer texture and a bit more volume without imparting any flavor as milk or cream would.

Next, give a few turns of the salt mill into the beaten eggs. We’re not looking to over season them here, but we’re creating a softer egg. According to Cook’s Illustrated (and my personal taste tests), salt affects the eggs’ protein molecules, making it more difficult for them to bond, resulting in a more tender scrambled egg.

Step 2 – Butter

For two eggs, melt half a tablespoon of butter on medium heat. Coat the pan evenly.

Step 3 – Cookin’

Pour in the eggs and do not touch for roughly 1 minute. Once the eggs begin to set, gently fold the eggs back into itself a few times.  A rubber spatula is perfect for this. After another 30 seconds, turn off the heat. The eggs should still be fairly wet. You may want to fold them again a couple of times over the next 30-60 seconds to let them firm up a bit, but you want them to remain slightly wet. They will dry out a bit by the time you plate and serve them.

Step 4 – Fancy Pants

Serve immediately. Here I have garnished with chopped chives, then hit the eggs with just a few drops of white truffle oil. Yeah, real truffle shavings would be the ultimate in eggs, but this will do. Truffle oil goes famously with eggs, but don’t overdo it. A few drops on the side works well as you can control the oil to egg ratio of each bite.

Step 5 – Upload your picture to Flikr, hope that it gets approved by Tastespotting, and feel smug the rest of the morning

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