Not My Cooking

A few of you Atlantans may have heard the name, Peter Chang. If not, you know how to use Google or Wikipedia but I'll save you some time, Peter Chang. He used to cook at a little known restaurant in Marietta called, Tasty China. They serve spicy Szechwan cuisine and people would line up to get it. Once upon a time, I worked right near this place. I can remember coworkers running there for lunch and inviting me. But at the time, I was a college student and not so adventurous in my tastes so I never made it there. I think I may have missed out. Apparently, there are blogs out there for people who follow this guy to various cities to see what kitchen he will pop up in next. Luckily, he decided to open his own restaurant in Atlanta very recently, http://www.petertasty2.com/.

I finally got a chance to dine there last night after anxiously waiting for a visit. And I was not disappointed! There were so many different things on the menu that I want to try. I will have to make my next visit with a meat-eater because I definitely cannot wait to try some of his non-vegetarian friendly dishes like: Steam Pork Soup Buns, the infamous "Duck", Hot and Numbing Beef, and the Steamed Chili Spare Ribs. But here is what I did try:

Scallion Bubble Pancake with Curry Sauce
This was soooo good. With the flavors of the sauce, I almost felt like I was sneaking dessert before my dinner.

Dry Fried Eggplant
There are no words for this one. If you like eggplant and spicy food, you must try this. There were so many great flavors in this, I think I had tears in my eyes.

Mixed Seafood in Clay Pot (shrimp, squid, scallops, fish slices, asparagus, dried tomatoes) 
Sorry for the crappy picture. But it was delicious!

They do have an Americanized section of the menu where you can find your favorites like Sesame Chicken but don't you go ordering from that side of the menu! Trust!

I also visited Wisteria in Inman Park over the weekend. Yes, I ate well this weekend. Wisteria serves contemporary cuisine with a southern flair. This place is great to take out of town guests for a nice meal to show off local dishes. For an appetizer, I had the Pimento Deviled Eggs with pickled okra and spiced pecans. I've been noticing these popping up on menus all over the south. They must be coming back as a new trend. I've never been a fan but recently I can't stop eating them (especially at restaurants where they tweak the traditional recipe a bit.) For my entree, I had the All Natural Iron Skillet Fried Chicken with bacon braised collard greens and sweet corn pudding with mushroom herb broth. The portions were generous and the food mouthwatering. The chicken was crisp, juicy, and didn't have much bone. And I ate every last bit of that corn pudding that was more like a dessert pudding than corn. So, somebody direct me to the nearest treadmill STAT.