Category: atlanta

Thai House and the Symphony

You’d think with my job I’d have access to all kinds of cool free tickets. Not so much. But occasionally something comes along. This Saturday I had tickets for Cirque de la Symphony with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre. Since we had to travel way up to Alpharetta, a stop at Thai House for dinner was in order.

The sizzling rice soup, every time.

They have two sorts of fake meats: a chickeny one called su gai and a fishy one called su yi. I like the su yi and it’s different than the fake meats anyone else uses so I usually get that. Here it is in green curry form.

And on a bed of rice.

The symphony was okay but the sound wasn’t that great at the amphitheatre. I’d like to see them again at Symphony Hall. The acrobats were amazing, especially the final act. The things they did just were not possible.

One last time

Last week Matt and I went out for Indian food. He wanted meat so we tried Madras Woodlands even though the good chef is no longer there. His meat was terrible and not spicy even though he ordered it that way. My veg food was okay, but nothing spectacular. There are definitely other places around town doing it better. My main complaint about the samosa was the lack of complexity of the filling. The dosa wrapper was really good. But the potato filling was oily and a bit bland. The main flavor of it was the onions. I’m glad I opted for the Mysore Masala Dosa because the extra spice was needed.

However, this Evil Twin Ryan & the Beaster Bunny, along with the Stillwater Artisinal Ales Debutante and Victory Prima Pils that followed at the Midway were mighty tasty. Hanging out, drinking good beer, watching a down pour from a covered patio … most excellent.

Saturday eats and bike ride

How have I lived in Atlanta for 13 years without ever having gone to Ria’s Bluebird? Well, I fixed that Saturday morning. Got there bright and early to mostly beat the crowds and tried the Bionic Breakfast with a side of spicy tofu. It was delicious especially topped with sriracha. The tofu was good, but ended up making it too much food for me. It made me sad to leave some behind but we were headed out for a bike ride afterwards and I didn’t want to carry leftovers.

After eating, just outside, we found this. Looks like something that could be explained by alcohol.

Jared and I headed out on a bike ride. We kept out Memorial towards downtown, then headed North, took Marietta St., cut back across 17th St. and headed to the new section of Piedmont Park. Looks like it is no longer a secret.

It was HOT, so a visit to King of Pops was sounding good. Except he wasn’t on the corner yet. We thought about heading to the Ponce festival, but headed to The Porter instead. They open at 11am on Saturdays. Yay! Apparently beer makes a great recovery drink because I felt awesome the rest of the ride home. I ended up riding a total of about 24 miles. I forgot to set my bike computer and only got a few legs on map my ride. I really wish that app didn’t eat so much of my iPhone’s battery.

A mighty need

Thursday after work, since I had the car, I headed to Performance Bicycle to pick up some tubes and because I’d never been there before. It’s kind of huge, lots of stuff. After that I popped over to REI to use up my dividend that I’d apparently already used up. For some reason I was feeling super bloated and crappy. This got translated into “go buy a big pile of food for dinner from Chat Patti.”

Chat Patti used to be my go to way back when I was just vegetarian. Then a couple of years ago I found out that vegan friends found plenty of tastiness there as well. So I pop by every once in a while when I’m up that way. Especially since we’ve lost track of our favorite South Indian chef.

This is a very casual place. Cafeteria-style, order at the counter, get to go or eat there. Usually rather than trying to make some kind of decision, I just get a veggie thali, hold the dairy and let them put whatever on it. And for $8.99, the amount of food is ridiculous.

The thali usually comes with a dessert, but they all have dairy, so she put something else in there to replace it, not sure what though. The down side of me not picking things out is that I can’t really tell you what they are. And, of course, it’s going to make it hard for me to order some of these things again. Like this. I’m going to call it Indian nachos. A pile of fried with a variety of sweet chutneys on top. So freakin’ good.

 

 

 

 

The next box contained 3 chapatti breads, a potato pea samosa and sambar (I think.) The leftover chapatti survived nicely overnight in the fridge and refreshed in 15 seconds in the microwave to go with my lunch the next day.

And, the next box had rice, chana masala and some bean thing. See what I mean?

And here’s what I ended up eating for dinner:

A normal person might’ve gotten three meals out of this but I devoured the leftovers for lunch. It’s probably a good thing this place isn’t convenient. Nothing here was crazy spicy, but I have had food that’ll make you sweat here before. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

So Kong Dong Soon Tofu House

One thing nice about Atlanta is that just about every cuisine is represented here. Korean is one I have very little experience with though. So when we found out that there was a Korean restaurant that was vegan friendly, the gang had to go invade. This is from the second visit to So Kong Dong Soon Tofu House. All you have to do is tell them no fish, no meat, no egg, no fish sauce and they will take care of you.

We started with these banchan. Kind of from left to right: salty radish, radish soup, broccoli in sesame oil, salad, noodles also in sesame oil. The salad and noodles were the same as last visit but I think the rest were new. The internet tells me they switch it up regularly so you don’t always end up with the same things.

Kevin got the Tofu Bibimbap which is what I had last time. It was pretty good, but I like the noodles better.

We shared a Tofu Dumpling Soup. This is the best thing ever. It arrives all bubbling in its caldron. Seriously, next time I’m sick, I will want this. Actually, I want this right now. And I’m already full of dinner.

And I got the Acorn Noodles. It’s a cold noodle dish with lots of shredded veggies. Love it!

I should’ve grabbed a menu so I could give the exact names of the dishes. It’s really helpful to have a guide your first time there like we did. Lisa and David helped us navigate the menu and find the veganizable items.