A JCT Birthday!

Fried Chicken under a JCT Kitchen Salad

Our office dined at JCT Kitchen to celebrate Lori's birthday. We had a most enjoyable meal, beginning with homemade pickles and wonderful bread with sweet butter (maybe peach flavored?). I talked one of my co-workers into sharing her cheeseburger and fries with me - very tasty. I ordered the above pictured fried chicken salad, which is my favorite salad of the moment. The chicken was so fresh and the salad, with candied pecans, green beans and a light buttermilk ranch, really hit the spot. Others in our group ordered the avocado shrimp salad, the "grown-up" grilled cheese with a cup of corn chowder on the side and the grilled chicken BLT sandwich with avocado - that one was a HUGE sandwich that looked quite tasty.

For dessert we shared the rum soaked coconut cake on which the staff had kindly written "Happy Birthday" in chocolate, lemon doughnuts with espresso ice cream and ginger bread pudding (my personal favorite). JCT Kitchen now offers a special family style Sunday supper for $24 per person. I definitely want to come try that as well as their regular dinner menu.

Homemade Pickles

"Grown-Up" Grilled Cheese with Corn Chowder (usually served with tomato soup, but you can substitute). The bread was a brioche toasted with LOTS of butter!

Grilled Chicken BLT with Avocado and Fries

JCT Burger with White Cheddar and Calorie-worthy Fries

Shrimp and Avocado Salad

Lemon Doughnuts with Espresso Ice Cream

Ginger Bread Pudding with Lemon Curd Sauce - my personal favorite!

The Birthday Girl with Rum soaked Coconut Cake

Dancing Lebanese Men!

Mediterranean Delight Platter

Falafel

Yesterday I had a group meeting at Nicola's, an entertaining Lebanese restaurant where, if you're lucky, you might see the owner balance a bottle of wine on his head while doing a bit of a fully clothed belly dance. The food was pretty good - I enjoyed the hummus and the eggplant with rice. I thought the falafel was overspiced, though. Our waiter insisted we try the Turkish coffee, which went quite well with the baklava. On weekends they have belly dancing and apparently the whole place gets up to dance. This I'll have to see, but I may need a drink, or two...

My Addiction

Green tea yogurt with blackberries, strawberries and mango

For awhile now I have been addicted to the short menu available at Yoforia, an Atlanta frozen yogurt chain. Catching on to the healthy fro yo craze that already hit LA and New York, the flavors available are simply: original, green tea and pomegranate, although I believe they are making a new chocolate flavor that will be available soon - that I'll have to try. Then you choose your toppings (up to three). I usually go for the fruit, although the availability of mochi is always tempting and, surprisingly, Oreo cookie crumbles are very good with green tea yogurt! The fact that each ounce of yogurt is only 25 calories makes it even more difficult to curb the craving!

Exodus

Grandma Sarah and Amy enjoy the Festive Meal

This weekend I returned to the region of my birth to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover with a traditional Seder and dinner. It was great seeing the family and the food was as good as ever. We had matzoh ball soup, gefilte fish (from Alon's), eggs & onions and brisket with all the fixins. I am so glad my Grandma Sarah was able to host us again this year, even though it is a huge amount of work to prepare for this dinner. For dessert we had meringues and a special chocolate passover cake...Yum.

The Seder Plate

Our Seder table.

Brisket, green beans, tsimmes and salad.

Finger Lickin' Good

Catfish, tater tots and hush puppies

Chopped brisket sandwich with onion rings

Yesterday a friend and I dined at Fox Bros. BBQ. The restaurant was one of several participating in the "Dining Out for Tornado Relief" effort aimed at raising money for victims of the recent Atlanta tornado. As a result, the place was packed for a Monday night, and we waited almost an hour. Nevertheless, my brisket was tasty and my friend's catfish was good, too. I liked the large, flavorful hush puppies as well as the wonderful dessert of peach pound cake with Blue Bell vanilla ice cream on top (it was so good I forgot to take a picture!) I did feel bad, though, for the couple dining next to us who came in specifically for the catfish special only to find out they were all out - apparently they do not eat any other kind of meat so there wasn't much for them and they left after having waited for a table. So sad... motto of this story is GET THERE EARLY!

Frank Ma's (Dinho)

So today I had the chance to check out Frank Ma's Chinese restaurant, located in Atlanta's very own Chinatown, which is more like a shopping center than a neighborhood.

Fortunately, I was with a big group so we tried several wonderful dishes including the famous Shanghai soup dumplings, chive filled pancake, shrimp (basic dish), 3 cup chicken with great garlic, and a few more things... My favorites were the fish cooked in hot oil and the eggplant with garlic sauce. Shamefully I did not take any photos, but I am going to get back to blogging on a regular basis... I promise!

Afterwards a few of us went into the food court where freshly steamed ducks are for sale. I might have bought one if I hadn't been stuffed but I did save room for a snowcone from SunO.