EAV and Morningside eating

I got out to Rosebud with some ladyfriends a couple weeks back… it was the very beginning of patio season, and theirs is a gorgeous one. My entrée of free-form pork ravioli in a smoky, slightly sweet mushroom gravy was too heavy and altogether soft for my tastes, but my friend's duck risotto with sage was bright, earthy, and al dente, just the thing for open-air dining. The real gem of the evening was our appetizer of duck & sweet potato croquettes, served with sharp and creamy goat cheese and a spicy-sweet dipping sauce. I could've eaten a whole meal worth of that. The cocktails I tried, one a gin, ginger, and blueberry cider martini (called a Blue Philly) and one a lavender-infused gin & tonic with a bit of egg white foam (called a Bathtub Gin), both lacked flavor punch but were dangerously smooth and drinkable.

Still in the throes of my Spring patio love affair, I got out to the EARL for lunch -- I'd only ever been there for a) Sunday brunch, and b) ridiculously drank concerts. Don't let the double-plus divey dive-bar part fool you -- the EARL serves better pub fare than most restaurants. My black bean burger was a bit too moist & soft (read: fresh) to stay together in its tender (read: also fresh) bun, but it was so tasty that I didn't mind. I ordered it with their Guacamole Burger toppings (guac, cheddar, & salsa), which were a terrific compliment to the slightly spiced, grill-kissed black bean patty. Their sweet potato fries (which they don't charge extra for as a side) were excellent -- thick-cut, crisp & crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, and salted -- and the cranberry horseradish sauce that they came with was punchy-hot and more bitter than sweet, which provided an I-can't-believe-more-places-don't-do-this contrast to the flavor of the sweet potatoes. I think I just had a Terrapin Rye, but they've got a full bar (durr, see above re: drank).

In a rare in-EAV-for-the-second-time-in-a-week occurrence, I stopped in at East Atlanta Thai & Sushi (which always seems to be playing Latin music -- I sorta adore cultural schizophrenia) on a Monday night and sampled their dollar sushi menu. It was actually $2 for 2 pieces of selected nigiri or a 6-piece maki, which, despite some technical inconsistencies with the advertisement, is still a great deal. They didn't skimp on the cuts of fish, which were all of perfectly acceptable quality. The salmon was particularly nice, and the spicy tuna roll was non-creamy and sinus-clearing. A few nitpicks: their edamame was a bit undersalted, their wakame salad was a bit over-sesame oil'd, and their sushi rice was overchilled. But if you're in the area and looking for an inexpensive, sushi-laden meal, it's a thing I'd recommend. Bring your best banter -- the chef (who slipped me an extra pair of tuna nigiri, which I love him for) can be boisterous. I didn't have any drinks, but they have a full bar.

review: siggi's orange & ginger skyr yogurt

A yogurt I've been coveting for years went on sale last week -- siggi's Icelandic-style skyr (strained nonfat yogurt). It usually costs ~3 bucks for a 6-ounce cup, which is why I'd never tried it before, but comes in flavors like pomegranate & passion fruit and orange & ginger, which is why I've been wanting to. I picked up a cup each of the above, and had the latter for breakfast today.

Flavorwise, it's got just a tiny twinge of orange, right there in the front, that gets absolutely eaten by the flavors of the sharp minced ginger and sour yogurt. The ginger bits feel raw (with a crisp texture like tiny pieces of water chestnuts, if you've never chewed raw ginger). I think they'd do better on my palate if they'd been candied just a tad, for that texture as much as for the sweetness.

Re: The sweetness: I'm a huge proponent of low-sugar yogurt -- I think the stuff has a lovely flavor with very little doctoring, and get angry when something that's pitched as a healthy breakfast food has as much sugar as a serving of Coke (or a load of nasty-tasting artificial sweeteners). But the sourness to this yogurt was just on the wrong side of mouth-puckering for me. If I were going to eat this regularly, I might add a teaspoon of honey to it to take the edge off.

This yogurt is very, very thick -- the sort of thick that's heavy, the sort that you usually only get in something like ice cream. (This picture was not the oh-holy-quick-snap-the-photo sort of thing, but rather the take-several-shots-leisurely-and-consider-the-framing sort. The only reason that the spoonful stopped standing like that was that I ate it.) It's so thick that it's not very smooth -- the best way I can think to describe the texture is powerful. This is a yogurt that has some things to do. It will not suffer nonsense. It will nourish you. It's the Juggernaut of yogurts. And, I mean, it's got 10 grams of sugar (most of that'll be lactose -- unsweetened yogurt has ~9+ grams of sugar per serving) and 16 grams of protein per 6-ounce serving, and is fat free. It can walk the walk.

I'm glad I tried it, but honestly I'd never pay full price for this stuff. It's very interesting, but not quite pleasant, and I'm not looking for so much challenge from my yogurt. But personal taste is personal -- if you love the sharp flavor of plain yogurt and have the dollars to spend, you should try Siggi's. (I'll let you know if the pomegranate & passion fruit flavor changes my mind about the brand.)


For the record, my go-to yogurt of choice right now is Stonyfield Farm's Oikos Greek-style yogurt, vanilla flavor. It's creamy-thick and just a bit sour, with only 11 grams of sugar and a nice 15 grams of protein per serving, and is fat free. Sometimes I sugar-splurge on flavored yogurts, too -- my favorites for texture (thick), flavor (sweet-tart), sugar/protein ratio (low), and price (~$1 per serving) are Cascade Fresh's key lime flavor (16/7 g sugar/protein, nonfat) and, for soy yogurt, WholeSoy's apricot-mango flavor (19/6 g sugar/protein, with 3.5 g fat [0 saturated]). If I'm going for yogurt-as-dessert, nothing I've had compares to Brown Cow's cream top line, and specifically their maple flavor. It tastes and feels like maple custard pie filling (I engage in evasive spoon tactics to save the tongue-coatingly rich cream top for last), and has about as much nutritional value (21/5 g sugar/protein, with 7 g fat [4 saturated]).

What's your favorite yogurt -- food-shaped, dessert-shaped, frozen, or otherwise?


[p.s. -- I've written up a review of siggi's pomegranate & passion fruit yogurt, available for consumption here.]