Fresh, home-made, delicious hummus

Courtesy of recipe from Inspiredtaste.net.

Making - Neopolitan Pizza in Naple, Italy

Video taken in L'Antica Pizzeria Da Michele, the pizza place made popular in 'Eat, Pray, Love'.

Flavor & Value without the Gluttony

When one hears of an Indian restaurant lunch, one visualizes rows of greasy, spicy dishes of which a typical guest consumes about 25% and savors even less. Sitar Indian Cuisine, a new restaurant in the same location as the old 'Haveli',  provides a slightly different twist in its lunch specials.

You pick your choice of entree or biriyani and it comes with lentil soup, pakoras, naan, peas pulav and channa masala, followed by dessert. The portion size is perfect for one person. Their naans are 'pillow' fluffy proving they are not frozen. The Gulab Jamun was soft. The peas pulav had a slight after-taste, probably, from the ghee/oil but goes well with the channa and entree.

Among the entrees, the Panneer Tikka Masala was the most flavorful. The panneer was fresh, flavorful and still firm.

The Malai Kofta was the next favorite. The gravy was a bit bland despite the order being medium spicy. But, the kofta (cheese & veggie balls) made up for it.

The veggie biriyani was flavorful but the rice was a little bit too crisp which felt like it was under-cooked. 

Overall, this restaurant is definitely worth a visit. They have online ordering on their website with free delivery within 10 miles of their restaurant.

Village Tavern's new addition - Veggie Burger

Village Tavern, a small American cuisine chain mainly found in the Southeast, is a common lunch and happy-hour destination in the Alpharetta area. Their 'Freshly Fried Potato Chips' is a omnivorous favorite...

Freshly Fried Potato Chips with homemade ranch

They have decent vegetarian choices - a couple of vegetarian appetizers, couple of vegetarian pizzas and a spaghetti with veggies and marinara sauce. Recently, they added a Veggie Burger (a blend of beans, vegetables, brown rice) to their menu. The burger is quite moist (on most days) and the teriyaki glaze adds the right punch to the dish. Personally, I would have preferred a bit of heat to the burger but the 'Texas Pete' hot sauce is a good alternative. I'd definitely recommend this if you happen to visit their facility in the near future.

Veggie Burger with Teriyaki glaze and red potato salad

An unlikely 'veggie-food' haven in the Southern Appalachian mountains

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I should confess that when I got an opportunity to visit Gray, TN - a rural suburb of Johnson City, TN for three days for a business trip, I did not jump with excitement. While I knew driving through the mountains on small freeways from Alpharetta to Asheville was scenic and surreal, three days of stay in Barbecue country for a vegetarian was a bit of a turn-off. But, you know where I am going with this, right? Yes, my 'fears turned out to be liars'.

My first meal was a business lunch at a place called Cootie Brown's (yes, you read it right). My clients said the restaurant had a lot of options (which I thought meant you could get any kind of, or cut of meat) but I felt hopeful that I would be able to get a grilled cheese sandwich with fries. The restaurant menu was the size of a local newspaper (without promotions) and to my surprise, had an entire section (about half a page) for Veggie Sandwiches! This meant I had to spend a few minutes to pick my order. I didn't want to come across as the emotional type with my clients and tried to hide my tears of joy behind the newspaper-sized menu. The Black Bean burger with home-made salsa had a kick to it and the fries were good as well. I hear that their desserts and pizzas are very good too, but didn't get a chance to try them.

For dinner, I looked up Indian restaurants and found Sahib. (Side note: I try to eat at least one Indian meal during my business trips as a way to encourage Indian restaurants in small locations. This, as many of you know, can be a hit or miss. But, I dare to try anyways.) I was surprised to see quite a few guests at the restaurant, even though the place is hidden behind a Days Inn hotel and takes a few times around the parking lot to find it. They have a very good Salt Lassi - spiced up with jeera, pepper and salt (Trust me it is difficult to make a good Lassi). Their 'Malai Kofta' is one of the best I have tasted with fluffy naan.

I had a lot more confidence with my vegetarian options the previous day and was ready to venture out a bit - as in go to downtown for a change. The website of Mid City Grill was interesting, especially their claim that they have a killer vegetarian cuisine and that they fry their vegetables separately from other animal proteins. I have to say that the restaurant definitely deserves all the '5-stars' it has got on Yelp. It has a very unassuming ambiance but over delivers with taste and quality. The 'Grilled Tofu Sandwich' was delicious with the tofu grilled to a perfection. It might be a little bit too tangy but definitely blends well with the avocado and tomato-focaccia bun.

According to Yelp, there are other restaurants that are vegetarian-friendly and I look forward to trying a couple more of them during my next trip. In particular, Barbaritos and Scratch-Brick Oven Foodworks have piqued my interest.

'Madras Chettinad' moves closer to Madras...

Madras Chettinad is one of the better Indian restaurants in the Alpharetta area. They have been around for about 5 years and has managed to maintain decent-tasting and very-good-quality. 

When they started 5 years ago, ‘Madras’ and ‘Chettinad’ felt like misnomers as the menu was standard Indian fare as in standard Panneer & Tandoori entrees with appetizers and bread. Slowly, things started getting interesting. They added ‘Vegetable Chettinad’ - a spicy curry with the chilly and garlicky taste of Chettinad and started serving ‘Vadakari' - a very unique dish found only in few restaurants even in Tamil Nadu (mainly in and around Chennai).

While all these were steps in the right direction, the South Indian cuisine fundamentals like the coconut chutney and sambar could still use some authenticity (If you are from South India, especially Tamil Nadu, you’ll know what that means). So, last Sunday’s lunch buffet was a surprise with its very authentic coconut chutney and sambar as part of the menu. The Masala Vada was another feather on the buffet’s cap. We also noticed the now-closed Johns Creek’s Saravana Bhavan’s owner working there. Is that a coincidence?

Looking forward to a Madras Chettinad taste more to its name-sake!