Foodie Road Trip

Every once in a while, my friends and I would go on what I call a foodie road trip.  It's where we would go somewhere to just literally eat.  On this trip to Atlanta, I was determined to go somewhere outside of the norm.

Thanks to Siri, I found this place called Ria's Bluebird on Memorial Drive in the Grant Park area.  It was definitely a good sign that we pulled up there was no where to park.  There was also a wait outside.  I signed in on a sheet just inside the door and settled outside to wait with the rest of the hungry patrons.

I got the Bluebird Burrito.  It had 2 scrambled eggs, skillet potatoes, white cheddar, black beans topped with salsa verda and sour cream.  I get to also chose from a list of sides.  I got the organic grits with cheese.  In all, it cost about $10.  I was starving and this is just right.  I did forget there was no meat inside the burrito and thought I should have gotten a side of bacon or something.  I was glad I got the grits though.  It was rich and creamy just like grits are suppose to be.  

My brother and a friend, Duy, decided to share the Brisket breakfast.  It's 14 hour slow roasted Angus beef shredded in a spicy tomato broth, served with two poached eggs and toasted baguette.  They thought it tasted a lot like a beef stew; which is a good thing.  They were looking for more though.  There wasn't much meat in the dish and they would have liked more bread to soak up the delicious broth.  

One of my friends ordered some eggs and skillet potatoes at Ria's to hold her over.  What she really wanted to eat was dim sum at Canton House in the Buford area.  Dim Sum is like Spanish tapas.  

The list of the food going clockwise is chicken feet, fried rice cakes, tripe, and 3 types of dumplings.  The chicken feet and the tripe are acquired taste but if you're adventurous these are great.  The chicken feet is deep fried so all the tendons pop and then braised in a delicious red vinegar sauce.  It's a little sweet and a little salty.  The tripe is sauteed in a ton of spices.  There's a very strong ginger taste that I really like.  The fried rice cakes are so good.  They're actually fried with a little eggs, onions and green onions.  This is my favorite dish to get at any dim sum restaurant.  The dumplings were just right.  I got three types; a shark fin, steamed beef dumpling, and beef and shrimp dumpling.  I especially like the shark fin dumpling.  You can't really taste the shark fin but it's delicious. 

My friend, who goes to Atlanta often for eating trips, tells me it's could be hit or miss at Canton House.  Every time, I've gone in the past few years it has always been good.  One thing I did notice about the dumplings I took home were the excess of shrimp shells.  Really, do they not shell those suckers at all?  I would still go to Canton House though.

To check out Canton House's website, click here.

We left Atlanta way before we originally planned.  On the way home, we decided to stop Montgomery for dinner.  But first, we stopped by a mall and hung around for a bit.  I saw someone I knew and she recommended Taste of Thailand.

We were starving so we decided to order what would be a salad and a couple of sushi rolls as an appetizer.  We got the Num Tok which is made of beef, tomato, cilantro, green and purple onion, lime juice and hot Thai spices.  It was really good.  My friends and I enjoyed. the sour and spicy combination a lot.  The beef is actually served a little warm so it's a good mix with the refreshing lettuce.  

We ordered several rolls and nigiri.  I thought they were fairly decent for the price.  The fish taste fresh and the rice is nicely seasoned. 

Going clockwise:  Basil Fish, Exotic Family,
Beef Panang, and Pud Thai with chicken

We decided to get family style which basically mean we're sharing all of our food.  There was a lot of variety here.  The basil fish is a white fish with white and green onions, red and green bell pepper and carrot in a spicy basil sauce.  The fish taste like tilapia so it takes well to flavor.  The basic sauce was good especially with the rice.  I am not much of a fish eater but I liked this dish.   The exotic family is probably the most plain of all four dishes.  It has chicken, beef, shrimp, imitation crab meat stir fried with shredded ginger, green and white onion, green bell pepper in an exotic brown sauce.   I thought it would be much better than what I got.  It resembles something you would get at a Chinese buffett. The beef panang was a little sweet for me.  I had to add a little more fish sauce but I still think it was delicious.  The beef was tender and the vegetables were cooked just right.  My favorite was the pud Thai.  It's stir fried noodles with bean sprouts, eggs, and chicken.  I like that the sprouts still has a little bite to it and not mushy.   I like to squeeze some lime over it to make it a little sour too.  I could have eaten and entire plate of this by myself. 


To check out Lek's Taste of Thailand's website, click here.