Los Angeles Dining: Osteria Mozza

I landed at LAX, and by the time I joined my friends Paul and James for dinner it was after 9 Pacific time. My stomach was grumbling wondering why on earth I had waited until midnight to eat. Fortunately, Osteria Mozza was worth the wait. With a culinary power team like Nancy Silverton, Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich it’s little surprise that Angelenos literally lost their mind for this restaurant when it first opened. Even two years later, the place was impressively packed for late on a Thursday night.

 

Photo credit: http://weblogs.variety.com/theknife/osteria_mozza/index.html

For the uninitiated– Silverton is a partner at Campanile, a long beloved LA restaurant and the founder of the wildly successful La Brea Bakery, among other culinary feats. Batali needs no introduction, and Bastianich was born into the biz with famous mother Lidia leading the way and a long partnership with Batali cementing his stature. And they live up the hype.

The menu mixes the traditional primi and secondi courses with an extensive mozzarella bar list. We sat at the back bar for a special weekday night deal – a mozzarella bar dish, a pasta, a dessert and a glass of wine for just $35. Considering most mozzarella bar items are $15 on their own, this is a spectacular deal!

Alas, the deal can only be had at the back bar, not the larger central one, so the three of us had to wait it out. Fortunately the hostess eventually convinced Desperate Housewives’ Richard Burgi to move over a seat so we could sit down.

The pasta and dessert were good. They didn’t rock my world, but they were well worth the price. The Tagliatelle with oxtail ragu was amply meaty and full of flavor, but I’d certainly tasted similar dishes before. The pumpkin, date and bourbon torte was also quite moist, and I love any dessert with pumpkin and dates, but it still was the star of the show. I think I would have fared better with the three different flavors of cannoli as Paul seemed to be enjoying his dessert most of all.

No surprise given it’s the name sake of the restaurant, mozzarella is where Osteria Mozza shines. The dishes we enjoyed from the mozzarella bar were indeed mind-bogglingly delicious. I chose the Burrata with bacon, marinated escarole & caramelized shallots because I love the super fresh, milky texture of burrata. First off, I was thrilled to see they didn’t skimp on this dish. It came with two crostini topped with heaping slices of creamy burrata. The soft cheese had such a lovely texture and lightness. Not the chewy grocery store mozzarella that usually bums me out. The balance of meaty bacon and pungent shallots added umph to the heavenly simplicity of the cheese. Seriously, wow.

Years ago, Mr. AT and I were driving through a town in Italy known for their mozzarella prowess. I insisted we find a fromageria so we could try for ourselves. We ended up buying a ginormous bag of  floating fresh mozzarella. So incredibly, addictively delicious it was, that we ate something like a pound of it in mere minutes with our bare hands as we headed south. This experience wasn’t quite like that, but it was close. Certainly the best cheese dish I’ve had in years and definitely worth an impatiently growling stomach.

 

2-for-1 Steak Cooking Class for Adventurous Tastes readers

The Art Institute is offering another 2-for-1 class special to Adventurous Tastes readers. The “Prime Time for Steaks” class on Saturday, Nov. 7. Anyone interested in the 2-for-1 offer should call 770-689-4764 and mention Adventurous Tastes. You can also call 800-275-4242, ex. 4764, e-mail aiasmartfun@aii.edu, or go online at www.smartfunclasses.com. Chef Scott Millspaugh will be in charge – and he loves to cook steaks! The menu includes – in addition to the meat – an arugula, mushroom, and walnut salad, a puff pastry apple pie. Sounds delicious - too bad I can't eat anything as hearty and delectable as steak right now :-(

Coming back from the abyss...

By "a bit sick," Mr. AT was putting it nicely. Since Sunday, I've been in the death throes of some very unfortunate stomach bug. And let's face it, it's hard to write about food when your diet consists of saltines and ginger ale. As much as I love a good meal, it's been such a miserable week, with everything being so incredibly bland. The silver lining to this very dark few days has been Mr. AT's homemade wedding soup. Alas, the mere smell of meatballs did not sit well with me, but once we fished those back out of it, the soup was otherwise lovely and about the only thing I can eat for a meal. What a nice future hubby!

I may still not be eating much, but at least I can sit up right again, so I'm going to attempt to return to the landing of the living...

Under the Weather

Lindsey has been a bit sick the last couple of days, but she’s hoping to be back and blogging in the next day or two. Until then, check out Atlanta Magazine’s first look at Lupe, which took over the old Cuerno space in midtown, and Creative Loafing’s positive review of Rosebud, one of AT’s neighborhood favorites.  Get well soon, Lindsey!

Atlanta Restaurant Halloween Events

Halloween is still one of my favorite nights of the year, despite the fact that it has gotten decidedly less exciting since I exited the single world (seriously, if you are single, get your butt to a Halloween party. It’s the best night of the year to meet people!) No idea what Mr. AT and I will be doing this year yet. All I am sure of is that it won’t involve candy since the wedding is mere weeks away.

Local restaurants and chefs are getting in on the spook-tastic action, too. Here’s a roundup of what’s going on if you can’t resist the urge to dine out in your costume-finest.

El Taco

Open at 4pm and all kids 12 and under in costume eat free until 6pm.

6-11pm adult costume contest from . They’ll take your picture and post to the El Taco facebook fan page (http://facebook.com/el...) on Sunday--the costume with the most votes by Monday night will win a $100 Fifth Group Restaurants dining card; the runner-up will receive a $50 dining card.

Great Chefs Pumpkin Carving Contest

Where: The Atlanta Botanical Garden

When: Thursday, October 29 from 7-8 p.m.

What: Five Atlanta chefs will square off and put their pumpkin-carving prowess to the test during Fest-of-Ale. The chefs will be given 25 minutes to carve an award-winning masterpiece out of a giant pumpkin, and the winner will be declared by audience applause. Following the competition, the carved pumpkins will be sold in a silent auction benefitting the Garden.

Who: Top Chef & Woodfire Grill’s Chef Kevin Gillespie, Babette's Café’s Chef Joey Bridgers, The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead’s Chef Victor Dagatan, Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Atlanta’s Chef Andrew Miller, and Sun in my Belly’s Alison Lueker,

Shed at Glenwood

4 pm Trick of Treating in Glenwood Park

5 pm Kids costume parade

6-8 Special kids drop off at haunted house and kid friendly scary movie

6-8 Adult costume competition, judging at all Glenwood Park storefronts

9 pm Winner announced at Brasfield Square – win a Scooter!

Ra Sushi

What: Costume contest, food, drink specials and Top 40 tracks and horror movie theme songs.

The DJ will announce the costume contest champions at 10 p.m. and first, second and third place winners will receive RA Sushi gift certificates ranging from $25 to $100.

"Potent Potions" for the evening include Vampire's Kiss, Bloody Brain and Skullini for $7 apiece. The special "Boo Bites" menu will feature the Creepy Cali Roll ($6), Voodoo Roll ($7) and Spider Roll ($7).

 

I’m off to Los Angeles tomorrow for my grad school reunion. Will update you on my fave LA eats next week!

Fifth Group's zero-waste policy

Atlanta's Fifth Group and Ecco made the NY Times today getting props for their participation in Green Foodservice Alliance's zero waste policy. Ecco composts food scraps rather than trash them. What a great policy! (Now if I could just be allowed to recycle paper at home the world would be a greener place indeed.)

Congrats Fifth Group for leading the way! Let's hope many more restaurants jump on the bandwagon.

Here's what the article had to say about Ecco...

At Ecco, a popular restaurant in Atlanta, waiters no longer scrape food scraps into the trash bin. Uneaten morsels are dumped into five-gallon pails and taken to a compost heap out back...

Green Foodservice Alliance, a division of the Georgia Restaurant Association, has been adding restaurants throughout Atlanta and its suburbs to its so-called zero-waste zones. And companies are springing up to meet the growth in demand from restaurants for recycling and compost haulers.

Steve Simon, a partner in Fifth Group, a company that owns Ecco and four other restaurants in the Atlanta area, said that the hardest part of participating in the alliance’s zero-waste-zone program was not training his staff but finding reliable haulers.

“There are now two in town, and neither is a year old, so it is a very tentative situation,” Mr. Simon said. Still, he said he had little doubt that the hauling sector would grow and that all five of the restaurants would eventually be waste-free.

New Atlanta Restaurants

Recession, schmecession. Restaurants are still opening at a pretty rapid clip in Atlanta despite the lousy economy.

I’m still waiting with baited breathe for Pure Taqueria to open in the old Grape space in Inman Park. Alas, it’s going to open in barely enough time for us to try it out before we pack up and move to our new house in the Highlands (OK, technically we’re just under contract, so fingers crossed on that one!) From everything I hear taco lovers OTP love them some Pure, so my hopes are high.

Now head from my hood to Little Sister’s – Dutch Valley Road in Midtown -and you’ll find Amuse! from Anis and Cafe Diem alums. It will serve French-influenced cuisine, in what they describe as a “whimsically international dining experience.” Can’t you just sense the whimsicalness from the exclamation point in it’s name? It was slated to open today. Featured dishes will include the Asian inflected Orange Glazed Pork with apple slaw and cherry mostarda on ciabatta, and the Mediterranean influenced Ricotta and Lemon Gnocchi with smoked tomato, basil and pecorino and Southern fare such as “Mac and Cheese” of gemelli pasta, three cheeses, local bacon and truffle. To be honest, I’m not sure how any of that qualifies as French influenced, but they must Frenchify it somehow, right? Alas, they’ve also stolen much of the guest parking at Little Sister’s building, so that’s a bummer, but if the food is good, I can look by it.

Next up, Aurum Lounge will open in the Metropolis building sometime this month. From the sound of it, Aurum will be your typical lounge, complete with plush sofas, small plates and cocktails, and a DJ playing techno, house and lounge. Can’t say this sounds any different than any other midtown lounge to me, but Atlantans can always use a new place to drink and flirt, right?

PS… Restaurants, if you’re going to send out press releases about opening, I’d strongly recommend getting your website up and running. Two out of three of these links don’t work yet, and hungry diners like me want to get the scoop from your site! So my two cents from a lifetime of eating out and a good many years of consulting experience, get all your ducks in a row before generating press, otherwise you’re missing out on some of the value!

News Roundup

Cliff Bostock's favorite restaurants

New eats everyone is talking about:

Antico Pizza (the newest entrant to Atlanta's pizza wars)

Bocado (delectable sandwiches on the Westside)

Lupe (Riccardo Ullio's taqueria replacement for the defunct Cuerno)

Every wondered what Caligula ate?

The Cult of Mexican Coke

Ten Things David Change and Anthony Bourdain Hate

Quick Bites: Savannah’s Elizabeth on 37th

Savannah is a city renowned for its history, architecture and antebellum charm. More recently, it’s gained a bit of a reputation as a foodie town. For better or worse, some of that reputation may be due to Paula “I’m not a chef but I play one on TV” Deen, and the hordes of Crocs-shod tourists that line up daily for a crack at the buffet at Deen’s restaurant, The Lady and Sons. I’d prefer to think that Savannah’s foodie rep has more to do with places like Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room and Elizabeth on 37th, the latter considered by many to be Savannah’s best restaurant. I was fortunate enough to eat at Elizabeth on a recent visit.

Located in a stately old mansion, the mood is elegant but not too stuffy. Chef Elizabeth Terry was a hot commodity in the early and mid-90s, taking home a James Beard Award in 1995, and has maintained her restaurant’s fine reputation since then. The menu is seafood heavy, as one might expect so close to the ocean, and the wine list is extensive (and expensive!).

After kicking things off with a solid round of appetizers, including fish two ways and clams, two of us ordered seafood and the third went for a pork loin. All of our dishes were great. My grouper “Celeste” (apparently named after one of Terry’s daughters) was delicious, though I did feel the peanut-heavy sauce overwhelmed the fish a bit. Nonetheless, the fish was perfectly cooked and accompanied by delicious potatoes and tasty pickled vegetables. Though I didn’t get a chance to taste the other entrees, the reports were very positive.

While the food was a success, what really stood out was the service. It was thoughtful and attentive without being smothering. While eating my entree, our waiter brought me a glass of a chardonnay that he thought was a great match with my grouper (and it was), even though we were already well into our second bottle of wine with the meal. You can never have too much wine, can you? Same goes for dessert, when our waiter brought out two different (and excellent) dessert wines, including an Italian Recioto that paired well with the chocolate cake that I had ordered.

Eating a great restaurant is a little more special when you’re on a vacation, especially when you are at a restaurant that exemplifies the best of what your destination has to offer. While there are several quality options in Savannah, Elizabeth on 37th should be at the top of any foodie’s list.

Eating for less

So the good news is Mr. AT and I are contemplating buying our first house. The bad news? We have to cut back dramatically on our spending to make it work. Turns out all of our frequent dining out and traveling is expensive, which is not conducive to affording a lovely new home. I keep thinking that I don't splash out too much, but my credit cards tell another tale.

I took a hard look at our credit card bills and found that in a frugal month we ate out 8 times (and that's not counting work day lunches) and in a month when we traveled, that number looked more like (gasp!) 21. Holy moly, how did we eat out 21 times in a month?!?

So if Mr. AT and I want to upgrade our home, we're going to have to find ways to cut back on the ol' dining bills. What does that mean for Adventurous Tastes? Expect more at home cooking and recipes and more exploration of Atlanta's finest cheap eats. Alas, it means I'll have to scale back my taste testing of the hottest new restaurants, but it's great incentive to find the hidden gems along Buford Highway and elsewhere. And that's pretty relevant for everyone's pocket books right about now, isn't it?

The silver lining is that if we get a new home, we'll finally have a grill and space to entertain so dining at home will get much more appealing. Looking forward to sharing these experiences with you since I know we can't be the only ones who have to cut back our eating out budget!

Food Rules

Michael Pollan is always good for a fascinating perspective on food. His article on Rules to Eat By speaks to the cultural knowledge when it comes to what to eat.

Wrote Pollan:
Earlier this year I began gathering examples of these rules, or personal food policies, for a short book I’m publishing in January. My premise is that for all the authority we grant to science in matters of nutrition, culture still has a lot to teach us about how to choose, prepare and eat food, and that this popular wisdom is worth preserving — perhaps today more than ever, in this era of dazzling food science, supersize portions and widespread dietary confusion.

It's really interesting, isn't it, to think about how people managed to eat well for hundreds of years, and generally only starting getting it all out of whack lately. Granted, I know from my weakness for historical fiction that during the Tudor years they were convinced that salad made you infertile, so I'm not saying they had it all right, but still, there's obviously something to the way we used to eat that kept us slimmer.

In a separate piece, Pollan cites his favorite examples of cultural food rules. Check out his favorites here.

My food rules?

• If it has a mother or came out of the ground it's probably good for you. If not that, then at least look for things that your great-grandparents might have eaten. That helps you avoid all the processed crap out there.
• Don't eat food that imitates other food. That rules out both processed crap and tofu for me. Real butter and cream are my friends.
  
• Only eat unhealthy foods if it's going to be really worth it. Chocolate souffle? Yes. Twinkie? No.
• I try to generally eat well, but don't deny myself splurges once in a while. Too much denial leads to binging (I've seen the scientific studies to prove it - in one, people who typically denied themselves sweets, overate with a much greater magnitude when they were asked to try some ice cream. They were so used to denying themselves, that they couldn't stop eating, whereas non-deniers were able to stop themselves after a few spoonfuls!)

Curious to hear if anyone else has interesting food rules they live by?

Rosebud’s Street Food Disappointment

I was really looking forward to Rosebud’s street food event. I love Rosebud, and I love street food, so what could go wrong? Apparently a lot. It pains me to say this (because I truly hate writing negative articles, particularly in reference to restaurants I otherwise like), but this event was a disaster for me.

First problem of the night is that we showed up relatively on time, but the meal didn’t start until nearly 45 minutes after the scheduled start because some other diners apparently though 7 pm was optional. I get that a multi-course group meal gets thrown off by late arrivals, but why should we be punished for being there on time? If I had been super late, I would have anticipated missing some courses. We at least had a addictive Asian chex mix on the table, but the natives were seriously restless by the time the first course came out.

We were seated in a very pleasant back room area, but that meant that we could neither see nor hear the chef as he introduced the courses and explained the concept of the night. So I missed everything he had to say for the night and felt a bit disconnected from it all. I would have preferred if he could have just made multiple announcements or at least moved around for each course so people in different areas could hear.

Finally, the first course came out – a pu pu platter with ribs, shrimp toast, and a potato knish. Not exactly a classic pu pu platter, but still quickly eaten by our table. Not earth shattering, mind you, just tasty (especially after the long wait!) The conceit of serving the dish in a to-go container was cute and fitting but felt a little anti-green to me. Maybe they were recyclable?

Alas, each successive course took aaaaaaaaaaaaaaages to come out. Like 30-45 minute kind of timing, and these portions weren’t huge or heavy enough to merit such long breaks. My dinner companions spent more time grumbling than savoring. The other unfortunate consequence of the glacial pacing is that we all filled up well before the end of the meal. Good for our waistlines but not so good for enjoying the whole meal we paid for. Our brains just had too much time to catch up to our digestion, so by the time the 5th course came out (more than 2 hours after the scheduled start time of the event), we barely ate it. That was a fortunate coincidence because the ramen noodle bowl did not work for me at all. Usually the broth is what makes it for me, and this hamhock-shellfish version just didn’t do it for me.

Fortunately the pommes frites, served second with sambal mayo and brown gravy, were crispy salty perfection. I just can’t say that for anything else I tried. I lurve pork buns, in a last-meal-on-death-row kind of way, so I was really excited for Mexican Coke BBQ Duck Steamed Buns. I liked the housemade bread-n-butter pickles, and I enjoyed the buns well enough, but I’d take a random dim sum pork bun any day over these. Usually the meat is super sweet and the bun buttery and wonderful, but these components were neither. Not bad, for sure, but not worth the wait.

After the ramen, it was all downhill. It was late, we were all full, and Mr. AT kept looking at his watch. We held out for the bahn mi, but then I couldn’t even venture more than a bite. I just wasn’t hungry anymore, and my first very chewy bite was a night-ender. I liked the sound of apple and fig empanadas for dessert, but we just couldn’t stomach another half hour. We weren’t the only people to leave before the end either. The woman and child at the table next to us had to call it a night even sooner than us. And let me say, I have NEVER left a multi-course meal early, so it really took some difficult circumstances to force me to do that.

The staff at Rosebud is lovely, and normally I love their restaurant. I, in fact, just had a fantastic brunch there last weekend, but this night was a HUGE let-down. It just took too long for too few standout dishes. I really didn’t taste anything that was notably better than what I’d get from an actual street vendor, and I don’t think parity was what they were going for. I’ll be back for their standard fare another time because I know I can count on that, but I left sad last night (especially sad that I broke my carb-fast and didn’t even get dessert out of the deal)

Uncorked Saturday Night at Parish Oct. 10

Have you noticed that in this lousy economy, restaurants are coming up with increasingly cool ways to lure you in? This event from Parish sounds like a great excuse to go out and maybe even meet some new people.

When: October 10 at 7:30 and every first Saturday of the month thereafter

Where: Parish Market in Inman Park

What: Bring a bottle of wine to share and $10 and enjoy cheese and charcuterie and samples of everyone else's wine.

Sounds like the kind of party you'd throw at home, only you don't have to supply the food or clean up afterwards!

Although, I am dying to throw one of those parties where everyone brings two bottles of the same wine and you do a taste test competition and the person who brought the winning bottle wins all of the remaining wine. Sounds fun, right?

Go West Fest on Saturday, October 24

From 1-4 on Saturday, October 24, some of my favorite restaurants will be kicking off a weeklong event. Snack on tasty treats from the likes of JCT Kitchen, Taqueria del Sol, Star Provisions and Abattoir at food tastings or enjoy an old-fashioned apple festival hosted by Seed Factory (what happens at old fashioned apple festivals? Is there bobbing for apples? I can’t think what else would happen at such an event. But I digress…)

Once you pick up a Westside Provisions District Passport at the event, you have until the close of business on Saturday, October 31 to collect stamps from each participating merchant in the area. Apparently there’s no purchase necessary, you just have to visit the business to get a stamp. Once your passport is full, you can drop it with any participating merchant for a chance to win prizes including the following:

• Two-hour private party for 20 with hors d’oeuvres and an open bar from Ormsby’s·
• Cheese & Charcuterie basket with a gift card to Star Provisions - $300 value
• "Sunday Supper" dinner for six, excluding alcohol and gratuity, at JCT Kitchen
• The Grand Prize winner will receive a free $2,500 WSPD shopping spree!

I’ll be strolling down memory lane at my grad school reunion (seriously, how is that 5 years ago already?!) in Los Angeles that weekend, so no WSPD prizes for me, but sounds like a fun Saturday activity. Come on, who doesn’t like bobbing for apples?!

RIP Gourmet Magazine

First my favorite home decor magazine (I miss you Domino!) and now a culinary classic - Conde Nast is shuttering Gourmet Magazine. Cookie, Modern Bride, and Elegant Bride will also cease publication.

Gourmet has a long history, publishing since 1941, so this news comes as a shock. Conde Nast also owns Bon Appetit, which it will continue publishing. Admittedly I'm more of a Food & Wine gal, but I love thumbing through old copies of Gourmet when I stumble upon them, and I certainly lean heavily on their contributions to epicurious.

So sad! I know I can get recipes on line, but there is just something about thumbing through a food magazine. Online I go straight for recipe searching, and with the magazines you get the actual stories and beautiful photography. For food lovers, there's more to food than just tablespoons of this and cups of that.

RIP Gourmet. You'll be missed! For more info...

Signature wedding cocktail

As my wedding day rapidly approaches, I'm having to let go of some of the little details I wanted to attend to. Makeshift photo booths sound awesome, but far too hard to pull off given my distinct lack of craftiness; Polaroid guest books are cool, but I've opted for a slightly less work intensive guest book box. But the signature cocktail is an idea I can't quite let go of. We're not doing liquor, which means we have to be a bit more clever about it, basing it around some sort of wine.

The most delicious fall cocktail I've had in ages was at Holeman & Finch last year -

Piedmont Apple -
fresh pressed apple juice, Peychaud's bitters, sparkling sauvignon blanc + grated cinnamon

Sounds perfect and simple enough, but now just need to figure out the proportions. Anyone know? Or have other fall wine based cocktail ideas?

Have cupcakes jumped the shark?

Newsweek had a interesting article last week about the ubiquity and general trendiness of cupcakes. Apparently it's not enough to eat them, now people want to create a whole life view out of them.

As with most trends, the cupcake craze seemed to start on the coasts. I still remember my first heavenly Sprinkles Cupcake back when I was living in LA circa 2004. And NY's Magnolia Bakery was making a splash on Sex and the City before that. I can wax poetic on why I prefer the Sprinkles chocolate peanut butter variety to any of NY's variants (it's the peanut butter and chocolate chunks in the cake's center!) But the funny thing is, that was years ago, and yet the cupcake craze hasn't ended yet.

As you might expect, the cupcake craze spread from its coastal beginnings to every town in between. Atlanta has it's fair share of cupcakeries and an even wider variety of flavors. Sweet Pockets' Happy Monkey (banana cake with peanut butter icing) and Star Provision's marshmallow topped variety are my personal faves. But for me, it's no longer a craze, just something I once in a blue moon eat to indulge my sweet tooth. Back in '04, Sprinkles was a frequent destination, and I suspect I was in the full throes of a food trend, but now I'm just as likely to crave a slice of cake or a fro-yo (another trendy treat for sure!) And now, there's actually anti-cupcake sentiment.

I think my cupcake fervor cooled because I was lucky enough to live in the starting points of the trend, so I've had years to get over cupcakes. Yes, they're often delicious, but many variations are pretty darn ordinary and worse yet often dry and bland. But for many, the new cupcake shops opening all over town are exciting, and far be it from me to begrudge you your cupcake moment. I'm no cupcake hater...

A few years back I heard cream puffs were going to be the new cupcake. Two Japanese puff purveyors, Beard Papa and Choux Factory were launching in New York, and these cream filled delights were poised to overtake an aging trend. Eager to try them out for myself, I visited Beard Papa and thoroughly enjoyed my messy chocolate cream filled puff. Good? Yes, but something I am willing to line up for on multiple return visits? Not so much. So the lines never came, and before I'd left New York, the Beard Papa near my office had already mysteriously closed for "renovations."

So why won't one craze die and another never took off? Certainly, cupcakes lend themselves to endless variations, which is always fun and keeps you from feeling like it's all just the same. Puffs definitely have some variables, but there are only so many flavors that sound appealing to me when it comes to cream filling. Cupcakes' diminutive size and sweet swirls of icing are both adorable and a great treat-on-the-go. And cupcakes are something you can make at home when you're hankering is too strong to wait. Puffs are a bit of a mess, nothing much interesting to look at, and injecting cream into the center is surely harder than icing a cupcake. Of course, cupcakes had the help of Sex in the City and more recently SNL's Lazy Sunday. Have you seen any cream puff videos lately? I didn't think so.

So while I'm not ga-ga for cupcakes anymore, I can certainly appreciate why the trend is still thriving. Like everything else, though, surely cupcakes will eventually "jump the shark" and will outstay their welcome, at least in trendy dining circles. I'm just curious about what will eventually usurp their place in the guilty pleasure pantheon. Newsweek mentions bacon as the other foodie fixation, but somehow a quick bacon treat after work just doesn't have the same appeal!

Max's Coal Oven Pizzaria Now Delivers to Luckie Marietta

My office has exactly three restaurants in walking distance - Spoon, Thumb's Up Diner and Burger Joe's. I am so very over the first two and burgers aren't my version of a healthy lunch. I'm loathe to get in my car for lunch, but lately I simply can't stomach the idea of having the same old same old for lunch. So I was thrilled to see that the newly opened Max's Coal Over Pizzeria was going to begin delivering to the area. Alas, it was not to be - their northern border is too far south for me - so bad to choking down my zillionth smoked chicken salad melt at Thumb's Up. If you're in the Luckie Marietta area, lucky you!

What:
Max’s can now showcase their selection of authentic New York-style pizza, classic salads, pastas, hot and cold Italian sandwiches and signature coal-oven wings to the Luckie Marietta District with the ease of a phone call. All businesses, residents and hotels located within this burgeoning district, stretching from the Georgia Aquarium to the Georgia World Congress Center, bounded by Centennial Olympic Park Drive, Baker, Luckie, and Marietta streets, can now enjoy all of Max’s mouthwatering menu items without having to leave the home or office.

When:
Available Sunday-Wednesday: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Available Thursday-Saturday: 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.
**Free delivery offered through September 30th

Where:
300 Marietta St. NW
Next door to STATS
Atlanta, GA 30313
404.974.2941
maxsatl.com
LuckieMariettaDistrict.com

Roasted butternut squash and apple salad

Now that the skies have finally cleared and a little bit of fall nip is in the air, I couldn’t resist whipping up something with a fall veggie. Butternut squash just screams fall to me, so I chose a roasted butternut squash and apple salad from epicurious.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple Salad

Bon Appétit | December 2008

by Bruce Aidells

Yield: Makes 10 servings

INGREDIENTS

Dressing:
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salad:
Olive oil
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons (packed) dark brown sugar
2 2-pound butternut squash, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded
Coarse kosher salt
4 heads of Belgian endive, root ends trimmed, leaves separated into individual leaves
2 unpeeled Fuji apples, halved, cored, cut into matchstick-size strips
8 ounces blue cheese (such as Maytag), coarsely crumbled
1/2 cup dried cranberries

PREPARATION

For dressing:

Whisk vinegar and lemon juice in small bowl; gradually whisk in oil. Season with salt and pepper.

For salad:

Preheat oven to 400°F. Brush 2 large rimmed baking sheets with oil; spray with nonstick spray. Whisk vinegar and sugar in small bowl; set aside. Cut squash halves crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange squash in single layer on prepared sheets; brush with oil and sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper. Roast 5 minutes; brush with sugar-vinegar mixture. Turn squash over and brush with sugar-vinegar mixture; roast 5 minutes. Roast until squash is tender when pierced with small knife, about 15 minutes longer. Cool on sheets. DO AHEAD: Can be made 4 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature. Arrange 5 to 6 endive leaves on each of 10 plates. Place butternut squash slices in center of each plate. Scatter apples, cheese, and cranberries over squash. Drizzle dressing over and serve.

I often forget how hard it is to prep squash. Peeling one takes ages and makes a mess, but after roasting their sugary sweet flesh is like a veggie dessert, and it’s totally worth the effort (although I’m still not jonesing to tackle one again anytime soon!)

All in all, this recipe is pretty time consuming for a salad, but the end result looks lovely and elaborate and tastes even better. We served on the side of a store bought rotisserie chicken, but it was clearly the main event. No idea who’d have time to make this and another dish! Next up brussels sprouts!