Atlanta Restaurants | Restaurant menus, reviews and maps on urbanspoon.com:

Tanya tuned me n on this website after the iPhone 2.0 specs were released as they are going to be making an iphone app that makes use of the rotating sensors and gps in order to do a "magic 8 ball" style 'find random restaurant' feature. Not all restaurants are in there yet (Ru San's isn't in there), but it's already coming in handy.

Friday night, quu and I decided to give California Dreaming a try (his second time, my first). We got there at an almost perfect time. The big crowd was just starting to leave so wait was very short and the food was fresh. The place was far from empty. Sadly the first thing I noticed was a 'fishy' smell, but my thought was that they served seafood so of course it will have a bit of a smell. Wasn't over powering, but noticeable. Anyway, we're seated, greeted by a wonderful waitress, and soon our orders are in. quu decided to go with the Prime Rib, rare, while I chose to go with the Fillet Mignon, medium rare. After placing my order and was about to hand the waitress my menu, I catch sight of the line "...Philadelphia style...slightly charred...". I nearly changed my order, but decided to give it a try and see if it wasn't what I was fearing it would be. Just so you know, I don't like my meat burned in any way, shape, or form. The slightest hint of charring seems to permeate the entire thing making it all taste like a brick of charcoal. My hope was the 'charring' the style called for was something other than... well... burned meat.

First, however, we received our salads. These... FANTASTIC salads. House dressing is almost a creamy Italian, but that doesn't come close. Very sweet and tangy without being overly done. By default, salads come with lettuce, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, jack cheese, egg, bacon, ham, and almonds. I ordered mine with no tomatoes and almonds. The first thing that struck me was that the lettuce was cut into bite sized pieces, yet wasn't shredded. The taste was just fantastic. The closest I can come to is a ham and bacon sandwich in salad form. It even comes with a croissant (drizzled with honey) so you have pretty much everything there. This could easily make a single person lunch any day. I was also impressed that they didn't drown the salad with dressing.

So, salads are consumed and then we are served our steaks.quu's Prim Rib looked mouthwatering. The size of mine was quite impressive. I cut into the steak with hopes that my fears were unfounded, as it didn't seem burned at all, but then I took a bite. It's hard to describe other than.. flavorless. Aside from the charring, there was -no- flavor. Not even a hint of salt and pepper to help bring out the taste of the meat. All that was there was that hint of charcoal. Don't get me wrong, the steak wasn't bad. Quu had the suggestion of dipping it in his Au Jus sauce that came with his prime rib, and it was AMAZING. So, I ended up cutting off as much of the 'crust' as I could, and relishing the steak with that hint of flavor from the au jus.

Overall, I do highly recommend the place to anyone, but with a warning to NOT get the Fillet. It was 25 bucks and not worth it. The Prime Rib was only 17 and it blew the Fillet out of the water. The salads are amazing and the croissant are to kill for. A bit on the price side overall, but nice if you want to take someone out for a 'special' dinner.

Anyone having problems with congestion/stuffy nose, I can highly recommend the Zicam "Extreme Congestion relief" with aloe. Just bought some and HOLY COW I can breathe again.

And for the locals, anyone remember Cherokee Cattle Company? It used to be one of the best steak houses in town, but over the years cooks changed and it has gone downhill. Well, a while back the folks who own the Marietta Diner bought the place. I was wary at first, but we just tried it out and BOY have they improved things! I seriously suggest people to try them out sometime.

I signed up for the AJC "dining" newsletter and this was on there. It was just too interesting to not pass it on.

http://www.thechocolatebardecatur.com

Tonight after I picked Pat up from work we went to the "Pho and Com" (pronounced CUM) restaurant that's on HWY 92, east of sandy springs in the same shopping area where the Mellow Mushroom is.

OMG! It's sooo nice to have good Pho again! And not only is it good noodles, but they put the cilantro and stuff on the side so you can season it yourself. Apparently that's the traditional way to serve Pho. I STRONGLY suggest to anyone who's up that way to go try it out. It's WELL worth the drive too. They do pick ups and delivery (within 5 miles) too. I also suggest trying the smoothies. It's very unique and not like other smoothies, but they are good, or at least the strawberry is. I think they make it with strawberry yogurt cause it's a weird but good strawberry flavor. I recognize it and am sure it's from some yogurt I've had, don't know which one.

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Anyway, today has been really good. Was tired when I woke up, but got moving pretty quick. It was funny cause when the alarm went off the second time I reached over and hit Pat and said "What are you still doing here?". Apparently he'd hit the snooze and it was still the 'first' alarm (my second one goes off at 10am). So I got up and moving but grumply.

Dropped Pat off at work and then made the bad decision to stop by Dick Blicks on my way to my appointment. >_> Was SOO hard not to get the primary color pack of the good Winsor Newton gouches. It was only $36.39!! ;_; I managed to pry it out of my hands and instead go with the crappy Reeves set for only six bucks. Did get some Gum Arabic so hopefully it will help the crappy paints not be that bad. I pulled out an old Onyx Chalice Gleann Abhann blank scroll I had left in my SCA stuff (which is no longer exits because they became a kingdom) and have started practicing with the crappy paints. The blue and red were working ok, but the greens, which I had to mix to make an acceptable color, were not mixing well and are not even. Dunno how I'm going to fix it other than going over it later with another coat to make it completely opaque. I need a better light though, the desk lamp I have is still too dim to make it light up like I need it. Need a real desk lamp to shine down on my work. *sighs* Probably get that when I get my real drafting table. Oh well. It feels good to be able to do the illumination again. It's one of the things that I'm actually really good at.

Had a good lunch with android18sl after my appointment. Chatted about a lot of things, and was just a lot of fun. Made it back home to play with my paints and River for an hour before driving to go get Pat. Unfortunately I hadn't seen his LJ and had to wait around his office for over an hour before we could leave for dinner. I'm so proud of him for his job, even when it is inconvenient. He's gonna have to work this weekend, which is sad. Was looking forward to everyone being able to hang out, and will be weird not having him with me at the RenFaire (which its still in doubt if he'll have to work sunday or not, he might be able to go). Just.. trying not to really look forward to everyone coming over, just in case things go to shit and no one shows up. Too many times plans go awry and there isn't anything anyone can do about it. Just don't want to get my hopes up and then get depressed because it all goes wrong. If no one comes down, then I'm still going to go to the Ren Faire on sunday, hopefully with local peeps even if my out of state friends don't make it.

Anyway, now just relaxing at home. Think I'm going to head back and keep working on my illumination. I need to see if I can find my gold paint, however it was weird stuff that required turpentine to clean the brushes with. That's why I like watercolor based paints the best. Easy clean up!! Maybe I might try my hand at actual gold leaf overlay sometime. Still looking forward to having someone help me learn how to make original scrolls. *happy dance* Maybe I can get all my supplies before heading to Michigan so I can work on them up there. Who knows?!

Oh, BTW, if you want to know how the Illumination scroll work works, see this old scroll I dug up while I was cleaning. Too bad it's yet another scroll for a now debunk award. *shrugs* Still pretty. If you want better examples, try this page.

OMFGWTFBBQ!!!

Y'all know I like tea right? Not iced tea, but hot tea. Coffee is ok but normally too bitter for me. Teas are light, generally more caffeinated, and come in far more variety. A while back we were over at Brands Mart USA and found this Sunbeam "Tea Drop" hot tea maker. It's awesome because it makes an entire POT of hot tea... not just one cup at a time! Can use it for bags... but also for lose teas.

Well.. I had always been hesitant, if not a wee bit afraid, to try lose teas. But when I got this, something about it really seemed to kick in the fact that I should just go ahead and try it out. But where? I vaguely remembered a coffee store over in town center mall, and thought they might have had some lose teas, but never got around to going over there. *sighs* No biggy..

So anyway... was talking with some friends via email and somehow the topic of teas came up. I mentioned how I had never tried lose tea and didn't even know were to get it. One of my friends then told me to try Teavana ( http://store.teavana.com/ ). I head over to the URL and low and behold the promise land! Checked out the store locater, and not only are there like 3 stores listed, apparently there are 5 total in the Atlanta area and this was even where they started from! Closest one to us is the one over at the Perimeter Mall. I found this out yesterday afternoon. Temptation was to drag Quu back out into traffic as soon as he got home to go visit the place. Instead, he tells me he's going to play hookie and we go on Friday (today).

Friday dawns and I sleep in, crawling out of bed around 1pm (was just dead to the world). By 4pm we get out of the house and head over to the mall, only getting the fringe of rush hour traffic. Neither of us had eaten so we first head inside to find a directory and figure out where we are going to eat. Well.... guess what was RIGHT there next to the directory?! Teavana! I run inside, start checking out the teas, and Quu goes to get a map so we can figure out where to go to lunch.

I'm in heaven! Can't decide what all to get, and they have a special discount if you get a full pound of tea (something like 10% off everything) which is 16oz, and the tea is sold in 2oz batches. SOO MANY CHOICES!

The lady asks me what I like, and I'm like "everything!".. but the first thing I mention is the rose tea (renfaire on my mind and the excellent rose tea at the tea house). So she grabs some "Rooibos Rose Garden" which seems fine. Next I'm like ORANGES! To which she pulls out some "Rooibos Orange" and I nearly keel over and die. Stuff was AWESOME! I love it! In the end I got 6 oz of it and 2 oz of "To Life", "Night Night", "Rooibos Caramel Cream" (for Quu), "Rooibos Rose Garden", and some "Lemon Green". I went ahead and got them in the special tins, which I'm really glad of. They are labeled with what tea was in them and fit my shelves nicely (well the 6 oz one doesn't but that is saying next to the tea maker anyway). When we got home I made some of the orange stuff and I'm in heaven. Was feeling groggy and spacey, but after just one cup of this stuff I'm feeling a ton better. And let me tell you... 2oz of this stuff is like enough for 28-30 cups.... each cup only needing about 1-2 teaspoons of loose tea to make. Oh yea.. the cans have the directions printed right on them! Anyway, I made a 28oz pot and only needed a bit over 5 teaspoons of my Orange, came out great. Another great thing about these cans is that.. when they are empty.. i can just hand them to Quu and he can go to the store on his way home from work and say "refills please!" because they are all labeled with what tea is in them. Don't like what you tried? Label easily peels off and you can put in something different.

SO DAMN HAPPY!!!

And because all these cans seal up nice (guaranteed to keep your tea fresh for a full year).. I can pack all this up and take it with me to Indy!!!

*does the happy dance*

Soo... my raid on Teavana complete (with me minus over 60 bucks >.> ) it was time to EAT. Quu and I head out to the Promenade and look around, and eventually end up at The Cheesecake Factory, me ordering the Shepherds Pie and Quu getting Chicken Alfredo, with an appetizer of Chicken Potstickers. Ok.. the Potstickers were AMAZING! Their house soy sause was excellent and I couldn't get enough. The Shepherds Pie was ok.. TONS of food but took forever to cool off and be eatable. It was good, but... I dunno. Hard to explain. Shepherds Pie is meat, a few veggies, all in a gravy and topped with mashed potatoes. This was pretty good.. but the only way to say it is that the gravy was too spiced. Not spicy hot.. but.. too flavorful. I'm used to it being kinda.. not bland but mild. This was just shy of being over powered. Still good though. Quu didn't like his Chicken Alfredo though... contrary to mine.. his was rather bland. He remembered only too late that he had gotten it before and had the same problem. I also got a Cafe Mocha that was excellent. Again.. just took awhile to cool off to be drinkable. Unfortunately... too much food and so we didn't get cheesecake... by the time we left our stomaches still hadn't settled down enough to get any and we were afraid of running into leftover rush hour traffic so didn't bring any home. Beginning to regret that. *sighs* OH well... at least I have my tea.

Ran into Radio Shack and got a 256mb SD card for my camera, since i stole my otherone for my phone. Also ran into Bath and Body works and found out they are having a "buy 3 get one free" sale of their Signature Scents line of products. Quu really liked the "Cherry Blossom" Scent and I also got some of the "Moonlit Path" too. Very happy.

Now I sit here with my tea and in a very happy place. My belly is still full. *purrs*