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The Lady Rerun Show

Welcome to the official blog of the Lady Rerun Show. With this blog, Lady Rerun and her cynical sidekick, Malika will give you further insight into the show and our thoughts and feelings on previous and upcoming shows. Feel free to live and laugh with us, and leave a comment or two!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Lady Rerun's and Malika's Day At Taste Of Atlanta!

Hey yall! Its Malika here. Sorry it took me so long to finish our blog on Taste of Atlanta, I've had quite a few things going on in my world. I just posted a blog on my thoughts of Chris Rock's "Good Hair" and I help you check it out. Anyway, on to the topic at hand- Taste of Atlanta.






Honestly, I didn't know what to expect, but I really did enjoy myself. It was held at the corner of 5th and Spring streets in (duh) Atlanta, Georgia. We were both kind of stoked to be there as media, instead of just as observers, while the fact is, we were just taking it all in, just like the regular observers, but the only difference is that not only were we there to eat, we were also there on a mission. To report you y'all, our loyal readers and listeners where the best food locations were and which places might be worth a visit and your hard-earned money.
To start with, thankfully, the day was pretty nice. It was actually down-right warm. Which is a sharp contrast to this weekend which was so cold that Pookie (my nick name for my son's father) and I nearly froze our wazoos off as we hung out this weekend. I've always kind of felt that sometimes the Higher Power looks out for us on issues like weather for certain events like this.

Anyway, Lady Rerun and I had made it a point to try as many diverse places as possible. We tried not to review places that I'd gone to before but the temptation of two locations, Paschals and Tin Drum Asia Caf'e, made it in. :)

The way the festival operated by giving tickets to people. The general admission was $35 and for that you received 15 tickets for the booths. The food items cost between one and three tickets. If someone wanted more tickets to get more food, they could purchase ten of them for $10.





Anyway, the first place we visited was Blue Moon Pizza. Neither Lady Rerun nor I were too impressed with it. The pizza was thin crust, which she dug, but I didn't. I'd asked if they offer thick crust pizza and they don't, which for me was a no go. They also had barbecue pizza which I normally like, but the sauce on theirs was a little over powering, so I gave it a thumbs down. Lady Rerun didn't like that it was cold. Neither of us really liked it. http://www.bluemoonpizzaatl.com/







The next place we visited was The Melting Pot. It was a fondue spot. We had fresh strawberries and yellow and fudge cake drizzled in chocolate sauce. It was absolutely heaven. Lady Rerun really enjoyed how fresh the strawberries were. My only gripe was that there were no take away menus. I just looked at the website and they don't have a menu either, despite having many locations around the country! Perhaps they have different foods at each restaurant, but I wish that there was more available on this place. We both loved the food there, but it would have been nice to see what's available there. While I enjoyed the sample that I had, they should have done a better job of letting the public know what they offer. There was a menu at the booth, but I wanted something to take with me and poor over. They didn't even offer any other kind of food at the booth. What we had was great, but personally before I'd stop in, I want them to make more information available to me. http://meltingpot.com/





Next, we stopped at the booth for New York Prime. We they had a few different choices, but we settled on the Southwest Creamed Corn, not expecting much. OMG!! They had the BEST creamed corn EVER!! It was warm and cheesy and spicy. It was GREAT. Lady Rerun looked up the website menu and it was $11. You know its some good creamed corn if it cost that much. It was pretty freaking expensive when she told us the other prices, but honestly if something as basic as creamed corn is this good there, one can only imagine how good the rest of the food is there. It would be great for a good expensive dinner. If I could afford it, I'd be there NOW!!! (I'd also like to add that the guy that served us was pretty cute and Lady Rerun appreciated teh fact the was dressed in a professional manner like he was ready for business. http://centraarchy.com/newyorkprime_Atl.php




After New York Prime, we were headed to watch Top Chef finalist, Carla Hall, but we were called to Tin Drum by our noses. Yummy! We had a chicken curry dish (I hate that I can't remember the name!) that was served with white rice and fresh spinach. We both finished our food. Initially Lady Rerun didn't want us to eat there because I'd tried it before (and loved it) but the smell of the booth made us come on over anyway. Like I said, the food was worth it. I also went back later for a crab and cream cheese springroll. I loved the fact that even though it was fried, it felt light. It came with a sweet and sour sauce. http://www.tindrumcafe.net/
(We didn't get any pictures of the booth, so here is a picture of one of the Atlanta locations instead. Sorry!)

















So on we go to see Carla Hall. We were pretty entertained by the chefs they had onstage entertaining the audience during the short wait. And I've gotta say how impressed I am that they started pretty much on time. I gets so irritating when you're at a function like this and you have to wait an hour for a celeb appearance. The funny thing is that even though there was no wait, she totally would have been worth one. Carla was humorous and engaging. I'm going to report on her later so I won't get too far into it now. Actually Lady Rerun tried to get an interview with her, but her handlers let us know that she'd had plenty of requests for interviews, so she turned all of them down to be fair. I respect her diplomacy on the matter, but I have to say that I was a tad disappointed to not be able to talk to her in person.










Once we'd seen Carla, I felt it necessary to visit the little girl's room. The event had plenty of porta potties available, but Malika wasn't going to put her precious tush anywhere near those things. So despite the fliers saying that their restrooms were only for paying customers, I snuck into the Georgia Tech Barnes & Noble restroom. I know I went against the rules, but quite frankly, I'd do it again if I had to.

So anyway, after we tried the first few places, we decided that it was time for some sweets, so we stopped by Sogno Gelato. I got the lemon and Lady Rerun got the strawberry flavor. It just so happened that neither of our flavors had dairy, which we both thought was a plus. Lady Rerun also loved the fact that the guy that served us was so upbeat and informed on the product.
http://sognogelato.com/index.html










After gelatos, our next stop was Genki, where we got chicken yakitori. Chicken yakitori is chicken with a barbeque/soy sauce. The chicken was so tender and the sauce was awesome. I actually plan to go check this place out. I also loved how friendly the girl at the booth was. Before this, my favorite yakitori was at my favorite restaurant, Rusan's. Genki just may give Rusan's a run for its money. Based on what I tasted, I plan to go there one day to find out. http://www.genki-inc.com/



Now it was time for some soul food. And Paschal's is the good stuff! Lady Rerun had a collard green wonton and I had a piece of Almond & Pecan Sweet Potato Pie. Lord. Lord, lord, lord!! Even though I'd eaten there before, I was still really excited to visit the booth. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Paschal's because of its rich Civil Rights Movement history. Back in the 1960's many of the top Civil Rights leaders of the time (including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.!) met there to strategize. With food as good as we had, there's no question of why they made this place a regular haunt for them. On Sundays they also have a regular brunch that is one of the most popular in the city. http://www.paschalsrestaurant.com/






Back to our mission of diverse food, we then visited Desta Ethiopian Kitchen. We both decided to get the Veggie Sampler that had veggie spreads, wrapped and rolled in a spongy bread called injera, which is native to Ethiopia. Lady Rerun wasn't too thrilled with it, but I was impressed. It was a tad spicy which I also appreciated. http://www.destaethiopiankitchen.com/location

The last food venue we tried was an Indian restaurant called Madras Grill. Lady Rerun had a drink called a Mango Lassi. Its a mango and yogurt beverage. I had something called a Sev Puri which I compared to it being like a puffed Lays potato chip and they put an onion veggie mix. I enjoyed it. Lady Rerun enjoyed it. She also liked how decorative the booth was. Check out the cool fountain there on the end. It was flowing with mango lassi. http://www.madrasgrill.com/index.html

Our next and final destination was the Robert Mondavi Wine Tasting. When I got to the front of the line, I asked the man for something that wasn't too dry because I didn't want to look like a 16-year-old kid by asking for something sweet. He offered me a small taste of the Riesling and I was set with a nice subtle buzz. Lady Rerun did more of the tasting of the wines than I did and she really enjoyed it. They also had cabernet, merlot, pinot noir, and pinot grigio. There were a lot of people in the area enjoying the wine. There was also a beer tasting somewhere in the facility, but by then we were too pooped to check it out and we're not really beer drinkers. We were also already kinda buzzed. http://www.robertmondaviwinery.com/flash/index.html

And there, ladies and gentlemen was the Lady Rerun Show visit to the Taste of Atlanta. We had a great time and most of the food was absolutely awesome. We offer a sincere thank you to the staff and the people that allowed us to share this experience.

malika & Lady Rerun

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