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Appetites and Adventures

Making Monday Marvelous

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Mondays are not my favorite.

 

They are second only to Tuesday in their suck-factor.

This week I’m making an effort to be more positive about the start to the week and joining up with the diva-licious Katie in her Marvelous Monday link up.

marvelous monday

 

After an awesome weekend, I think the glow should carry over to Monday!

It all started Thursday night with a ATL blogger dinner.  I met up with Lee, Kat, Heather, Alayna, Stacy, and… HEATHER and her boyfriend, who are visiting for the weekend from Tennessee!!!  We ate at a local Ethiopian place called Desta (3086 Briarcliff Road Northeast, Atlanta, GA 30329; 404.929.0011).

Desta - Atlanta Ethiopian food

 

If you’ve never had Ethiopian food, think of Indian food… but without the cardamom and coconut flavors.  And with fingers – you scoop your food with injera, a bread made from teff flour.  (No worries – they has hand sanitizer at the table.)  Injera is just teff flour and water mixed together and left to ferment for 2-3 days.  It has a light, spongy texture and a slightly sour taste due to the fermentation.  I know that sounds odd, but it works.  Kind of like kombucha.  It’s also really rich in iron!

I ordered the Fish Tibs, which were excellent!  The injera are the things that look like rolled washcloths in the background:

Ethiopian Fish Tibs and Injera

 

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Round two of the marvelous happened Friday night.  After a looooong day, I met up with Heather and her boyfriend again for a fun dinner at The Spence (75 5th St NW, Atlanta, GA 30308; 404.892.9111).  I don’t repeat restaurants often, but this one is in the rotation.  It was started by Richard Blais of Top Chef fame, and actually lives up to the hype!

Here are a few of my favorites from what we ordered:

The Spence

Clockwise, left to right:

  • Fois gras with 5-spice and candied quince
  • Butternut squash agnolotti with pig trotter, brussle leaves, and parsnip puree
  • Blood orange and champagne cake
  • Milk chocolate, peanut, and burnt banana ice cream (I can’t eat here without ordering this)

 

The icing on that cake came when I checked my mail that evening.  Not one but TWO special deliveries.  Nuttzo sent me an entire jar of my favorite nut butter (I’m not just saying that).  This stuff is pricey, but I SWEAR it’s worth every penny.  It was my first “treat” after my figure competition last year.

The second package was from Chobani.  They sent over a sampling of their new flavors and a spoon.  I was probably too excited about getting a spoon in the mail… but it’s a really nice, heavy spoon.  I normally don’t eat flavored yogurt due to the sugar content, but I’ve been using these as condiments and eating these 1/2 at a time.  My favorite flavor?  The fig with orange zest – I love that it has real pieces of fig!

 

Nuttzo and Chobani

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The awesome didn’t stop there!  

Saturday night I took my broccoli Heather, her BF, and another friend to a place I’ve been really excited to try.  7 Lamps (3400 Wooddale Dr NE #217, Atlanta, GA 30326; 404.467.8950) was opened by one of my favorite local chefs, Drew Van Leuvan.  I used to eat at ONE Midtown all the time when he was at the helm.

Heather and me

 

This was one of the best meals I’ve had in recent memory.  It was a TON of food, but it was great to get to sample a little bit of everything:

7 Lamps

Clockwise, from the top left:

  • Butter-dipped radishes with mustard aioli and pickled Fiddlehead Ferns
  • Smoked ruby beets with medjool dates, bacon jam, oj fennel, and bucheron
  • Mortadella mousse in Sicilian pistachio macaroons with grilled baguette, bourbon mustard, and pickled grapes and celery
  • Sashimi of smoked Wild Salmon with navel orange, grapefruit, avocado, and pea shoots
  • Lobster roll with celery aioli on a steamed brioche bun
  • “Off the Menu” burger that is 50% brisket, 50% top round, and topped with housemade Thousand Island, caramelized onions, B & B pickles, and a grilled cheese gratin… and served with hand cut cottage fries
  • Spicy lamb meatballs with adzuki beans, sage, and brasied pearl onions
  • Savory crepes with wood grilled tuscan kale, vidalia onion, gruyere gratin, smoked vinaigrette
  • Red Dawn – Four Roses bourbon, pur likor spiced blood orange liqueur, benedictine, and black walnut bitters

 

The beet dish was a fantastic combination of flavors and textures.  You all know I love salty and sweet, so the bacon with the dates was a huge win for me.  It was well-balanced with the tangy OJ fennel.  The creaminess from the boucheron against the still-firm beets made the dish that much more fun to eat..

I’m sad that my favorite dish was the worst picture.  I was too excited to eat it!  The mortadella mousse macaroons were out of this world.  It was you childhood bologna sandwich, all grown up.  A little sweet, a little salty, and a perfect chew from the macaroons.  I could have eaten plates of these.

The burgers were ordered by the boys, but they shared a bite.  This may be a contender for the best burger in ATL (certainly better than H&F, and right there with Bocado). It’s not on the menu and they don’t like to serve them during dinner service… but you should order it anyway.  My eyes rolled back into my head upon taking a bite of the juicy burger.  It was the sort of burger that gets all over your face, but you don’t care because you’re too busy reveling in its deliciouness.

There is room for improvement on the salmon dish and the lobster.  Both were missing something… the smokiness wasn’t apparently in the salmon, which I think would have made the dish.  As it were, it fell flat on my palate.  The lobster claw meat itself and the steamed bun were both fantastic.  It simply needed something else to lift it.  A little bit of heat or tang added to this would make it close to perfect.

The service was great.  Or server, Joseph, was attentive and clearly passionate about the menu.  “Head Mixtress” Arianne was slammed behind the bar, but took the time to talk with us about the drink selection.  Her suggestions were spot-on!  I’d come back just for a cocktail… but I’d probably have to order more macaroons too…

 

The night wasn’t over yet!  We moved on the Victory Sandwich Bar, where we met up with a friend of Heather’s BF.  Here’s the thing about Victory.  They have Jack & Coke slushies.  A victory, indeed.

Victory Jack & Coke slushie

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Sunday… I needed some down time!  I enjoyed a luxurious day in the weight room and some green!

Green Smoothie Bowl

***

It’s going to be a crazy week.  I may have to re-read this post a few times.

What was your favorite part of the Super Bowl?  As a former advertising major, I dig the commercials!

What was weekend memories are making your Monday marvelous?

 

Comments

  1. How fun to meet up with fellow blogger! I need more bloggers in my corner of the California desert!

    My favorite part of the Superbowl was the commercials too (mostly because the 49ers lost). I wasn’t that impressed, but there were a couple Budweiser commercials that were pretty good. Some of the ads seemed awfully violent, though. Like football isn’t violent enough!

  2. Um yep, that sounds like a pretty marvelous weekend to me!! I want to hang with bloggers so bad. It’s a blast!
    Confession: I only taped the superbowl so I could watch the commercials. I’m just not a football fan. I don’t understand it.
    Haha, I’m with you on Tuesdays – worse than Mondays;) Which I actually don’t mind too much, I like getting back on schedule!

  3. Seriously how could you NOT carry all this marvelousness into Monday?! It was SO good to see you! I swear I can never thank you enough for introducing me to so many different foods and flavors! Thinking back on everything (now that my food is PROPERLY digested!), I think I was just as much in love with that mortadella as you were! I was just telling some of my co-workers about it…but it was so hard to explain! It’s just GOOD! Lol But I have to say, the beets were the absolute best out of the entire weekend…I really need to figure out how to make my own bacon jam…well, once I conquer my fear of cooking it that is! Oy!

    PS, I want another slushie!! 😉

    • Awwww… thank you for being up for anything! That was SO much fun. I wish I could have gone to Buford with you. Next time, more crazy Ethinc food! 🙂

      Bacon jam pancakes?!

  4. oh man that coke slushie, I am such a fan of all slushies so I bet that was good. I feel like foodie bloggers meeting up means some delicious food no matter what. I am not that great at trying new types of food but ethiopian food looks super interesting

  7. Er okay peanut butter & burnt banana ice cream sounds marvellous times 10000! Sounds like a delicious weekend…the only thing missing was a round of Heather’s drool-worthy pancakes! I have no idea about the Superbowl but I will just say that Beyonce’s performance was unreal….only part of the night I YouTube’d!

    • Oh, it is life-changingly good. I did miss the pancakes… but I did make one f her recipes today!

      And YES to Beyonce! i think she won the game. 🙂

  8. Carry that MARVELOUS all week!!!!!!

    SO jealous of the meet up! I wish I lived closer so I could of went! All the food pics you and Heather were sharing on instagram, had me hungry and jealous!

    YAY for awesome packages! I got that nuttzo one too! The chobani one I am waiting on still, needs to get here NOW!

    Have a fabulous week, so happy you joined in beautiful! <3

    • I wish you lived closer too! We would have SO much fun. I think we just need to have blend 2-3 times a year. 🙂

  11. Sounds like you and an incredible time. I got to hang out with my running buddy outside of running for a change. We went shopping and had an awesome lunch and the weather was just too good to be true for Feb.

  14. So fun to see you on Thursday. You’re right, we should totally do it more often. Blogger once a month dinner club? Funny that you went to Victory because Jason has been talking about that place non-stop (since it was on Anthony Bourdain’s Layover show, I guess.)

    My favorite part of the Superbowl was that Budweiser horse commercial. I might have teared up.

  21. I love this idea of Marvelous Mondays!!
    Mondays are such a drag but I’ve been trying to focus in on them being the START of a fresh new week where you can set mini goals and set the pace of how you approach your day. 🙂

  22. Umm, jealous of all the marvelous meet-ups! And some fantastic-looking food. I neeeed to get back to Ethiopian, I can’t believe I haven’t been in months (yeah, that one makes it into my rotation, otherwise I’m with you–I want to try something new! Like a Jack & coke slushie…)

  23. Awwr, Monday’s aren’t that bad, but they’re definitely a little easier to handle when you have some good memories to look back on. I spent Sunday night at my parents’ place, half paying attention to the Superbowl. The commercials were definitely my favorite part, and Beyonce put on a pretty good show as well. I have to admit, though, that as nice as it was to have a relaxing night with the family, I would have loved to meet some killer blends and eat some killer food.

  24. I think the commercials this year were a big disappointment. I love football so I watch the game for the sport of it all, but seriously the icing on the cake is supposed to be fantastic commercials you’ll talk about for the week following the Super Bowl. I don’t feel like any of them were note worthy.

    Now that was a bit negative and so as not to increase the suck factor of Monday I will end on a positive note. I tried both Journey bars (BBQ & Marinara). The BBQ didn’t have a lot of flavor but the marinara did (I would buy this and eat it again). What I think I enjoyed most were the little pieces of amaranth in it..gave the bars a nice litle crunch.

    I hope your Monday goes smoothly Laura and that Tuesday does as well.

    • I thought the same! There really wasn’t a stand-out.

      Thanks for letting me know about the bars. I’ll have to check out the Marinara – I’ve seen them in a few stroes.

  25. I think that the commercials were completely lack luster. I posted my favs, even then my favorite is still one from last year.

    All of this looks great! I am glad to see that you are trying to be more positive this Monday. It can be really hard. My Monday’s are my longest and toughest days, so I never look forward to them!

  26. I had so much fun [slash] feelings of envy watching y’all instagram about your time together. 🙂 PIG TROTTER! YUM! [Says the vegan.] Now you really know how to live it up…I’m a little overwhelmed and might need to reread all of this later. 🙂

    I still haven’t tried Nuttzo, but I think I have enough nuts and nut butter around to last me for a long time…

    • We were wishing you were there!!! Lots of crazy things to try!

      I know you are the nutty queen… but that nuttzo… well, as a connoisseur you should have a bite. 🙂

  27. Wow! You know how to treat guests… that place sounds fantastic! Isn’t it nice to have those amazing weekends? I hope you can hold onto the weekend glow as long as possible this week. 🙂

  29. All your pictures from the Spence & Ethiopian food are making me sooo jealous!! And 7 lamps?! WOW. Glad you had such a wonderful weekend!! I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it to any of the fun events. I truly appreciate the invitations though! <3

  30. Foodie fun without me – not fair! 🙂 It looks like a blast, even though I don’t eat much of what was consumed, I’m sure I could have gotten them to make me something equally as awesome. So glad you had a fabulous weekend, even if it had to end and become monday. 🙂

    • I know! You were missed. 7 Lamps would have been a challenge for vegan ordering… I would have loved to watch you work your magic there!

  34. Okay, I have GOT to get down to Atlanta (and have YOU tell me where to go!) Knoxville just doesn’t have all the fun bloggers and eateries y’all have down there!
    Arianne is fabulous isn’t she?? She and my brother dated for about 3 years when they were in high school, and now she’s a BANGING top-level mixtress!

    Your weekend does certainly sound marvelous!

  35. This did not hit my inbox so I came looking for it! 🙂 What fun with the meet up – I love the pics saw them on Instagram too!!! Such beautiful ladies!!!

    With you on the Chobani thing – I only eat the plain nonfat stuff & add my own fruits or spices or fat.. I just prefer it that way…. glad Chobani did not send to me cause I am honest about what I think on products…

    LOVE the Nuttzo! I wish I could afford it but glad I got to review it. I tasted the other one in Whole Foods way back when I I think I like that one a bit more – the one that starts with cashews in the ingredients but both are great – just wish my budget allowed…

    Monday is over for now! 😉

    • Thanks for hunting it down… wonder what happened today…

      I do the same thing with yogurt. In fact, I just blended plain with blood oranges and cinnamon, then stuck it in the freezer to take on my business trip tonight.

  36. I skipped the SuperBowl and went to Trader Joe’s instead. 😉

    I also spent the weekend in the city, saw 2 concerts, spent time with a best friend, went to the natural hsitory museum, and ate at lots of restaurants. We went to a thai place one night, which was the highlight (karee curry chicken, do it!), but all of your food totally trump my eats. Yum!

    • I made the mistake of going to TJs before the Super Bowl. I spent 30 mins in line. Oy.

      Sounds like you had a full weekend too! I need to get out to more shows.

Trackbacks

  1. […] I’m not “wasting” cheat days on crappy travel food.  I mean, did you see this post?  Why would I eat fast food when I can save it for dinners like […]

  2. […] Injera is Ethiopian bread.  It sounds fancy, but it’s really just teff flour and water left to ferment for a few days before being cooked in pancake-fashion.  The finished product is a little sour and sponge-y in texture.  I know that doesn’t sound terrible appealing, but it really is good! […]

  3. […] A few weeks ago I committed to making an effort to be more positive on this most glorious day of the week and joined the diva-licious Katie in her Marvelous in My Monday link up.  This week I need to get back on that train. […]

  4. […] Desta Ethiopian Kitchen […]

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