Atlanta food and restaurant blog | The Blissful Glutton » Cambodian

In the news…

blissfulglutton — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:02:00 +0000

NOW OPEN AND COMING SOON

Chef Laurent Tourondel (photo courtesy of BLT Steak)

Chef Laurent Tourondel’s BLT Steak opens tonight in the W Downtown. This is one restaurant I am absolutely dying to go to. I have been to the New York location many times and it is always delicious. Can’t wait to see how the Atlanta location is versus NYC.

Eric Simpkins

My favorite mixologist in Atlanta, Eric Simpkins, has left Trois to join the team at Drinkshop, a cocktail-driven spot from master mixologist, Sasha Petraske. The bar opens next week in the new W Downtown.

Scott Serpas’ restaurant, Serpas True Food, is now open in The Pavilion at Studioplex in the Old Fourth Ward. The restaurant’s menu features cuisine that is “true to its origin handcrafted by the New Orleans native.”

Miso Izakaya, a new Japanese-style izakaya (one of my favorite styles of Japanese cuisine) on Edgewood Avenue, which was slated to open this week has pushed the opening out until February. In other izakaya news, John Kessler reports that the owners of Haru Ichiban also plan to open an izakaya restaurant, Shoya Japanese Restaurant in Doraville in April. Stay tuned for more details on both. You know I will be there the minute they open their doors!

FROM MY INBOX

A friend wrote to tell me Cellar 13, a new wine store, has opened next to Johnny’s Hideaway on Roswell Road (3765 Roswell Road, 30342. 404-816-4071). The store is also hosting tastings. Call for the schedule and availability.

Fish amok at Phnom Penh

BG reader, Marcia, emailed me that Phnom Penh has reopened after closing for two months due to fire damage. I am so happy to get this news. I was afraid they’d closed because business was slow. Cambodian cuisine is so underrepresented in our town.

BG reader, Jun Park, has found a taco truck in Marietta that sounds very promising:

There is a taco truck/restaurant at the intersection of Pat Mell Rd. and Favor Rd. in Marietta. To get there, start at the intersection of Windy Hill and South Cobb Drive (the one with Dirt Cheep Music, Uhaul, etc.). Go north on South Cobb Drive for 0.6 miles to Pat Mell and turn left (going west) onto Pat Mell. Go 1.2 miles to Favor Rd. and you’ll see the truck on your right.

Also, you can enter the following address into Google Maps:
2084 Favor Rd. SW
Marietta, GA 30060
and then hit the street view looking west.

They have a rather limited menu with tacos, mulitas, burritos, tortas, menudo, and a couple of other items. The meats are chicken, beef (carne asada), spicy beef (cabesa), pork (al pastor), barbecue (barbacoa), and tounge (lengua). The carne asada torta was wonderful! It was a large sandwich made with a chewy bread that was toasted on the grill and filled with a soft, savory meat that seems to have been braised for a long time. It also had lettuce, tomatoes, fresh cilantro, and onions along with a subtle, creamy dressing that was not overpowering. It was simply superb! I also had a cabesa burrito that almost as good. It was a fat, messy creation filled with plenty of meat and just the right amount of refried beans and rice.

The tacos are $0.99 each and the tortas and burritos are $4. There is a great selection of Jarritos soft drinks (try the grapefruit or toronja soda) for $1.

And one more piece of mail from BG reader, Carla Quinn Lee (with a few edits for spacing):

I moved to Atlanta from LA with my husband, who is Chinese-American and whose parents own their own restaurant in the DC area. When we arrived we went on a Homer-like quest for “real” Chinese food…and let me start by saying it took months of bad Chinese to find it! Located on Buford Highway (naturally), a few doors down from Canton House (which is good, but lacking a little soul in my opinion), is New Paradise. It is connected to some sort of car repair/tire place and is not the best looking restaurant on the outside, but in my opinion, the best Chinese food is often found in the ugliest places. Please try it! You will not be disappointed. Make sure you get the yellow menu, not the white menu (they literally give non-Asians white menus and Asians get the yellow one-not so subtle!).

May I recommend: Twice cooked pork, Dau Mui (sauteed snow pea leaves), Green Beans with pork and Beef Chow fun.

When we go with my southern-born parents, we order more American style food as well, like the Mongolian beef and Kung Pao chicken, and they are tasty too! Even my husband, who is regularly complaining about Atlanta’s lack of Chinese and that Buford Highway is not Chinatown, admits that New Paradise is better than any place in LA!

Check out my latest in this week’s Creative Loafing

blissfulglutton — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:14:00 +0000

Cheap Eats: Phnom Pehn

Walking into an unknown, empty restaurant is unsettling. You never know if you’ve stumbled onto a gem, or if you’re about to discover exactly why it’s empty. That’s how I felt on my first visit to Phnom Penh (4059 Lawrenceville Highway, Tucker; 770-493-3598), a hole-in-the-wall serving Cambodian (or Khmer) and Southeast Asian food. Click here to read the rest…

Mouthful: Ice cream drinks

CHAPMAN DRUG CO.: In this modern age of convenience and drive-thrus, there’s something comforting — and kitschy — about finding an authentic soda fountain inside an old-school, family-owned drugstore. Click here to read the rest…

Liquid Diet: Elliot Street Deli & Pub

AS REAL AS IT GETS: Ask any regular and he’ll tell you the brothers Jakob are the friendliest, most laid-back bar owners in town. The tiny bar — which used to be a crack house before its transformation into a bar/residence — is an intimate neighborhood pub where you don’t have to pretend you’re cooler than you actually are (photo courtesy of Elliot Street). Click here to read the rest…

Reader mail: A report on Phnom Penh

blissfulglutton — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:06:00 +0000

BG Reader, Nicci Robertson (whose fresh mangosteen find you may remember from May) has sent in the following report on Phnom Penh (4059 Lawrenceville Hwy., Tucker, 770 493-3598):

After reading a review about Phnom Penh in Atlanta Cuisine, we met a couple of friends who live in Tucker for dinner this evening. We were in Cambodia a few years back and were looking forward to trying some authentic Cambodian fare. It was really wonderful and we have made plans to return again next week. The drive is somewhat of a big deal for us since we live in Brookhaven, just minutes to the plethora restaurants on Buford Hwy and Buckhead. I have to say that it is really worth it because I have not seen many of the menu items anywhere else in Atlanta and the food is very good. It’s small and has very simple décor…somewhat of a hole in the wall. Friendly family owned place with pleasant service, unlike the bizarre comments mentioned in the review.

We ordered the green papaya salad, mango salad, shrimp spring rolls (I know these 3 are found in other Thai and Vietnamese restaurants, but these salads are very different here and have a more pungent flavor…ingredients include shrimp paste and dried whole tiny shrimp), fried whole quail with black pepper dipping sauce, grilled beef sticks with rice, richly flavored Red Coconut Curry sauce with tilapia and onions and a crepe/omelette stuffed with ground chicken and bean sprouts accompanied by lettuce and basil for wrapping. There were two fish sauces for dipping, one with lime, sugar and garlic and the other was the same with addition of roasted peanuts. I was not crazy about the salads since I am not a big fan of shrimp paste, but everyone else liked them. Next week we’ll order some different items. I highly recommend that you check out this restaurant when you get a chance. It is open 11am-10pm Mon-Sat.