Moon and I took little Z to Tasty China this past weekend for lunch. While she couldn’t eat anything and slept through the entire meal, I am pretty sure she is going to be a big fan. Speaking of big, looks like Tasty China has a fun event going on in May – a culinary competition between the chefs of Tasty China I and Tasty China II (what they used to call Peter Cheng’s). The event is on May 6th. Lunch will run you $35; dinner, $55. Check out the flyer for more details.

And, just in case you didn’t hear, who else is PSYCHED Tasty China is opening a location near Emory, which just so happens to be my near me. Trouble.

My first taste of Storico Fresco.

Saturday mornings are my time. Moon hangs back with the girls and I do my market rounds. The Morningside Market for tons of fresh vegetables, Alon’s for carby treats, and Trader Joe’s for fun snacks to put in Junior’s lunch. On Sundays, we hit BuHi Farmer’s Market as a family because, well, it is awesome and I can get the rest of what we need for the week there. I like buying food. It makes me happy. For the past couple of months, I’ve added a stop to my usual weekend rotation. The Farm Mobile. It is a walk-in bus stocked with meats from Riverview Farms (they run the thing), veggies and all sorts of other local goods. On Saturdays, it parks in front of Holeman and Finch (now serving lunch on Saturdays if ya didn’t know). One of the Mobile’s vendors has become my new obsession. It’s a local pasta vendor called Storico Fresco and I believe it is the replacement Atlantan’s have been yearning for since Via Elisa shut her doors to go strictly retail sauce years ago. Storico Fresco is a little different though.

Owner Michael Patrick has an interesting point of view. Rather than make all of the standard pastas we Americans are familiar with, Patrick, instead, focuses on varieties of pasta we don’t see very often – Culingionis, Scarpinocc, Cjalsons, Bertu and more. Although, he does make a mean dried pappardelle. The first time I got his pasta (my favorites are the roasted beet and smoked ricotta and the one stuffed with cotechino sausage), I was holding the paper wrapped tray upright and he gently pushed it back into a horizontal position so each piece wouldn’t get squished. A man who takes his product so seriously must have a good story. So, I emailed him to find out a little more.

Michael Patrick making pasta. Image courtesy of Storico Fresco.

What is your background? Where are you from? How long have you been in the culinary world?
My background? This answer goes back pretty far. I was born and raised in Florida – typical surfer, skateboarder, fishing, and scuba diver. I have the same cliché story many have, working with grandmother/mother in the kitchen as a child which eventually led me to culinary school, not so much the cool, vogue thing to do back in 1990 but it was a gut feeling for me, needed to cook. During cooking school floundered between two styles of cuisine, Italian and French, still my two faves to cook but I always liked rustic French – never the hoity toity, 36 ingredient dishes. So, it has always been rustic for me. After I learned of how much could be said with so little in Italian cooking, it was a no brainer to stay with Italian.

My time in culinary world is about 22 years – this is intermittent though. I have done quite a bit in the industry in the back of the house working in small mom and pops progressing up the ladder to award winning restaurants spread throughout South Florida. I’ve also worked front of the house bartender, manager. I’m also a certified sommelier.

Why pasta? What led you to spend so much time in Italy studying pasta?
I have had a passion for pasta since I was a child. My first vivid moment of homemade pasta being made was in a window of a restaurant in South Florida some 30+ years ago. I remember my mother trying to pull me away from the window and me totally resisting wanting to watch this man make a product I was so in love with.

From the first time I went to Italy I always felt we could do more to be authentic in the states. I would do research, head across the pond and study the product, try to figure it out, first interest was true panninos, bruschetta, and crostini – something we fail at quite miserably at here in The States. Second time, it was porchetta, so I spent time in Ariccia in the porchetta factories large and small studying the process. Meat production is not of the faint of heart or small of pocket, sourcing the proper pigs and setting up production for retail would have cost a large some of money. So, porchetta was moved to the side. Now whenever I did these trips I would always search out one of my all time favorite foods, pasta. So, one day while in Bari while I was making orecchiette with some friends (the best orecchiette makers in Italy), I had a light bulb moment. Why don’t we figure out pasta but a new way of making pasta? Historically correct. The way I learned while with friends. Why don’t we lift up the history? It was almost as interesting as the pasta itself and lets do it the way they do/did using seasons, local produce, local breeds of animals, etc. This lead me into an intense study going back and forth learning, studying, and researching pasta. It started to become very personal for me while spending time in towns where many of the families would tell of how tradition was being lost and how the new generation wasn’t interested. As a result, many of the traditions were falling into culinary history and being lost. So, I though somebody has to do something. So, Storico Fresco (fresh history) was born.

Why did you come back to Atlanta?
This has been my home over the past 14 years. Now much thought went into this, could it work somewhere else, yes, but Georgia has amazing agriculture whether it’s livestock or produce. We could make many of the herbs/plants work here since we would obviously be growing our own produce if we were going to attempt to be as accurate as possible to history.

What ingredients do you use in your pasta? Are they local?
Some of the true flavors that I am trying to make happen can’t, In my opinion, be done with local ingredients, some Pecorinos, Pecorino fiore, Parmesan, and some of the flours also need to be same as in Italy, it makes for a more historically accurate product, experimenting with making our own ricotta, not hard, but expensive and time consuming. Now that being said we use all local pig, beef, chicken. Woodland Farms in Athens has taken on the responsibility of growing many of the seeds gathered while in Italy many not heard of by most. We are looking to buy property for our own chickens but in the mean time, we are using all local, organic eggs. We actually just started working with someone that is actually letting their chickens do a true free-range diet, no corn meal, and a few other secrets I can’t elaborate on. All natural of course!

Which pastas are your favorites?
Pasta is like wine, one for every occasion, no favorites, that would be like me asking which of their children do they love the most. I put a large amount of time, study, and energy into each type of pasta I make. While in Italy I would drive hundreds of miles just to find, learn, and be taught about ONE pasta! Therefore, it takes a great deal of time to research these pastas. Many locals would be like “he wants to know what? Why? He’s a man, men don’t do that, why does he care, is he crazy?” it was baseline for them in many of the smaller villages, but many had not seen an American in 25 years. Some towns were very small, as small as 9 people.

One Storico’s pastas about to go into some boiling water.

Where can people buy Storico Fresco? What’s the price point?
You can buy the product at The Peachtree Road Farmer’s market, Moore Family Farm CSA, and The Farm Mobile we are also working towards moving into environmentally conscious grocery stores. price point is from 4-14$

Do you have any plans to get into retail? Restaurants?
We have been actively looking for property within the perimeter. Restaurants, its a possibility, but what we are really trying to do is spread the history of these unique pastas while also attempting to make consumers understand that seasonality pertains to everything, even the pastas we eat. We also have a travel side we are setting up in conjunction with our pastas. Our hope is that we can teach people the history, feed them history with a fresh approach and bring them to Italy through Storico Fresco Travel. Over the years, we have made many connections with the Italian government, winemakers, chefs, elders, etc. We are designing very food centric food tour that correlate with what our pastas are. So, you to can work in a 17th century monastery or make pesto with the judges if the pesto convention in Genova, or bake the best breads in the world in Alta murra, make limoncello and drink it on the beach while eating grilled seafood on the beach, an of coarse make some of these, the most unique handmade pastas on earth with the nonnas of Italia. Also, some of these towns will disappear if no interest is shown in them. So, I am hoping to bring some people to see these villages though small tourism.

If you want to find out more about Storico Fresco, check out its Facebook page (his photos of the pasta are much better than my quick snaps) or, better yet, pay Michael a visit and buy some of his amazing pasta. Just please leave me some.

Yup. I am a Mom. For those of you who have been with me for the past 7 (!) years, you’ve seen me go from singleton to married lady/step mom and now this. I can honestly say it is the best and most beautiful thing that has ever happened to me. It is also the craziest thing that has ever happened to me, which means my schedule is no longer my own. As a result, I have stepped down as the lead editor of Eater Atlanta, but will stay on as a contributing editor. You may also see me pop up in other publications around town once we settle into this new routine. Someone posted on my BG Facebook page the other day asking if I was still alive. Yes, I am. However, for now, most of my time is devoted to her while I can be. Can you blame me? Don’t fret, Lovelies. Old Bliss may not be the same old Bliss, but she has not abandoned this blog, my “first baby” as Creative Loafing called it when they interviewed me the other day. I’m still here and more hungry than ever. Stay tuned.

In the six plus years I have been doing the blog thing, one of the top three questions I get – aside from is that really your mouth in the picture (yes, it is) – is: where can I find good dim-sum in Atlanta. My answer has always been: nowhere. You see, my 4 years in San Francisco ruined me for life. When I moved back to dim-sum, all I could do was compare the usual spots people love (Royal China, East Pearl, etc.) to my favorite Daly City spot, Koi Palace. Today, if someone asks me where to get the best dim-sum, I have a different answer. Go to Golden House in Duluth.

Golden House is the newest spot from chef Danny Ting, a Cantonese chef you may recognize from places such as Wan Lai and Bo Bo Garden. Now, Ting resides in this palatial restaurant on Pleasant Hill. I waited to write about this until the restaurant had found its footing and I am glad I did. The menu is immense and we have to explore more of it, but today we went for dim-sum. My litmus dim-sum dish of har gow did not disappoint. The way you can judge the freshness aside from the sweetness of the shrimp and the suppleness of the wrapper is how much the dumplings taste like the metal cart. If there is the slightest trace of metal, the dumpling – and most of the dim-sum – has proven to be a waste of time. At Golden House, the shrimp tasted like it was alive moments before it was served to us. The dumpling skin was silky smooth with just enough stickiness to cling to the shrimp.

Pitch-perfect.

Sticky rice.

Shrimp stuffed eggplant.

Shrimp stuffed peppers.

Shrimp rice noodle (yes, more shrimp).

Beef balls.

Shrimp and chive dumplings.

The restaurant had posters everywhere advertising dungeness crab everywhere and Moon just can’t resist it. So, we got ginger and scallion forgetting what a pain this dish is to eat.

The flavor and freshness, however, was spot on.

The only other dish we ordered off the menu: Chinese broccoli with garlic.

Excellent.

Verdict: Bliss approved dim-sum served every day (if memory serves me correctly – call ahead because I am deep in pregnancy stupidity). Get there now and go often because Chinese chefs are notoriously wayward.

Part of the M. Wells team.

Tonight marks the inaugural dinner of the BATON supper series. The brainchildren behind the operation are these lovely folks: Moses Archuleta and Bryson Tedford.

If you recognize Moses that’s because he happens to be a member of Pitchfork darling, Deerhunter.

BATON is a little different than other supper clubs. They want to act as kind of an exchange program for chefs around the country so that others can see what Atlanta has going on and also bring a little something special to our plates. They’ll take place on the last Monday and Tuesday of every month at Gato Bizco in Candler Park. Tonight’s dinner was cooked by the couple behind M. Wells – Hugue Dufour and Sarah Obraitis- and a handful of awesome staff. If you aren’t familiar with M. Wells, it was a short-lived Québeco-American diner in Long Island City that wowed New York food lovers with its creative cuisine. Tonight, Atlanta got a taste. The theme was black pepper.

The menu.

The price point was right. The atmosphere felt very not Atlanta in a very cool way. And the food was pitch perfect Fall comfort food that tasted like it was cooked by your imaginary French Canadian grandmother. This is the rundown of what we had:

An amuse of apples with blue cheese, black pepper and sprouts.

Blue pointe oysters, coffee sabayon.

Georgia-Québec stew, oxtail, country ham, fresh corn.

Beef tongue pie, vegetable stew, tarragon, puff pastry.

Fall vegetables, shrimp butter, roots.


Liver and onions, sunchokes a la Cheryl, vermouth.

Banana cream pie.

Pudding Chômeur (I cannot describe how amazing this was).

Verdict: Tomorrow is the last night M. Wells is cooking here and while reservations are preferred, there were a lot (too many, actually) seats available tonight. You could probably still snag a seat tonight if you wanted. Not sure what time they close. Do your mouth a favor and go. No word on who is cooking at the next one, but you can sign up on BATON’s website.