Last Sunday while sitting in church I suddenly felt a strong urge to go vegetarian for a week.  And since when God speaks, I listen, I’m trying out these Portobello Lasagna Rollups for dinner.

Portobello Lasagna Rollups

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Friday night we visited Utopia [insert various food types here] Lounge for a friend’s birthday.  Although Utopia is located less than half a mile from my current residence and I’ve heard good things about its bar scene, I have never taken the opportunity to visit.  Utopia is currently touted as a Cajun and tapas lounge, but has previously been a tapas, sushi, and martini bar, among other things.  Despite all this, Utopia is, at it’s heart, a nightclub. The kitchen is open until 1am and there are three different rooms with separate DJ’s and ambiances. The Lounge’s confusion about its cuisine led to a little confusion over its menu offerings, but we soon settled on two items from the Cajun side of the menu, the Southern Fried Chicken and the Seafood Crepes, both with a side of Cajun fries.

Southern Fried Chicken

Seafood Crepes

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Drago’s is a New Orleans staple known for their charbroiled oysters.  I shared a dozen  for lunch at the Metairie location after a morning flight into New Orleans:

Charbroiled Oysters

The photo’s a little blurry, but you can’t deny the flavor!  Big, juicy oysters charbroiled with butter, herbs, and parmesean cheese.  Simple, but delicious.  No first bite photo here, by the time I remembered to take one, the plate was empty!

www.dragosrestaurant.com

We had a birthday celebration at our Midtown Melting Pot this weekend. I’ve been wanting to try this place out for a while, but it’s definitely not your casual dining spot. The Melting Pot offers a couple of different dining options, and we opted for a full four-course meal (with coupon for free dessert).  To start, a cheddar cheese fondue served with bread cubes and vegetables:

Cheddar Cheese Fondue

The fondue was made with Aged, medium-sharp Cheddar and Emmenthaler Swiss cheeses, lager beer, garlic and seasonings.  Pretty tasty, as plain fondues go.  Made me want to try making my own.  Next was a salad, but it was a fairly generic Caesar, so we’ll skip over that.  For our entree, we chose the “Pacific Rim” entree for two: Teriyaki-marinated sirloin, white shrimp, marinated pork tenderloin, breast of duck, breast of chicken and potstickers.  At The Melting Pot, this all comes out raw and you cook at your table using the cooking style of your choice.  We chose Mojo (Caribbean-seasoned bouillon with distinctive flavors of fresh garlic with a citrus flair).

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I decided to satisfy my sweet tooth last night by making Strawberry and Mascarpone Filled Cupcakes from a recipe I found on foodnetwork.com.  Having never filled cupcakes before, it was an interesting experiment, but fun and delicious nonetheless.  Also, clearly I’m no cake decorator.  First bites and recipe after the break.

Cupcakes

The Money Shot

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Burgers again, but this time a little less gourmet. Five Guys Burgers and Fries is known up and down the East Coast for their cheap eats and–what else–burgers and fries.  We picked some up one night we didn’t feel like cooking:

Little Bacon Cheeseburger and Fries

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This weekend we tried out Top Chef finalist Richard Blais‘ new restaurant Flip.

Flip

Flip is in kind of a weird location, on midtown Atlanta’s Howell Mill Rd.  Situated among auto repair shops and hardware stores, its chic decor definitely stands out.  Uber-chic begets an uber wait, and we waited about 45 minutes for a table.  However, this is not unusual for a new, smallish restaurant with a famous head chef.

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We visited “New Orleans style” restaurant Front Page News this weekend at its Moreland Ave location. As a native Louisianian, I’m always a little wary of cajun-, creole-, or Louisiana-themed restaurants outside of the state, but I’d been passing this particular place for a while and finally decided to check it out. We had the Shrimp & Grits

Shrimp & Grits

and the Pasta Carbonara

Pasta Carbonara

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