DragonCon Edition
I guess that should have been Connnn! Well, nerds gotta nerd.
This past weekend I carted the old culinary passport to DragonCon 2017. In addition to all the great pop-culture, geek, gaming, educational, art and cosplay available there is no shortage of food options in downtown Atlanta. In the host hotels and at the Americas Mart buildings you can’t swing a dead Pokémon without hitting a pizza or sandwich stand. If you walk a bit further the Peachtree Center food court offers a ton of variety all jammed together and offers plenty of opportunity to make new friends as any empty chair at a table is gold and sharing tables is pretty much obligatory and sitting in the floor, back against the wall is not unheard of. If you want to enjoy a bit of downtime from the crowds you can find some of the restaurants that aren’t totally overwhelmed with con goers. I visited three while I was there. One was a revisit and two were new. They are truly international in theme as one was Italian, one Turkish and one a Pacific rim themed restaurant.
The first of the trio was Amalfi Pizza on Andrew Young Int’l Blvd. The entrance opens to a wide set of stairs in a decorated foyer that take you into the restaurant proper. There was plenty of seating and I was shown to a table by a smiling young lady. I decided to have one of their house specialties, Pizza Amalfi and a Jekyll Brewing Hop Dang Diggity to wash it down.
The pizza was great. First off it’s from a wood fired pizza oven so you get that little bit of char that adds that extra touch to the pizza. The pizza itself had fresh mozzarella, spicy sausage, crushed tomato sauce, peppadew peppers, caramelized onions, and their own bacon jam. The toppings weren’t piled on like a lot of franchise pizzas so the flavors might vary from one bite to the next. When you got a bit of the bacon jam it gave the pizza an almost barbeque sauce flavor with the sweet and smoky flavor. The sausage wasn’t very spicy in my opinion but did have a good Italian sausage flavor. The beer was an IPA, nothing special amid the glut of IPAs in the craft brew world.
Next up was Truva for lunch. I did a blog entry for Truva last year that you can find in the archives if you choose. Truva is a Turkish restaurant and is a dimly lit place on a second floor and out of the way enough that only the people from the con who truly want Turkish food show up so it’s a great getaway spot. This year I decided to have a couple of their appetizers instead of an entrée as I figured it might be a little less heavy. I got the Etli Borek and Karniyarik. I loved the menu description of the etli borek, cigar shaped meat pastry. Karniyarik is stuffed eggplant. While I was waiting for the apps I was provided with a metal basket of warm bread with black sesame seeds and olive oil & balsamic vinegar to dredge it through.
That bread was worth the trip. Trying to be mindful of the calories I only ate a couple of pieces and felt like that was showing heroic restraint. Fortunately my meal of starters showed up.
The stuffed eggplant was partially peeled in sections to provide a decorative presentation and it was stuffed with a ground, spiced lamb and beef combo. It was ok but honestly I think it could have been spiced up a bit more and the eggplant was a little rubbery. Not my favorite dish from Truva to date. The cigar shaped meat pastries were better although it was essentially the same meat mixture. It benefitted from the pastry dough and the yogurt sauce which tasted like it had some mint in it. They could have doubled the sauce and made the dish twice as good as far as I’m concerned. I wrapped it up with a Turkish coffee. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get the fancy cup like I did last time but the coffee was good. I’d have to give this visit only 4 stars. I’d have gone as low as 3.5 but the waiter was very good so that kept in the very good range. Oh yeah and the bread, I finished that basket before I left.
Last but certainly not least was the Pacific Rim Bistro on Peachtree Center Ave. It covers a wide span of Asian cuisines including sushi. This place was packed with con goers so I was seated at the sushi bar and even though I didn’t order any I got to watch them make it as I waited for my food. In addition to seating at the sushi bar they have tables inside as well as outside and both high tops and regular tables. The staff is also very attentive. I was checked on by at least three people aside from my server but it wasn’t annoying. I was torn between the Malaysian curry chicken and the Lamb stew in coconut curry and my server was helpful enough to let me know the lamb stew had been extremely popular so that tipped the scales.
The stew came with big chunks of vegetables; peppers, broccoli, potatoes, and cauliflower, all sharing the coconut curry bath with a healthy portion of bite sized lamb. The menu indicated it would come with black and jasmine rice but they only had jasmine by the time I ordered mine. That wasn’t a problem though as this was fantastic. It was one of the best things I’d eaten all week. I even like the cauliflower, which is a vegetable I’ve never really cared for. I’d definitely recommend this dish to anyone that didn’t have an aversion to something a little spicy.
Overall I was quite happy with my international dining experiences while enjoying DragonCon. If you’re in downtown Atlanta don’t hesitate to check one of these places out.