Look at this gorgeous blue sky from my hotel room. The air was deliciously Fall crisp as well. This is my first time visiting Atlanta, and so far, I have to say that I am really enjoying the warmth of the people and the hospitality which is just synonymous with being in the South.
Monday was fly in day into Atlanta for Coca-Cola's private social media conference. In attendance are 20 bloggers along with various other Coca-Cola employees as far as Greece. Tonight was basically just a time to enjoy some local eats and time to get to know one another...and what better way to get to know other people than over food and spirits.
I love it...this moment at Parish Foods & Goods was about people not business as we will certainly get into that on Day 2.
Parish has some really fascinating architecture and history. The building itself goes back to 1890 and was once an old pipe factory building. I love brick buildings because you rarely see that in the West coast.
Parish has two parts to it, a sit down restaurant upstairs, and a market downstairs where you can get foods to go and local farm to table specials. I find it fascinating how the market menu offers a healthiness diversity from organic greens salad to Fried Green Tomato BLT basically raw to fried.
We are in the South where fried food is a staple of everyday life. It's a bit of an adjustment for me because in the West most foods are either grilled, sauteed, or steamed, and fried is around but not common.
But while I'm in Atlanta, I want to enjoy what the locals eat because it's always interesting to share a bite of what other people eat.
The first thing I eat at Parish are these appetizer mushrooms and goat cheese on crostini. The other appetizers included a Jambalaya meatball, a crawfish stuffed pastry, a muffalata, and buttermilk battered chicken strips.
After starting off the evening with some white wine, I wanted some beer, and a local one mind you since I love local beers, so here we have a Sweetwater 420 which is a signature beer of Atlanta. My friends this IPA beer was smooth and satisfying, much like my evening thus far. The 420 really hit the spot!
For dinner, we got the special treat of a cooking demo by Executive Chef Joe. Being the foodie fanatic, I sit at the very front table to get as many good shots as possible. Chef Joe is a really cool dude and he highly believes in buying locally sourced foods and as much organic as possible.
The first course were these Smoked trout deviled eggs. Now because I am allergic to eggs and couldn't eat them, I also didn't take any photos of them. Sorry. I can get self-focused that way sometimes. They did make for me one of those organic greens salads piled with beets and squash on it. But not to worry because I did capture more deliciousness!
The second course was by far one of the most interesting things I've ever seen, a Regular Coke Braised Short Ribs. And yes, that's a photo of Chef Joe pouring a can of Coke into the pan.
This dish kind of reminded me of one of those vending machine challenges on Top Chef. Chef Joe didn't make these Coke ribs just because it was a Coca-Cola event, this dish is on the regular dinner menu.
I can't remember the last time I even drank a Coke, as I tend to avoid high fructose corn syrup like basking in the sun without sunscreen, but I had to try some of these ribs, and oh yes, it was pretty amazing because the meat was so tender you could cut it with a fork and the flavor was...well, I can't even find words to describe it. I can tell you it felt very comforting to nosh on the ribs.
Chef Joe did use bay leaves, rosemary, and thyme. I do think however, that you could use an organic cola, and it would still taste just as wonderful. We'll have to cook some ribs and find out for sure. The ribs were paired with an organic mushroom hash which is something else, I will have to try and make at home.
The finale for desert was...wait for it...pumpkin pie empanadas covered with cinnamon sugar coupled with a scoop of cream cheese ice cream. There's all kinds of dairy and eggs in this desert but there was no way I was NOT going to try the empanada.
All I can say is that this desert is everything you can imagine just from the name alone. My iPhone in the dim lighting didn't do this sweet bliss any justice.
I did tell Chef Joe that I was going to figure out a way to make a vegan version of these pumpkin pie empanadas. I do believe it can be done, so there you have my next cooking challenge!
After that most delicious dinner, a deejay played some tunes, and we drank more from the bar and cut some rug...so much fun, oh and some good exercise! Okay, I cannot help myself :)
This statue in the dining area of Parish basically sums up my opinion of this place and the good time we had there....love!
