Who needs Watershed?

Miller Union, thanks to Kyle’s recommendation from way up yonder. They had ginger-blueberry soda ($3.50) and also a fig-herb one. (I didn’t try them; hearing about them was delicious enough.) I ordered the veggie plate without even asking what was on it. It wasn’t an inexpensive lunch for 2, but it was worth every penny.

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Another day, another veggie plate

Talk about exceeding expectations. The "farmers market vegetable plate" from Seasons 52, which is known for its small portions. I was ashamed to leave 2/3 of this on the plate, because it was good. That's tofu with tomato tapenade at the bottom. And some sort of root vegetable upper right.

Southern summer supper (Hello, world! am I back?)

Zippers and crookneck squash with deelish Vidalia onions from Jaemor Farms. Pierce's tomatoes. And OK, the rice is leftover from Mirage, but maybe it's a southern Iran kind of rice. That is one pretty plate.

Change is hard

closest thing to a veggie plate on Watershed's menu

“What’s seasonal vegetable farroto?” I asked our server.  I was hoping farroto meant veggie plate. This was good: farro with a cream sauce over barely wilted kale with nice peas, over-roasted cauliflower and assorted ‘shrooms. And a perfect small lunch portion. But it’s not this.

“I don’t like change,” said my lunch colleague, who was looking for the salmon croquettes on the new menu, which seemed to me to have a lot of  fried seafood. (I never liked those salmon croquettes anyway. My own are better.) But honestly, the new chef wasn’t doing very well with the old menu. And Farm Burger next door is eating their lunch. It has a line out the door while Watershed sits almost empty.

 

Best vegetable plate ever!

Don’t want to leave this on a negative note, so here’s one I didn’t get to while I’ve been not-blogging (one day I might have time to tell you why).

Met Kyle and Neil at Carver’s Country Kitchen a few weeks ago while they were in town. My second trip to what I think may be the best plate in town.

Perfect collards. Acceptable butterbeans. Biscuit (there's honey on the table). Amazingly complex sweet potatoes. Yummy broccoli casserole that makes even me choose broccoli casserole.

Kyle's plate. Same as mine except he had mac & cheese and jalepeno cornbread.

For you chicketarians, though, check this out. Carver’s calls them Dolly Pardon (sic) breasts. Unbelievably huge. Neil and Kyle said it was delicious. (“How do they do that!” is how Kyle put it.) Neil also figured out the bread choice, which is good since I didn’t like the cornbread I had last time or the biscuit. He had some kind of fabulous cheese bread that I will choose next time. Which I hope is very soon. Looking at these pictures is making me hongry.

He loves big breasts and he cannot lie.

Kyle’s more timely take on the same meal >

Worst vegetable plate ever

 

Salty greens that taste like MSG and a hint of lemon pepper, brown rice with salty, lemon-peppery gravy, salty black-eyed peas with lemon pepper, very plain sweet potatoes that didn't taste like lemon pepper. Also, yucky broccoli casserole they brought as an error. It was salty and tasted like lemon pepper. Huge portions. I hope they compost because I didn't eat it.

 

Greenwoods on Green Street in Roswell has the worst vegetable plate EVAH! This is the third time I’ve eaten there, always with many years between visits. This place gets written up everywhere — I think it must have particularly good friend chicken. And it has great big ol’ pie, too. Cute place, cute neighborhood. Bad service and bad food, though.

Well maybe just bad veggies. Butler loved his shrimp and grits, which came with delicious Parmesan-cheese toast, and Terri said her crab cake was very crabby. Virginia had pork chops. Seasoned with lemon pepper.

 

VA's sliver of coconut creme pie

 

Same as it ever was

Today’s veggie plate at my old favorite, Barbecue Kitchen, which is halfway between my house and Dedee’s. Love the creamed corn. Collards taste just like they did 15 years ago.

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A proper feedin’

Baked mac and cheese, broccoli casserole, turnip greens, sweet potatoes, jalapeno cornbread. Carver's Grocery and Country Kitchen, $7.95.

Finally lunched today at Carver’s Kitchen. I’m declaring it the best veggie plate since I don’t know when. Everything on the plate was good. (The jalapeno cornbread was not to my taste, but I shouldn’t have ordered it.) And huge portions: enough of it for $7.95 to make two full meals.

Let’s start with the macaroni and cheese — baked, folks, like it oughta be. Turnip greens served in a bowl with potlikker, very tasty and somehow sweet. Alison used pepper sauce but I thought they were good without it. I asked what was good for my other two selections and chose the broccoli casserole and sweet potatoes from the handful he named. Wow. The broccoli was fresh, baked with just a little sour cream and probably a little Campbell’s cream of something, then a buttery cracker or potato chip topping. Most excellent. But the surprise of the day was those sweet potatoes. It takes a lot of dark brown sugar and winter spices to make sweet potatoes that brown. Must’ve had some vanilla, too, because they tasted like a nice oatmeal cookie — even though they weren’t cloying at all. Absolutely delicious. I couldn’t keep myself from finishing the broccoli but brought home enough of the others to make a nice supper.

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A few other details … Paper towel roll on the tables. Chicken breast called “Dolly Pardon.” (And yes, I know that’s not the correct spelling.) They looked huge and crispy. Need to get Dan in there.  Big line even before noon, and everybody sits together at the folding tables all friendly like. And a few aisles of grocery, with a convenience-store style checkout.

I’m willing to admit there may be a slight chance I’m just a tad obsessed.

People are having chemo, ruptured discs, foot surgery, etc. So I’m cooking.

squash, green beans, lady peas, okra & tomatoes

And I also made pound cakes, and the damned cookies for my sister, and brown rice, because tomorrow I’m making broccoli-cauliflower casserole. Somehow or another. And I suppose this meal needs some cornbread, doesn’t it?