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Tamale de pollo en hojas platano

Admit it – you’re glad I go into these places. Even though I’m not quite sure why I do it, I’m glad I do, because it often leads to something tasty. La Chiquita Mic doesn’t give you the warm fuzzies from the outside. Hell, it doesn’t give you a warm feeling once you’re inside (unless you count that flush feeling you get from a flight response).

A. & I ventured in one afternoon in search of a cortadito after Pan-American Bakery next door told us they were done for the day. The window promised “Productos de Cuba”, which they do stock to some extent, but the self-serve Nescafé machine quickly discouraged us. However, a small sign on the counter did catch our attention (can you see it in the photo above?).

That’s it – tamales de pollo en hojas platano. Cuban? No. But we were peckish and tamales are always worth a chance. And for a$1.50 a pop, they were worth it. A hand-sized tamale of nicely seasoned masa, with a slight sheen of lard greeted us beneath the plantain leaves. Inside was a chunk of chicken thigh and bone – I would have preferred a little more meat, but what I had was flavorful enough. For our Cuban fix, we partook of Iron Beer (I cannot pronounce it like A. does – the Cuban accent is fascinating and frustrating to me) and Materva while we browsed what few shelves the store has.

La Chiquita Mic is a bizarre, Mexi-Cuban bodega. Hidden behind the counter is a serious domino table. 4 Cuban men would alternate between smoking cigars in the parking lot and playing and arguing over the table. The owner (and I believe he’s only recently acquired the shop) is from Mexico. The previous owners are Cuban. I think…

Am I recommending you visit? Eh – you’re on your own on this one. Because trust me on  this – your mileage may vary. A lot. But if you’re in a mood to explore and the tamale sign is hanging, you might want to give it a try.

La Chiquita Mic
3671 Clairmont Road
Chamblee, GA 30341

No, there’s no Sichuan food at Sweet Auburn (that would be awesome though…), but I just want to mention that we have some really cool things going on over at Atlanta Culinary Tours.

Most importantly, a portion of the ticket price of all tickets sold will be donated to the Red Cross to help the recent victims of tornadoes that jacked up the South. Our tours are a lot of fun (and a  lot of food) and now you can feel even better about coming along, knowing that you’re also helping out those in need!

Sweet Auburn Curb Market

Our tour of Sweet Auburn Curb Market is coming up on Saturday 5/14. It starts right after the Urban Picnic, so you can check out the street vendors before taking our guided tour of the market.

We’ll tell you how the market came to be, introduce you some of the amazingly friendly vendors throughout the market, give you some behind the scenes info on Southern & soul food cooking, and we’ll feed you to no end (much like this sentence…). Seriously, you’ll beg us to stop feeding you. We’re relentless – we’ll even feed you dirt (seriously). And you’ll be so happy on this tour that you’ll eat that dirt – and you’ll enjoy it (YMMV).

Your can read more about our tour of Sweet Auburn Curb Market here and here. Tickets to Sweet Auburn Curb Market Tour are available here.

Sichuan: Beyond Málà

Speaking of relentless, check out Sichuan: Beyond Málà. Another brutal culinary tour-de-force where we pass 11 dishes that run the gamut of Sichuan cuisine – from cooling vegetarian dishes like xiao bai tsai w/xiangu (baby bok choy with fragrant mushrooms) to blazing chao shui yu (mouth-watering jumping fish). You’ll also get to hear me yammer incessantly about the ingredients, cooking techniques and history that go into this important (and delicious) cuisine. We wrap this dinner up with a tour of Chinatown, including the gift shop, Dinho Supermarket and dessert & tea at the World Journal Bookstore.

The World Journal had nice things to say about us here. Trust me. Tickets to Sichuan: Beyond Málà are available here.

Niu ruo mein – Ocean Garden, Chinatown Food Court

Sliced fish in chili oil – Delicious Kabob

Torta al Pastor – El Pastor

Deli Manjoo – Buford Highway Farmers Market

Galbi & Mandoo – Cho Sun Ok

Pollo a la brasa – Pollo el Rey

Cha chiang mien – Manchunhong

Let me start off by saying that I don’t want to give anyone the wrong impression (and I’m not going to win any friends by speaking the truth) so I’ll just come out with it – DON’T GO HERE. The pictures in this post and the one or two that may follow probably paint a wonderful image of a bustling and quaint outdoor market that you would be remiss in failing to explore. WRONG. I grew up in upstate South Carolina and over the years have watched the Jockey Lot grow into a monstrous, permanent, 65 acre yard sale. It may be interesting to explore once (if you’re in the area),  but a majority of what you will find for sale is trash, detritus and  just plain crap of dubious origin (wow – that sounds harsh, but it’s pretty accurate – how many broken ax handles and rusted hammers do you need?). This is not the pseudo-gracious Old South of Paula Deen. This is William Faulkner leapfrogged 100 years into the future by William Gibson, a kind of redneck Chiba, filled with  cutout CD’s, cheap knock-off shoes, plastic picture frames holding fiber-optic flowers. The sound of pachinko parlours replaced with a distorted agglomeration of Billy Ray Cyrus and tejano blasted from $50 subwoofers in the back of an ’84 Mustang. The pervasive funk of slimy boiled peanut shells scattered under the shed roof… (sorry Mr. Gibson, Skoal will never be administered in a digital patch – it will always be something lovingly spit into a styrofoam cup). Of course, I’m just expressing my personal opinion (don’t sue me). You’ve been warned.

Fresh produce makes up only a fraction of what you’ll find at the Jockey Lot. It usually seems pretty hit or miss, but on this particular day there was some nice produce available…

All pics by HX

Anderson Jockey Lot
4530 Highway 29 North
Belton, SC 29627

All photos by HX

And so our exploration continued, with HX and I ending up at the Buford Highway Farmers Market. One of the highlights of a trip to BHFM with HX is the stop at the food counter on the way out and picking up a dozen Deli Manjoo.

Deli Manjoo are small, creamy crack pockets and the only raison d’être I can determine is solely to help a Korean company sell a complex piece of machinery (which appears to only have 3 critical parts).

Image property of Delice Co., Ltd

Deli Manjoo are baked with the imprint of a corn cob (that makes sense) and filled with some form of cream (a bit like creme anglaise – though with the corn styling you may expect creamed corn). “Deli” is short for “delicious” (get it?). And “manjoo” is the Korean word for “dim sum” (get it – they’re small…). All that aside – I dig these things and want one of the machines (keep in mind that wanting and having the actual motivation to act on that want are two entirely different things).

So get ye to BHFM and try some Deli Manjoo.

Deli Manjoo
(near the exit)
Buford Highway Farmers Market
5600 Buford Hwy NE
Doraville, GA 30340