Georgia on my mind - with Georgian Food on our stomach

Ray Charles, a native of these parts, says it all in his song Georgia on my mind. (You can listen to it here). Georgia  really has so much to experience. Indeed so much for me, that I'm the last post was getting so long, I published it and will now update you on the next part of the experience in Atlanta.

After the Coke Museum we walked back through Olympic Park to the heart of downtown Atlanta around Peachtree Street at the point called Five Points with its iconic Olympia Building with the revolving Coca-Cola sign on top. We were surprised to note that every street was occupied by two or more police officers managing the traffic manually. Also near by is the Georgia State House.

Near to Five Points is an area called Underground Atlanta which sells itself as a city beneath the streets. Due to the large influence of railways in Atlanta's boom period routes were built above ground for horses and pedestrians  so they did not have to cross the tracks. Over time this upper area became the dominant one, with shops that had more than one floor moving their entrance from the original ground floor to the ground floor that matched the more genteel movements of the people on the level above the tracks. Thus for four streets you have a complete underground shopping area, with the same names as the streets above, unusual and fascinating.

It appears that Atlanta's working on different levels is not finished, as Drew and I found trying to make our way back from Underground Atlanta. We followed a group of other people walking in the same direction. A sign appeared saying pedestrian route to CNN and the Olympic Park. However the route was blocked, so we had to come back to floor level. Then, still following these others, we walked through a car park and across the railway lines and into another car park. At the end of this we realised that the people we were following were going to a ball park in the Philips Arena, so we almost ended up there by accident! Having spotted our mistake we had to climb four flights of stairs to get back up to 'floor' level, just beside the CNN centre. Clearly the ball game was serious as by this time the streets were packed, and it was apparent that the extra police we had seen earlier where there due to the match (it was the Atlanta Falcons versus the Cincinnati Bengals).

We continued to walk against the tide of Falcons fans until we came to a lovely monument to Andrew Young, politician and civil rights leader.

Further up Andrew Young Boulevard we came across Pittypat's Porch Restaurant. It was such a strange looking place that we got interested and we are glad we did. Just like last night in Charleston when we accidentally came across a gem of a restaurant we had done the same here.

Pittypat's Porch looked so pretty we walked in and found an emporium of delight. Apart from the classy furnishings making the upstairs look like a porch we were welcomed effusively by ‘Big Mamma’ (aka Melba) our waitress. 

We were introduced to the ‘sideboard’ which was a cornucopia of southern style salads each with its own distinctive, and sometimes hot flavours; you can see our two plates here, no prizes for guessing whose is which. 

The bread came and was astonishing, it included muffins, biscuits and cornbread. I’d never had muffins, blueberry in this case, as an accompaniment to a meal, but I had to try one as they looked so good. The biscuits were really good too. 

For appetisers I had marinated chicken wings served with a peach salsa (Georgia being the Peach state) and it was delicious, who knew that peaches could become a sharp tangy salsa, they were really well with the wings. Drew opted for fried green tomatoes served with cajun remoulade. This added a pleasant fruitiness to the tomatoes. 

 For mains I had the 14oz ribeye, it was cooked perfectly for me, while the US doesn’t do bleu stakes, this was the closest I had seen: ‘Rarer than rare, seemed to do the job!. It was tender and juicy just as I like it. This was served with something I’d never put with steak, it was called Georgian Gouda Mac and Cheese. Now If I was a pedant I would say it was penne with cheese, as the pasta was not macaroni, but of course I’d never do that :-) Only the American’s can make Mac and Cheese into a vegetable, still it was very nice, the gouda working well as melted cheese with a distinct tang of its own. 

Drew chose Savannah crab cakes made with fresh jumbo lump crabmeat and served on a roasted red pepper and tomato sauce with stone-ground grits (proper southern food as big mamma told us). The mains were served with black-eyed peas and collard greens, and of course there was an opportunity for further visits to the sideboard salad!! 

Drew, having been sugared out by the 60+ Coke products he had tried wanted to keep his sugar level up so managed to go with the Georgia Peach Cobbler topped with Greenwood's Cinnamon ice cream (which is made in Atlanta).

We returned to the hotel just before 10 feeling completely full, but very, very happy.