Tag Archive for: ice cream

YAO Atlanta

Posted by Liz and John Attaway, 10/6/21

The moment you step into Yao, you’re met with a long, ornate bar and lounge area that’s dressed to the nines. Beyond the beautiful entry, the dining room is stunning, dotted with blue, cool chairs and a vaulted, soaring ceiling that houses a large wood wall. What Yao does so well is marry the stunning ambiance with the delectable food and sippable cocktails seamlessly. They do everything with beauty and grace, like the stunning Yao’s Ice Cream, gorgeous Salt and Pepper Whole Fish, plump Pork Belly, divine Duck Salad, as well as the amazing cocktails! Let’s take a tour, shall we?

Sitting and gazing into the dining room, we started with two amazing cocktails, the Mr. Yao and the Cherish. The favorite of the two is the Mr. Yao cocktail that starts out sweet, then morphs into a tangy, earthy, sour sip. It’s complex from start to finish with a distinct wine flavor that gives it a defined earthiness! The gorgeous The Cherish is easy on the eyes and the tongue. The cocktail is one part tangy and the other foamy with an almost floral and earthy end. It’s dynamic and sippable.

Moving into the small plates and appetizers, we were thrilled with the little watermelon bite they brought us prior to our meal. It is the cutest little dish in a small spoon with a huge Yao flag sticking out the top. The bite itself is sweet, salty, and an earthy light crunch. It is such a good little bite! Of the appetizers and small plates, we have to state up front, we’re huge pork belly fiends. If it’s on the menu, we get it. If you get one appetizer or small plate at Yao, please get the Pork Belly. It’s a perfectly cooked, tender piece of meat with a rich and buttery first bite finished with a hearty soy back. Plus, the addition of the dried fish gives it extra saltiness to complete the flavor complexity! Some of the best pork belly we’ve ever had, and we’ve had a lot.  Another one of our favorites is the Duck Salad. Absolutely eye-catching and heaping, the skin-on duck itself is rich and crunchy, while the sauce is slightly sweet with tangy pomegranate and earthy pine nuts. The greens brighten this dish, and it’s stellar, never had anything like it.

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On to the entrée, we settled on the Salt and Pepper Fish and we’re so glad we did. Beyond the STUNNING presentation, the fish is flaky inside surrounded by a light crunch and brightened by the tangy scallions and garlic below the fish. Then, we paired it with the Sichuan Green Beans that were a good balance of spice, savory, and crunch. The best part is down in the bottom where the sauce pools. One of the best things you can do here is to mix and match the flavors of the fish and the green beans. It’s divine.

Whatever you do, stay for dessert and the Yao’s Ice Cream is an experience all it’s own. Surrounded by dry ice a served SMOKING, not only is it beautiful and the presentation flawless, but the flavor is creamy and smooth!  The addition of the salted egg yoke provides for a change in flavor profile and texture! Then, you have to eat to the back for a gelatinous surprise! The perfect way to end this fantastic meal.

Are you ready to go Yao? What would you try?

HAAGEN-DAZS DAY BENEFITING BERT’S BIG ADVENTURE ON JULY 23RD

Posted by Liz and John Attaway, 7/14/21

Haagen-Dazs Day

Friday, July 23rd

On Friday, July 23rd, participating Haagen-Dazs shops in Atlanta will donate 50% of sales to Bert’s Big Adventure. Bert’s Big Adventures is a nonprofit organization that provides all-expenses-paid, five-day adventures for children with chronic and terminal illnesses and their families to Walt Disney World. Participating Haagen-Dazs shops include Lenox Square, Perimeter Mall, Town Center at Cobb, Mall of Georgia, North Point Mall, Cumberland Mall, and Cumberland Festival Shopping Center. For additional details, please visit bertsbigadventure.org. 

Best of Dragon Con Wednesday Through Friday 2019

Panels, Wallops, A Mai Tai, A Wonder Woman T-Rex, Random Celebrity Sightings, and Parking Lot Karaoke!

Wheeeew, We were busy!

Fandom. Nerdom. Fanatics. Whatever you want to call it descended on downtown Atlanta as the first few days of Dragon Con came and went, but thank goodness it’s Friday. Welcome home to Dragon Con 2019! Wednesday is the new Thursday with the welcome home party and even a T-REX dance party in the Hilton. Thursday is quickly becoming the new first must-do night with their fun late night parties like the End Game Neon Party and late night tunes, like The Tomb Tunes. There’s also $6 Mai Tais at Trader Vic’s! Finally, Friday is the first full day full of panels, parties, and more. Let’s check out all the Friday shenanigans in depth!

First, the Wallops. We snaked like a super hero this evening, while hanging out with Hight Road Craft Ice Cream out of Marietta, GA (local!). A little ball of deliciousness has a delicate ice cream center, cookie dough outside, and crispy shell. Our favorite was definitely the sweet cream ice cream and cookie dough, but the almond was also very good. Wait, they ALL were good. What a nice bunch of people to hang out with for a while! You should check out their large wallop and background you can take a picture with! It’s bigger than your head! They are going to be in the pool area of the Hyatt Regency Saturday too until 6 pm (or gone). Get Walloped!

Second, panels. There are so many tidbits, behind the scene jokes, and more that you find out about actors and even shows that you didn’t know that are a complete surprise to everyone. The best things that happen can be surprise guests, show spoilers, story lines that COULD be, and more. Here’s some of the best of the panels:

THIS PORTION OF OUR ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM LUCIFER AND GOTHAM. Like this afternoon, we got to hear from Aimee Garcia and DB Woodside a few interesting things about Lucifer currently airing on Netflix. DB said in the first season that his character Amenadiel was to fall in love with the demon Maze, but she was going to die. He is so distraught that he brings her back to life and that’s how he looses his powers and wings. Interesting. He does lose his wings in season one into season two, but it wasn’t for this reason. Fox was hesitant about this story line and it got scrapped. Then, Aimee, is hoping her character, Ella, turns out to be God (and so did one fan who asked about it). In the comics, Elaine Bella is a character that turns out to be God and with name Ella… could be? Probably not, but it is a fan theory and a rumor around the lot.

As for Gotham that just ended it’s run on Fox, we got to spend some time with a bunch of the main actors like David Mazouz, Sean Pertwee, Robin Lord Taylor, Maggie Geha, and SURPRISE Donald Logue showed up. Right off, Robin Lord Taylor is a blonde(!). So, he had a wonderful story about how Jada Pinkett Smith took him under her wing and really showed him the ropes of acting on a series, almost like her character Fish Mooney mentored Cobblepot, who became Penguin and he was eternally grateful. He also said he really used Danny Devito’s Penguin and his “look” as a roadmap to his character. Beyond that, it was interesting to hear that Fox/the producers didn’t tell the actors what roles they were auditioning for in the beginning. Sean P said if he knew he was auditioning for Alfred he would have done things differently. David M mentioned they said his scene for audition was that his brother has just died and he is having a hard time with it. So interesting to hear this! What struck us is that these actors were all very close. Donald Logue said this was the closest, most family like cast he’s worked with and that means a lot seeing as he had just done Sons of Anarchy, Vikings, and a stint on SVU. They all hugged when he showed up. He wasn’t supposed to be at the panel, so it was a treat for all!

On the way back from dinner, we were walking by the Marriott and we ran into a man standing on the street talking to another cosplayer. He turns around and it’s Mark Sheppard. If you watched the show Supernatural on the CW and the demon, Crowley, rings a bell, you know who we’re talking about! I (Liz) asked for a selfie or photo but he said it was against the rules, so we can’t give you a proof of encounter, unfortunately. But, I did get to waved to his wife Sarah who was on Facetime with him, and he was very nice. We told him we were big Supernatural fans and left it at that. SPOILER We hope he gets to come back for the final season.

Finally, we ran across something cool tonight, a parking lot karaoke party. A bunch of random people, belting their favorite songs, behind a car, and a bunch of people around cheering them on. It was a lot of fun and interesting to watch everything go down.

That’s a wrap for now. More on Saturday and Sunday to come!