It’s been almost a year since we first published our review of The Best Cupcakes in Atlanta and declared CamiCakes as the overall winner.  Since then we have become frequent visitors; we buy CamiCakes for special events and also just because.   Anytime is a good time for a cupcake, no special occasion needed!

During our last visit, we caught owner Andra Hall on a rare break from crafting cupcakes.  She was happy to sit down and give us an update about her first year in Atlanta.

That’s it; I need a cupcake!

© 2010, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

I don’t really eat red meat anymore.  Partly because my body doesn’t like it and partly because I’ve become skeeved out about meat in general.   And I definitely won’t eat a fast food burger; we’re going to LA soon and while the family can’t wait for In-N-Out Burger, I guess that I have to settle for fries and a milkshake.

But this not eating meat thing, it’s not a hard rule.  Sometimes—rarely, but it happens—I want a burger.  Not a turkey burger or black bean burger, but a BEEF burger.   When that happens I make my own at home, with grass-fed, hormone-free beef.   It lessens the skeevy factor, knowing that the cows were treated humanely and fed properly.

Until recently ordering a burger in a restaurant wasn’t even an option, but a new trend in Atlanta restaurants is serving what I call “clean meat.”  Organic, grass-fed and sustainability are the new buzz words and I’m digging it.

In this vein, a new burger restaurant in Atlanta just opened, Farm Burger.  I tried it and if I am going to indulge in beef, it’s going to be there.  The meat was juicy, flavorful and tasted “clean.”  No skeeviness.

I got one of the chalkboard specials, with goat cheese and peach chutney.  Fancy.  And delicious too.

Beef this good doesn’t come cheap.  Burgers, fries and drinks for my family of 4 cost about $50.  This is no fast food.  But it’s good food and I’ll take healthiness over cheapness any day.

I’ll let my son tell you all about it.   He’s featured monthly in the Atlanta INtown News What’s Good section; this month he wrote about Farm Burger.  He’s the burger guy (remember this cover?), so he’s the one to give you the goods.

© 2010, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

My family and I love to eat.  In the spirit of the Food Network show by the same name, we’re going to share the best thing we ever ate and hope that you will tell us your favorites too.

This is my last post about my latest Disney Media Trip.   I’ve written about Summer Nightastic, posted a video of Disney’s Main Street Electrical Parade, interviewed the Green Army Men from Toy Story 3 and showed you how I dressed for both work and play at Disney World.   As you can see from my blog posts, my weekend was pretty amazing; Disney always makes sure that the media trips are full of magical touches.  And we eat good on media trips with catered dinners and dessert buffets.  It’s delicious, beautifully presented and there’s an open bar.  We always love these dinners.

But still my family cannot leave Disney World without having the best Disney treat we ever ate: Dole Whip.   There’s a debate among Dole Whip fans (there are legions of them out there!) if the treat is best in it’s purest form–just the ice cream–or as a float with pineapple juice.  My family votes for the float.  I’m telling you, there is nothing more refreshing on a hot day than a Dole Whip!  Somehow we always seem to get ours right before the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party; we sit on the benches leading out of Adventureland and watch the people move it and shake it.  Or watch the ducks(sometimes a better option).

Doesn’t that make your mouth water?

*Dole Whip fans, what’s your vote: ice cream only or float?

© 2010 – 2011, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

My family and I love to eat.  In the spirit of the Food Network show by the same name, we’re going to share the best thing we ever ate and hope that you will tell us your favorites too.

We had seen the mural at Buddy’s gas station.

Intriguing.  ”King of Pops“…what could that mean?

Popsicles?

Here at the gas station?

Almost.

Last month the King of Pops cart arrived on the corner of North and Highland Avenues, just in time for Atlanta’s infamous Spring heatwave.

Steven Carse is King of Pops.

I had read the tweets and heard the tasty news from friends, but could never seem to be near that corner when he was in operation.   Finally the other day, on my husband’s birthday, my family drove by the corner just after Steven had arrived.   Perfect!  After much discussion we decided to try four different flavors: Grapefruit Mint, Blackberry Lemonade, Watermelon Orange and Strawberry Lemongrass.  Muscadine and Chocolate Sea Salt were also available flavors that day.

Except for Yoforia, my family feels that Atlanta is deficit in good frozen treats, so we were excited for the possibility of a new place to fill our cold cravings. We drove down the street to Poncey-Highland Park to eat our popsicles, making sure to taste them all.

The whole family was in agreement that these were the best popsicles that we ever ate.

The flavors of each popsicle were distinct and pure.  I tasted both the blackberry and the lemonade in my popsicle.   My husband’s popsicle, Grapefruit Mint, was a great combination; the grapefruit was tart and the mint was refreshing.  There were whole mint leaves in there!

(photo by James Andrews)

The popsicles are handcrafted with natural ingredients and the dedication to quality is evident in the taste.   I’m not sure how many different flavors he makes, but I saw a tweet about Pineapple Ginger and Strawberry Lavender.  *Drool.*

The neighborhood ice cream truck doesn’t stand a chance.

Steven uses Twitter to update his inventory, which is helpful because there is nothing worse than getting your mouth fixed on something and then arriving to find that it is all gone (this used to happen to us with CamiCakes, but now we call ahead).    On nice days the cart is out in the late afternoon through early evening.   The popsicles can also be found at Irwin Street Market and Souper Jenny.

Yup, I’m certain that King of Pops is going to be our summer obsession.

*Check out my son’s review of King of Pops on Atlanta INTown’s What’s Good.

*Update: since our first visit to King of Pops we’ve also had Cantaloupe Basil (mm…savory), Pineapple Ginger (refreshing!), Chocolate Sea Salt (creamy), Banana Pudding (tastes just like the dessert), Tropical Surprise (mango, papaya, orange juice), Banana Cinnamon (almost as good as Banana Pudding), Strawberry Pineapple (fresh strawberries), Peaches & Cream, Mexican Chocolate (spicy & creamy), Pineapple Habenero (ai yai yai!)  and White Chocolate With Raspberry On Top (no words necessary):

© 2010, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

I had a fantastic Mother’s Day with my family!  First I had this waiting for me at the kitchen table:

My husband knows that he can’t go wrong with the little blue box!  There was a peace sign necklace inside.  I wonder where he got the idea that I like peace signs…..

After a long walk with the dog, we went to a Mother’s Day Brunch at the brand new Loews Hotel in Midtown Atlanta.   The lobby was very nice, decorated in a modern, but comfortable way.  There were backgammon sets on the coffee tables, inviting guests to stay a while and have a drink from the lobby bar.

Restaurant eleven, where we had brunch, is located off the lobby and decorated in the same modern style as the lobby. We chose to sit outside on the balcony, which was pleasant, albeit with a pedestrian view.  Literally–we were practically on the sidewalk.

As with any buffet, my kids and I checked out the dessert station first and we were not disappointed.

In addition to the cakes and pies, there were small pots of creme brulee, custards and pudding.   The build-your-own-crepe station was divine.

The desserts were impressive indeed.   My husband also enjoyed the omelet station and my daughter loved the bread (as usual…she has never met a carb that she didn’t like).

The rest of the food was just okay.  The menu was a strange hybrid of traditional buffet offerings such as a bread station, salads and made-to-order omelets and also “small plates” ordered from a menu.  The small plates were included in the brunch price and could be ordered as much and often as we liked.  We ordered one of everything on the menu and except for the scallops, we didn’t order a second round.  The scallops were moist and tasty, but everything else was bland and uninteresting.

Here’s a gripe about some of Atlanta’s “upscale” restaurants: they don’t serve sweet tea.  If you have ever traveled to the south, you know that it is a staple item in the southern diet.   And with the exception of a few who manage to pull it off by serving tea so good that it doesn’t need sweetening (Watershed, Cafe Bistro at Nordstrom), there ought to be a law.   Our experience at Loews was made even more bitter–pun intended–by the fact that our waiter didn’t tell us the tea was unsweet.   There was no amount of sugar that could cut that bitter taste.  So we ordered lemonade.   It was even worse than the tea and clearly made from a powder.

Listen up Atlanta:  If your chef is an international food rock star, if your food has been listed on the most-try-before-you-die list of culinary delights, if your restaurant decor is photographed in every magazine in every major city in the world–get over yourself and cater to the regional tastes of your patrons.  Serve sweet tea, damn it!

Rant over.  Carry on…..

Despite the mediocre menu, I enjoyed the Loews Mother’s Day brunch.  The waiter was attentive and the desserts were delicious.   And any place with a candy station is alright by me.  We got a to-go box and filled it with Jelly Bellys and gummy candy to munch on the rest of the day.

Too bad we forgot to bring our box of candy into the movie theater.  After brunch we saw the movie Babies, a documentary that follows four different babies during their first year of life.  The babies are from California, Japan, Namibia and Mongolia.  Two babies live in a city and two babies live in rural areas.  Two babies have older siblings and two babies are only children.  And there are many other differences as well.

It was very interesting to watch how the dynamics of family structure, environment, economics, parental education, community, culture and parental involvement factored into how the babies were raised and when they reached their developmental milestones.    The audience’s observations and consequent conclusions are going to obviously be made from our own cultural biases, but as least for my family, our thoughts were not predictable.   There was no judgement about this baby who lived in a hut, versus that baby who lived in a fancy high-rise.   Or that baby who had medical care or this baby who didn’t.  That could be the documentary format, because our emotions weren’t skewed, but I think it more because of the subjects–the babies.   In as many ways as they were different, the babies were also so very much the same.  No matter where they lived or how they were cared for, they were all clearly loved.   They were all curious, full of wonder and happy.  And cute–OH MY GOSH WERE THEY CUTE!

(*All of the mothers nurse their babies in the movie and are topless quite often, so if your kids think that babies only drink milk from a bottle, you might want to have that discussion before you see the movie.)

It was the perfect movie for Mother’s Day, but it is great movie to see anytime as a family.  My 15 year old son loved it as much as his 8 year sister.   We all laughed and “aaaaw-ed” though out the whole movie.  Who doesn’t love babies?  I know I love mine!

© 2010, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.