California Pasta Recipe Created by Ruth Paget

California Pasta Recipe Created by Ruth Paget 

Serves 4 

Ingredients: 

-4 cups dry rotini pasta 

-1/4 cup olive oil 

-2 chopped red onions 

-2 teaspoons dry garlic 

-1 (2.25-ounce) can drained and sliced California black olives 

-2 cups chopped cherry tomatoes 

-1 cup grated Parmesan, Romano, or Pecorino cheese  

Steps: 

1-Boil pasta according to package instructions. 

2-Sauté onions, dry garlic, olives, and cherry tomatoes for ten minutes. 

3-When the pasta is cooking, drain it, and add it to the vegetables in the frying pan and stir. 

4-Place pasta on four plates and top off with grated cheese and pepper. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click for Ruth Paget's Books

Neapolitan Food in Marietta, Georgia by Ruth Paget

Neapolitan Food in Marietta, Georgia by Ruth Paget 

Atlanta, Georgia has many local food chains worth seeking out when visiting the city. It is easy to have local chains with all the suburbs around the city. 

Blue Moon Pizza off I-75 on Windy Hill Road north of Atlanta is a local chain that serves reliably delicious pizza and Greek salad. 

My husband Laurent and I both love Margherita Pizza with tomato, mozzarella slices, and basil. Blue Moon’s tomatoes on this pizza are pickled cherry tomatoes. The basil was cooked in the sauce for Covid times. The mozzarella was gooey melted blobs that had a sweet flavor. All of this is everything I like in Margherita Pizza. 

The large Greek salad was for me. I have made it a habit to order one before airplane trips as vitamin ordinance. Blue Moon’s Greek salad was just stellar, because it was full of pickled hot yellow peppers, tomatoes, pickled artichokes, red onion slices, feta cheese chunks, black salty olives, and torn romaine lettuce. This salad seems to help clear my sinuses. 

Blue Moon placed a large herb seasoned pita bread in the bottom of this salad almost like a Lebanese or Syrian fattoush salad. The bread at Blue Moon is fresh, and let me soak up every drop of oregano-rich oil and vinegar dressing. 

Southern Italy had ancient Greek settlement, which might explain why pizzerias often have Greek salads on their menu. (You can still see in Paestum south of Naples three ancient Greek Temples devoted to Poseidon, Hera, and Ceres.) 

The Blue Moon Pizzeria retains Italian culture if not ancient Greek in any case, and I am glad to see that they do catering. 

Blue Moon Pizza 

2359 Windy Hill Road SE 

#100 

Marietta, Georgia 30067 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click for Ruth Paget's Books

Senegalese Food in Marietta, Georgia by Ruth Paget

Senegalese Food in Marietta, Georgia by Ruth Paget 

One of the reasons I love visiting Atlanta (Georgia) is all the international cuisine you can sample in and around the city. My husband Laurent is a French professor and often takes his students (and me) out for Senegalese lunches at the African Soul Food Restaurant in Marietta, Georgia. Senegal is a former French colony where French is still spoken. 

The dish I like to order as an introduction to Senegalese cuisine is Yassa Chicken (poulet au yassa). For this dish, pieces of chicken and slices of onion are marinated overnight in lemon juice, garlic, and mustard. The next day, the chicken is baked or grilled and the onions are caramelized. The African Soul Food Restaurant uses peppers that taste like very spicy pequin peppers in the onions. Everything is served over a large helping of white rice. Its flavor is kicky and fills you up with the rice. 

A thirst quenching African drink that goes with this meal is Bissap – a mixture of hibiscus flowers, sugar, water, and fresh ginger. 

This unpretentious meal is quite healthy. According to www.healthline.com , onions contain antioxidants and have been linked to a reduced risk of cancer, lower blood sugar levels, and improved bone health. Onions are relatively low-priced, which makes this a reasonably priced meal to make at home, too. 

The shopping center where the African Soul Food Restaurant is located is painted white with black arches to make it look like an African town. There is a Libyan market, an Arab market, a Caribbean restaurant, and a taqueria located here as well. You can easily do an international shopping trip with lunch in this shopping center. (There is plenty of parking, too!) 

African Soul Food 

585 Franklin Gateway SE 

Marietta, Georgia 30067 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click for Ruth Paget's Books

Mexican Chorripollo in Smyrna, Georgia by Ruth Paget

Mexican Chorripollo in Smyrna, Georgia by Ruth Paget 

One restaurant that my husband Laurent and I go back to several times when we visit Atlanta is The Border, located north of the city in Smyrna, Georgia. 

One of my new favorite dishes there is Texas guacamole, which arrives in a Texas-sized, 8-inch across the top mortar with crushed avocado, chopped tomato, chopped peppers, chopped onions, and cilantro. I love guacamole, and it is a dream to have that much good guacamole to eat. 

One of the dishes I like to eat at The Border is chorripollo. “Chorri” refers to the spicy chorizo sausage in the dish. “Pollo” in Spanish means “chicken.” 

The Border serves this dish with flattened and grilled breast meat. They take off the sausage skins and cook the sausage. The sausage goes on top of the chicken breast along with melted cheese. 

Chorripollo comes with rice, black beans, and flour tortillas. I cut the chorripollo into strips and place these in the tortillas along with the rice and beans to make tacos. That is yummy. 

This salty dish along with a frozen margarita is very satisfying in Atlanta’s torpid summer heat with thunderclouds billowing upwards in the sky. 

Chorripollo is not as well known as other Mexican dishes, but if you would like to try it, The Border’s version of it is delicious. 

The Border Restaurant 

2569 Cobb Parkway SE 

Smyrna, Georgia 30080 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click for Ruth Paget's Books

Seafood $ Hack in Smyrna, Georgia by Ruth Paget

Seafood $ Hack in Smyrna, Georgia by Ruth Paget 

Georgia’s incomparable, briny, and plump shrimp can be pricey on most Atlanta menus, but if you expand your dining horizons to Mexico, you can find delicious shrimp at reasonable prices. 

On visits to The Border Restaurant in Smyrna (Georgia), my husband Laurent eats Camarones al mojo de ajo (shrimp in garlic sauce). The shrimp is mild flavored and arrives with Spanish rice and tortillas to be made into tacos. 

Shrimp is very good for you, if you do not eat it in excess. (If you are allergic to seafood, obviously do not eat it.) 

According to www.medlineplus.gov and www.healthline.com - shrimp has the following nutrients that support vital functions in the body: 

-iron: helps with muscle formation and oxygen use 

-phosphorous: helps with bone and teeth formation and maintenance and repair of cells 

-potassium: helps with nerve function and muscle contraction 

-magnesium: helps with nerve and muscle function, supports the immune system, and helps form strong bones 

Shrimp does have high sodium levels, but when in the southern US in the summer, I actually welcome salt in the diet. 

The Border Restaurant has great frozen margaritas to go with this delicious shrimp dish as well. 

The Border Restaurant 

2569 Cobb Parkway 

Smyrna, Georgia 30080 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click for Ruth Paget's Books

Chinese Food in Smyrna, Georgia by Ruth Paget

Chinese Food in Smyrna, Georgia by Ruth Paget 

When my husband Laurent and I go to Atlanta (Georgia), we love searching out neighborhood Chinese restaurants for plump, briny shrimp dishes. 

One of the best meals we have eaten in Atlanta was at the The Peking Garden, which was built to look like a Chinese house with red doors in Smyrna, Georgia. 

The Peking Garden is unassuming outside, but has some nice artwork inside - a bubbling and spotlessly clean aquarium by the entryway is a 5-foot porcelain vase, a wall-size bas relief sculpture painting of diners at a garden tea pavilion, paintings of feather-rich birds turning their heads sitting on top of bushes with flowers, and curling dragon sculptures rippling across the walls. I like Chinese art, so the effect of all the art on me was to make me serene and happy. 

Many East Coast city people seek out high quality Chinese food. When we ate at Peking Garden, there were Latino families, Chinese families, African-American couples, policemen, and Laurent and me in the restaurant for a late Sunday lunch. I felt like a cross-section of Atlanta’s population was out for a delicious and pleasurable meal. 

The Chinese are experts at cooking seafood and do wonders with Georgia’s incomparable plump shrimp. We chose a simple dish that really lets the shrimp shine – kung pao shrimp. Laurent chose the mild sauce for his order, and I ordered a spicy sauce for mine. 

Kung pao shrimp’s main ingredients are shrimp, green peppers, onions, mushrooms, carrots, and peanuts. The sauce is what really makes this dish delicious. It is made with dark and light soy sauces, fresh ginger, Sichuan peppers (numbing yet delicious), vinegar, water, and a little sugar. 

Kung pao shrimp fills you up when you eat it with an order of white rice for each person. It also clears your sinuses, so brink some tissue with you. 

The kung pao shrimp was about $13 for each order. I think that price is very fair for the delicious and healthy meal we ate. 

Peking Garden Restaurant 

2526 S. Cobb Drive SE 

Smyrna, Georgia 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click for Ruth Paget's Books

Mexican Food in Smyrna, Georgia by Ruth Paget

Mexican Food in Smyrna, Georgia by Ruth Paget 

One of my favorite reliable spots for Mexican food north of Atlanta, Georgia (off Cobb Parkway by Red Lobster) is The Border Mexican Restaurant. As a Californian, I eat Mexican food three times a month and Asian food once a month. When I travel, I seek out both of these foods. I would say that these foods in Atlanta are not as spicy as they are in California, but are still flavorful and healthy. 

One of The Border’s big treats is Texas Guacamole. This guacamole is a flavorful blend of tomato, onion, cilantro, and lots of avocado. Our guacamole arrived in a basalt mortar that was 8 inches across the top and full of guacamole. My husband Laurent and I spent half an hour eating this silky appetizer.

Frankly, I think the Texas guacamole alone is worth a visit to The Border Restaurant, but we did order meals to go with it. 

I tried one of my favorite Mexican restaurant dishes: enchiladas verdes. This dish is shredded chicken rolled up in soft wheat tortillas and covered in mild, green tomatillo tomato sauce. Black beans and Spanish rice come with this meal and tasted very Californian with the hot sauce I added to them. 

Laurent tried steak tacos with cilantro and onion. He added dollops of guacamole to them and thought that was a great combination. 

The Border Restaurant has delicious, unpretentious food. It is moderately priced as well, which you cannot beat in pricey Atlanta. 

The Border Restaurant 

2569 Cobb Parkway SE Smyrna, Georgia 30080 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click for Ruth Paget's Books