What I've been eating lately

I do get a lot of fun perks with my job, the least of which is getting invited to lots of restaurants in metro Atlanta. I get to try out new menus, or entirely new restaurants. I've met many chefs and restaurant owners in this city.
So, here is a sampling of what I've been eating lately.
In March, I was invited to Five Napkin Burger in Midtown to a bourbon tasting from the distillery Four Roses in Kentucky. I'm not a traditional bourbon drinker, so this tasting taught me something.
I had my first Old Fashioned, for starters.

An Old Fashioned to start

There were lots of appetizers that came out as we went through the tasting. Here was some tuna tartar.

Tuna tartar

Here were our tasting glasses.

My first bourbon tasting

A few weeks later, I went to the opening of Cocina Asellina in Midtown. I had a wonderful Chianti there and wish I'd gotten a photo of it. There were different appetizer stations in all four corners of the restaurant, with wines paired to go with the appetizers. The Parmesan cheese was paired with a yummy prosecco.

I love Parmesan cheese, especially a good one

There was a white wine that was paired with these prosciutto and olive appetizers, but I can't remember what kind of white wine it was.

Prosciutto and olive appetizers

I want to go back to the restaurant to have a regular meal.
On April 10, I was at the St. Regis Atlanta for the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. John Jacob Astor IV, the founder of the St. Regis hotel in New York, was on Titanic and although his wife and unborn son survived the shipwreck, he did not.
As part of the festivities, sommelier Harry Constantinescu sabered 100 bottles of champagne, supposedly the same type served on the Titanic. If you've never seen a sabering, do.
Here's Harry working hard.

One of the 100 bottles sabered

For lunch on April 12, I revisited the restaurant R. Rice in Sandy Springs. I went there when it first opened, but now it has a new menu, which is heavier on the sushi.
I started with a seaweed salad, which was really good. Sometimes the seaweed salad is overly marinated and this was not.

Seaweed salad

Sashimi lunch

I had a bit of order envy when one of the food bloggers ordered the sashimi lunch. This looked beautiful and she said it was very fresh. I wish I had ordered this instead of what I did, which was the sushi lunch, which was two rolls. I got the spicy tuna roll and spicy yellow tail roll. They were good, but that sashimi looked so good!

My sushi roll lunch at R. Rice

Lastly, I attended the Taste of the Nation at the Georgia Aquarium the evening of April 12. This annual event is part of Share Our Strength, which benefits the charity to end childhood hunger. More than 40 restaurants are represented at the event, with chefs offering up a yummy sampling. There was a lot of seafood at the event. One of my favorites was a grilled scallop and cheese grits. Another unusual dish was a beef and red wine cotton candy. I kid you not. It was really different and good. Wish I'd thought to get a photo of that.
This year we got to keep our wine glasses, courtesy of The Cheetah, which sponsored the wine glasses. That's a wink, wink at this event. The Cheetah is a well-known strip club in Atlanta. I will always smile as I drink a glass of wine from my Cheetah glass now.

My new Cheetah wine glass

 And that's what I've been eating -- and drinking -- lately!