Starting off the New Year right

Everytime a new year rolls around Steve and I make plans for New Year's Day. I am a firm believer in the old wives tale that what you do on New Year's Day will follow you through out the year. So there is no cleaning the kitchen, paying bills, or doing laundry on the first day of the year. This also means we partake in a dinner made up of pork, collard greens, and black eyed peas. That way we have prosperity, luck, and money throughout the New Year and it darn tasty as well. Before dinner we always plan an "adventure" whether it is going on a road trip to a National/State park or checking out a new city.

This year we spent our New Year's Day checking out the new Ponce City Market in Atlanta. It is in an amazing old building (c. 1926) that used to be the Sears, Roebuck, & Company building that is currently being developed into a mixed use area where people can live, eat, and shop. From what I have read it is being developed by the same group that developed the Chelsea City Market in New York. Hopefully, that means great things for Ponce. I can not wait for the rest of the restaurants and shops to move in. If you want more information please check out their website HERE.

What spurred us on to Ponce City Market was Minero the mexican restaurant by Chef Sean Brock. I fell in love with his way of cooking and attitude towards regional food preservation after watching him in Mind of a Chef. Steve gave me his cook book, Heritage as part of my Christmas. So when I found out one of his restaurants was within a 45 minute drive I knew that is where we were going to go on New Year's Day. We had the salsa which had 3 small containers of verde, benne, and arbol salsa. The verde salsa was amazing and definitely my favorite. I could eat it on anything. Literally, replay a certain Frank's Red Hot commercial but insert Sean Brock's salsa verde where Franks Red Hot sauce normally is said. Then Steve had the Queso Fundido as his lunch and said he loved it. I had one of the Charcoaled Chicken and Grilled Steak tacos. They were great. I also got a side of the special Carolina Gold rice. If you read the book you will understand my excitement.

We walked around Anthropologie, Frye, and West Elm plus a plethora of other neat stores that made me wish I had deeper pockets. I walked away from Ponce City Market without buying anything. Though I did find some adorable baby Frye boots that would be perfect for my little cousin. I can not wait till there are more stores.

Moral to our New Year's Day story. Go on an adventure and make sure you eat good food.

Emily

P.S. The next time we go i'll take better pictures. The whole place distracted me and I forgot I even had a camera with me.