The Good Things in Life are Not Always Free, but Sometimes They Come in Massive Portions

As the connoisseur of fine local food that I am, I decided that it would be best to take a hint from my idol, a certain Mr. Bourdain in finding a new local restaurant to review. So to that end I enlisted the help of a good friend, Taylor Wells, who could guide my pallet on a journey through an Atlanta that i had yet to see. We made may stops over the past few weeks but none as memorable as when he took me to a place on tenth street called simply Chinese Buddah.
We walk in on a tuesday night, it's around eight thirty. We have on nothing more than shorts and t-shirts, nothing fancy. The outside of the establishment can be described as an industrial Zen garden for lack of better words. One of the first things that struck me was that there wasn't your typical delicious Chinese food odor wafting about. Instead the air was oddly bland. The hostess greated us warmly and took us to two seats at the bar. Which in itself is a work of art.
The resturant is decorated not in your typical chinese theme. There is no buffet, and there are no asian employees to be seen. Instead, the inside is very dark yet inviting. It is very modern and filled with art to match. Even the massive Buddah by the door blends in to this surreal environment.
When the time is right the bartender, whome I later learn is the owner, comes to take our drink and appatizer order. We both chose a simple glass of water to clense out pallets between courses but as for the starters I sat back and eagerly let Taylor guide me on what can best be described as an adventure for my tongue.
I ask Taylor what he hasd ordered, I had ben intently focused on the plates in fromt of a couple sitting near us and the astounding portion size while he had been ordering for us. He tells me that we will begin our journy with an assortment of various Spring rolls. When they came out they were served with a simple side of dark soy sauce. There were three kinds; Pork, cabbage, and shrimp. All of them were filled to the brim with succulent vegatables and in the case of the pork and shrimp, savory tender meat cooked to perfection. The soy sauce was completely unnescicery for as I soon found out the fried rolls needed nothing to mask or even enhance their perfection.
After a brief intermission of salty fried wontons, Taylor changed directions and started up a path to the peack of the meal, the main courses. Of the many choices of asian fare on the menue Taylor chose three dishes to share with me. Beef fried rice, my personal favorite, mongolien chicken, and spicy thai noodles. What we recieved after a brief wait was not three main dishes, but three mountains of food. For around ten dollers a dish you too can eat such mountains. I would like to take a brief moment to emphasize how long after this trip that I was eating leftovers. I would probubly still be eating them too if I hadn;t shared with my fraternity.
We Started With the beef fried rice. Tender strips of thinly sliced heaven fried together in a wok with egg, peas, and carrots. It is a dish served almost universally ar asian resteraunts, btu here at Chinese Buddah it was as if I had tasted it for the first time. It was like heaven was melting in my mouth. After what seemed like an eternity of bliss for my taste buds we moved on to the mongolien chichen. Chinese Buddah serves it up in an awesome sauce of deliciousness filled with both green and white oniouns, bell peppers and carrots. Alongside this slice of amazing is a dish of plain steamed rice on which to pile it. I smiled as once again my perception of good Chinese food was destroyed and replaced with flavors I had never experienced but that i instantly fell in love with. The final dish was a spicy thai rice noodle served with green onion, carrots, finely chopped penuts and cabbage in a spicy peanut sauce. I would like to point out briefly that i have always been a fan of such traditional Thai cuisine and until my trip to Buddah had yet to find any rendition of this dish that was worthy to be called delicious yet alone traditional. The vegitables themselves were cooked only ever so gently and still maintained a healthy chrunch when bitten into. The noodles were traditional rice noodles that were cooked to an al dente perfection and were in no way soggy or limp, even after days of sitting in peanut sauce in my fridge. And finally the sauce itself was to die for. It was incredibly spicy and by no means for the feint of heart, yet it was subtly enough not to overpower the flavors of the other ingreadients.
After what seemed like an eternity of eating and only slightly putting a dent into our massive servings, we decided that too much of a good thing was a rapidly approaching reality. So we had our food boxed up but not before looking at the tea menue. Along with asian cuisine, no matter how Americanized, I absolutely love hot tea. We decided that it woiuld be nice to finish our meal with a nice steaming pot of gunpowder green. Gunpowder green tea is a blend of mint and a very bold green tea, it is absolutely delicious. At Buddah we were served a pot of a very excelent example of this tea. We sat for almost a half hour just talking and drinking the pot.
So all in all my mission was a success. I got to experience many a resteraunte, from middle eastern to african to american cuisine. But in the end I found a jewell worth sharing with the masses, Chinese Buddah. A place where, for a more than reasonable price, one can enjoytheir own mountains of deliciousness.