Best of the week – Featherfest in Atlanta

In honor of the annual International Poultry Expo/International Feed Expo, the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau has launched Featherfest – a week long contest between 51 restaurants in Atlanta to see which creates the best dishes from poultry meat or eggs. The convention attendees will vote – but so can you, at www.atlanta.net. Voting is open until Jan. 29, and is in the categories of best appetizer, entree and dessert. You rate the dishes you’ve eaten at one of the participating restaurants from “Rotten Egg” to “Eggstraordinary.” Rating a restaurant enters you in a contest to win an iPod Nano, so choose a restaurant from the list and get out there. This is your chance to tell a chef how he or she is doing from the anonymity of your computer.

The web site includes a list of the dishes that each restaurant is competing with – just reading this will make you hungry. How about Pan Roasted Maple Leaf Farms Duck Breast from 4th & Swift? (See map.) Or Dantanna’s (downtown) Georgia Pecan Crusted Chicken?  Or Ray’s in the City’s Miso Marinated Chicken Breast? (see map) Let me be the first to suggest there’s more adventure in an “appetizer hop” –  just  try appetizers at several restaurants – Gordon Biersch’s sweet chili and ginger glazed wings (there are several locations,) Max Lager’s American Grill & Brewery’s (see map)  Georgia Peanut Strips – skewered chicken hand pressed in peanuts and sesame seed and served on udon noodle salad; Steel Restaurant & Lounge’s Chicken Avocado Spring Roll with spicy Asian Ranch sauce. (see map.) In the dessert category, I want to try the French American Brasserie’s Creme Brulee (see map)  Sweet Auburn Bread Company’s (see map) Caramel Pound Cake drizzled with stove top caramel icing and toasted butter pecans. (Note: keep that sticky stuff off the keyboard.)