meatetarian eats >> A Homemade Supper

​Remember how when I wrote about Chops & Hops I said it was something I’d been meaning to do for ages, just didn’t prioritize?

WELL. Here we are again, this time a few miles away at a little place called home.made.

I’d been meaning to go in here for absolute ages, and if you don’t follow them on Instagram, you’re missing out on some seriously good food photos. It says a lot about a place’s social media when that’s what entices a complete stranger so much to come in and check it out, so props to whoever runs that.

My chance to dine here came about a week ago when I was invited to join an exclusive outing and celebration for my skincare + cosmetics business. After a jaunt through the new Children’s Garden at the Botanical Garden of Georgia — which is really fun even if you are not a “children” — we traipsed to home.made for supper.

There are a few things that the word “supper” brings to mind. Supper is when your whole family is gathered around the table, you say the blessing together and you enjoy a home-cooked meal. I was fortunate to grow up with a mama who loves to cook, so it was rare that our supper wasn’t actually home-cooked in some form or fashion, and for the most part what we ate was influenced by our Southern roots. Ingredients are fresh. They’re local {we do lots of farmers market shopping in our family}. They’re hearty and filling and … truth be told … not always the healthiest thing on the planet, but Southern food is the envy of chefs everywhere.
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home.made meets every single one of these expectations when I think about the word “supper.”

the new orleans style hot chicken at home.made comes with fried chicken, pickled okra and beignets.

The atmosphere is low-light and rustic. I adored the shutters decorating the far side wall. The décor is tasteful and simple.

Some restaurants that have the caliber of plating that home.made does have a tendency to be pretentious about what’s on your plate, but not this place. I ordered the New Orleans Hot Chicken Beignets, along with a side of tomato pie, and whoa Betty y’all, I was enamored. The presentation of the dishes are thoughtful and beautiful without being ostentatious. 
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I will say that I kind of expected my beignets to be stuffed with the hot chicken, but other than that minor hiccup I wanted an entrée size of this meal after I scarfed it down. 
Now, y’all probably heard of Nashville hot chicken, so before I wrote this post I did a little bit of research 

into what the difference is … because I hadn’t had either of them. I know, shame on me, I went to Nashville last weekend and didn’t have hot chicken. Guess I’ll have to make a return trip, OK? Per the ONE non-Wikipedia page I found that wasn’t a rating site or some obscure travel recommendation where the “best restaurants” are the ones that paid for ad placement … there are some key components to make a traditional hot chicken.

1. Really salty, spicy, tender fried chicken, preferably seasoned to have a slow, lingering burn
2. Pickles — dill pickles, specifically, if we’re talking Nashville-style
3. Bread

I do not know this to be true, but upon this investigation I’m inclined to think that home.made called this dish “New Orleans” because of what constitutes the pickles and the bread here. Let me explain.

Hot chicken is to Nashville as beignets are to Nawlins.
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The most famous beignets are found at Café Du Monde in the French Quarter. Introduced to the state of Louisiana by the Acadians, these delicacies are square pieces of choux pastry dough fried to the perfect light golden brown and covered with powdered sugar. I have never had these beignets, but my mama has, and she raves about them to this day and also gets mail-order coffee from the shop. 

We have the fried chicken — strips curled up in the fryer, dredged in a spicy breading and coated with a buffalo-style sauce. We have the bread component: two delicate beignets with a heavy hand of powdered sugar. Last, but certainly not least, we have the pickles.

Another what-I-infer-to-be-homage to New Orleans, the pickles here are pickled okra. Okra originated in Africa, and according to documents from the University of Arizona, it came to the Americas by way of the slave trade in Brazil, Dutch Guinea and New Orleans beginning in the 1600s. Okra was a staple of the diet of many enslaved Africans in the South, and became a staple in Louisiana gumbo and other dishes because of it.
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Y’all, I LOVE okra in its fried and pickled forms, and I do not know what on earth kind magic happened at home.made, but this is the best pickled okra I’ve eaten in my life. It was crisp, it was vinegar-y, it had tang and brine. The gelatinous feel that stewed okra can get (fun fact, it’s called “mucilage”) wasn’t there. There was zero 

mama's photo of authentic beignets at cafe du monde in new orleans, 2018. used with her permission, kind of. (hi mom!)

a bite of tomato pie at home.made.

stringiness and even the seeds were pickled. I need a jar of these, stat.

My side dish of tomato pie wasn’t as picturesque, but it was everything good and homey that I needed it to be. I expected a slice and loved that it came instead in an individually-sized ramekin! 
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I have one regret, and it’s that I didn’t get the fried green tomato dessert. Yep, dessert. I mean, I’d already eaten some form of buffalo chicken with powdered sugar, so this sounded like the most logical next course, right? I promise I’ll go back for 

that one though and do a revisit!
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In fact, I already have a plan for my edibles on my next visit. If you’re not already sick of me using the word “supper” in this post … home.made has a SUPPER CLUB Tuesdays through Saturdays from 5 to 6, and again Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 to 9! It differs week-to-week and includes a choice of starter and entrée. Which means clearly I’ll just have to finish things off with that fried green tomato crisp, right?