Current Hubville has progressed into a diverse Peruvian food—well, hub. There are at least three restaurants with distinct interpretations. Mambo’s Cafe is perhaps more renowned for Cuban food, but the seafood-heavy Peruvian segment of the menu is where I’ve gravitated towards for a dozen or so years, including their previous locale. Touched on in “Sound Bites” last month, the recently-debuted A-Pollo Taqueria also features a Mexican bill of fare with handmade tortillas. However, their specialty is Peruvian roasted chicken (pollo a la brasa).

Let’s home in on an eatery with a Roswell mailing address, located in East Cobb—The Freakin Incan. The cookery commenced as a food truck but now features two brick and mortar locations, the other in Tucker.

Born in Peru, chef/owner Mikiel Arnold’s family moved to the US when he was six. However, in fulfilling his culinary school graduation requirements, Arnold went back to Peru for an externship under Chef Gaston Acurio at Astrid y Gaston in Lima. It appears he was a learned apprentice.

The Freakin Incan boasts at last two standout cold appetizers that most Americans might associate with as generally served hot. The Instagram-friendly causa de camaron is as flavorsome as it is visually appealing. Mashed potatoes are enhanced with lemon juice, mayonnaise, and yellow chili paste. The taste and texture are almost perfectly balanced with dispersed, small chunks of avocado. Ensconced with shrimp, this dish is an excellent beginning to a multi-course night.

To the less adventurous Americans among you, don’t be dissuaded by the thought of cold mashed potatoes. You like potato salad, right? So, chill (pun intended). It’s a similar concept. A bit more avocado would have established the ideal counterbalance, but this is a highly recommended plate.

Is it possible for pico de gallo to be too good? The choros a la chalaca is another cold choice with black mussels topped with the previously stated salsa cruda. But the pico de gallo is so robust it obscures the shellfish. This die-hard carnivore will tell you it’s the salsa that is the most addicting component of this first course. For the most conventional state-siders among you, my wife and son enjoyed the chicken wings, made with the highest quality Springer Mountain chicken. I assure you, they’ve had chicken wings from most of the highly rated providers within 20 miles.

Onward to the entrees. The opposite of the robust pico de gallo mussels dish, the sudado de pescado has delicate, though highly productive flavors. Essentially a very well-stocked soup, steamed mahi-mahi has a subtly tasty aji infused mussel broth, completed with rice.

Need a little more punch? Try the seco de res, a stew with large chunks of cilantro CAB beef, delivered with trimmings of canary beans and rice. Don’t take those beans for granted. As good as any bean dish I’ve had, it perfectly rounded out the repast.

My shrimp-adoring daughter delighted in the shrimp tallarin saltado so much that she ordered it on a return visit. Faintly analogous to lo mein it consists of stir-fried noodles blended with grilled green onions, fresh tomatoes, and soy sauce. Chicken and angus beef are other protein alternatives in addition to my offspring’s beloved shrimp.

We finished off the meal with the uncomplicated but enjoyable alfajores, which is simply dulce de leche squeezed between two shortbread cookies.

Premiering his restaurant in 2015, Arnold moved the East Cobb/Roswell location to Woodstock Road and Sandy Plains in the Movie Tavern shopping center. Some will recall the unit as previously inhabited by Corner Pizza. The bright and casual establishment is family friendly. The craft beer list is relatively short, but impressive, loyal to the Georgia breweries.

Thus far, I’ve basked in a pleasurable medley of both moderately spicy and gentle, yet ambrosial dishes. Perhaps next excursion I will seek the Heritage Farm pork stew or maybe the Maple Leaf duck entree. I’m not sure, but what I am certain of is that a next time is required.

Sound Bites:

If you follow me (and why wouldn’t you) on Twitter @CalVulcan, you are aware of my adoration for all things Mitch’s Meats. The quality and quantity of soups headline the expansive inventory of reasons. I’ve consumed 55 or so different soups. But there are still a good dozen or so “Mitch’s quality” broths, pottages, stews, bisques, and chowders in Hubville. All three clam chowders at C&S Chowder House—Manhattan, New England, and Rhode Island—are sparkling examples. In the northernmost sector of Sandy Springs, Samad Mediterranean Grill and Market produces a wicket kibbey ball. Never Enough Thyme, which just opened up a second location, generates competition caliber Texas sirloin chili…

Taste… a Seasonal Bistro in Roswell has one of the least adventurous menus. Don’t discount it though. Best thing I’ve had here is the Friday special of shrimp and grits. That’s been taken up a notch with shrimp and chicken étouffée on grits. Also, the beef burgundy sandwich on baguette is worthwhile. The menu is safe as conceivable, but above average, with just-mentioned Friday special the shining city on a hill…

And another excellent addition for Alpharetta City Center. Ponce City Market import Botiwalla adds Indian to the “street food” craze that is overtaking Alpharetta. On my first tour, I had lamb boti kabab roll with masala smashed potatoes. The latter is served with a sweet and slightly hot Maggi catchup. It’s a little roomier than the big-city location…

Once upon a year or so ago, bride snatched takeout from the dinner offerings at Emidio’s, a venerable Portuguese restaurant in the northern tip of North Springs. The family approved of the takeaway chow. My fledgling expedition in the interior and also for the lunchtime menu was a triumphant one. Some of the most flavorful marinara sauce I’ve ever relished hoisted the Italian clams to elite status.

The francesinhas (“little Frenchie”) is one of the most ascendant open-faced sandwiches I’ve swallowed this side of The Brown Hotel in Louisville, home of the acclaimed hot brown. The creation has “bottom layer of bread, topped with linguiça, with a fried egg then covered with melted cheese in a creamy tomato and beef sauce accompanied with fries.” I crowned it with pork as alternatives were chicken and steak. It’s no shock this place has thrived for years in the extreme right corner of a shoddy shopping center abounding with vacant units. ❍

When he’s not eating, which is rare, the author is CEO of Sports Handicapping website Offshore Insiders. His bride’s gift site, Duffy Gifts is the place to go for gifts for all occasions from My Thirty One Gifts. 

By Ethan Craig

We had a beautiful spring this year. It was cool, sunny and pleasant and when the rain finally came, it was a bit of a surprise. I am a huge fan of cooler temperatures, so I really appreciated the longer than usual transition from winter to summer. But in Atlanta, we know that like death and taxes, the summer heat and humidity are inevitable. And this year, the sweltering days seem even more intense than usual.

I’ve made it out to the lake and on the Chattahoochee several times over the past few weeks to get some sun and relax with friends. And for me, a day at the lake includes beer to share with the gang. This summer, there are several new beers that have been brewed to help make trips to the lake a little more enjoyable.

One new trendy beer style is a milkshake IPA. It’s an IPA with lactose sugar added in. This results in a slightly creamier flavor that cuts out most of the bitterness of a traditional IPA. Some of them really taste like they were blended at an ice cream shop. Wild Leap, the brewers of the popular Alpha Abstraction series, recently came out with a milkshake IPA called Bomb Pop. Bomb Pop was created with Rocket Popsicles and Firecracker Popsicles in mind. The flavors include Cherry, Lime and Blue Raspberry. I can’t think of anything better to get you in the mood for some fireworks. You can buy a four-pack or mix and match the flavors.

For a more tropical twist, try out Coco Flamingo. It’s another beer just released by Wild Leap in collaboration with Trim Tab Brewing. It’s a Double IPA with coconut, tangerine and lime added for a taste that will have you thinking about putting a pink umbrella in your glass. It is incredibly easy to drink, but be careful, it’s also 8% ABV.

I also have two easy drinking beers you might want to try. Einstock Icelandic Pale Ale is brewed with pure Icelandic water. The water goes from the ground directly into the beer, and the taste is clean and fresh. Reformation’s Oren pale ale is a new recipe which is more of a hazy pale ale that is very smooth with a slight fruit flavor and comes in at 5% ABV.

Finally, for all of you Hogwarts fans, we will be celebrating Harry Potter’s birthday on July 31st. Come in and join us for a Monday Night Brewing’s Mischief Managed sour beer.

As you make your way through the dog days of summer, please remember what a friend of mine used to say, “It’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity.” Cheers!❍

Ethan Craig is Craft Beer Curator at Tap & Six Craft Beer House, a craft beer market and bar in Historic Roswell at 23 Oak Street.

By Geri Laufer

For a long season of brilliant color, add annuals to your home landscape

Want head-turning curb appeal? Use color! Bedding plants (aka annuals) are plants that flower more or less continuously for a single season then die. Half-hardy or tender perennials (like begonias, impatiens, or geraniums) are also used to add color and are considered annual because they are killed by frost if left outdoors when winter arrives.

• Flowering annuals have many uses in the landscape, since few other plants supply as much diversity. Annuals are . . .
• most commonly used in color beds
• added to mixed borders
• good for providing backgrounds and quick screens when tall
• vines that can be used to cover trellises, screen neighbors, provide shade, and soften harsh fencing
• used as temporary ground covers
• cut for flowers in vases or sales
• dried for arrangements or potpourri
• great for containers (especially trailing annuals) like large mixed pots, window boxes, or hanging baskets
• available to provide temporary color and mass before the installation of permanent shrubs or ground

10 Easy-Care Annuals

Easy to grow, annuals thrive in prepared beds with improved soil. Before planting, mix in a bag of soil conditioner or planting topsoil with your Georgia red clay! Many annuals are greedy feeders and appreciate some liquid (houseplant) fertilizer every month. Deadheading (pinching off dead blooms) stimulates more flowers to form, continuing the color. If you planted annuals in May, they are now ready to be cut back—by half; then water, feed, and watch them come roaring back with more color through fall.

• Summer Annuals
• Coleus – colorful leaves all summer until frost, flowers are irrelevant
• Marigold – you probably planted these when you were in the first grade and they still look great in sun
• Pentas – five-petaled blooms cover smaller sized plants
• Sunflower – a plethora of varieties gives lots of choice, whether 12-foot mammoth or short and bushy for cut flowers
• Vinca – so tough it even grows in Florida sand
• Zinnia – colorful favorites, the butterflies are drawn to them and they often reseed next year

• Cool Season Annuals
• Pansy/Viola – most popular winter-flowering annual
• Flowering cabbage – leaves provide the color thus eliminating the need for flowers
• Snapdragon – blooms fall and spring, with a little time off in mid-winter
• Dianthus – be sure to scissor off spent flowers so pinks will rebloom
• Dusty miller – silver foliage makes exceptional contrast and interest winter or summer

There’s plenty of time to plant some annuals in July, and then stand back for the colorful display in August, September, on into October.

Digging Deeper
You may want to investigate some UGA publications for further reading:
Flowering Annuals for Georgia Gardens You can download the publication as a pdf, or peruse the links, including “Annuals for Specific Uses.”

Do you have photos from your home landscape? Share them by posting at The Current Hub facebook page.

Geri Laufer lives in Atlanta, where she, graphic designer husband David, and English Coonhound Lily are working on designing and installing a never-finished landscape. You can reach her at Geri Laufer

By Di Chapman

I gotta tell ya. I’ve had such fun planning this column. Every girlfriend and group of girlfriends, has giggled with enthusiasm when I’ve run this idea past them. Even my husband has gotten into it, helping me brainstorm the memories.

And everyone agrees: ladies and gentlemen, we’re a generation who loved (and if you’re like me, still love) to dance. It didn’t matter if we were single, married, dating, engaged, or girl dancing. As ABBA said in “Dancing Queen,” we had the time of our lives. Sure, since then it’s been around the house as we clean and busting moves as best we can at stoplights. But I’m ready to do the real thing again. What have all these years of exercise been for? Yes – I know, I know. There is that vanity factor and that ability to eat mostly guilt-free. But at the top of the list for me is dreaming of dancing with abandon once again.

Come on, let’s hit the floor and get down.

We all knew where the clubs were in the 70s and 80s, and you could find us there every Friday and Saturday night. With the disco of the 70s we ladies wore braless tube tops and halters, spandex tops and pants, and platform shoes. We did our best to recreate Farrah Fawcett’s hairdo. In the 80s, we girls wore dresses with ultra-padded shoulders, Dynasty big hair, and spike heels – of a dancing size. If we wore the 6” spikes of today, we’d be severely limited in movement, and we all loved to move – a lot. And I don’t mean standing in one spot bouncing up and down with one fist in the air. Seriously? When did that become moving to music? Where’s the bootie action? Where’s the seductive eye contact?

By the way, all ye progeny, we brought you the birth of the DJ. There was nothing like a great DJ spinning tunes. Just add flashing lights, a disco ball, Thelma Houston’s “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls,” and Lionel Richie’s “Dancing on the Ceiling.” I remember the heavy beat of The Trammps’ “Disco Inferno” and Heart’s Wilson sisters belting out red, hot voices, guitar, and techno vibes. “He’s a magic man, Mama…Oooohhhhh…he got the magic hands.” And who could forget the dance floor favorite “Stayin’ Alive?”

Oh, and my goodness, that amazingly great 80s scene. By now, y’all know I was pretty much into driving all over the place and loved crossing the Mexican border at Tijuana to cruise south on an exceptionally manicured highway to Rosarito on into Ensenada. Ladies – surprise, surprise! This highway had clean as a whistle rest stops. It was a beautiful ride alongside the Pacific Ocean in Baja California. Ensenada was an awesome dancing town. Marines with time off drove down from Camp Pendleton in Southern California to hit the clubs, and we California women were happy to be their dancing partners. We’d dance all night to American tunes, with DJs spinning hot material. I was always the designated driver, and I toted home girlfriends in front and back seats at one or two in the morning, all of us swapping stories about the men. We became regulars at the Tijuana border crossing, an hour or so from home at the time.

Those dance rides were followed by, mostly on a whim, my solo trips to Mexico City and San Luis, Mexico. Why not? I discovered that Hispanic men seriously loved to dance. The dance floors overflowed, and DJs played one hot tune after another. I never sat down in either town. Those guys rocked it.

Naturally, I have my favorite dance artists. I can’t lie. I was a huge Billy Idol fan. To this day when I hear “White Wedding,” it doesn’t matter where I am, I’m in motion. I’ll cop to something else. I dig Boston. “More Than a Feeling” gets me moving. As does Elton John’s “Philadelphia Freedom.” Patti LaBelle’s set of pipes still reign to this day, with no current female artist coming close to her vocal power. Remember doing a come hither sashay to “Lady Marmalade?” We girls did some serious strutting along with Patti.

And remember those, shall we say, party-inspired tunes like Eric Clapton’s “Cocaine” and Huey Lewis and the News’ “I Want a New Drug?” Huey Lewis and the News’ retro sound specialized in good, old-fashioned get up and dance beats. Loved it. Jefferson Airplane’s tune “White Rabbit,” while from the 60s, still had us singing along. Whoa, and the Eagles’ “Life in the Fast Lane” and Glenn Frey’s “Smuggler’s Blues” both bring me to my feet. Boys and girls, your moms and dads were party animals. Most of us partied for the music, not substances. I liked moving and grooving to my favorite songs with a clear head. Oh, and by the way, you kids ain’t got nothin’ on us in the partying department. We invented it!!

I went to YouTube the other day to find a skit from Saturday Night Live from the 80s. It featured a song with the words “What is love? Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more…” It was a great dance tune with a skit by the SNL cast featuring three young men out cruising, one of whom was Jim Carrey. They’re blasting this song while they drive and bob their heads to the beat, sideways and in unison. It’s right up there for laughs with “More Cowbell” with Christopher Walken. I typed “Saturday Night Live Head Bob” online. There it was, and I danced and laughed again and again.

So, somebody, help me! Help me here. Where have all the good clubs gone? Who’s spinning “Billy Jean” and “Flashdance?” Who’s featuring Madonna? Where’s Gloria Estefan’s “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You?” I wanna know, and I wanna go.

Ladies! Girls’ dance, anyone? I’ll drive!

Di Chapman is an inspirational author and speaker, and a branding consultant. Di’s latest book is Rekindle Your Purpose: Break through your disappointments, discouragements, and detours to resurrect your purpose and live it! Contact Di at diychapman@icloud.com

Spider-Man: Far From Home —Opens July 2

By Britt Argo

Spider-Man: Far From Home is one of summer’s most anticipated movies! Beware a few spoilers ahead from previous Marvel movies if you have not yet watched.

What it’s about — The Avengers action continues with Spider-Man: Far From Home opening July 2. It chronicles Peter Parker’s personal journey, how he returns to high school life and his friends after missing five years. And it shows how his superhero journey must go on after the loss of beloved mentor Tony Stark/Iron Man.

Peter may be wearing the new high-tech, armored “Iron Man-Spidey Suit” (from Avengers: Endgame), but he is still reluctant to let go and step up to take Tony Stark’s place. Seeking Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) to console him, he decides to go back to school and try to return to his friends and a normal life. His school friends decide to take a European vacation, with Peter joining them, while ignoring a call from Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). He and classmates visit beautiful locales (Venice/London). But his blissful vacation doesn’t last long, when Nick Fury tracks him down and enlists Spider-Man to help battle new threats to save a changed world.

In this adventure, Quentin Beck/Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) appears from another dimension — a multiverse. The Snap tore a hole in our dimension, and Beck was transplanted here along with other baddies that followed him, doing destruction. Beck and Fury enlist Spidey to help conquer them and return them back to their Earth in order to save ours.

Why you will love it — If you saw Spider-Man: Homecoming, it has that same lighthearted take. Peter (Tom Holland) is still a young, goofy high school kid now in love with friend MJ (Zendaya), hoping she will like him. His best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) is great comic relief as the sidekick. And he still gets no love from student rivals who roast him. We get more character development with a conflicted Peter still trying to balance his life with his secret Spidey identity. Unlike a Thor or Captain America, we are still seeing Spider-Man trying to fit in, find his way, discover his powers, and what he can do. He’s just a guy who wants to save his friends first — then the world.

Fans of Jon Favreau — get more Happy Hogan on-screen. From his early acting days with buddy Vince Vaughn (Swingers, Couples Retreat, The Break-Up) to his recent starring role in Chef, Favreau is super in everything he does. He has perfected the everyman, the sarcastic sidekick, the “I don’t want to be here, but I’ll do it anyway” guy. In the Iron Man films, Happy is the silent driver/assistant who would pop up only on occasion to help Tony Stark. But in Spider-Man: Far From Home — we get more. Happy finally gets a bigger role. Happy is broken too, suffering the loss of his friend Stark, but we see him step up as a mentor more than a sidekick for Peter.

Fans of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) get more too. We missed Fury and Hill in Avengers: Endgame (only reappearing at the end). Now they come out from behind the scenes to get their chance to assist and save the world.

Do you need to see Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and Avengers: Endgame before seeing this one? Well — yes. Understanding what happened in the last two films will set you up for this new saga.

Britt Argo, an avid movie fan for 30 years, sees an average of 150 movies a year in movie theaters. She is the marketing coordinator at Area 51: Aurora Cineplex and The Fringe Miniature Golf—5100 Commerce Parkway in Roswell. 770-518-0977.