Holly Moore

Same answer I gave you before on Cinco de Mayo. Not in Philadelphia Actually, Labneh is the fresh cheese made from yogurt. It has a cream cheese like texture. In the Middle East I suspect they often spread it on pita, giving it a pizza like appearance. Perhaps that is your experience. I think I prefer it on the bread used by Philadelphia Java Company. Pita would be heavier I suspect.

Very surprised to hear the barista guy was surly. I've found them all to be darn friendly. Eat your olives. They're good for you.

I hit one of the greasy fried chicken franchises (pardon my redundancy), buy a bucket of chicken and a dozen biscuits. Once home I tear pieces the skin/crust and a little bit of the meat of the chicken and insert it in the still warm biscuits. Thighs work best for this. The remaining chicken goes in the fridge for quick snacks.

The Rittenhouse Row festival alone is not worth a trip to Philadelphia. Rittenhouse Row is a merchants' group that pretty much follows west Walnut Street, and it's cross streets, from Broad Street (14th Street) to 20th. All merchant members, including restaurants, are invited to participate. The closest thing to that in Chicago would be a similar promotion by the Michigan Ave merchants north of the Loop, though not as much "depth", merchant wise, along Walnut Street. Each merchant gets a white canopy with their name on it. What they do with the space is up to them. The famous Walnut Street restaurants participating included Le Bec-Fin, the Striped Bass, Brasserie Perrier, and Alma de Cuba. I don't remember anything by Susanna Foo. Back in the late 70's and early 80's Philadelphia used to have a grand restuarnat festival, similar to Chicago's. We closed off the Parkway (a beautiful boulevard that runs from City Hall to the Rocky Stairs (AKA the Art Museum). But after a rainy cancellation where restaurateurs were stuck with tons of food and a change in city administration, they wussed out and the Restaurant Festival has been no more. The Restaurant Festival has been replaced by The Book and The Cook Festival which runs over a couple of weekends in March. Famous, semi-famous and not-at-all famous cookbook authors are invited in and paired with Philadelphia restaurants. Some of these pairings can be a lot of fun, some ho-hum. It depends on how well the author and the Philadelphia chef hit it off and also on how much of a showman the author is. Any weekend is a good weekend to tour Philadelphia restuarants. We'll keep you well fed and then some. Summer may be the best time, because the locals abandon the city for the shore and the Poconos making reservations far more attainable for all manner of restaurant.

And, to think, W.C. Fields implied one can't have a swell time in Philadelphia

I wasn't paying that much attention to dress either, until I got to Le Bec-Fin. The dress was just one aspect of my disappointment. I have a certain level of expectation for one of the top restaurants in the country and it just struck me they were making a minimal effort. A five star restaurant should never mail it in. As to the restaurants that presented themselves with style - My top three would be Roy's, DiBruno's (a specialty Italian deli, actually), and the 12th Street Cantina. Also Loie for attempting and pretty much carrying off authentic pomme frites. and, of course, McCormick and Schmick's with their giant crab.

My friend Nadine strongly disagrees. "It's outdoors forchristsake. They were busy getting ready for Saturday evening service." Our disagreement - Le Bec-Fin's presence at the Rittenhouse Row Festival, on Walnut Street, in front of the restaurant. They were selling squares of various pastries, no issue there. What struck me the wrong way was their presentation. Servers in casual wear, no effort to display the pastries dramatically, none of the elan one would expect from a world class restaurant - nothing to distinguish them from the other restaurant presentations. Indeed some of the lesser restaurants easily out-classed Le Bec-Fin's presentation. So was Nadine right?

I've gotten hooked on a wonderful openfaced sandwich prepared by the Philadelphia Java Company on 4th Street just north of South The call it the Labneh Sandwich and credit it to the Levent district of Istanbul. A bit of web searching indicates this sandwich is popular throughout the Mideast. Lebneh is yogurt cheese, prepared by adding salt to fresh yoghurt, placing it in cheese cloth and letting it drain overnight. The Philadelphia Java company lays a thick layer of labneh on a thick slice of french bread, arranges marinated olive halves on the labneh, sprinkles with mint, and drizzles the sandwich with olive oil. It's a clean tasting, tangy sandwich, perfect for awakening one's tastebuds on a Sunday spring morn. Photo Copyright 2003 - HollyEats.Com

Yes I did own a restaurant, and I worked the floor as host for both lunch and dinner. What I said I would do in the hypothetical above is what I did do as a restaurateur. To me it is a no-brainer. Possibly piss off and lose a customer or, for the cost of the entree, score points and possibly salvage a customer by going above and beyond. Never said what a restaurant has to do. Just what I believe it should do and how I would react if it didn't. Twice above I said I would never ask for anything. I would leave it up to the restaurant management to offer.

You ate it, you bought it, no? If for whatever reason you choose not to return the dish, you must expect to be charged for it. Although if you're not entirely satisfied you should voice your displeasure to the manager, who must then try to make amends by either offering a round of digestifs or dessert or cheese or whatever. Am I wrong? I agree. If you eat a dish, expect to pay for it. There is no reason the restaurant shouldn't charge you. I still disagree. In such a case the dinner is forced to eat the unsatisfactory dish lest the others at the table have to wait while he consumes the restaurant's second attempt. The restaurant still screwed up, the diner is just being nice about it. But he is eating something that is not properly prepared. From the restaurant management's point of view, assuming the restaurant screwed up, and understanding the diner's reluctance to throw off the timing of the meal, I'd gladly comp that entree without being requested - ethically because we screwed up and served a dish not up to our standards and pragmatically because I want that customer to return or at the very least say not say bad things about us to his friends.

I'm surprised as the single temperature for twice frying Typically the fries are fried the first time at 325 F or so only until they become limp and just start to crisp on the outside. The potato is mostly cooked, but little or no color. Cooking the first time at the finishing temp of 375 F would undercook the potato lest they become too brown in the first cooking. Immediately prior to service the fries are finished off to a crispy golden crust, just one portion at a time, at 375 F. The single portion at a time is to minimize the drop in the shortening temperature when fries hit oil. And yes, serve immediately. Today, Loie bravely attempted pomme frites out of doors, at the Rittenhouse Row Festival on Philadlephia's Walnut Street. Fairly good, but not crisp enough. Because of the long lines they were putting both baskets in the fryer at a time for the second cooking. Fries were not as crisp as they could have been. However one of the sauces was whole grain Dijon mustard. Gave it a try. Quite good. Thanks for the heads-up, whoever it was who offered it.

You ate it, you bought it, no? If for whatever reason you choose not to return the dish, you must expect to be charged for it. Although if you're not entirely satisfied you should voice your displeasure to the manager, who must then try to make amends by either offering a round of digestifs or dessert or cheese or whatever. Am I wrong? I don't request or demand anything in this sort of situation. I simply ask for the manager, inform him/her of the problem and let the manager decide what if anything the restaurant will do to remedy or compensate me for it. How they handle the issue determines whether I will return. Usually the first offer is to recook or replace the offending entree. That is sometimes fine but as I said before forces me to watch everyone else at the table eat their entree and vice versa. Depends on how quickly they can replace my entree. Assuming I opt to pass on the replacement and explain my reason, more often than not the manager doesn't charge for the entree. That is what should happen. They screwed up.

Whenever practical I send it back. I am particularly a tyrant when it comes to overdone meat. I have been burned so often that, even at the Palm and similar, I verge on the obnoxious when ordering a steak, stressing to the server that the most important thing in my life at this particular point in time is to have my steak arrive a perfect medium rare. When it doesn't, I send it back, again and again and again, again. Alas the problem is dining with others. If I return a dish to the kitchen, do I sit there a'twiddling away while my fellow diners consume their entrees and then expect them to do the same for me? There's the rub and, assuming the dish appears to still be wholesome, I suspect I most often keep my entree though I'll still probably ask to speak with the manager. In this case I will not ask for a credit off the check, or a comp, or whatever, but I expect to not be charged for the entree and will not return if that is not the case.

Not on our first date. As to a party, we're throwing one this afternoon. It's called the Rittenhouse Row Festival (In Honor of Tommy) and starts today, Saturday, at 12 Noon and runs all afternoon. Walnut Street is closed from Broad to Rittenhouse Square. All the restaurants, including the Walnut Street elite, will be peddling samples at stands out front of their restaurants. Not sure how long you're in town, but the offer still stands, if you need a tour guide or such. You just gotta promise to leave your jeans on.

Because it is New England and that is the way it has always been. Change is measured in generations not years. Come summer, New England style hot dog rolls are occasionally available in a couple of Philadelphia supermarkets. No rationale as to what days or what weekends. They just pop up on the shelves every once in a while. What I don't get is why New England style hot dog rolls are not popular all over. People who have them in New England and return home seem to always rave about what a better roll it is. And it is a better roll. The only roll that one can butter and toast on both sides or just the outside. Furthest afield that I've seen a New England style hot dog roll: Petite St. Vincent, an island resort in the Grenadines. They use it for both hot dogs and authentic lobster rolls (as authentic as one can get with Caribbean lobster). The owner is from MA and flies in all his meat products from a Boston butcher. Gets the top cut rolls at the same time.

is that picture a regular size or large? Duh!!! Large. What, me order regular size??? I was there for lunch, not hors d'oeurves.

Can't speak for the Striped Bass, but Carman will be just as happy if you're in your jeans or if you take them off.

what the frig is that? should have been "pork sammies", which, i suppose, is pork sandwiches, from that place in that other place with the greens and the aged cheese. i'm on webtv and have no patience for correcting typos and whatnot. :smle: I'm assuming / "Other Place": Tommy DeNic's "In that other place": Reading Terminal Maket There or George's in the Italian Market, just off Christian, would be my choice for a pork sandwich. I know, Tony Luke's too. Very good, but not my favorite. Tommy, if you don't get Sat or Sun breakfast at Carman's Country Kitchen, a cab ride away at 11th and Wharton in South Philly, you're missing something very special and very unique. If you're going to be later than 9, on the weekend, call that morning for a reservation.

I'd be surprised if John's is letting the volume of business effect their quality. That they were still grilling steaks to order with lines out the door speaks to their commitment to quality. On my steak John's - way too much cheese for my taste, but it was all melted. I made it to Chink's Steaks on Torresdale for the first time last weekend. Expecting a Pat's or a Tony Luke's exterior I drove by it three times before breaking down and looking for the address. Just a storefront in the middle of the block. Went inside and I was again 8 years old, walking into Sodano's, my neighborhood soda fountain in Mountain Lakes NJ. Chink's is impeccable. A living museum celebrating the golden age of soda fountains. And real. Not like Johnny Rocket's playing at being a soda fountain. Just the way it has always been. No have it your way here. A cheesesteak is a cheesesteak. Sliced tenderloin, american cheese, fried onions. No variations. A good cheesesteak. Not quite as great as Steve's. But a very good cheesesteak. To wash it down a superthick old fashioned milkshake or malted. For another two bits they'll throw in a banana.

I'm sorry Catherine, but I can't help thinking of David Caradine as Grasshopper studying for his 7th degree toque at the Shaolin Culinary Institute. More seriously, you put a lot of thought into what you wrote. It is what you believe. Some of what your say probably is intuitive to anyone who pursues the kitchen as a career. And if a chef can successfully embrace such a gentle philosphy of food preparation, more power to him or her. But I don't see such zen-like contemplation surviving the day-to-day rigors and pressures of a top-flight restaurant kitchen. I never said humility was bad. Humility is essential to learning. I suspect that the greatest chefs are always learning. A humble person can fare quite nicely in a restaurant kitchen. But distinguishing one's self from the pack, rising to the top, takes drive, confidence, pride and pursuit of excellence - traits not usually associated with humility. The pejorative opposite of humility is arrogance, not pride or self-confidence.

If Pommes Frites is starting with fresh potatoes as opposed to frozen, they pretty much have to fry them twice to achieve the desired golden crisp outside, mealy inside. I'm still thinking they must be frying the first time until they are just limp and still white. These could then be stored and refried later, during service. I was there once, a few years ago, and found them adequate but not even close to the frites offered by any Brussels Frite stand.

FG, could it be that what you took to be raw fries were fries after their first frying - still white, cooked only until they became limp? Can can not imagine a place calling itself Pomme Frites and advertising Belgian style fries not frying them twice - especially in NYC.

I envy your experience, Louisa. It is a wonderful opportunity and you are indeed making the most of it. I disagree with catherinepantsios. I wouldn't worry all that much about humility. It takes humility to learn. And you have learned and are learning quite well. But I also don't place humility very high on the list of characteristics found in a successful chef. I have known a few chefs and have interviewed many. The traits I've noticed most are a drive for perfection; confidence in their knowledge and the creativity and curiosity to explore and develop beyond that knowledge; and a low tolerance for those who don't share their focus, their passion. I also suspect some and perhaps many accomplished chefs would see overt humility to be counterproductive - more a weakness than an asset.

There was a know-it-all food type who, at a Southern buffet restaurant, once glopped banana pudding on his salad thinking it was a creamy salad dressing. Fortunately no one caught me in the act.