Holly Moore

Deep fat frying or sauteing? Perhaps the oil quality is better. I was taught that olive oil is one of the worst mediums for deep fat frying. Because of its low smoke point it can't be used for 375 F frying. Also it breaks down relatively quickly. More expensive for restaurants. Oils like Peanut, safflower oil, and canola oil or blends thereof are usually used in the US for deep fat frying. Then again, back when I went to school we weren't supposed to eat oysters in months without a "R" and spiced apple rings were considered exotic.

I likely won't, so you can savor my fumbling through an awkward moment. Nothing personal. I usually only recognize people when they are in context - ie Katie mixologizing. Bad example - Katie I'd recognize. Once word gets around the avian crowd, the pigeons and gulls will outnumber people. Some things one just knows will be good. Butterscotch Krimpet milk shakes for example - though even better if they were made with Bassett's Ice Cream. I think I saw a Jack and Jill sign somewhere.

McDonald's fresh cut fries were twice fried - first at a low temp to blanch and cook the insides - than at a high heat to add color and crispness. If they were single frying, as mentioned above, that produces a greasy, limp fry. The other issue is that the fries are cooked in olive oil. Pure olive oil has a relatively low smoke point so they might have been cooking at less than 375F. Olive oil is a weird choice for deep fat frying.

Sorry I didn't see you. Was I standing next to you in line? I've been having senior moments not recognizing people since I was 30. You're right about a tray or box. I walked away juggling two foil wrapped sandwiches and a soda. One thing Shake Shack does is not totally wrap their products. Burgers go in an open paper sleeve. Dogs are in a hot dog tray. Stops the bun crown from getting all steamed and wrinkled. Everything comes nicely packed in a paper carton. I like crinkle cut fries. Nathan's serves one of the world's great french fries - short, stubby, greasy and crinkle cut. Shake Shack's aren't as good as Nathan's, and as I recall they are frozen. But they were good. As I've said elsewhere - shoestring potatoes are such a cliche nowadays. I'm guessing Danny Meyers picked crinkle cut for just that reason - another point of difference from the mediocre fast food places.

Made it back to SquareBurger for lunch today - my first since they officially opened. There were maybe 10 people in line ahead of me and a few more waiting for their orders. The line did not move fast, but not all that slow either. Took me fifteen or so minutes to place my order and another three or four to get it. Like a lot of places, you order, receive a numbered chit, and wait on the side for them to call your name or number. Neat that they don't use a computer register, but hand write the guest checks. The checks go up above the grill and turned quickly - no more than five or six at a time and often down to one or two. If the line gets much longer they may want to do what McD's used to do back when they had lines - an outside order taker to write up the order. The customer then gives it to the register person who rings it up and passes it to production. Speed things up some. More importantly customers feel that progress has been made once they place their order. A cheeseburger, hot dog and diet coke came to $9 plus change. Decent value. I ordered my burger medium rare. They wrote medium rare on the ticket and handed it to the grill person. So far so good. The burger came out medium to medium well. Like last time, still juicy but not as flavorful as medium rare. With the rush, condiments got sloppy. Too much ketchup on mine, and a third of the burger was over salted. The one I had during the shakedown was much better. I'd rate this one as above average but not worth traveling fifteen blocks for. Cheese melting is a bit amateurish. The burger, on spatula, receives a slice of cheese and then goes under a cheese warmer. When it doesn't melt fast enough to suit the grill guy he picks up the spatula and holds the burger less than an inch under the heat. A non-grilled (steamed or zapped?) hot dog on a bun with no relish has all the eye appeal of Joan Rivers without her makeup. The hot dog is kosher, all beef, decent-sized. Like Matt said, I'd prefer the dog grilled or split and grilled, and garnished with mustard, relish and onion - or at least the option to get it properly dressed. Not in much of a hurry to get back to SqareBurger. I'll give it a try in a few weeks to see how it does with some more experience and fine tuning. I was excited with the possibility of a Shake Shack (Danny Meyers - New York) of our own. I'm still hoping.

Today's NY Times Dining section has an article on the History of Gyro - not really gyros but the ground and force formed versions found in most US places selling Gyros. My first Gyro was a food eureka moment. With apologies to Bram Stoker, love at first bite. It was in Chicago, Greektown, a place called Dianna's Grocery. Way back when, in the late 60's, when Dianna's was still just a grocery store with a dining room in the back, In the grocery store section was a gyro broiler/roaster. On it, layers of beef and lamb. Real muscle, not the junk that passes nowadays. It was incredible. My first Greek food at my first Greek restaurant (other than North Jersey diners). In a way the Gyro was like barbecue - caramelized charred ends, with tender, juicy meat from the inside. Warm from being sliced to order, with the chilled whatever served with it. I became a regular. Discovered saganaki and retsina there too. Alas, success brings expansion. Dianna's moved and became a restaurant. The food never tasted as good. All of which is why I never order the lackluster pretender that Greek restaurants lazily sell nowadays and, like the NY Times, call Gyro.

At least once: Cornell Broiled Chicken

Happened upon Yogorino at 20th and Locust - a relatively new frozen yogurt place. Best I can tell they started in Italy, expanded most everywhere else in the world and then, I think, picked Philadelphia for their first US shop. Yogorino calls it "the Original Italian Probiotic" but tastes like a very good frozen yogurt - has a nice tang to it. Just one flavor, white. I had mine topped with fresh blackberries. A tad expensive, and the plastic cups have college-bar beer-mug sized false bottoms, but very good. I shall return, probably more often than I should.

Steven Starr's SquareBurger was in shake-down mode today. If the stars align, it will open quietly tomorrow and have it's official opening on Friday. The location is Franklin Square - that's the merry-go-round park at the end of the Ben Franklin Bridge, between 7th and 6th and Race and the Vine Street Expressway. Of all the squares in a city full of Squares, why Franklin Square? "Location, location, location" it isn't. Forget about parking unless one is sufficiently urbanized to ride a scooter. Access, itself, takes time. By foot, one must cross Race Street, just before the bridge - A thrill to be sure. By vehicle anyone coming from the city has to circle past the expressway to return. The obvious comparison is Danny Meyer's Shake Shack in Madison Square Park in the middle of Manhattan. The first obvious non-comparison - a location in the middle of Manhattan versus one at a distant edge of Center City. Including a day camp of kids playing miniature golf I counted maybe 100 people at Franklin Square during lunch time. I suspect, once Squareburger gets past the opening hoopla, it will be a challenge to drive customer traffic to SquareBurgert. The good news is my demonstrated inability to predict a place's success. Onto the burger. Besides being a free sample and therefore, alas, only half a burger , it was a great cheeseburger. Nicely thick, on a potato bun, and properly sized - maybe a quarter pound. Classic toppings - pickle, onion, ketchup and mustard. Mine was cooked medium well and still juicy. I asked and they will cook burgers to order, ie medium rare. As proof I wasn't recognized (like it matters), I was also offered half a veggie burger. Ick. Another concern - the place is small. The turnout area is small. If they approach anything near Shake Shack volume, production is going to be a frustrating issue for both staff and customers. But limited size doesn't stop me from complaining about the fries. They are frozen and they are shoestring - a dull and a disappointing side to a really good burger. Size and production space is the rationalization for copping out with frozen fries, but I'm not buying. Proper fries are fresh cut and par fried. There is no reason the cutting and first frying couldn't be done at another Starr establishment and trucked in. With the volume they hope to be doing, refrigeration is not an issue. At McDonald's we would par fry at least three full fry racks and let them sit out until finish fried. Now back to the good stuff. They build root beer floats. Also, according to Grub Street Philadelphia they'll be doing a TastyKake Butterscotch Krimpet milkshake made with half and half and topped with real whipped cream. There will also be hot dogs and a Philadelphia Hot Dog - a kosher beef dog wrapped with kosher salami and topped with pickle, onion, cherry poppers, plum tomato and mustard. Through today, for a while, SquareBurger has been operating out of a tent, with the fast food equivalent of an army field kitchen.

I don't think there would be a fine in any case - at worst a written violation. My read of the response to my question was that the inspector would simply suggest that the dog leave and not write it up as a violation. As long as the restaurant complied it would have ended there.

I have always had a positive feeling about the health department as they relate to Philadelphia restaurants. My first encounter was when I had to have the plans for my kitchen approved before L&I would issue a building permit. The engineer I met with worked with my plan not only to improve sanitation, but to improve the overall flow. He offered very worthwhile recommendations that led to a much better kitchen design. All during the time I had my restaurant and outside stands at the zoo and off Rittenhouse Square, while the Health Department did indeed enforce its regulations they did so positively and without the blatant adversity found in similar departments in some other major cities.

Let's say a patron's dog was permitted into a Philadelphia restaurant's dining room for a half hour during the worst part of thunderstorm. What might be the Philadelphia Department of Health's response to such an incident? For some reason I recently emailed a friend for a well-informed but unattributed and unofficial response to such a situation:

Not my favorite quick fire challenge last night - one-handed egg cooking. Hate to see such talent wasted on a stunt. Maybe next week it will be blindfolded knife skills.

Bird in a nest.

Alas, much of the Italian Market is closed on Monday. You could switch markets and do Reading Terminal on Monday and the Italian Market on Tuesday. I'd also suggest Carman's Country Kitchen for Monday breakfast in lieu of Famous 4th Street. I will be scorned - but for cheesesteaks do the taste off between Pat's and Geno's at 9th and Passyunk just south of the Italian Market.

I have always felt it is worse than every other cooking reality show.

Give them a light roast, Bowen's Island style. They'll pretty much open themselves.

If you have not worked through a full English Breakfast, Simpson's In The Strand is rather good at it. My impression is that some Londoners consider Simpson's a tad touristy, but I really enjoyed the pomp, the circumstance and the breakfast. Rules bills itself as the oldest restaurant in London. Their fare is traditional British. Rules is well respected for it's game, much of which comes from their private estate in northern England.

Missed Philadining's reply until just now. The lens is a VR 18-105 mm that is standard with the package. Weighs a ton and protrudes out rather rudely. Since I won't be doing all that much telephoto work, I'm thinking of burning some more AMEX points on a lens like the 18-55mm you mentioned. The camera arrived a few days ago. Day 1 I unpacked it and assembled my mise en place - arranged all the pieces by size and structure. I then proceeded to charge the battery and put on the camera strap. I knew I was in beyond my depth when I had to refer to the manual to figure out how to secure the strap. Day 2 I rested. Day 3 I attached the lens to the camera, inserted the charged battery and took a picture of one of my cats. Auto setting. So far so good. This is Day 4 and I brought it to my office. I've taken a few shots of pedestrians. I seem to have managed point-and-shoot with auto focus. It is time for a late lunch so I will take the camera with me and try it out my first food shots. Anyone know how rugged these cameras are. I travel about Center City Philadelphia on a Vespa. I have two options for transport - either in the compartment under my seat or strapped around my neck. On the trip over I drove with the camera around my neck. Very touristy. I'd much prefer keeping it in the seat compartment. Thanks all for the great info so far. Tomorrow I will probably take David's advice and experiment with manual focus and aperture priority exposure.

Triscuits, like waffles, offer the opportunity to eat along a straight line. I like that.

Not my favorite episode. No surprises. Not as competitive as the other episodes so far. At least there was a villain.

I've had so many bad experiences, it is hard to trust a Nathan's franchise - especially where they are teamed up with a yogurt place or such as I often see in Airports or at turnpike service areas. Almost inevitably the buns are stale and unheated. Some don't sell fries. Service is meandering, lackluster. All the condiments come in tiny plastic packets. The quality control just hasn't been there. A Nathan's run well produces great hot dogs and fries - some of the best. I just don't think that is happening at the airport franchises.

There used to be a time when, walking to my plane, I'd pass at least a couple of stands selling hot dogs. For a long time hot dogs pretty much defined airport cuisine. Nowadays it is pretty much anything but a hot dog. Chain restaurants, pizza places, barbecue, Chinese, fancy burgers, frozen yogurt, crab cakes but nary a hot dog in sight. Yeah, there's the occasional pseudo-Nathan's franchise. Maybe a hot dog place in a food court. But nothing on the walkways to the gates. I guess the dining upgrades are good. But not when my flight leaves in 10 minutes and I haven't had anything to eat since six in the morning.

I tried Estelle over the Memorial Day weekend. Had shirred eggs and the wild boar scrapple. Scrapple was good though they didn't crispen the outside enough for my taste. My shirred eggs were also a bit overcooked but otherwise good. Generally liked the place and will be back.

Haven't been there for a while, but I sense Tierra Colombiana qualifies as a "things never change" sort of restaurant.