Holly Moore

Hope the chefs have now learned - you don't buy steaks at Whole Foods.

Aye, eat well I did a few years ago Rules

In my mind's eye, at least, Rules seems an perfect option for a traditional English Christmas feel.

What are chefs doing serving 1/2" thick steaks anyway? Especially in Texas? Extra-especially to Cattlemen?

This spring Philadelphia's Project Basho, a photography commune/co-op/school with solid photography courses, is offering a course on Food Photography - Plate to Lens: Food Photography . It's a three class series focusing on camera technique, lighting and lenses. A couple of years ago, my Nikon and I took an invaluable introductory course to digital photography. Great course.

Seems like Top Chef is using almost the same set as Chopped for their "walk of shame." Wishing I were set designer. I'd send the losing chef into the kitchen, past the dish machine and pot washing sinks, through the service door, out into a back alley lined with overflowing dumpsters and barrels for used fryer oil, and onto a traffic jammed Manhattan crosstown street.

Then again, as Yogi Berra once said, "The place is so busy nobody goes there anymore." Federal Donuts does tweet when they run out of chicken to save a futile trip to way-south 2nd Street.

The fancies are just as good. My favorite is the key lime. That said, my favorite donut place is still Frangelli's. The fried chicken is soaked in brine overnight and then double fried, Korean Style. Super crunchy coating, super moist meat. Excellent chicken. Available either sprinkled with a spice mix or tossed in a chili hot sauce or a honey ginger sauce. My favorite, by far, so far, is the za-atar seasoning. Here's the ringer. Their chicken is currently available for about an hour, give or take 15 minutes, starting at 11:45 AM. They are sold out every day by 1 PM. Their rational - they have limited refrigeration and have to brine overnight. Their capacity is 60 orders of chicken - each order being a half chicken. When they are gone, they are gone. The process: Get to Federal Donuts as close to 11;45 as possible. They will give you a plastic number. Each number entitles you to order half a chicken. If you want a whole chicken you need to take two numbers. Once sixty numbers are passed out, that's it. I talked to one of the owners and he doesn't seem all that concerned about running out of chicken so early. "Ideal from a business point of view." They were in the middle of their rush so didn't seem like a good time to discuss business philosophy. But it drives me crazy that there isn't a sense of urgency to figure out how to sell more than 60 orders of chicken a day.

Unfortunately, a free meal seems to work far too often.

Man do I miss my mother's lentil soup. She could never add enough sliced hot dogs to the soup to keep me from eating up more than my fair share.

While I'd rather have a bad cup of tea than a bad cup of coffee, I'll go for a toe-curling cup of great coffee every time.

Cheftestants "4-3-2-1 Step away from the table" Food and Restaurant Bloggers Molecular Cuisine Liquid Nitrogen Hanger Steak Bistro Burgers Cheese Plates Heirloom vegetables 20% standard tip Tipping for counter service (Semi-)Decent Airport Food Craft Sodas Truffle Oil Hog parts previously made into scrapple

The Prime Rib has an excellent reputation for steaks. I keep going to the Palm because it's the only place upon whose wall I was able to finagle my characterture.

One of my many food fantasies is a corner bar somewhere in South Philadelphia whose back room serves a thick, aged rib eye for half the price of the Center City steakhouses. A cafeteria glass of house red wine to wash it down.

Just like supermarket beef everywhere, the steaks are cut way too thin. I'd call them both minute steaks.

According to Huffington Post, Mr Woods is opening his version of Soul Daddy in Detroit. His way. Without the "experts" PC insistence for "healthy" soul food. What a joke the "expert" panel spending "their own money" to back a restaurant concept turned out to be. Good luck and great success, Jamawn.

Let them fight amongst themselves. But when Bourdain disses Krispy Kreme bacon cheeseburgers he is way out of line. Eat and let eat, Anthony.

I enjoyed it with the exception that there were a couple of the pastritestamts that were far less qualified and seemed set up to fail. I'm sure it was intentional casting and a common ploy, but lessened my enjoyment.

Just in case this spurs anyone to action, I saw today on Twitter that Cajun Kates is on vacation for the next two weekends. They'll be back Sept 2.

I'd add that the good food at Phillies games is not from Aramark catering but from the concessions run by local restaurants. If we go this route, it could make sense to buy a block of tickets and scatter to the concession stands for eats. The view from the 700 level is all-encompassing and that is where you will mingle with authentic Phillies fans in their native habitat.

Sounds like we need to do a trip to Chink's Steaks For the BYOs, perhaps we could have sign up lists for a two or three tables at a bunch of them.

High tourist - proximity to Center City and/or being featured on Monday Night Football or the Food Network. At the same time - I don't think Tony Luke's, Pat's or Geno's ratings accurately reflect local traffic count.

Heard about thisCheesesteak Chart on Twitter. As expected, but breakdown between tourists and natives is interesting. Lists never mention George's Sandwiches on 9th just below Christian.

My issue with root beer floats is the odd tasting and weird consistency foam that forms when ice cream meets root beer. One advantage to soft serve in lieu of ice cream is that one can easily take in both root beer and ice cream without the sense of bobbing for apples. I may try a pairing of top grade ice cream and root beer some time, but my sense is that each would be wasted on the other.

As luck would have it, one can also taste some representative and good Amish cooking at the Reading Terminal Market either by strolling the Amish section or settling onto a stool at the Dutch Eating Place. Gut it is. And, time it right, there may be an Amish festival at the market such as this weekend's 22nd Annual Pennsylvania Dutch Festival