Holly Moore

Per this thread perhaps the pockets of the Convention and Visitor's Burea weren't sufficiently deep to wine and dine Mr. Mariani this year.

One of the reasons places get lazy and don't make the effort to do fresh cut, twice fried fries is that the final fry has to be done in a relatively small batch and is best done to order. If the fry basket is crammed full of fries for the final cooking or the fries are held for even a few minutes prior to serving there is a major nosedive in quality. You'll need to work that degree of timing into your production system.

There is a place here in Philadelphia, Monk's Cafe that does Pommes Frites and has a quasi-Belgium theme - mussels, burgers with Belgian names. When they first opened they started off with shoestring fries. For me, chalk screeching on a blackboard. I mustered my bluster and convinced the owner to switch over to 1/4" fries. More authentic to Belgium and a better fry - consistently mealy on the inside, crisp on the outside. That lasted less than a week. All of his customers complained. I theorized that they were weaned on McDonald's fries, and had to have shoestrings. I'm hoping the customers are more advanced in Durham, but, alas, probably not.

How could I ever miss a thread on Pommes Frittes. One of life's major frustrations is the state of the American french fry. And even when restaurants make the effort the end up shoe-stringing them ie ruining them. But I digress. I tend to consume any fries ready for frying the same day so have never held potatoes over night. My only concern would be water absorption. But unless anyone else hereabouts has given it a try, you can be the first and report back.

Back in my McDonald's days, late '60's, the word about Fresca is that it rotted out the plastic soda lines way faster than any other drink McD's carried. Could have been McD legend, but was enough for me to swear off the stuff.

Chicken Fried Chicken is for the health conscious rationalizers. No problem with the deep fat frying and the pan milk gravy as long as one is eating chicken and not steak. It is the gravy that makes Fried Chicken, Chicken Fried Chicken. How to spot a pretender. They feature country fried steak so the service staff doesn't have to explain to the tourists why there is no chicken in chicken fried steak.

For Jambalaya I'm quite happy at Grace Tavern at Grays Ferry and South around 23rd Street. But any cajun place with the name Prudhommes in it is worth checking out. What sort of drive from Philadelphia are we talking, Mike?

Katie said davidbdesolva wrote: I'm thinking Katie on top of the bar dancing Flamenco.

Wanting to see if Amada is open for lunch I did a search on Citysearch. Got the message back, "We assume you were searching for Ramada." Oh well. So is Amada open for lunch? If so, what days?

Neat place this Grey Lodge, though food wise I was not all that thrilled. I want to go back for the sandwiches where I suspect they will excel. Saw some at nearby tables and they looked great. Was there with a couple of friends. They started with the caesar salad. Pretty average. I had the duck spring rolls - excellent with a nice chutney like dipping sauce. Alas it was sitting on a small salad that was drenched with dressing. Way too heavy a hit. We all did fish and chips. That was the reason for our trip. To compare the Grey Lodge's to Stoney's outside of Wilmington. Good chunks of cod, nice beer batter. But the batter was not cooked all the way through. Fish was cooked fine, but raw batter under the crisp side. The fish had the potential to be every bit as good as Stoney's but not last night. The fries were disappointing. My bias and level of expectation. Whenever I see fresh cut I hope for twice fried in the Belgium or old time McDonald's manner. These appeared to be only single fried. Seems a waste of time to go to all the trouble of fresh cut and then turn out a limp, soggy fry. The beer selection was overwhelming. Reason enough to return. I ordered a cappucino stout, but it was the last of the keg so I got a free quarter pint to taste. Liked it a lot. Moved on to the Lancaster Octoberfest Lager. Interesting beer. Went well with the meal. All in all, three grease stains, HollyEats wise. Suspect that'll go up once I try the thick cut rib eye cheesesteak, the Lodge steak sandwich and some of the other sandwich items.

Tentatively heading there tonight, despite the above mentioned deconstructed salad. They better not desconstruct my fish and chips.

I'm a fan of Crown too, though I wish it was more consistant. The place at Broad and Elsworth is my local store. Sometimes their chicken is fantastic. Other times it has been sitting around under the heat lamp for an hour or more and is dried out and tough. But when it is fresh out of the fryer, for down home fried chicken above the Mason Dixon Line and away from the land of chicken fried steak and macaroni and cheese as a vegetable, Crown is some of the best fried chicken going.* *(This paragraph dedicated to kpurvis and Mayhaw Man)

Guilty on both counts, and on a good day both phrases in the same write-up. Fortunately I really like boiled peanuts.

I agree. I much prefer the alliteration of "the land of grits and gravy."

More details on the bridge please.

I'd be interested in your take on the other factors that make a great steak. A couple of mine. First of all: USDA Prime. Something like 20 years ago, give or take a decade, the USDA redefined prime beef, lowering the standards for prime. What was at one point considered top choice was incorporated into prime. So the prime of our forefathers is not necessarily the prime we get at a steakhouse today. At the same time, the top end steakhouse chains, along with the casios, have the buying power to bully the meat purveyors into giving them the prime of the prime. What, in terms of conformation and marbling was considered prime beef way back when. Also there are those who do not accept that prime guarantees the best tasting/eating steak. They maintain that there is more flavor in a high end choice steak. Beyond that some of the non USDA Graded products such as most of the Black Angus brands of certification, can also be a superior steak. I think if I were ordering a strip steak I'd probably go for prime. But my favorite steak is a rib steak and it's hard to beat a high end choice or top quality, ungraded, Black Angus rib eye. Aging: I always prefer dry-aged. But I'm not sure that is not mostly emotional and perhaps the result of butcher brainwashing. I've never done a side by side of dry aged and wet aged. It would be an interesting experiment. Beyond that there is the grilling of the steak. Gentle or Pittsburgh shock and awe. My favorite is probably a semi-Pittsburgh medium rare. Enough carcinogenous char on the outside to add another layer of flavor. I apologize in advance to those who advocate a kinder, gentler grjlling and who believe that charring ruins great beef. Editied to add: Composed at the same time as R. Washburn who manged to say in one sentence what I crammed into a couple of paragraphs.

I posted on the original thread that I both phoned and visited the Philadelphia Palm on the dry aged issue. They're stonewalling. I'll keep after them. I understand that aging can refer to either dry or wet aged if a place chooses not to be specific. But I would be surprised if, as the original post in this thread states, that a top chain steakhouse could call its steaks "prime" if they are not, indeed, "USDA Prime." That's what I was asking here.

I missed the Wall Street Journal article on steak houses, but did it specifically state that the top chain steak houses were serving non-prime beef but justified calling it prime because they omitted the USDA designation?

Congrats Greg and great success. I know the answer before asking the question - Django's tremendous good will. But was there any consideration of renaming the place, thereby avoiding the inevitable comparisons? The knee jerk reaction will always be that the sequel is not as fine as the original. That the principals have a strong and positive reputation will somewhat minimize this thinking, but it is a public and press perception battle that you are going to have to fight, to some degree at least.

Jack McDavid, Jack's Firehouse, has won all sorts of contests for his pulled pork. Or Sweet Lucy's. Not sure I'd trust any of the other BBQ places for pulled pork. Or head up to North 5th Street. Or, as someone suggested, try any of the 9th and Washington area Mexican places.

I figured that was the case when I saw the meal at Crossroads, one of my Maine favorites. Glad you made the long Down East northern trek. Sounds like you ate well all along.

Don't downplay Ben's Chili Bowl. It is worth a hit at some time during your stay. One of those one-of-a-kind institutions - required eating. Within two hours I think, I'm guessing a hour and a half if the traffic on I-66 isn't too opressive, the Southern Kitchen in New Market VA, off of I-81. A long trek for breakfast, but through the Shenadoah Valley and kinda scenic, especially if the leaves are turning.

Yup that's the breakfast place I like. Anyone know the name? Sketchy hours at a bbq place. Go figure.

Only Kelly's on Revere Beach. Great sandwich. Will have to try Chick's. That's a great looking roast beef sandwich.

I've only been to the Papaya King on E. 86th and 3rd.