Sfuffy

Before Village Belle that space was Frederick’s.

Despite their shared name, about 15 blocks separate the Franklin Institute and Franklin Square - that strikes me as a bit of a hike even without the summer heat and kids in tow. As a previous poster mentioned, I'd go for Steve Poses's FrogBurger right out front of the Institute.

That's actually East Hanover for Jimmy Buff's, says the native son (who remembers when its location was Lone Pine Farm).

The wife and I had dinner at Han's on Thursday night. We went right after work and were the first ones in the place. At first, Han just dumped off the menus and left us to our own devices. But then I talked about reading about the previous week's eG dinner and my wife (who's half-Chinese) knowingly asked him about some of the ingredients in the dishes. I guess he realized we weren't some bumpkins looking for the usual thing and started to engage us. We began with the Dan Dan noodles and the Cold Rabbit with Peanuts. The noodles were very good and we liked the flavor of the rabbit but, to be honest, the diminishing returns of the high bone to meat ratio made it a little frustrating to enjoy. For our mains, we had the Fish in Dry Pot and Han suggested Pork Belly in Black Bean Sauce. My favorite was the Pork Belly - a relatively simple dish but well-done. The Dry Pot was good but it was a bit blander than we expected - especially for something listed as a 10 on the heat scale. Not sure if Han dialed it down for us. One unusual thing marred our enjoyment of the entrees. Early on, my wife encountered a chalky, alkaline taste–like baking soda, she said. She thought it might have been her water glass so she got a replacement but the taste persisted throughout the meal. Initially, I didn't have this issue but then I had the same problem. The taste lingered and definitely had an impact on our meal. We had no idea what it was. Cut to the next day and my wife had some of the leftovers for lunch. Everything was fine at first but then she encountered the same taste which seemed to originate in the bamboo shoots in the Dry Pot. This explained why it took a while for me to notice the taste at dinner as I started with the Pork Belly and she the Dry Pot. It's not like we haven't had bamboo shoots before so we're not quite sure what would cause this. My wife speculated that perhaps there was something in the liquid they were preserved in.

I've eaten at the Kibitz Room a couple of times. The corned beef, thankfully, isn't thin, cold and tightly packed Philly-style but I find it much too lean, a little fat would give it some more flavor. I agree about the bread - soft rye bread seems to be a common problem around here. I remember having a corned beef sandwich at Kibitz in the City a while back where the heat and moisture of the meat practically disintegrated the bread. One nice thing about the Kibitz Room is that they have a pickle bar (a la Harold's in NJ) with various pickles, pickled green tomatoes, new kraut, etc. Though the Claremont Salad (or Health Salad as they and the natives put it) needs to be marinated longer.

Not to make you feel even worse, but a 5" pie has a 2.5" radius and a 10" has a 5" radius giving you: 5" pie = 20 sq in of pie (48¢/sq in) 10" pie = 78 sq in of pie (24¢/sq in)

Funny how The Inky classifies this story as "Breaking News." As if a sudden Roast Pork Rebellion just broke out in the streets of Philly.

Actually, in Northern Delaweenia, where I now find myself and which falls within the Philly environs, they are very confused on this matter - I've seen them called subs, grinders, and hoagies interchangeably. In fact Capriotti's (which inexplicably now has franchises in Nevada, Utah & Arizona), specifically calls them subs.

Just saw today another place to get Eberly chickens in Philly: Chef's Market on South Street Their windows are plastered with signs announcing that they now carry Eberly. Perhaps the power of eGullett at work?

No mention of eGullet in the article. And the typically lame philly.com can't even correctly format the simple links.

Just noticed these today: Tommy Gunns' BBQ on South Street has closed according to a sign in their window. At 5th & Bainbridge, in the space where Chaleo Thai was, Angelina's, a new Italian place has opened. (Because there just aren't enough Italian restaurants in and near Queen Village and Bella Vista )

I swung by Five Guys on Chestnut to check out their burger and fries the other day for lunch. I got the little cheeseburger and it was nothing to write home about. Because they wrap all the burgers in foil, the top half of my hamburger roll was completely flattened and it may have been cut incorrectly because it hardly covered the burger. The rest of the burger was a complete falling apart mess and, though it wasn't objectionable, had nothing to really distinguish it. The fries were a different story. I got almost 2 full cups from the regular size after accounting for the spillover. They were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. They may be a litttle browner than some people like but I like my fries that way. However, there was one peculiar problem to deal with after I finished the fries: no matter how many times I washed my hands that day, I couldn't seem to completely get rid of the smell of fries and oil from my hands. Luckily I didn't have to shake any hands afterwards or it might have been awkward.

All other things being equal, an importer will want to ship his product through the port that is the most efficient at the lowest cost - that could be Philadelphia, New York, Newark, Baltimore, etc. Such cost efficiency would then be built into the price which the importer charges its customers including the PALCB. The Philadelphia port may not be the most cost-efficient choice in all cases. The choice of port should be left up to the importer who is best able to assess these benefits. The PALCB should merely bargain for the best price on its purchases and leave it up to the importer on how best to bring in the product. (And if we really want to guarantee maximum jobs benefits to PA why don't we just have the PALCB control the entire process and eliminate the middleman?) In addition, there's a certain economy of scale to bringing all imports in through one port. An importer may find, for example, that Port Newark is the most cost-efficient port of entry for bringing in product to be sold in the mid-Atlantic and northeastern states (even after factoring in trucking costs). If he has to bring PA's imports through Philly, he has two choices: (1) bring all imports through Philly even though it will cost more for all his imports and lose him sales in other states or (2) split his imports between Philly and Newark which means he loses the economic benefits of bringing all his goods through one port. In either case, it will mean higher costs for PA liquor purchasers. Depending on the volume of his sales in PA as compared to other states (esp. in the case of a boutique brand or small winery), the importer may decide it's not worth the hassle of splitting his shipment and just won't sell these products to the PALCB. Thus certain products will become unobtainable in PA

What's so brilliant about something that will lead to higher prices and less variety?

There was a brief blurb in the Inky about this last week but I forgot about it: State Wants Philly to Be Entry Port for Its Liquor Shipments