guzzirider

Sonny's Famous Steaks on Market offers a choice of cheeses, but recommends the use of Whiz. I really like Sonny's steaks, BTW. When I have family visiting from out of town, that's where I take them if they want a cheesesteak. __Jason

Speaking of the evolution of the cheesesteak, Rustica in Northern Liberties just added a "Tartufo" cheesesteak to their menu. As you can probably assume by the name, this has the addition of truffle cream. This is my new crack. Definitely not a purist's cheesesteak. For instance they use Sarcone's bread (which I *really* like, btw). Very generous with the meat, and the subtle truffle flavor makes my eyes roll back in my head when I eat it. One of these with a side order of their arancine is my ultimate guilty pleasure meal for now. If anyone's up for a change of pace, it's worth checking out. Damn... now I have to try and make it through the rest of the day without eating one... Edit: and for the price of a Barclay cheesesteak, you can have 10 or 11 of these! __Jason

Lorenzo's - http://www.hollyeats.com/Lorenzo.htm Not my personal fav, but it is good. If you get a slice, you have no option for toppings... all you get is a basic slice of cheese pizzza... you know, the kind that tastes really, *really* good at the end of a night of drinking! I've heard of folks getting a cheesesteak at Jims, and then walking over to Lorenzo's and getting a slice. They wrap the slice of pizza around the cheesesteak and eat it like that. Can't say I've tried it, but it sounds interesting. __Jason

Nice... I'll have to remember that... I love urchin! (and oysters, and foie gras!) __Jason

If you are referring to the "10 Hour Pork Belly", I highly recommend it! It's like an entire pig's worth of flavor concentrated into a few tender bites... love it! Tuna pizza is a good app, too. The cripsy whole fish entree is really good... I forgot what type of fish it is, but they take four fillets off of it, and then form the rest of the fish into a basket shape and fry it. The fillets are served in the "fish basket" and you can eat everything... bones and all if you are so inclined. I really enjoyed that one. I sort of agree with the desserts... they put something together for us once that wasn't on the menu, and it was odd... I don't recall exactly what it was now, but it was served in a champange glass. I thought it was OK, but it was definitely too far "out there" for some of our companions. Next time you are there, ask about the cheese plate for dessert. I don't recall if it's listed on the menu or not, but they can do it, and it does rock! Man... now I can't wait to go there on Valentines! __Jason

I haven't seen any dissenting opinions chime in on this one, so I figured I would! :-) I've been to Morimoto's a number of times, and it's always been great. In fact, we're going back again on Valentine's. I also know a good number of folks that have been there as well and the only negative thing I've ever heard referred to the price... certainly not the food. To be honest, it's hard to properly judge this place if you only do a sampling of sushi. There's really only so much you can do with sushi - by it's nature, it's pretty simple... as long as your ingredients are good, and the sushi chef knows what he's doing, it's hard to screw up. It's also hard to knock someones socks off with it. Morimoto's sushi is some of the best I've had, but it's certainly not my favoirite thing there. It's the other menu items that knock it up a few levels. For folks that are going for the first time, I always suggest they start off with the omakase tasting menu... this really gives you a good feel of what they really have to offer. But, as mentioned... it comes at a price. The menu lists them at $80, $100, and $120 per, but you can pay much more than that. The best meal I had there was a $150 omakase (not on my dime, fortunately!) that was outstanding. The barbecue toro was in fact, one of those "knock your socks off" type dishes... so much so, that a second round of it was ordered for the table! The bill for 5 people was probably about the same as the price of a used Honda, but I think it was the best meal of my life. And the folks we were with (who have a long history of spare-no-expense business dinners at top-tier restaurants all over the country), still say this was their favorite as well. Just my $0.02. ;-) __Jason

Hi folks, New gullet member here. I was browsing through the topics and this one caught my eye. I've always considered using pepper in food sort of like using salt in chocolate chip cookies - you may not think you need it, and if you use the right amount, you may not really *notice* it in the final result, but if you omit it entirely, you probably won't like it. The dish that really opened my eyes to what pepper can do was probably Marco Carrozza's deviled strawberries here in philly a while back. If memory serves, on the bottom of the plate was a basalmic reduction. On top of that were a couple small scoops of blood orange sorbetto, and some fresh sliced strawberries. Then it was finished with chocolate shavings and cracked black pepper. I had no idea what to expect, but it blew me away. In this context, the black pepper gave the dessert a sort of spicy quality - similar to using cinnamon, or something of that nature. Gave me a whole new respect for pepper! __Jason

Hi Alton, thanks for redefining "must see TV" for me! Well, I love duck, and I love charcoal. Any suggestions on a good way to introduce the two and get them to play nice? Note that in addition to "normal" direct heat grilling, my grill has a rotisserie, and also an offset firebox for slow and low smoking, so I can use any of these methods. Oh, BTW, your tip on cooking tuna directly over a charcoal chimney was brilliant! It turns out so perfect that I'm finding it increasingly difficult to order tuna at restaurants, because it usually pales in comparison to what I make at home! (umm... except Morimoto's tuna, of course!) Jason in Philly