SaxChik

i went on saturday and also had a ragin cajun pizza. i thought the dough was cooked well enough. my duck confit was moist, but the crawfish were a little overly fishy. i wanted to try their red sauce, so the nice waiter gave me a cup to dip my crust into it. it was sweet and herby. i liked it. my husband got the vitto, which has anchovies, kalamata olives, stuffed olives, mozzarella & pesto. he enjoyed it, but i wouldn't kiss him after he ate it. he also said it was a bit salty, but with anchovies and olives, that was not surprising. my friend got the spinach and goat cheese salad with spiced pecans and molasses vinaigrette. it was a nice size salad and she enjoyed the fact that there wasn't an excessive amount of dressing. for dessert, my friend and i hit up the hand crafted cookie company on main street. their oatmeal cookies are TO DIE FOR. they sell baked cookies, as well as cookie dough. you can also call ahead and they'll bake a batch up for you.

went to a thai place called jazmine's in west chester for dinner tonight. it's where the old punk/rock club rex's used to be on west gay street. strange to see it so, well, not black. the owner is nice guy named josh who was courteous, informative and doted on his customers. the food is typical thai fare, but very tasty and the presentation was beautiful. we started with thai iced teas (they have a BIG bar and are waiting for their liquor license. it's currently BYOB). we split an order of chicken satay and crispy spring rolls. the satay was two generously sized skewers of chicken served over a sweet and sour cucumber salad with peanut sauce. there were 4 spring rolls with dipping sauce. for dinner, i got my standard thai food barometer dish ... drunken noodles. BIG plate, lots of chicken, rice noodles, pea pods, onions and thai basil (i asked for no bell peppers). mild to medium spice. very well done. my hub got the supanahong, which was chicken, shrimp, pineapple, cashews and veggies served in half a pineapple. wish i had a camera cause it was really pretty. dad had crab cakes and angel hair pasta with a penang sauce. perhaps the best curried crab cakes i've tasted. there was curry in the crab cakes, as well as on top. VERY good. for dessert we shared mangoes with sticky rice. again, a generous portion. you don't go away hungry. i'm happy to have a thai place that's nicer than the royal thai orchid in frazer (found the staff there to be not so friendly) and closer to my house than l'thai elephant in phoenixville. extra bonus that the portions are large and the food is really good! the menu says they deliver. i'll have to take them up on that some day. also have $10 dine-in lunches daily.

went to jimmy's for dinner last night. i got the pulled pork platter, hub got the brisket. i thought both were really delicious. i'm a big fan of NC vinegar-based bbq and his vinegar sauce was very tasty on the pork. hub's brisket had a nice crust on it and was moist. i REALLY liked his baked beans. As stated, the mac & cheese was pretty average, but it was better with some tabasco sauce on it (which is how i eat it anyway). jimmy stopped by our table and i was asking him about the ribs. he brought us out a rib a piece so we could try it. the dry rub was spot on and the ribs didn't need any extra sauce. glad it's so close to where i live and work!

good for han! i giggled a little at the "entertainingly frank" comment. true dat. we haven't had much "american" chinese food at either of the HD, but i do think their straight up roast pork fried rice, dumplings and hot and sour soup are better than most. i miss seeing han in exton, but i hear he's there every monday now. whenever my husband and i go to HD in exton, we think of ourselves as the "alpha caucasians." the only thing i think han needs to change is to put a dash in his website name ... break up the name the wrong way and han dynasty becomes handy nasty.

i notice you're in delaware. if you're okay with outside of philly, gilmore's in west chester is an excellent choice, as is the birchrunville store cafe, which has a 6 course tasting menu. i rank the birchrunville store cafe tasting menu as one of the best meals i've eaten.

my dad and i like to go there after early phils games. really good ribs (like em too much to try the pasta). they have good desserts like mom used to make (icebox cake, pudding, etc). the history of the place (and the name) is pretty interesting, as well.

is it bad that i look at the pics and i'm hungry again? that was a GREAT dinner!

since we're makng falafel recommendations, anyone have any for outside philly? the only place i know in chester county is the mediterranean, but it's a little formal.

is this byo, by any chance? ← nope, it's a bar.

my dad and i like to go to the bomb bomb bbq & italian restaurant when we go to Phillies games. it's about a 5 min car ride from the stadiums. we always get the ribs, but i've heard good things about the italian food and mussels, as well. http://www.bombbomb-restaurant.com/Home.html

i'm glad things working out nicely for you.

so ... did the family eventually get fed?

i think enzo's has good pizza, but i'd call em tomorrow and make sure they can handle that large a request. if they can't, pizza peddler is also close (although i think they're greek). carmine's should be able to deliver out there, as well.

i think you may be SOL on finding VERY VERY good pizza in the west chester area. there are, however, a few places that should be able to handle your big request. two that immediately come to mind are carmine's pizza & eatery on paoli pike in the west goshen shopping center. the other is the pizza peddler in the acme shopping center on 202 & 926. i happen to think that jack's pizza & pasta in either frazer or exton makes a pretty good pie. i also like enzo's on rt 202s near the dillworthtown inn. i'm thinkin you need to come out here and do some sampling and see which one you think your family'll like the best. i'd be happy to help you.

the parking is much easier in exton. another place i always liked is a small place called dolce vita in bridgeport pa (up 202 and dekalb pike from KoP). this place is really tiny and basically in the living room of a row home. the food is good, plentiful and you feel like you're eating at mom's (if mom was italian).

there isn't a whole lotta non-chain/non-pizzeria italian in chester county (at least none that i've found). allegria in exton (off rt 100n right before you hit 113) is pretty good. here's a link to one of percy's threads about it. he also has a link to the restaurant's website ... http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1149839.

if you're ever up near hamburg, pa, my hub bought a nice selection of hardwoods (apple, hickory and alder) at cabelas for around $8 p/ 10lb bag. doesn't look like they sell wood through their website. if you've never been to cabelas before, it's quite the redneck disneyland!

I was up in Sussex County visiting my sister last weekend for Crawfish Fest in Augusta. After eating Cajun all day, we needed something different for dinner. We decided to check out the House of Kebabs in Newton (be warned, the website has music). At first glance, it looked to be only take-out with a small market, but upon further investigation, there was a nice little dining area (3 2-tops and 3 4-tops). They put out warm pita with what we think was tahini. We also ordered some plain hummus. Quite nice, very creamy. For dinner, I had the straight up lamb shish kebab, my hub and another diner had the lamb adana kebab (ground, seasoned lamb) and my sister had the falafel. The meal started with a big salad they call a shepherd's salad. it was diced cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and onion dressed in a vinegar dressing. Each dish was served with bulgar rice, carrots, red cabbage and onions. The plating was very pretty (mold of rice, big scoops of carrots, onions and cabbage), then the meat, all around the rice. The food was wonderful. The meat was nicely seasoned and moist. I really enjoyed the rice. We finished the meal sharing baklava, which was served in 4 little pieces with whipped cream. If you're ever in Newton and hankering for Middle Eastern cuisine, go check em out!

So ... the game was great, but it was also REALLY FAST! it started at 1pm and was done a little after 3pm. We didn't feel like hanging around the city for too long (Dad lives in NJ near Great Adventure) and I'm out in West Chester, plus we were also a little disheveled, having spent a few hours out in the humid air in our Phils gear. Taking all that into consideration, we ended up at Bomb Bomb for ribs. It was a really nice experience! I really haven't spent much time in South Philly, but as we walked in the door, all the folks in the bar area (workers and patrons) all greeted us with "Hellos" and "How are you's". That was mighty nice. Dad and I each got the baby back ribs. I got a whole rack with the spicy sauce (took half home for the hub). Dad got a half a rack with the mild sauce. They gave us bread (olive oil and spices on the table) and a nice little garden salad. The ribs were delish! Very meaty, nice amount of sauce, kind of crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. It was served with fries and slaw. A perfect post-ball game meal. Now that I feel a little more comfortable roaming around South Philly, I'd like to go back, eat some actual Italian food and hit the markets. Thanks for your suggestions! p.s. I tried to take some pics with my cell phone, but it was a little too dark in the dining room.

Thanks, all! I have written down options and will run them past dad tomorrow. I'll let you know where we went and how it was.

I'm sure there are South Philly eatery threads in here, but I'm having a hard time tracking them down. I'm taking Dad to the Business Person's Special game tomorrow at Citizens Bank Park. He wants to go out for dinner after and I'm clueless about that part of the city. Any suggestions would be helpful!

while we're on the topic of sweets ... i wanted to give some props to sweet jazmine's bakery in berwyn. they're famous for their cheesecakes, but all their cakes, brownies and muffins are sublime! we got our wedding cake from them ... the bottom layer was chocolate chip pound cake with chocolate cheesecake in the midde, the middle layer was sweet potato cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and the top layer was white cake, vanilla cheese cake and apricot. it was covered in buttercream and tasted AMAZING. i try and stop in there at any given opportunity (birthdays, anniversaries, the need for a sweet potato muffin ...). they usually have all sorts of samples out, so if you want to try before you buy, you can. it's on bridge street off rt 30 in berwyn. i'm not sure i would have found them, had i not been looking for a wedding cake, but i'm really glad i did.

I stopped into Cupcakes Gourmet today (can't resist a good cupcake!). I bought a dozen minis and brought them into work. I got to try the red velvet, the vanilla and the chai latte ones. Very tasty! I got good reports back on the other kinds (chipotle chocolate, lemon, peanut butter, dark chocolate vanilla) as well. They have a website (http://www.cupcakesgourmet.com/). They're in the Nobb Hill shopping center, which is helpful to know when you're trying to find them. It's on the right hand side of Rt 30 going east after 352 and before the Lincoln Court Shopping Center.

i had a double-whammy good food day today! i had lunch at l'elephant. i was with a bunch of thai food neophytes, so we did a nice sampling of curries and standard thai fare. the food was outstanding and the service was delightful. it was my birthday, so they brought out a huge tray of fruit (there were 7 of us total), which consisted of honeydew, cantaloupe and watermelon balls with grapes. in the middle was a big flower carved out of watermelon, which they put a candle in., it was pretty cool! wish i had a camera. for dinner, we went to cosimo in malvern. i wish i knew why that place isn't doing better. the wine bar is fun, getting to try flights of different wines. everything about the dinner was terrific. the bread was baked on the premises ... a crusty french bread, a rosemary and calamata olive bread and a tuscan cornbread, with sundried tomatoes and basil. all served with olive oil and a spice blend that was a mix of chinese five spice powder and jerk seasoning. for dinner, hubby had the conch chowder (manhattan style) and i had herbed gnocchi with oyster shrooms, pecorino cheese and english peas. for dinner, hubby had the smoked salmon over a shrimp risotto and i had the pork loin served with a sweet potato and bacon hash. delicious. they're famous for desserts, so hubby had their custard trio, which consisted of a caramel creme brulee, sour cherry cheesecake and a cookie. i had the nut trio ... walnut coffee cake, hazelnut gelato and a warm cashew-caramel tart. it's a nice spot, very tastefully decorated with a great waitstaff. they're a little on the expensive side, but not awful. maybe we can stir a little buzz. http://www.cosimorestaurant.com/

any thoughts on good kosher for passover wines?