percyn

Tomato water risotto with basil and crab Not as good as Shola's version, but one of the best risottos I have made. MrBigJas, those chanterelles sound good...

Tomato, basil and crab risotto made with tomato water Niman ranch pork loin topped with alder smoked salt and homemade vinaigrette side salad

Philadining, I just returned after a hefty meal at Majolica and I am now hungry after viewing these wonderful pictures Shola, you have just raised your own bar a bit...for our next visit

Essence of corn soup - Shola had a much better version of this, but this rendition is not bad to enjoy at home. Puree some raw white baby corn kernels (cut them fresh off the cobb) in a blender and strain the "juice". Reduce the juice a bit and add cream, salt and white pepper to taste....hmmm...hmmm...good.

Let me start off with some nut oils I was introduced to at SK - From right to left: Argan Oil - Found only in Morocco I believe, this is made from the nuts of the Argan tree. It has a musky, sort of macadamia nut flavor. Manzanilla Olive Oil - Cold pressed and unfiltered...the essense of olives. Avacado oil - To be honest, I have not introduced to this at SK, but I found it while hunting for the Manzanilla....shows that you can discover other treats along the way

BigJas, your wish is my command...introducing the Inspired by StudioKitchen topic.

If your visit to the legendary StudioKitchen has inspired you, a home cook, to try out some of the dishes or seek out a particular ingredient, please do share....

Lauren, I say we hit all of these places in 1 day Meanwhile, a review of last night's Moore Brothers wine dinner at Gilmore's can be found here.

Good idea I have heard about the Moore Bros dinners but never had any solid leads. Posting here would be great! Evan ← Gilmore's has added another date for the Moore Brothers wine dinner on Aug 14th. Not sure if they are sold out.

Once again...Philadining has made my job easy...so here are the pics. Thanks to Nick who was conveniently seated by the window for creating this contraption to trap as much natural light as possible (Gilmores is not the best place to use a flash, thus you will see the light quality decline as the meal progresses). David, great to meet you and to see you chime in.

Steak with roasted baby fennel, caramelized onions and sauteed shitake

Was invited to a colleague's house for a pig roast yesterday....delicious...planning my own version soon !! Lets see...which one is little piggy's better side? ... dosen't matter, they both tasted good The 50 lb piggy was chooped up into 3 trays of tender, succulent meat. Scraps and bones were enjoyed by the dogs. Kind of ghastly..isn't it?

Well...I love breakfast, but usually don't have enough time for it other than the weekends, when it usually is a substitution for lunch....or a portion of it anyway. So today I had a slice of cornbread I bought from whole foods and made an omelet with left over Chinese (moo shoo vegetable and beef with hot peppers).

Looks like the budget on this production was a bit more than Cook's Tour . Though some of the alleged "setup" may deter from the raw edge of the show, there is still plenty of attitude and rawness to go around. Love the 60 min format and as always, Tony's way with words and ability to speak what is in his (sometimes twisted) mind. Tony, is there a DVD planned for this series? Cheers Percy

Evan, That's a shame... How far are you willing to travel? If a 45-60min drive from Center City does not put you off, try Birchrunville Store Cafe. Might be hard to get on such short notice, but worth a try.

Looks like they are getting ready to build an Ironhill Brewery in Pheonixville.

I am sad to report that Crepe Mrytle (my favorite local ribs place), Mom's Pizza and pretty much everything in the Milltown Market with the exception of the healthfood store (forget its name), Thai de Cafe and Blue Moon Cafe have closed down. Thai de cafe is great and inexpensive...they have great take out too. Support the local restaurants... Thanks Percy

A follow-through on my promise of topping scrambled eggs with the cold chicken can be found here. It really tasted yummmmy !!

Loosely scrambled eggs, topped with Sichuan "Cold Chicken"...I love it when "east meets west" in such harmony

Essense of corn soup - made from the "juice" of farm fresh sweet white corn. Home ground sirloin and chuck burgers - this is my first time grinding my own steaks for burgers...might never go back. On the grill with corn on the cob and slices of new potatoes bought from local farmer. The final product - with aioli and slice of tomato Enjoyed with some grilled chips and Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale Dessert - Homemade ice-cream, creme carmel foam, topped with granola.

Mrbigjas, interesting that you looked for some of the ingredients following our dinner. I find myself often inspired by Shola's dinner and ingredients and a hunt for them usually ensues dinner. At one of my first dinners at SK, I was introduced to Argan Oil....2 yrs later, I finally found a bottle. After our last dinner, I located the unfiltered Manzanilla olive oil, ordered some smoked salt via mail order, made "essence of corn" soup from "corn juice", ground my own burgers and have a batch of tomatoes in the fridge giving up valuable "tomato water". I hope Shola views this more as inspiration than plagiarism

Well, my tolerance for spicy stuff is on the high side, but even so I had to follow up eating the 2 day old cold chicken, which was marinating in the spicy sauce, with a small bowl of plain yogurt to protect my intestinal lining.

Egg fried in duck fat, with side of Sarano Bacon and toast

Moby, ...On the 7th day...God said...Let there be Shola...and the rest is history Seriously though, he has worked in some very good kitchens in the Philly area. I will leave the rest upto the chef himself to answer, so as not to intrude on his privacy.

After hearing Philadining (check out his website here ) rave about Tifco and SaxChik's last post, I had an impromptu urge to give this place another shot and I am glad I did, as it changed my opinion !! It was suprisingly empty for lunchtime on a weekend (perhaps the great weather was to blame), but most other clientel were Asian. I asked for the Chinese menu, which they provided....along with the regular American menu...for as they said..."just in case" I was determined to try a few dishes... Dish # 1 - Chaoshuo - although Tifco has a version which added chicken broth, which I find just acts as a transport vehicle for the spicy sauce to float on and hit you in the throat. the version of Chaoshuo I am used to ordering looks like this.. Dish # 2 - Ja Ja Mein (sp?) (Tifco calls it spaghetti with minced pork - #21) which was pretty good and close to what I am used to getting at other Sichuan places I respect, (though not as spicy) Dish # 3 - Cold Chicken in Spicy sauce (#7 on their Chinese menu), which I must say was the highlight of the day. Not only is a big bowl of boneless chicken, but the sauce is just outstanding and lives up to its name. Moreover, this is very close to the sauce I am used to in Chaoshuo, so I made my over version of it and it was good.... While there are still other things I want to try, I was only able to make my way through 1/2 of those dishes, until the rest of them came home with me to not only become part of my dinner, but I plan to use some of that spicy chicken in my breakfast (with loose scrambled eggs) Through the course of my visit, the wait-staff asked me where I had learnt about the Chinese dishes, asked if I had visited China and I even saw a person from the kitchen (who I presume was the chef) come to the "front of the house" (this could have been a co-incidence, but I wonder how often his food is photographed by patrons). So when I read the fortune in the namesake cookie, it almost seemed planted All in all, it was a great visit and I am glad I gave this place another shot, as it has some of my favorite dishes (or close to them). Next on my list - #7 : Beef and Tripes in hot sauce. Cheers Percy