dagordon

Just picked up some Prime, dry-aged steaks from Wegmans for a July 4th BBQ: We had two of these a couple of weeks ago (not grilled), and they were fantastic. They're not cheap -- 27.99/pound -- but it's actually a fairly good value, imho. I'm also not sure that there's steak of this quality available for purchase anywhere else around here. (Mail-order is an entirely different story, of course.) Interestingly, I think that these steaks at the Cherry Hill Wegmans are better than their counterparts at the Princeton Wegmans. Of course, I imagine quality will vary over time, but the steaks we had from Cherry Hill were substantially better than the ones from Princeton -- the Princeton ones weren't as well marbled, and they weren't available in cuts as thick.

My thought is this sounds like a fantastic idea... I'm definitely in. Maybe at some point we can also place a group order with Lobel's for meat (although, considering their prices, weekly might be a bit much). Fish is a good start.

Parmesan truffle fries at Matyson. Not traditional fries, but oh so good. Comes with the steak frites, but you can get them on the side.

Nope..... Too busy reading surveillance reports from Foie Gras farms....... ← Priceless.

Huge Wegmans fan. We've been eagerly awaiting the opening of the Cherry Hill store. I'm in Princeton quite a bit and routinely fill up the car with stuff from Wegmans and bring it back to Philly. Yes, it's certainly possible to get most of what you can get at Wegmans around Philly. I think there are actually a couple of things that Wegmans has that are actually better than elsewhere. For example, they have Australian lamb racks for about $13 each that are really excellent, substantially better than what's available at Whole Foods. Lamb tenderloins too. Both of these are vacuum packed, and last quite a while. Also, Wegmans has dry aged Prime beef that's excellent. Whole Foods has dry aged Choice beef that varies in quality. I tried Harry Ochs' dry aged prime, which was very disappointing. They only age for two weeks. Wegmans and Whole Foods age for three, which still isn't nearly enough, imho. Also: Wegmans in Princeton, at least, has sashimi grade yellowfin that is excellent. I didn't see it at the Cherry Hill store, but maybe it will make an appearance. Haven't been able to find anything in Philly approaching this quality. (Wegmans in Princeton also sells apple cider from Terhune orchards in Princeton, which is the best apple cider you can get outside of the Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Vermont. Here's hoping that it makes its way down to the Cherry Hill store.) Also, we got veal chops at the Cherry Hill store on Sunday that looked really good (we weren't intending to get veal, but couldn't pass these up) and were, indeed, very good. Haven't seen veal looking like this around Philly. But the main point is that Wegmans has all of this stuff AND normal supermarket stuff. You can't get a box of Cheerios at RTM, nor can you get one at Whole Foods. Nor can you load up on household stuff like (normal) dish soap, sponges, etc., at these places. You might be able to get most of what you can get at Wegmans by schlepping around various places in Philly. Or you can just drive to Wegmans. Oh, and I think that the produce is at least as good as what you can get at iovine's, even if there are things that iovine's has that wegman's doesn't. My experience is that iovine's is pretty hit or miss. Also: D'Artagnan duck at Wegmans. Awesome. And Meredith Dairy 34 degrees Marinated Feta, in the cheese section, in little tubs. (If you haven't tried this stuff, you haven't truly lived.) And Gustosella buffalo mozarella (they were sampling this stuff on Sunday -- smart move). Of course, the non-pre-packaged cheese offerings don't compare to DiBruno's.

We finally tried Raw last night, and were thoroughly underwhelmed. First, service-wise. They still haven't quite figured out their reservations policy. I called yesterday afternoon and said that I was interested in an omakase dinner for that night, and asked whether I needed a reservation. The woman took a reservation for a 7:30 omakase dinner for $75/person. When we arrived last night, there was no one in the front area to greet people. We waited for several minutes. At some point I walked up a couple of stairs into the main room and just stood there for a couple of more minutes, hoping to be noticed. At some point a man approached, and we said that we had a reservation for dinner. He went over to the book and started to flip through it, and couldn't find our reservation. I mentioned that it was a reservation for an omakase dinner, and he seemed to remember something about it, and told us to wait a second. He walked away and a woman approached and asked "2 for dinner?" We explained that we had a reservation for an omakase dinner, and she said that they don't take reservations for omakase dinners! Finally the guy returned and showed us to our table. It should not be this hard just to get seated!! People at Raw: figure this stuff out! We sat, and we ordered some sake and water. Then another person came and asked if we wanted anything to drink. We mentioned that we had ordered some sake. After a bit yet a third person asked if we wanted anything to drink. Final non-food related issues: two empty plates repeatedly made an appearance on the table at various points in the meal, and neither of us could figure out what they were for. Also, dishes that pretty clearly required a spoon (the first dish I'll describe below, and the last) weren't presented with one (we had to ask), and our chopsticks disappeared at one point. Now, everyone was VERY nice. And as far as service-related issues go, these are, of course, not huge. But they were irritating. Now, the food. We started with potato encrusted lobster in a truffle broth. The broth was excellent, the lobster rubbery. Then small pieces of salmon wrapped around spicy tuna with two sauces (red and whitish) drizzled on the plate. There were like 7 of these little concoctions on the plate. They were fine; you couldn't really taste very much of the fish, though. (Spicy tuna is notoriously a way of masking inferior quality tuna. I'm NOT claiming that this is what is was doing in this case, or that it does this in every case. I like spicy tuna as much as the next guy. But it doesn't really allow you to taste the tuna. Seven of these things was a bit much.) Then seared day boat scallops over meat from (braised or maybe sous-vide) short ribs. This was the highlight of the meal. The short ribs were truly excellent, the scallops cooked perfectly. Then whitefish sashimi, cut very thin. Perfectly unobjectionable, nothing special, but, again, there were so many! Like 7 of these little slices. After the whitefish sashimi course we had a "palate cleanser" of blackberries over Merlot ice cream. There was way too much ice cream there for a palate cleanser, and in fact our waiter thoughtfully suggested that we not eat too much of it. Moreover, in my mind this was completely unnecessary. The meal up to that point (unfortunately) did not feature any particularly strong, lingering flavors of which our palates had to be cleansed, and this just unncesessarily filled us up. Next there was a trio of oysters (all Kumamotos, I believe). The first plain, except for a sauce that we didn't care for. The second was tuna wrapped around a raw oyster, abutted by a piece of orange to which something had done (pickled? or just some kind of sauce? i don't know) that we found pretty unpleasant. The third was fried, which was good, but completely standard. Finally, a "hot pot" with slices of "Kobe beef" (don't get me started -- presumably it was just Wagyu, assuming they're not importing this stuff from Japan), more day boat scallops, a bit of lobster, and a ball of something (perhaps fried spicy tuna?). I really didn't care for this, although my girlfriend found it slighly better than I did. The broth was way too sweet, and not particularly flavorful. And by then I'd had enough day boat scallop. Dessert was blackberries and strawberries over whipped cream. The blackberries were good. Overall, we were quite disappointed. As I said, this was a $75/person omakase, From that I expected more. At the very least, I expected to sample more sushi and sashimi! All we had in that area was the salmon wrapped spicy tuna and the whitefish sashimi, both of which were ok, but, as I've said, there was so much of each. Some more variety would have been welcome. Maybe it's my fault for not specifying that we wanted more raw fish, but you'd think that there would have been a bit more variety here. And I expected the cooked stuff to be a bit more adventurous -- like some of the stuff in philadining's post. Glad we tried it, won't be heading back any time soon.

Vadouvan, you are a genius. We used your method on king salmon that I brought back from Citarella in nyc tonight, and it was amazing. The texture was unlike any cooked salmon I've ever had -- smooth, almost creamy, melt-in-your-mouth. And it really brought out the pure flavor of the fish. I did, however, experiment with an extra piece of salmon that we had cooked your way that was left over -- I seared it on an incredibly hot cast iron skillet for like a minute on each side. The outside got nice and crispy, but the inside texture remained largely undisturbed. You might think that this is blasphemy, but we were very happy with how it turned out. The contrast b/w the texure of the surface and the inside was really nice.

The middle-age woman who always serves us speaks *minimal* English; it might be better to attempt the Vietnamese. If you do figure out how to get tendon and flank, though, please let us know!

Yup, you have the location right. Just be careful, I think there are a number of small Vietnamese restaurants surrounding Cafe Diem... Here are some pictures of the Vietnamese-only side of the menu -- apologies for the picture quality (camera phone way up close) The pho I've had is the Pho Tai. Also, Katie, you'll be happy to know that not only is Cafe Diem clean, as I've said, but, unlike Pho Ha, it got the all clear from the (correct) Philly inspection report.

I'm a bit worried that this message might get lost in the flurry of replies to my initial post, but: this place is really outstanding. And it has A/C, so it's COOL inside on days like today, making slurping pho perfectly comfortable even in hot weather. I don't think I've ever seen another non-Asian in the place (except for my g/f). This is a good sign. Can't eat pho anywhere else in Philly now. At some point I'll have to try the other non-soup dishes, but only a very small portion of the menu has English translations, and I can't imagine not having pho.

Girlfriend and I have been to Ansill twice now, and were wowed each time. We've had a good portion of the menu, and the only thing that was at all disappointing was the ceviche, which was just fine, but as murkcury noted, too muted. In particular, we loved the scallions with romanesco, which hasn't seemed to do it for others. Osso buco sandwhich and pork belly with spaetzle were standouts (how can you go wrong with spaetzle?) -- the pork belly was not exceptionally fatty, which was a nice way to experience it. Pif and Ansill are real gems. David Ansill's tastes just seem to match perfectly with ours. It's a rare and amazing thing when you can find that.

An article about Fuji's relocation: Fuji article The township is not using eminent domain - Fuji is leased, and the owner is willingly selling to the township. So Matt's not being compensated.

One thing is that the Niman Ranch bacon that's available at Whole Foods (and at virtually ever other market I've been to) is their Uncured variety, which is vastly inferior to their Cured product, which is excellent, imho.

I thought I'd concluded my survey of Philly's Pho offerings. I ended up right back where I started -- Pho Ha on 6th and Washington. The soup is consistently good there, although lately the filth factor is verging on unbearable there. Well, Cafe Diem, 1031 S 8th St, right above Washington, has, hands-down, IMO, the best Pho in the city, and some of the best I've ever had. The broth was not nearly as dark as Pho Ha's, but it was incredibly flavorful. The best Pho that I've had has an odd combination of intensity of flavor and lightness, and this had it. Maybe the lightness is that the broth isn't very fatty? I don't know. In any case, it was awesome. It was standard steak and maybe some brisket -- I don't know what else is available. Also -- not really Pho at all -- Bun Bo Hue, spicy beef noddle soup. The noddles were round and reminded me of Dan Dan noodles. The broth tastes like the Pho broth, only intensely spicy. I mean SPICY. This is about as spicy as I can tolerate. Maybe others will find it pretty manageable, but I had a couple of coughing fits. Last time we were there, my girlfirend ate some too quickly and claimed that it bore a whole through her ear. It's a pretty small place, but very clean, and the staff is friendly.

Yeah, very sad. They were on vacation for a while in January, I think, and they never reopened, as far as I could tell. They must have really been hurting to close so soon. I feel guilty for not going more often, and telling others to...

Based on all of the positive reviews here, I was very excited to do an omakase dinner tonight with my girlfriend. I called on Monday night and tried to make a reservation for tonight (Wednesday), and was told that they don't take reservations, but that Wed at 8:30 wouldn't be a problem, and that I should just call an hour ahead of time to let them prepare for the omakase. So, I called just now, and was told that they can't do omakase tonight (they're too busy), and I should have made a reservation! Apparently they do take reservations during the week. The woman I spoke to said that she has to communicate better with the rest of her staff. Indeed.

This statement is shocking! Shocking, I tell you. The desserts at Pif, over the many times that I've been there, have ranged from excellent to phenomenal. We've never felt that the desserts haven't been as strong as the other food. What are the dessert selections like at Ansill?

There's a large Asian grocery store on Race St. near Ocean Harbor, on the same side of the street, that has it. (It says "kecap manis" on our bottle, but it's the same stuff.) Good stuff. We just discovered it after finding out that it's the yummy sauce drizzled on top of the oyster omelet at Fatty Crab in nyc. -dg

That's really funny, I was just about to start a new thread about this when I saw this one. We were in mourning after the first Buon Appetito closed. We would call or even drive by the restaurant periodically, almost in denial, hoping to see signs of activity. We thought we would never taste those stuffed zuchinni flowers again... So when we heard late Thursday night that they had reopened -- and only a couple of blocks from us -- we were ecstatic. We confirmed the rumor with our own eyes and made a reservation for dinner yesterday. It was as good as ever. The space is much nicer than their old one, I think -- more upscale, and roomier. We started with calimari stuffed with various seafood in red sauce, which was delicious, and prosciutto and buffalo mozeralla, which had been a favorite of ours at their original location. (Unfortunately, no zuchinni flowers this time, but apparently they'll have them soon.) Followed by linguini with scampi, mussels, and clams, and veal marsala. The main courses were excellent. And Ciro would come out quite often to make sure everything was ok and that we were enjoying ourselves. It was great to see him again. This is incredibly exciting.

Just thought I'd add to the praise. In the past couple of months we've been to Fuji twice and have had omakase sushi at the sushi bar. The meals were two of the best sushi meals we've ever had. Having spent a fair amount of time in New York City, our expectations are pretty high for sushi: but the quality of Fuji's fish easily rivals that of the best in NYC (Sushi Yasuda, in my opinion), and the creativity of Chef Matt's selections I think pushes it over the top when compared to the omakase that I've had at Yasuda and other places. I usually don't like sushi that's blow-torched or covered in garnish or sauce of any kind: I like to keep it about the fish. But when Matt did venture into this territory, the results were uniformly excellent. Whatever he did to the fish was never overpowering, and instead brought out the character of the fish and resulted in some pretty amazing combinations. Scallops with the teeniest drop of truffle oil and caviar. Sea bream with shiso and some kind of salty green deliciousness. Fuji's exquisitely subtle uni on top of the tastiest eel I've ever had, resulting in perfection. Again, I'm usually rather conservative with my sushi praise. But this guy is, frankly, a brilliant chef. Perhaps the way that the few non-sushi items he brought us integrated into the meal was the most impressive part of it. Slices of tuna and scallop, with the tuna slightly seared around the edges, each topped with a pearl of what I think was an anchovy paste, next to a small salad dressed in a fresh citrus (and maybe raspberry?) sauce opened. Then the creamiest and smoothest Kumamoto oysters I've ever had. At some point during the sushi he brought out a small, whole fish the had been made into sushi virtually whole -- he replaced the insides with sushi rice. Parts of the fish had been fried. Nowhere else would I have eaten a fish head so large. Cinnamon "soup" with pine nuts was a palate cleanser/pre-dessert. Outstanding, and so unusual. Dessert was a surprisingly light chocolate creme brulee. I don't understand how he gets fish this good. I want to live at this place.