philadining

That Passyunk Ave one is odd, isn't it? Beyond having fewer flavors, I find having them in covered containers to be surprisingly distancing. I'm not sure why I want to look at each flavor, but I do... And I'm a little surprised they laid it out like they did, seems like the line to order would be blocking the door if they are even a little busy. The West Philly one is pretty nice though, and I'm curious about the addition of a bar. I think I want to go with Katie Loeb and let her come up with some boozy gelato floats, and see if they'll make them for us.

Sorry, missed your time deadline, but I'd have also suggested Green Goddess. No foams or gels, but I think they have a very modern approach, taking inspiration from diverse cuisines while still embracing local ingredients and style. Where'd you end up going?

I was trying to picture this place but couldn't visualize it on the corner Katie mentioned, and then I remembered that I'd driven by it - it's at 45th and Chestnut not on Spruce (that's Rx!) And yes, it's a somewhat marginal block right now, but let's hope that a nice restaurant can help swing the momentum. And it's always good to hear about another source for Greek food.

oooh, you should have gotten goat tacos at Los Caballitos. I have no idea about their uniqueness, but I'm quite sure of their awesomeness....

I went to Rangoon for my vegetarian friend's bachelor party, so we got mostly vegetarian dishes. They were great, but I might come back here to try more of the meat dishes. Also, I got so drunk at Zot afterwards that I forgot most of what we had. BTW, what were the Burmese places you went to in SF and DC? ← Rangoon has added a lot of vegetarian dishes in the last few years, I think in response to vegetarians adopting the place even though there's dried shrimp powder as a seasoning in almost everything... But I assume they're leaving that out in the vegetarian section. I noticed the place in DC offered versions of vegetable dishes with and without fish sauce. You definitely should try some meat dishes, there are some good ones. My current faves are the thousand-layer bread with chicken curry, Kung Pau Beef (no, it's not like the Kung Pau anything you get in Americanized Chinese places) the Festival Rice (kind of like a chicken Biryani) the Pagan Beef, any of the Mint Kebabs (not kebabs, they're stir-fries) any of the jungle curries, jeeze, there's not much I don't like... Many of the seafood dishes are breaded and fried, and I find the breading a little heavy, so I'm actually not all that find of those, but I think they're pretty popular overall. But whatever you do, don't skip the ginger salad. The places I've gone in other cities were: Burma Superstar in San Francisco: http://www.burmasuperstar.com/ and Mandalay, which is now in Silver Spring, MD, not in DC proper anymore. http://www.mandalayrestaurantcafe.net/ I liked both of them, but still prefer Rangoon in Philly... (fixed typos)

What lens did you get with it Holly? Another thing to keep in mind is that depth of field is affected not only by aperture but also by focal length. A wide-angle lens is going to have a deeper depth of field than a telephoto at the same aperture setting. And there's even more to it than that, but aperture and focal length are the biggies. I used to shoot with an inexpensive, but very useful, 50mm 1.8, almost always set to wide-open, which allowed me some decent shots even in very low light. But as you yourself had commented, that wide aperture created some pretty extreme focus effects! At some point, I found a good deal on an 18-55mm lens, and found that I much preferred shooting at the wide-angle end of that lens, even though it wasn't as fast (didn't have as wide of an aperture.) First, there was less contorting myself around at a table trying to frame the shot with a fixed 50; second, between the wide angle and the smaller aperture, I get a wider depth of field, which keeps more of the food in focus; third, even with the longer shutter-speeds required due to the smaller maximum aperture, it's easier to get a steady shot with a wide-angle lens. It's even easier with a VR (vibration-reduction) lens, which I suspect you got, if you bought a kit. I theoretically agree with David that a tripod is ideal, and any time I do serious shooting in a professional context, of course I use a tripod (and usually artificial lighting), but I find in the kind of restaurant hit-and-run shooting that you and I both do, a tripod is rarely practical. Small table-top tripods are very hard to position correctly on a table with food on it, and framing the shot and determining focus becomes an acrobatic affair. Full-size tripods are always in the way. Either tripod ends up drawing a lot of attention, even more than the SLR itself. If you happen to be in a restaurant when its not crowded and you're hoping to sell a photo to a magazine (there must still be one or two magazines that still pay for photos, right?) I'd certainly recommend a tripod. But if you're just taking a quick shot of your sandwich at your table to post on Hollyeats.com, it's going to be way easier to just hand-hold it. Practice bracing your arms against your body, or on the table, or whatever, to hold the camera steady (holding it up to your eye helps) and gently squeezing the shutter. Beyond that basic technique stuff, I'd recommend setting the camera to A, for aperture priority, and opening the lens up as far as it will go, which might only be 3.5 or so, if you have a typical kit zoom lens. If it's a VR lens, make sure the VR is switched on. If it's a zoom, use the wider-end of it, and get as close as your focus-range allows. If it's even a little dim, crank the ISO up to its highest setting, which will allow faster shutter-speeds, therefore less blurring. If it's nice and bright, use lower ISO settings. Keep in mind that higher ISOs will result in grainier photos, which may or may not matter much, depending on the use of the photo - on the web, not such a big deal, in print, extreme grain would be a problem. If you have plenty of light, you can shut the aperture down in order to get deeper focus, if desired. Set the white balance appropriately for the type of light you're encountering. I don't have that much luck with auto settings, so I tend to set that manually, and then do further adjustments when importing the RAW file. If you haven't bought a lens yet, go for something wide, maybe even a non-zoom "prime" lens, if you don't mind carrying more than one lens around. If you want to be more practical, the 18-55mm zoom, or the 18-200mm zoom, are incredibly versatile lenses, if not the ultimate in optical quality. And I do suggest shooting in RAW, I think it's worth the extra data storage space. Large SD cards are cheap, as are hard drives for your computer, and you can always delete everything except the best shots. Being able to tweak white balance and exposure and several other parameters during the RAW import process has made a HUGE improvement in my finished shots, and I suspect it would do the same for yours, even if you were only making minor adjustments, or hitting the "auto" buttons. I happen to use a full-on version of Photoshop for this, but Photoshop Elements does a pretty good job for less than $100, and gives you almost everything in the pro version other than working in CMYK colorspace, which you don't really need unless you're laying-out print materials yourself. But the biggest things, way beyond the gear, are optimizing the light you have, and composing the shot. Get the subject into the spot where the light is best, and at the best angle. That might occasionally be counter-intuitive, but be open to trying a few angles. And then set-up the shot, as best you can. You don't always have that much flexibility if you're shooting stuff on a table, but when you can, move distracting things out of the frame, or make sure interesting things are in the background. Play with your depth of field to make those other elements more or less prominent. Have fun! I look forward to seeing new pix...

In David's defense, I don't think he was insisting that the only solution be that the dog come inside, just expressing his feeling that the place could have done something more for them. Despite all the arguing back and forth here, it does seem that something resembling a vague consensus has emerged: the restaurant wasn't obliged to do anything, but it might have been good mojo if they'd gone above and beyond in some way. I stick by my original post back toward the beginning of this thread that the circumstance was bad luck, and there's not much the restaurant could do about it. But I suppose i can see that point that it would have felt good, from the diners' perspective, if the restaurant had proactively offered something - I'm not sure what, but probably just offering to pack the food to go, or acknowledging that the customers were having a miserable time and offering some incentive to come back another time... I'm reminded of a time when I dropped an ice cream cone as I as leaving the place I bought it. They noticed and insisted on giving me another one. It wasn't their fault that I dropped it, but they felt some sympathy, and I remember being very appreciative of the gesture. And that place was: jeeze, I can't remember... it was a long time ago... maybe there's a lesson there too... but I do remember being impressed at the time. In the end, no, it's not the restaurant's fault that the customers decided to bring a dog. It's not the restaurant's fault that it started raining. And hey, the economy's tough, I can see why the restaurant wouldn't feel like comping food over something that's not their fault. But making some sort of gesture as a nod to the fact that their customers had a miserable time sitting outside in the rain probably would have been a good move. (For the record, this particular restaurant is really tiny, with an open kitchen right near the door, and there's no out-of-the-way place to stash a dog, even if they'd decided to risk violating the law. So they were very likely to annoy other diners if they'd taken that path. I happen to like dogs, but I've been in places that allowed them and ended up very annoyed. It's kind of cute to have a dog beg for table scraps if you're at a friend's house, it kind of sucks at a restaurant. Yes, I've had this happen. But even if it's properly controlled, I personally don't really want to share my dining-out experience with a stranger's damp dog, especially a nervous one in a thunderstorm.)

Yeah, I gotta agree with Doc. I feel your pain, that was bad luck, but I'm not sure I can fault a restaurant for not wanting dogs in the dining room.

I'm sure that's true, but it seemed like they were going out of their way to make balanced sandwiches on the day we were there. One of our party had been delayed and we forced him to go back about an hour after we were there and get a sandwich, because ours had been so good. And his was almost identical in its contents, with a seemingly-carefully balanced combination of lean and fatty, with just the right amount of crispy skin. Now, maybe I'm giving them too much credit, and maybe we just got very lucky with two sandwiches at two different times, but they were almost identical and seemed to have been assembled to include a variety of the parts of the pig. This was early afternoon on saturday, and they were not super-busy, so maybe that makes a difference. I'll be more than happy to head back there ASAP and contribute another datapoint...

I was kind of excited by the news that the rolls would be coming from Artisan Boulanger Patissier, they make incredibly great bread. But you make a good point, the butter-grilled sides are pretty crucial, so the success of the roll depends largely on form, maybe even more than quality of dough. So, anybody sampled one of the new rolls? BTW, even my local Giant supermarket carries the top-sliced Pepperidge Farm rolls, but as Holly noted, the sides are not very griddle-friendly...

We went at lunch, and toward the end of lunch, so the crowd was thinning out, but we didn't find the service to be especially slow. Any complaints we had were not about the service at all. The dinner experience might be different, or even mid-lunch-rush. Overall we were quite charmed by Boucherie, and certainly would go back, but we were not as blown away by the food as we were expecting to be. Nothing was bad, but almost everything was a little muted, a little less smoky, less vibrant, less...something, than we had hoped. Mike's assessment of the brownies a few posts back pretty-well summed up our reaction to the whole meal: good but not out of this world. But we did like the place, and would probably go again on our next visit to New Orleans. And if we lived in the city, it would likely be a regular stop. Sorry for duplicating photos from another thread, but just so they're easier to find, here was our lunch:

Well, either you hit it on off-days, or I hit it on an on-day, because the pork I got was moist, and vibrantly-seasoned. I was actually surprised that just meat on a roll could be so good.

I agree that the Roast Pork Italian is something special, and as I said, that particular matrix of ingredients is pretty unique to Philly, so I'd still recommend a visitor try one. But in the context of this specific discussion - what does Philly have that NY doesn't - I'm no longer comfortable answering "an awesome roast pork sandwich."

It was time for another assault on Manhattan, to visit some favorites, and to check out a few places we'd been hearing about here on eGullet, and elsewhere on the web. We only had about 12 hours this time, and it was such a nice day, we couldn't resist slowing down and just strolling around or sitting outside with cocktails, so I'm not sure we kept up to our previous pace. But we found some good food, some great food, and a few disappointments. As has become our habit, we started the day at Ippudo: Pickles Pork Buns Akamaru Modern Ramen Special "Chinese Style Spicy Noodles" Everything was delicious, as always. The special noodles were pretty assertively peppery, both chili pepper and black pepper, but it was good, especially with a hit of lime. (But nothing beats the Akamaru Modern for me.) Ippudo 65 4th Ave http://www.ippudo.com/ny/ Then a few blocks southeast to Porchetta: That is an awesome sandwich. The pork is juicy, tender, crispy, herby, just perfect, really. It's simply chunked and served on a ciabatta-like roll, which also seems to be exactly perfect for this purpose. I thought it would need something - but I wouldn't add a thing, it was in balance. The potatoes were only OK. They looked great - but didn't have all that much flavor. But the little crusty burnt ends of pork were delicious. I think this place is getting added to the regular rotation. (Jeeze, I hope these reports don't get too boring: "June 2011, we went to all the same places as last time..." ) Porchetta 110 East 7th St http://www.porchettanyc.com/ A few doors away and across the street was Caracas, and we were unable to resist the lure of Arepas. We tried one with Pernil (because it had been too long since we had any roast pork...) And one with Chicken and Chorizo. They were both really good, the fillings were great, but the best part was the pillowy, yet crunchy texture of the arepas themselves. I really want to get one like the woman sitting next to me had ordered: black beans, chorizo and plantains! Caracas 93 1/2 East 7th Street http://www.caracasarepabar.com On the way back to the car, one of our party that avoids dairy was intrigued by a vegan ice cream place called Stogo. We sampled a few soy-based ones that weren't all that great, but he ended up getting a chocolate and coconut milk-based one that he thought was pretty good. Stogo 159 2nd Ave (at 10th Street) http://stogonyc.com/ We then headed across town to Keste to try the pizza that's been creating some serious buzz. It turns out that the waiters take a break from 4-5 in the afternoon on saturdays, at which point you can only get take-out, but they were nice enough to let us sit, because I think we got in at 3:59:59 or something... Marinara Margherita Lardo The Marinara and Margherita were pretty good. The sauce had a simple, bright flavor, the cheese on the margherita was creamy, the crust was nicely charred. But still, they didn't completely knock us out. As has been discussed recently over in the Keste thread, the center of the pizza is pretty damp. I suppose one can argue about whether that's authentic to Neopolitan pizza, but I thought it was kind of unpleasant. In addition to the collected moisture, the crust seemed under-cooked in the very middle, so we ended up with wet, mushy, pale dough in that region. The very center of the pizzas at, say, Una Pizza Napoletana get a little soggy, but not this wet. But the bigger problem was that the crust was just not that flavorful. Although outside of the very center, it was well-cooked and nicely bubbled and charred, it just didn't have much character. I don't want to go too far, it wasn't bad, but I found myself not eating all the crust, something I've never done at UPN. The lardo pizza, well, it wasn't very good at all. It was completely overwhelmed by Pecorino Romano. There were a few dessicated shreds of what I guess used to be lardo hiding underneath, providing only a fatty texture and some crunch. As you can see, the basil leaves got pretty burnt too. Add to that the haphazard distribution of ingredients - there's a quarter of the pizza that doesn't really have anything at all on it - and the general blandness of the crust, and there wasn't much to enjoy, unless you're really into toasty pecorino romano. There were some other intriguing toppings, and I might be tempted to try another one someday, just to see if this was a fluke. The main guy was not making our pizzas, although he was in the house at the time... Keste 271 Bleeker St. http://www.kestepizzeria.com/home.html We needed a walk to work off the dough, and eventually found ourselves at Bar and Books, where we had some very good cocktails. That's a very credible Mint Julep, an Elderflower Manhattan, and a Ginger somethingorother... We really liked the drinks and the service and the place overall, but we're surprised how annoyed we get by smoke these days, and they do allow smoking here. So we stopped at one. Plus, we were getting hungry. Bar and Books - Hudson 636 Hudson http://www.barandbooks.cz/hudson/ Next was Pearl Oyster Bar for some Lobster Rolls. They were very good, although a little over-mayo-ed and some folks in our party who had enjoyed them previously though they were missing something. Still, they featured very good tender lobster, and lots of it, on a buttery roll, so we can't really complain. And those fries are pretty rocking, at least when they're hot. One of us decided he needed steamers for dessert, and said they were delicious. Another of our party had left room for a more conventional dessert. Today they had blueberry pie. I stole a bite of that and can testify that it was quite good. Pearl Oyster Bar 18 Cornelia St. http://www.pearloysterbar.com/ Then over to the Brandy Library Jack Rose Mandarin Carré (I'm pretty sure... ) Armagnac tasting and there were, ahem, plenty more, but at some point I lost the will to photograph... The drinks were consistently interesting and well-made, and it's amazing to be able to avail oneself of such a deep selection of spirits. The service was impeccable, even as we moved around a bit, finally ending up out front, enjoying the evening air. At some point it seemed like a good idea to get snacks. Gougeres Lamb in a Blanket Both were crazy-good, and especially nice accompaniments to the cocktails. Brandy Library 25 North Moore St http://www.brandylibrary.com/ And then we ended the night with some more ramen at some obscure spot that I think I'm supposed to keep quiet about, although I'm not sure why because it was only OK... I think we need to do some more research and see if this spot has some other specialties, and then I'll post about it! By the time we finished our noodles, it was approaching midnight, and we had detoxed enough to drive back to Philly, so we decided to call it a day. And a very fine day at that! Can't wait to get back up there and try a few more things on our list... (edited typos)

OK, it's with some embarrassment that I feel the need to backtrack on something. While it's entirely true that Philly's Roast Pork sandwiches are delicious, and unique in their specific style of cooking the pork, serving it wet with juices, and adorning with greens and sharp provolone, it may be going too far to say that Philly has great pork sandwiches and NY doesn't. It pains me to say this, but I just had the best roast pork sandwich in my life, and it was in NY... Just roasted pork, including crunchy, crispy skin, on a ciabatta-like roll. That's it. No sauce, no condiments, no cheese, no vegetables, just juicy, herby roasted pork. Porchetta 110 E 7th St NY, New York www.porchettanyc.com It's a little storefront that sells those sandwiches and not much else. Still, of course, the Roast Pork Italian remains a mighty sandwich,and there's nothing quite like that outside of Philly, so I'd still recommend it to a visiting foodie. But beware, there's some serious competition in pork sandwich awesomeness up in NYC...

Hey Kretch, sorry for the delay in replying, but yes, that's cured duck on the James charcuterie plate, and it was really good. As you might be able to see, the fat's really melty, I'm not sure if that's from the particular method of curing, or the very thin slicing, or both. Restaurants certainly have the advantage of good slicers that the home cook can't replicate very easily even with a good knife. (That said, I've had Dr Fenton's duck prosciutto, and it's pretty darn good!)

I finally made it to Porchetta the other day, and now I'm sad to think of all the great sandwiches I've been missing in the last several months! We usually feel very superior about our pork sandwiches in Phladelphia, and indeed we have some very delicious versions, but nothing quite like this... Four of us agreed that it was a freaking fantastic sandwich. Looking at it you'd think it would be dry, might need some condiments or a little sauce. But no, it's perfect. The potatoes were gorgeous, but actually didn't have a ton of flavor. Not bad, but not as exciting as they looked. We picked out the tasty crunchy crispy bits of pork, and ate a few of the potatoes, but next time, I'm skipping the potatoes and getting a platter with greens and beans. Those looked pretty rocking. Wait, what am I thinking?!? I'm not ordering a platter, that roll is too perfect. Maybe two sandwiches...

Just in case it's not clear, that post from Greg Ling means they're getting some at the Oyster House. Conveniently, that's about a block west on Sansom St from Chris' Jazz Cafe, so I see no reason not to try both!

I've had mixed results on later Daddy Mims Pizza visits... I too tried the Ragin Cajun, with Duck Confit, Crawfish Tails and Tasso, this time in the small individual size. It was not very good. It was massively overloaded with cheese, to the point that most of it in the middle was barely melted, but around the edges, it had overflowed and burned to unpleasant carbonized black rivulets. Even though the cheese was burning, the crust itself was undercooked and flabby. There was no evidence of Tasso. There were several large crawfish tails, but they just didn't taste like much. The duck was pretty good, and I ended up eating that off the top, but overall, as a pizza, bleah. But my first pizza was good enough that I decided to try again. And the results were right in the middle - it was pretty good, with toppings, especially cheese, in better proportions, and no blackened bits, but it was again under-cooked, the crust pale and doughy. But the flavors were good - this was a "Lotta Meat" with Italian Sausage, Andouille, Pepperoni, and Tasso. So the jury's still out for me. I'll have to try asking them to cook the pizzas more, and maybe asking them to go light on the cheese. But the ingredients are mostly good, so the flavors are interesting, they just need to be a little more consistent with the execution.

Damn! Nice shooting, Jesse!

Those are gorgeous photos! Fujito, are they from a professional photoshoot at the restaurant? Wherever they came from, they're very effective: I'm suddenly craving some Fuji sushi!

Made it in for a few bites last night too. I'll try to post some pics when I have a chance, but in the interim: here's a post on my blog>> The short version is that everything was good, they were amazingly up-to-speed for opening night, and I look forward to heading back to try more!

Dude, the watermelon salad has Icewine in it, and I happen to know you're awash in Icewine, why not try one of those! I think you're right about a fruity west-coast Pinot Noir with the ribs and/or the duck. Scallops, I think you're right with the acidic white, especially with the banana mash. And indeed, the transition from ribs to scallops back to duck is going to be weird. I'd ask them if they could go scallops - duck - ribs. Or at least scallops - ribs - duck. It never hurts to ask... Please let us know what works! And BTW, there's nothing wrong with bringing beer, I've been at an entire meal paired with beers. And if not at a barbecue dinner, when?

Al's right, that suckling pig is awesome, and quite a deal. It needs to be arranged in advance, but not too far out - I forget, a couple of days? And thanks for the perspective on Philly vs NY Vietnamese. I don't personally have enough experience to say whether Philly's Vietnamese restaurants tend to be qualitatively better than New York's, but I do know that it's pretty easy to get good Vietnamese food here, therefore, it's become a fairly typical Philly thing to eat Vietnamese. The Bahn Mi hasn't muscled-out the hoagie or cheesesteak as our iconic sandwich yet, but in a couple of years? You never know... Oh, and I agree with Bill, a stroll through the Italian Market shopping for dinner is pretty great. And don't skip Claudio's, either the main cheese shop or the fresh mozzarella store next door. One tip - anywhere in the market - don't touch the vegetables. A guy could get killed for touching the vegetables. Yes, they're going to slip a couple of bruised pieces in with the good ones. Get over it. The prices are so cheap, who cares? Trim the lame ones up and put them in soup. (edited for clarity)

The new Oyster House does indeed have both Snapper Soup and Fried Oysters with Chicken Salad on the menu. I haven't had a chance to try them yet, but I certainly hope to rectify that soon! Both of those would qualify as very Philly, probably uniquely Philly foods. And I guess that's where the line gets blurry: there are a few things that you can ONLY find done right in Philly, like a cheesesteak or a Roast Pork Italian, or scrapple. But then there are other things that are especially good here, that have a unique local spin, such as the afore-mentioned soft pretzels in the Reading Terminal from Miller's Twists (formerly Fisher's.) They're really not the same thing as soft pretzels elsewhere. You could probably make a similar argument for hoagies: sure plenty of places make a sandwich on a long roll, but a Hoagie from Salumeria or Sarcone's or a handful of other places here has a certain local character. A hoagie is not the same as a sub sandwich, just like a Po Boy is not the same as either, there's a distinctive local spin. It's in the roll, in the particular array and proportions of ingredients, how it's dressed, etc. Then there are just things that are very good here. if you concentrate only on fully unique-to-philly things, you'll miss out on some very good food. Ice cream from Bassetts, or Gelato from Capogiro isn't unique, it's just rockin good. We've got really good homey Italian food. I've had Burmese food in DC and in San Francisco, but even if I didn't think Philly's Rangoon is better (which I do) it's something really good here that you shouldn't miss, just because you could conceivably get it somewhere else. Osteria makes pretty incredible pizzas and pastas and roast pork, and plenty more. Sure, you might be able to find something similar in NY, or many other cities, but it's a really enjoyable dining experience, one that I try to bring out-of-town visitors to. And for folks that haven't been down there recently, the Italian Market has transformed completely in the last couple of years. Heck, it's really different from a few months ago! There's another Taqueria open every week it seems, most of them catering largely to new Mexican residents. I know that might not be of interest to a visiting Texan, but if there's a neighborhood in NY with an authentic Mexican restaurant every few doors for several blocks, offering goat tacos and tacos de canasta and tacos de cabeza, and tacos al pastor carved fresh off a rotating trompo, I'd like to visit it to compare. So sure, you can get tacos elsewhere, but it has become a very interesting, very Philly thing, to go wander 9th street and pop in for a quick, cheap, delicious taco, or torta, or a plate of grilled-stuff. Zahav has been mentioned a few times, and that's another interesting example. Of course you can get Israeli food in NY, but this place is doing an interesting modern spin on it, and most importantly, it's delicious. I don;t think you'll find anything quite like it anywhere. Concentrating exclusively on unique things will cause you to miss some really great things. It's like not going to Katz's in NY because you can get a pastrami sandwich anywhere. Sure you can, but not like that!