philadining

Ahh, the confusing world of the Philly sandwich slang. People often confuse "wit" with "whiz," not understanding that the "wit" is with onions, and that the term only makes sense when ordering a cheesesteak. You can't get a hoagie wit. And I think the reason that "sub" sounded so strange used to describe a cheesesteak or roast pork is because, as mentioned above, we don't consider those a type of "hoagie." Most places call anything on the same shape roll a "sub" or "zep" or whatever, but "hoagie" is more about the dressing than the roll. Although the long Italian roll is required. It's not a hoagie if it's on a kaiser roll. But it's also not a hoagie if it's got cheesesteak stuff in the roll, unless it's a cheesesteak hoagie. Crazy. I've been musing about the terminology a little on my blog so it would have a permalink, and wouldn't get lost in this more general discussion. Any more tips or tricks for ordering like a native?

Hey Fitzy, thanks for this tip. I checked out Wasko's today, and indeed they do the roast pork sandwich right! Delicious, herby, tender roast pork, with a bit of juice, sharp provolone, a good roll, made for a really tasty sandwich. There's not a whole lot on the menu, maybe 5 or 6 hot sandwiches, a few cold "zeps" but hey, if they're all as good as the roast pork, I'm fine with that. Interestingly, they also have a board with the entire menu from Marchiano's in Roxborough. Apparently with two days notice, you can get any of their stuffed breads, tomato pie, etc. Yet more reasons to never leave Phoenixville...

March 11, 2008 Guest Chef: Shola Olunloyo Lentil Soup Curry Leaf Froth Eggplant Croquette Crab Salad Green Legumes . Poached Egg Truffle Vinaigrette Suzuki Pistachios, Pickled Mushrooms Cumin Duroc Pork Belly Spicy Yuzu Curd Daikon . Apple . Fennel Duck Ravioli Toasted Fenugreek Jus Jerusalem Artichoke Cream Pineapple Lemon-Brie Ice Cream Basil This was a pretty classic Shola/SK-style menu. I'm not sure many of us have seen these exact preparations before, but there were plenty of familiar ingredients and flavors, along with a few new ones. The Yuzu curd, for example, was a novel accompaniment for the pork belly, and a thoroughly enjoyable one. Of course, Shola's pork belly technique continues to reign supreme... The duck ravioli were new to me, and I loved them. The rich, tender shreds of meat were accented by slightly crisped wrappers and an intense jus. I'm not sure I would have been able to identify the flavor of toasted fenugreek, but whatever was going on in that broth was OK with me. Things started off strong with that delicious crispy Croquette, which was stuffed with more shortrib than eggplant. The pairing with Shola's signature perfectly smooth lentil soup worked well. I could eat that lemon-brie ice cream every day... I thought all the food was quite delicious. As for the whole evening, I'm still debating about whether it worked as a $150 per person experience. Blackfish seems like a nice restaurant, and I suspect the staff is quite good at executing and presenting their regular menu. But I'm not sure if we were just at a bad table, or came at the wrong time, but we had a curiously hard time getting anyone's attention at several points throughout the night. We had a few requests, questions and concerns that could have been pretty quickly resolved, but instead we were repeatedly frustrated by not being able to contact our server, or any server. It's not a big place, I'm not sure where everybody was, but we didn't feel like we should have to leave our table and chase people down. In most circumstances this wouldn't be a big deal, but did I mention that we were paying $150 per person for this meal, BYOB? I don't generally get hung-up on prices if the food is good, and the food was very good. But that's a serious chunk of change, and I guess we expected that the service was going to be a bit more focused compared to a standard dinner at a third of the price. Nobody was rude or nasty to us, in fact the front of house staff was very friendly, but it would have been nice for someone to have come by to make sure everything was OK now and then, because a few times we had some issues we needed to resolve. We might need to razz Shola, rather than the Blackfish crew, about some of the problems, but we still should have been able to get someone from the front-of-house to help us out. I'm really not sure where that invisible line is between a good value and a not-so-good one, it's probably different for everyone. I usually think that if the food's good, regardless of the price, you can serve it to me in a drafty garage, or make me eat it standing up on the street, or seat me on a cheap folding chair at a rickety table, and I won't care. But eating this dinner in a regular restaurant, which was, as so many places are, a little loud, slightly cramped, with sometimes indifferent service, reminded me of how important the atmosphere can be for complimenting the flavors on the plate. I don't have an answer yet, but I'm trying to tease-out what one should expect at various price-points. So overall, I enjoyed the dinner, I always look forward to any opportunity to experience Shola's food. But even if every little detail had been exactly perfect, I'm not sure how many $150 dinners are in my budget. I've never been particularly conservative when it comes to spending money on food, but there is reality to deal with... I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I think I'd hoped for something...more... Still, I'm glad Blackfish hosted this dinner, I hope it worked out well for them. I'm interested in checking out Blackfish in its natural state sometime, I've heard good things.

The Washington Post writer made the tragic error of getting a small Roast Pork at John's, which is served on an unimpressive kaiser roll. I made that mistake once. It is funny about the terminology: reading the repeated references to Philly places as "Sub shops" and the sandwiches themselves as "subs" just seemed so wrong. I grew up knowing a sandwich on a long roll as a "sub" but it just sounds so wrong to call a cheesesteak or roast pork sandwich by that name. And do we think Tony Luke brought cheesesteaks and roast pork sandwiches to a movie set in Pittsburgh? Surely he meant Philly.

The Mexican place is Zocalo. It seems like it's had about 150 owners in the last few years, but i know somebody who went recently and said it was pretty decent. And the Thai place right near there is Lemon Grass Thai. It's been a while since I've been there, but it was good a few years ago...

I haven't eaten anything from here, so I can't vouch for quality, but if you're looking for something quick and close, there's also a food court in the basement of Houston Hall, which is directly across Spruce Street from HUP, just west of 34th st. They call it Houston Market and it's probably pretty routine industrial food, but at least there's some variety. There's also a crêpe stand in that building somewhere, although they don't mention it as part of the market. But I'd vote with Rich, and hike on over to the White Dog, it's not very far, just go north on 34th street about 4 blocks and hang a left on Sansom. And if not the White dog, you have plenty of options: on that block there's the Bubble House for bubble tea and light vAsian fare and sandwiches, then the New Deck for bar grub, then the White Dog for anything from a simple burger to elaborate new-American cuisine. There's also La Terrace, but I honestly can't recall anyone saying anything about that place in years, so I have no idea what the food's like now. Right behind that strip of restaurants is Mad Mex that Katie mentioned. If you keep going up Sansom past 36th, you'll find Pod, which has expensive cocktails and somewhat pricey vAsian food in a funky setting. On the other side of the Inn at Penn, Penne has good pastas. They're on the Walnut Street side between 36th and 37th. If you have time to venture further west, as a few folks have mentioned, Rx, Marigold and Nan are very good BYOB restaurants. Right near Nan, at the corner of 40th and Chestnut, there's a little cluster of decent places, Tandoor India, and Fatou & Fama (Senegalese) in particular. Even further west, out on Baltimore Avenue, around 45th or so, there's Vietnam Cafe, Vientienne for Laotian food, Dahlak for Ethiopian, and Abbraccio for uninspiring but serviceable Italian. And let's not forget Koch's Deli on Locust, just west of 43rd, but eating a Koch's sandwich around someone with a heart problem could be considered cruel and unusual punishment.

A tasting menu featuring: Kennett Square Mushrooms Foie Gras and Mushroom Dumpling Mushroom-Ginger Broth Truffled Duck Terrine Pickled Mushrooms, Whole Grain Mustard Porcini Dusted Diver Scallop Porcini Risotto, Sea Urchin Nage Bacon and Mushroom Crusted Rack of Lamb Crispy Polenta, Rosemary Demiglace Red Wine Poached Anjou Pear Almond Creme Anglaise, Mascarpone Filling oh and the fabled deep-fried egg. I think there might have been sweetbreads on the plate too...

Sienna has a nice bar, although I'm not sure I've seen people eating at it. I don't see why you couldn't.... Worth a try, the food's good.

Haven't been to the Bookend Café yet, but might need to now: the Vale Rio Diner was trucked-off the other day. going... gone... It may not have been the greatest diner ever, but they made a few things well, and it's always nice to have a place to grab a bite at 3am. The saddest part is that a Walgreens is supposedly taking over that spot, apparently because the other 345 pharmacies within about 5 miles are not meeting the demand. And a Starbuck's will go into the bar next door. As if the traffic at that corner isn't crazy enough already... ugh. On the upside, this morning I saw smoke billowing up from Barto Pools, which, unless the building is burning down, means Tex's Barbecue is there for the weekend!

I didn't have any complaints about saltiness, but I will agree with mrbig that I was left thinking that the meal as a whole could have been mushroomier. I suspect that might have had more to do with intellectual expectations, rather than the food on the plate. I thought each thing was quite tasty, and I have to wonder if the menu had been billed in some other way, following some theme that didn't mention mushrooms, we might have had no complaints at all. That said, disconnects between menu prose and actual flavor are always a little distracting. Ignoring the mushroom theme, the first course's dumpling was quite nice, and I loved the broth, but wasn't getting a lot of the billed ginger. The duck terrine was good too, especially smeared with some of that great mustard, but I didn't taste much truffle as touted on the menu. My scallop was perfectly cooked, but if there was porcini powder on it, it was lost in the sear. I got no sea-urchin vibe from the nage. I loved the lamb, but thought it tasted like lamb and bacon, which is by no means a bad thing. The fried polenta alongside was fantastic. The poached pear was beautifully-done, as billed, with all the flavors I expected. So, while that looks like a long list of complaints, I actually quite enjoyed the meal. And I suspect if the menu descriptions had been minimal, I might have stopped looking for the stuff I was expecting, and just enjoyed the food more. So it's an odd conundrum: I thought the food was well-executed and delicious, but it didn't deliver some of the flavors promised on the menu. I certainly prefer that to something that tastes exactly as billed but isn't actually enjoyable. I won't hesitate to go back for more of these tasting menus, regardless of how the food is described. What's on the plate has almost always been quite delicious, and any quibbles are usually with whether it's what I expected. And service has been quite good as well: they're very friendly, and accommodating of our various quirks...

Also from www.lewbryson.com : This still on, as billed, Katie? I was reading over the description last time I was in, and it looked pretty cool.

It's very pretty up there. Almost like Austria. Hence all the Zweigelt up there.

I just couldn't clear my calendar enough for this latest dinner... any reports? I thought the menu looked really interesting.

March 1st was National Pig Day, so it seemed appropriate to head to Cochon to mark the occasion. I don't believe the restaurant was doing anything specifically for pig day, but we did avail ourselves of several of the daily specials, as well as a few of our faves from the regular menu. Apps: Scallops (with spinach substituted-in for a frisée-averse diner.) Pork Croquettes, Blood Sausage Crispy Fried Oysters Sweetbreads Mains: Pork Shank with Mustard sauce and Napa Cabbage Pork Shoulder with lentils, brussels sprouts and poached egg. Steak Frites Quail stuffed with Foie Gras and Truffle Butter Once again, all quite delicious. I especially liked the fried oysters, the sweetbreads, the pork shank and the quail. The oysters had a light, ungreasy coating, and remained incredibly juicy inside. The sweetbreads had a creamy texture, and a great smoky edge from the grill. The pork shank was falling off its bone tender, its richness offset by the bite of mustard and cabbage. Quail, foie, truffles, need I say more?

Absolutely. I've eaten alone at the bar several times. Between chatting with Katie and the other friendly folks at the bar, it makes for a very pleasant solo dining experience. I enjoyed a really good steak frites there while perched at the bar not long ago.

I've spent most of my time at Chick's drinking (although I've gotten some good food too) but I hadn't sampled the desserts before last night. OK, stop what you're doing, get yourself over to Chick's and try one of these: Fig and Bay Leaf Crostada. There's a fig jam under the bay leaf flavored pastry cream, chunks of figs on top, a tender crust under it all. The slightly savory note of the bay leaf against the sweet figs is really delicious. There are a few more desserts on the menu. Looks like I need to do more research... And don't worry, Katie's got a wine match ready!

I have a feeling that the "plan" topic with info about our recent group dinner at Tinto might vanish, so I figured I'd post these pics here. jmchen hipped us to the fact that there's a private room upstairs that can be booked for groups of 10-16. They offer a few set menus there, served family-style, for pretty reasonable prices. Until recently it was BYOB in that room, but their liquor license now covers that space, so wines and drinks can be ordered there now. Here's the "BILBAO" menu. (Pics are not great quality, it was pretty dim in the room, but I hope they convey some of the thrills the dishes provided on the palate!) ~First~ Meat Mixto Cheese Mixto Marinated Hojiblanca Olives Marcona Almonds ~Second~ Cordero Brochettes Lamb Loin, Eggplant, Bacon, Sherry Jus Gambas Brochettes Shrimp, Chorizo, Grape Tomato, Espelette Chile Pato Montadito Duck Confit, Black Cherry, La Peral Spread ~Third~ Bacalao Al Pil Pil Black Cod, Pil Pil Sauce, Crab Crepe Pollito Poussin, Truffled Pochas, Shaved Carrot Escabeche Judías Verdes Haricot Vert, Almonds, Dates, Orange Segments, Paprika Sherry Vinaigrette Patatas Asturianas Crispy Potatoes, Tomato Compote, La Peral Cream ~Dessert~ Gateaux Basques Traditional Basque Cake, Pastry Cream, Black Cherries I thought the food was delicious. I especially loved the duck montadito and the lamb brochettes, but I liked it all. Service was quite excellent, everyone was very friendly, well-informed, and accommodating of our quirks. We hope they'll forgive us for the glassware mishaps we had, I swear I saw one of those glasses vaporize just by someone looking at it harshly... Big thanks to Capaneus for putting it together, and enduring no small amount of stress in the organizing. It was really great to meet some new folks, I hope we'll see you all again soon! And thanks to the Tinto folks for putting out a tasty meal, we'll be back soon, if not in that room, then just for a quick bite at the bar.

The bad news is that it takes a few days, and a few people in your party to get it. So you could probably special-order it any time of year, if you give them 3-4 days notice, and promise to bring in a good-sized party. They don't make it for one or two, although there was some discussion at the table about how a couple of us could do some serious damage to a full order... The duck was fried, and stuffed with: duck meat, bacon, lotus seed, dried scallop, dried shrimp, and umm... three more things. The stuffing was quite tasty, and the duck was nice and juicy, with a crispy skin. The only problem was that there was SO much food that we'd all pretty much reached capacity long before the duck arrived. Same for the fish - it was great, but we barely made a dent in it.

I'm not entirely sure why they call it mock fish, but it was the rolled-up thing in the center. I basically was like a spring roll, but the wrapper was bean curd skin, and the filling was various vegetables, and I think I remember some rice... They were really quite good, as was everything on that cold appetizer platter.

OK, we might have missed the official New Year's window by a couple of days. ..ummm... maybe it was a Lunar Eclipse Banquet... Four Rivers - February 2008 Combination of 6 cold dishes Mock fish, anchovies, lotus root, jellyfish, beef tendon, gluten with black mushroom. Crabmeat and Asparagus soup Dung-Po Rou Combination of Seafood and Chives Beef in Kung Pao Sauce Fried Rice House Special Sweet Ham Chef’s Special Prawns & Phoenix Sautéed Green Vegetable with Fresh Garlic Eight Treasured Duck Whole Fish in Chili Sauce Dessert: Taro Ball The whole meal was really delicious, with a few surprise hits: all the cold appetizers, the gluten and tendon in particular; the 8-element stuffing for the duck; the light, crispy fish with a complex sweet and sour sauce. But the two pork dishes were really the stars of the show. I'm still dreaming about the Dung-Po pork belly...

A few of us squeezed-in a New Year's dinner at Xiao Guan. It was a bit of a hybrid, partially a set holiday banquet, with a few additions. Squab Fish Maw Thick Soup Shrimp with Mayonaise Sizzling Beef Short Ribs Fried Rice Lobster with XO sauce Steamed Striped Bass with Scallion and Ginger Snails Baby Bok Choy with Garlic Fresh Scallops with Garlic Peking Duck And I think I spied some of these on the other table... which is fine, I don't think they were served noodles French-style, by a famous hand model... Crazy good food, fun crowd, nice way to celebrate the coming of spring!

The Ugly American's brunch may not have gotten over-crowded yet, and it's really good... biscuits with sausage gravy>>

Not really, the cooking had the same hearty, full-flavored style as the a la carte menu. This special dinner just offered some things that aren't on the menu, or only make occasional appearances. Nothing at all wrong with the regular menu, except that desserts are still a little weak. Not that they're bad, there just aren't many of them, and some of those are brought-in.

Some of our intrepid gang asked the folks at Cochon if they could do a tasting menu for us, and just told the chef to do whatever he wanted. Around the same time, we had offered compliments on some of the earthy dishes they occasionally offer, like head cheese, sweetbreads and blood sausages, so we're not sure whether they thought we specifically wanted an offal-centric menu, or if this whole-pig approach was just what the chef was in the mood for. Whatever the inspiration, it was fine with us, they had correctly assessed that we were up for anything. The menu looked quite intriguing on paper and turned out to be quite delicious on the plate. Head Cheese This was very meaty, and not nearly as gelatinous as I expected. With the peppery greens and tangy sauce, the flavors really jumped out beautifully. Pig Snout Ravioli The pasta had a creamy, flavorful filling, which contrasted nicely with the vivid broth, which had a little kick of spice. The crunchy, chewy strips (of ear?) provided another pleasing edge. Grilled Sweetbreads lardons, frisee, haricots verts, brown butter vinaigrette These might be the best non-crispy sweetbreads I've ever had, and rank pretty high for sweetbreads in general. The texture was creamy, but not gooey, with none of the pasty quality one sometimes gets. The acidic and bitter nature of the salad offset the richness of the sweetbreads perfectly. There was a bit of variation among the plates, some getting mostly hefty traditional bacon lardons, others getting more strips of sweet ham. The salty worked a little better than the sugary, but in either case, the porky overtone was quite complimentary. Tongue stew capers, conichons, tomato sauce I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this dish was significantly lighter than I had anticipated. The meat was fork tender, subtly-flavored, and nicely paired with the tomato sauce and salty accents. Roasted Berkshire Pork Belly fava chick pea ragoût and house-cured guanciale It may have been roasted at some point, but it was clearly finished in the deep-frier, lending it a bubbly texture and crunch. The fat layers had rendered-down nicely, so while it was not exactly lean, it was not a total fat-bomb. OK, it kind of was, but in a good way... The beans and crunchy pork jowl were good too. Heritage Pork Loin blood sausage, sauerkraut, riesling whole grain mustard sauce AT this point we'd had SO much food that we probably could have skipped this one altogether and gone home happy, so I'm not sure any of us can assess this course properly. It was pretty good, and I think I might like it as an entrée some night, not as part of a tasting menu. Smoked and cured a bit, the meat had a firm texture and assertive flavor that was offset well by the kraut and the mustard. I feel like the blood sausage got a little lost in this setting, but again, it could be that my palate was just pretty burnt... I think a small portion of this might have been perfect early in the meal, perhaps alongside the headcheese. Overall, the portions were pretty ridiculously large, and the chef knew it, but couldn't help himself! Pain Perdu bacon ice cream, maple creme anglaise Somehow we managed to find some room for dessert. What, you thought we were going to turn down bacon ice cream?!? The pain perdu was more like deep-fried bread pudding than french toast, but had the requisite crisped-up custardy bread thing going on. The bacon component of the ice cream was subtle, but definitely there, and the maple brought it all together in a disorienting zone of sweet/salty/creamy/brunch/dessert. I'm completely in favor of that kind of confusion. As I think the photos show, the food was significantly more varied than just reading the menu might suggest. Everything was quite tasty, and well-prepared. If I have any complaints it's that the portions were too big! Big thanks to chef Gene Giuffi for a really delicious meal, and to Amy Giuffi for coordinating everything. And to Dave on our end for getting it together in the first place. I have no idea whether the restaurant thought it was worth all the trouble, we hope so, because we sure did enjoy it! Will they do one for you? Don't know... but you could ask! http://www.cochonbyob.com

This is probably not convenient unless you're out in the western burbs already, but the best Mexican market that I've seen around here is: El Cunado Mexican Food Store 1160 Newark Rd, Toughkenamon, PA (610) 268-1101 It's just a little south of Kennett Square. If you just keep going west (and a little south) on the main street through Kennett Square (State Street) you'll come upon it in maybe 5 miles -ish? Looks like a tiny convenience store from the outside, but it's actually a sizable market, with a bit of everything. I'm quite sure all mole ingredients are to be had, not to mention lots of canned and jarred prepared moles, including little tubs of what looks like homemade stuff on the counter.