philadining

The publication of LaBan's photo in the article raised a few interesting questions. First: did having the photo there enhance the content of the article in any way? I guess it proves the writer's contention that his photo is easily obtained, but otherwise, I'm not sure I see the point. Second: if we presume it's in there because LaBan is a major character in this soap opera, why is there not a photo of Plotkin? Or is there in the print version? (edited to add: there is indeed a similar-sized photo of Plotkin in the print version of the magazine, as well as a creepy beef-portrait to match LaBan's. Why those are not on-line, I can't imagine.) Third: and this might be the most interesting one, does the publication of the photo remove a card from Plotkin's hand? It seemed pretty clear that the potential for forcing a public appearance, and of having a videotaped deposition made public, was a not-too-subtle threat. I'm sure they meant for this to be a lever for forcing a retraction or a settlement of some sort. Interestingly, despite the article's fairly hostile tone toward LaBan, the publication of the photo actually hurts Plotkin's side more. If the case goes forward, LaBan might have to make more public appearances, or have his likeness displayed in open court via video. But now, so what? I'm fairly confident that LaBan can continue to do his job effectively regardless. As the article implied, most major restaurants have at least some idea of what he looks like. Whether they're going from an old photo or merely a description whispered amongst restauranteurs, it's not as if he's never spotted. More to the point, they could have his current driver's license photo posted poster-size on the door from the kitchen, and the fact is that many hosts, managers and servers still wouldn't notice him, it's just how people are when they're busy. That said, I'm sure being less likely to be noticed has allowed him to be more effective than if he were universally recognized, and having a photo widely published doesn't do us, the dining public, any favors. Additionally, it strikes me as professionally discourteous for a journalist to out him if he desired to remain anonymous, unless there were a compelling reason to reveal his likeness. I didn't see one, but that's just me.

Gee, I usually see faces in my steaks... doesn't everybody?!?!

Again, there's some debate among the various involved parties, but Rich, let's say he did what you suggest: 1) Take better notes: He contends the waiter told him the steak on the plate was a strip steak. He surreptitiously notes this immediately so as to not be confused later. Result - complaint about crappy strip steak. 2) Double-check his notes: yep, strip steak. Result - complaint about crappy strip steak. 3) Have the professionalism to issue a retraction/apology/correction: retract/apologize-for/correct WHAT? It seem he could have clarified that he was referring to a lunch steak, but I find it hard to imagine that such a clarification would have calmed the waters. Publications tend to reserve corrections for black-and-white statements of fact: sorry, we got the address wrong; sorry, we mis-identified the chef; or more to the point, sorry, i didn't actually have a strip steak. But it seems at least very likely that he DID have a strip steak. It would be impossible for any publication to print retractions/corrections/clarifications every time that the subject of an article disagrees with a writer's interpretation of something. It also strikes me as amazing that Chops does not seem to be contenting that the steak was actually better than was indicated, simply that it was a different cut of meat. Sure, it was tough and fatty, but just don't call it a strip steak!

Or if you're not up for an S&Martini, try a OUIJA cocktail. We're not sure what it is yet, but we're confident that it will reveal itself if a few of us put our fingers lightly on it and let it move around the bar...

I don't think it's at all clear whether LaBan made a mistake or not. The initial contention from Chops was that he had a steak sandwich, then when LaBan produced a receipt for a "Steak Frites" then suddenly Chops was not so sure of what he had ordered. As the Philly Mag article says: Do we know LaBan didn't get a strip steak with fries? Do we know what the waiter told him? There are two different accounts of this, but I'm sure LaBan knows the difference between a strip steak and a rib eye. OK, it's not "The Strip Steak" on the dinner menu. But did he get a piece of strip steak for lunch? Sounds like it's entirely possible. Do we have any reason to believe that LaBan was making things up when he said it was tough and fatty? So his mention of "a miserably tough and fatty strip steak" could very well be correct. Do the owners see a major distinction? Sure, but that doesn't mean that LaBan was wrong. And shame on chops for serving a crappy steak at lunch, whatever it's called.

Things are pretty quiet during the week at Han Dynasty, so we pretty much took over the place for a bit of an eating binge. Looking back over these pics, I have no idea how we ate all this, even though there were eleven of us! We ended up with 20 dishes, and had only a few leftovers. If we'd sat there a little longer, I wonder if we might have polished it off... It was a great meal, it seemed that almost everyone liked almost everything, although we might have assaulted Nikki's tastebuds with hot pepper yet again... Big thanks to Diann for getting this going, to Percy for scouting out some good dishes, and to SaxChick for alerting us to the restaurant in the first place! Even bigger thanks to Han for taking good care of us, making good recommendations and even cooking some of our dishes. We started with: (Cold) Chicken Strips with Chef's Hot Sauce This was a favorite of ours from when the chef used to cook at Tifco's. It was so popular that we didn't even leave a little for Percy to top his eggs with in the morning! Noodles with hot Meat Sauce I could just eat this and be pretty happy. (Cold) Beef and Tripe in Hot Sauce This is often made with beef kidney, or even lung, but I'm not entirely sure what part of the beef it was... but it was delicious! Hot Rabbits Ding! At last, we get the hot rabbit! They warned us that it was boney, and indeed there are lots of little spiky bones to contend with, but I thought it was totally worth the trouble. Szechuan Wonton in Chili Oil The wontons themselves are not spicy, but the broth has a good dose of chili oil in it. Fried Taiwanese Sausage The entire table went pretty nuts for this: despite having two plates of it, it disappeared pretty quickly, and I suspect 10 more servings would have vanished too... Oh, and hiding behind the sausage - a pile of thinly-sliced garlic, which we were instructed should be eaten along with the sausage, one slice of garlic with each slice of meat. Our apologies to spouses who were not with us. Be warned: this is totally addictive. I have no idea why this isn't offered at every restaurant in town, but for you city dwellers, it could be worth a drive out to Exton just for this! Fish and Picked Vegetable Soup I'm actually not sure about the official name of this one, but wow, it was delicious. The fish was mild and light, perfectly cooked, accompanied by tangy greens and a subtle broth. This was overall not very spicy, but there were a few peppers lurking in there that caught a few of us by surprise! Imperial Soup Shrimp, Squid, Chicken, I forget what else... I actually didn't eat this, so I hope someone else will describe it. Chinese Bacon with Long Hot Peppers Steamed Pork Belly with Rice Powder and Pumpkin Pork Belly with preserved Vegetables OK, maybe we got a little carried away with the pork bellies. No regrets though! The thin sliced "bacon" with the hot pepper had a great smoky kick, the steamed version was meltingly tender, the one with preserved vegetables was my favorite, the sharply-flavored vegetables cutting the richness of the meat beautifully. Lion's Head Meatballs Can we have yet another favorite? This was very popular at the table, we actually ordered another plate of these... I love them. Lamb with Cumin Yet another long-time favorite back from the days this chef cooked at Tifco's China Bistro. Best-ever version of it, I think, nicely tender lamb, still juicy, literally encrusted with ground cumin. This is not subtle, so if you're not down with cumin or hot peppers, this may not be for you. But if that sounds interesting, you owe it to yourself to try this! Fish with Pickled Peppers This is not as hot or sour as the name suggests, but it is very tasty. I think I might like this with fish better than with pork or chicken, which I'd defaulted-to previously. Three-Cup Chicken This is a traditional Taiwanese dish, and a real crowd-pleaser. It's a little sweet, sticky, salty, therefore, not surprisingly, totally addictive. Pork Chop Rice Another Taiwanese standard, and perhaps my new favorite dish. The porkchop itself was good, but I especially loved the sauce on the rice, the vegetables accompanying, the whole package. Fried Rice with Sausage Because there is no such thing as too much Chinese sausage. Spicy Soft Shell Crabs Perfectly crispy and bursting with juice, and as you can see, a bit spicy too! Pork Stew This had a little bit of everything: thinly sliced pork, pork intestines, pork blood, chicken, hot peppers, beansprouts... Our table is still not too sure about the pork blood, but the stew as a whole was very tasty. And who knew? I actually like intestines cooked like this! They were very kind to send out a big plate of good watermelon, which was a perfect way to cool our tingling palates. Also some sweet mochi were a lovely finish to the meal. I'm afraid that we might have used up all the paper in their cash register... I suspect that we could have gotten by with a couple fewer dishes, but everything that Han suggested sounded so good, we just kept saying "sure, bring it!!" And indeed everything was delicious, I don't think there's a single dish we didn't like. Even with all this excess, the bill still came to under $30 per person, and most of us had some leftovers to take home. The kitchen was even nice enough to package up some containers of hot and sour and egg-drop soup for us, so many of us have a nice lunch, or dinner, to keep those great flavors lingering for another day. I thought this was a great meal. Thanks again to Han for his excellent recommendations, it's such a nice change of pace to have someone enthusiastically guiding us through traditional dishes, rather than just steering us to some thing "safe." Thanks also to everyone there for their warm hospitality. The waitresses and other staff were all super-friendly and helpful. And of course to the chef, who continues to amaze with his vibrant cooking. They mentioned that they're pretty slow during the week, so I'm sure they'd love to see you! If some of your dining companions are not as adventurous, there are plenty of more familiar things on the menu too, just be sure to try a couple of things you can't get elsewhere, you won't regret it! There are a few hundred things on the menu, so I think we need to do several more of these dinners and work our way through it! Thanks to everybody for coming, that was big fun!

The noodles themselves are the main reason I doubt I'll ever be quite as enamored with Cafe Diem as some may legitimately be. It's obviously just a personal taste thing, but I'm in mrbig's camp, preferring the flatter, or squarer, firmer, chewier, slipperier kind. Not that I'm completely opposed to rounder noodles from time to time...

just seems like bad karma to me...

Maybe we could get a webcam pointed at the rhubarb pitcher, so we could get a constantly-updated report on available quantities. Or we could just go, and have a Corpse Reviver 2 or a Salty Pomeranian if the rhubarb is running low...

You know, that is not beyond the realm of possibility... Edited to add: That MUST be it, I came across this related gossip on the wonderfully-titled Poke a Badger with a Spoon blog. Looks like there will indeed be some M. Night filming in the Phoenixville vicinity over the next few days, so the transformation of the G Lodge and closing of rt 23 seems like too much of a coincidence. My question is, what's wrong with the name G Lodge? Seems cinematically enigmatic to me...

hmmm... and they're closing the road right there for a few days this week? Sounds like a conspiracy to me. Are we confident that the G-Lodge wasn't some sort of top-secret intelligence-gathering post for some shadowy government agency? Or maybe Filbert's might be?

hmmm, might have to head out to Downingtown soon! Although I might not need to make the drive, I just grabbed lunch at Los Mariachis in Phoenixville again, and it was really quite good, and bizarrely large: 5 well-stuffed tacos for $5-something. I've got a picture around here somewhere... In other ChesCo developments: the Marchwood Shopping Center (which is in a weird location, sort sunk down in a little valley beside route 100, just north of Exton) is home to two new-ish ethnic markets. There's an Indian store with some good produce, and then the expected spices and groceries. The nice surprise is that there are shockingly tasty vegetable Samosas sitting under a heat lamp next to the cash register. There's no reason for these to be any good, yet they are... A couple of doors down, there's an even newer "Asian" grocery, with mostly Chinese stuff. It's a small store, but there's a really great selection of stuff that I've never been able to find out this way, including some unusual fresh and frozen prepared foods or ingredients, along with the expected aisles of sauces and snacks. They don't have much produce, but they do have some nice greens you're unlikely to find in the supermarket. I got some tiny little baby bok choy which turned out to be quite delicious. But my favorite find was frozen scallion pancake dough. They looked almost homemade, simply wrapped in plastic wrap, and rather sticky and gooey and non-manufactured-looking when thawed out a bit. But more to the point, fried up in a hot pan, they might have been better than most I've gotten in restaurants... Maybe because I risked severe burns by eating them approximately 3.5 seconds out of the oil! It's not big enough to be a complete substitute for the H-Mart or the Washington Ave supermarkets, or Chinatown groceries, but it's great to have nearby. There's also a good Indian Grocery store in the same plaza as Han Dynasty, along with the McDonald's and the Produce Junction. That too is just off of 100, just a little north of rt 3, still in Exton, not as far north as Marchwood. It's really not so bad out here in the burbs!

Hopefully Katie will confirm times (and more importantly that she'll be working!) but I'm pretty confident that on saturdays they keep pretty normal hours, probably 5pm-2am. I think they close down a little early if it's super-slow, but that shouldn't happen on a saturday.

I've been remiss, neglecting to mention an especially awesome cocktail that our favorite spiritual advisor served up for us... Sure, the Corpse Reviver 2 is great; the Blood Orange Margarita is delicious, especially followed by a Diablo; there are any number of great cocktails waiting for Katie's able shaking and stirring. But you'd really be missing out if you skip the Rhuby Daiquiri. Nope, not a typo, that's Rhuby, as in Rhubarb. Trust me on this. Or more to the point, trust Katie.

I don't know if they're up and running yet, but Joe Sixpack says Johnny Brenda's will have a stand at the Linc, serving beer and food. That same article mentions that there's a local food presence, including the Schmitter, and food from Shank and Evelyn's. So it might not be so bleak after all... (Thanks to foobooz for the heads-up.)

"A taste of home" in the Daily News

Well, then there's his rather unique assessment of 707's onion rings:

I will SO buy a ticket for the Holly Moore bio-pic. Titles?

Those following the Weekly's restaurant reviews over the summer will have noticed that McManus is rarely at a loss for words, usually deploying them fairly creatively in what have mostly been amusingly savage pans of places he's found pretentious or lacking. If I understand it, he's a music writer, subbing on the food beat temporarily, so there may not be many more reviews to deconstruct... In his critique of Ortlieb's, he uses the phrase "aching with spice" and then promptly mocks himself for doing so. I didn't detect the same post-modern irony in his use of "Simply divine," and it does sound a little odd in 2007, in reference to a burger, but I thought his tale of trying to get the lunch special was pretty funny...

They really can be that good. I'm sure the Best of Philly for new BYOB is making it even harder to get in. Try a weeknight if you can. And report back!

I'm not really up on the happening dance spots, so I'll leave that to someone else to recommend, or perhaps your friend has that part covered. Pre-dancing, it depends on what you're looking for in "drinks." If you'd like a classic cocktail, including some great ones that most of the world has forgotten how to make, perfectly executed with excellent ingredients, in a slightly retro-feling bar, Southwark is the place. It's really a great spot. But of you were looking for more of a scene, with lots of people, more modern "fun" cocktails, and dancing, etc, you'd probably want to go somewhere else. Or start at Southwark and move on. L'Etage could be a good suggestion for stop #2, in that it's only a few blocks away from Southwark, so you could do both, and it's a bit more energetic. Fluid is another spot for dancing, only about a block from Southwark. Not sure what kind of music you're looking for, they do "Hip-hop, soul, funk, classics, reggae & house" on saturdays. Randomly, ?uestlove from the Roots spins there. For dinner, only about a block from Southwark is Ansill, which would be a good spot before or after cocktails, especially if you'd prefer to stay on-foot for the evening. A few of us just had a fantastic dinner there recently. As has already been mentioned, Vetri's a pretty serious, long, expensive meal, not great pre-dancing fare. And they're closed all weekend for the summer, so it's not an option anyway. Osteria is a better choice, similar food, but more casual, and it has the distinct advantage of being open. Saturdays are pretty busy, but you can probably still get in. They've got a great selection of wines by the glass, and some interesting cocktails too. And we recently noticed that they've got a really interesting beer list too. It's not really located near anything, but it's a really quick drive or cab ride up and back. Snackbar has great food and some very interesting cocktails too, so you might be able to eat well and get cool drinks at the same place. But be prepared, it's very tempting to just hang there for the whole night, you might not ever get to the dancing. I think it's the chairs. Snackbar is right off of Rittenhouse Square and so, pretty near a lot of popular bars that might be good for dancing later, I'm not sure... ask around amongst the glitterati lingering stylishly about, they can probably point you to a good place!

Excellent report! I'm suddenly very hungry...

The short answer is yes. Even a fairly strict vegetarian will find things to eat at snackbar, although practically-speaking, the menu's just not all that huge, there might not be lots of choices. But add-in fish and seafood and there's no problem at all. I haven't seen the newest menu, with the items that Holly posted, but through all of the menu iterations there have been plenty of meat-free dishes. That gnocchi looks great... The exact preparations change enough that I'd recommend asking if it's an issue, but I've noticed several items on the various menus that were what I've come to think of as "incidentally vegan," dishes that weren't constructed with those restrictions in mind, but just so happen to have no meat or dairy, or animal products of any kind.

I actually appreciate it when places round-off to at least quarters, I 'd rather not have 8 pounds of change in my pockets, but I've ALWAYS had places round-off in my favor. Even for something as inconsequential as a couple of cents, rounding in the establishment's favor is just obnoxious. Refusing to give the actual correct change when asked is appalling. I'd seen some good reports on Loie when it was new-ish, so I checked it out a couple of times, and just got the distinct vibe that it was a bar/club scene with incidental food. What food I had was OK, but not memorable, and I remember getting the distinct impression that our ordering food was somewhat of an inconvenience to them, as they were getting ready for the late-night crowd. So, there's a new chef, should we be checking it out anew?

A couple more of us checked out Chick's recently too. I'd been curious about it, but then the lure of a Katie Loeb cocktail proved irresistible. It's almost a shame, there's a very extensive selection of wines by the glass, but I'm having a hard time imagining not partaking of the mixing talents of our fave intoxicologist. I agree with SugarJ that the fries were quite tasty, and not quite as imbued with rosemary as I expected, but hey... that didn't slow us from plowing through a basket pretty quickly. There's a nice selection of charcuterie available, and portions were very generous. We sampled a mortadella, speck, and finocchiona, all of which were quite tasty. I have no idea why the braised shortribs sounded appealing to me on a hot summer evening, but they did, and they were quite enjoyable, paired with polenta and a dab of bleu cheese. As mentioned, it's a cool, dark space, retaining the historical vibe, as evidenced by a few old photos of the place from many years ago. The old bar wasn't crowded with wine bottles like it is now, and I suspect the old-school bartenders might not have recognized a few of the concoctions Katie can shake up for you, but there's a nice sense of history there. It's a small place, and a little cramped, but I'm told an upstairs expansion is planned. Definitely worth a stop for a drink, and grab a bite while you're there!