philadining

It certainly appears to me that Bruni did not get the greens and sharp provolone, and got the small pork sandwich, which is, in fact, significantly less good than the large. I could imagine that their plain pork on the pedestrian kaiser might have seemed "beige." Pity, because a quick perusal of this thread would have steered him right! I'm surprised about the cheesesteak, I really liked the one I had most recently. I suspect they were already on-edge from the customer service at the counter. But I can't figure out why they were so mystified by the "with everything" problem. You wouldn't order a pizza "with everything." It's even a risky thing to do with a hot dog, unless you know what the place means by that. You might say that in Chicago, but that's kind of the point of a Chicago dog. I was just at the Charcoal Pit near Wilmington and noticed a sign near the register that explained the changing array that "everything" indicates for the various items you might ask to be dressed that way. My point is: this is a cheesesteak, not some obscure and exotic delicacy recently discovered in the deepest rainforest. It has been described and discussed ad infinitum, and I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone advising that one go to place X and "get one with everything." Did no one learn anything from John Kerry trying to get one with Swiss cheese? A couple of years ago I got my first "Pea Meal" (bacon) sandwich in Toronto, and when the woman at the counter asked me what I wanted on it, I told her it was my first one, and asked her what I wanted on it. (Honey mustard seems to be the correct answer.) It wasn't that hard. I suspect she would have given me grief if I'd asked for "everything" even though Canadians are generally exceedingly polite when not wearing skates. I do see Bruni's basic point, that there's an odd phenomenon of little "finds" gaining mythic status by virtue of their obscurity, and sometimes by virtue of their rudeness. If it's that big of a pain to eat there, it must be good... It's just a shame that he chose to make that point while missing the point at John's.

It's in there, it's just a bit of an Easter Egg hunt to get to it... Looks interesting.

Just saw that Philafoodie visited Osteria. Damn, dude's got better pix than I do! Nice review overall.

Pizza Lombarda because, well, it's very hard to eat here without starting with one of these... Pulpo The octopus here is even more tender and delicate than the version on the pulpo pizza, and the lemony dressing adds an attractive highlight. I don't know why, but potato is a great partner with octopus, so I'm happy to find cubes of it here. Burrata The freshest, lightest, creamiest piece of cheese ever. Just get it. Gnocchi Sardi Sorry, I'd mis-identified this in an earlier post as Gnocchi "Secco" which I think is a name you might find similar pasta sold under in a bag... Anyway, it's Sardi, which is to say wheat-based, if I understand it correctly. Really nice and light and spring-like, thanks to the peas. Fusilli with Favas and mint OK, the gnocchi got beat out for springiness by this one! The tender favas are terrific, and the light taste of mint creeps up on you, making for a very fresh, tingly feel. Love it.

Positive review of Ariana Kabob House in the Democrat and Chronicle Also, a few posts back I mentioned that I liked the Ethiopian place called Dashen. Some friends of mine tried to go recently but found that it was closed, and it apparently seemed to be a permanent closure, not just a day off. Bummer. But they went to plan B for Ethiopian and had lunch at Abyssinia and said it was very good. It looks like it's the only choice for Ethiopian now, so I'm glad to hear that they enjoyed it.

I've heard rumors of some lunatics paying double that... But to keep this somewhat on-topic, or at least eGullet-relevant, I've heard that there is a growing problem of laptops being snatched at coffeeshops and other places where people hang out with this very expensive stuff on the table. I don't think I've heard of it happening in Philly in specific, but it's worth keeping in mind. Whether the situation is walking away from it for a minute to get another iLatte, or absent-mindedly leaving it somewhere in its backpack, it's a relatively new phenomenon that we might be carrying thousands of dollars (and sensitive personal information) with us all the time, and sometimes being a little careless with it... The original scenario, as already noted, is a complicated one, with plenty of finger-pointing to be done. But I wonder how it would play out if your computer got stolen from the table at a coffeeshop? If the owner left it unattended, it seems like his fault. But what if he's sitting right there and it gets snatched from beneath his fingers (this has apparently happened in San Francisco.) Does the location bear any responsibility for that? I suppose it's no different than if someone came in and snatched a purse or a briefcase and ran. It's not really the restaurant's/cafe's fault on an absolute cosmic fairness scale, I don't know about legal responsibility, but one wonders if they might want to try to make it right for the sake of customer service. The difference is that now it's quite normal for customers to have thousands of dollars of electronics sitting on the table. I've just made myself really paranoid...

The short answer is no. If you can manage a drive to Exton, the China Bistro (where the Chung King Garden folks used to work) is still serving some seriously spicy food if you order from the "Special Taste of Szechuan" part of the menu. There are only about 3 spicy things on the "authentic" part of the "Lunch Express" menu, but you can probably order from the main menu if you really want the serious stuff. But other than that place, I don't know of anything else in the burbs that approaches that style.

I don't have a solution for your dilemma, but dude, you're living my deepest primal techno fear: ahhhggh, where's my laptop!?!? I feel for you man...

Banana Leaf is practically next door to the Troc, and has very good Malaysian food. But you're also only a couple blocks from anything in Chinatown. Penang, from which Banana Leaf took its inspiration is right around the corner. Both of them have a few beers, you could grab some satay to munch on, and some Roti Canai, because it's required to eat that if you set foot in either of those places... Rangoon is only a couple of blocks away, and Burmese food tends to appeal to folks that are into Indian, Thai, Chinese, Malaysian, etc... And they have beer and a couple of wines, and a few appealing appetizer-ish things too. I'm assuming you weren't looking for a full-on meal. I can't think of any great bar-type places that are very close-by, although you're not all that far from that 13th and Sansom matrix of Raw/ElVez/Vintage. Those places wouldn't be too nutty on a wednesday, you could slide in and get a couple of drinks and then hike about 7-8 blocks over to the Troc.

I neglected to mention that I asked the bartender to pour me something "interesting" and she did not disappoint. I really enjoyed this Rosato from Veneto (Bardolino Chiaretto D.O.C.) It's dry, yet fruity, it's got enough heft to drink with food, but might be even better as a summer refresher. I'm planning on drinking lots more of this as it gets warmer (along with some of that Chateau Calissanne Rosé from Moore Bros.) As the women next to me at the bar commented as I sipped that rosato, I must feel pretty secure about my masculinity. I think there was only a 47% chance that they were making fun of me.

Hey, by the way, welcome Vicarious! I have a similar impression of Coyote Crossing in Conshy: that it's a lovely patio, and the food we got was OK, not bad enough to make us swear off the place, but not exciting enough to draw me back either.

I just have to shake my head. I was skimming through another food discussion board and came across a thread asking for places to eat near the Tower Theater. The general consensus among those posters seems to be that there's nothing worth eating around there... except maybe Pica's. We spent all day eating great stuff only a few blocks from the Tower and didn't even get to a few places we wanted to try! Speaking of which, it may be getting to be time for part 2!

The courtyard at the Swan in Lambertville is pretty charming too. I think they only serve the grill menu out there, which is much less swanky than the main dining room, but has a few good things on it...

I have an excuse! The guys at Cantina los Caballitos fed me a really delicious, and huge, Turkey leg in red mole a few hours earlier. I really didn't need dinner at all, but you know, in the interest of research...

The best I've ever had, in philly, or anywhere, were these with a Thai green curry sauce: If I could just remember where I had them....

What, these? Marra's The mussels were pretty good, generally clean, small and tender, although a few of them were a little chewy. But in most cases, I'm actually less concerned about the actual bivalves than with the broth, and this stuff (obviously, we got the red) was awesome. It was garlicky, herby, with a little salty marine undertow. Could we just order a bowl of the broth? The only downside is that the flavor of this was so strong that it made the red-gravy pastas we got next seem a little bland. So I think I might be in the camp that will mostly stick to mussels, maybe some escarole soup, and a pizza at Marra's.

Actually, as the keeper of the pix, I'll describe one quirk: A couple of us decided to get glasses of Moscato, and got this: Now, I'm not normally a glass-half-empty kind of guy, but isn't that glass kind-of half-empty? It seemed odd enough to us that we asked about it, and were told that because it was a dessert wine, it got a 3 oz pour. I think that makes sense for some intense, sweet, sticky dessert wine, but for something as light and quaffable as moscato, it just seems weird. It's not a tragedy, it's an $8 glass of wine, but we felt like it would be better to have a more generous pour, even it it meant they had to charge a little more for it. It's pretty easy to burn through Moscato, it's not Port...

The pizza is one we hadn't seen before: ecargot, spring garlic, mozz. It was quite delicious, but it might have been just as good even without the snails, it was the smoky, blistered, crackly crust, and the fresh garlickiness that were the stars. Nothing at all wrong with the snails though, we had some more with peas and pancetta on polenta, and they were even better in that comforting context. I'll spare you the visual, suffice it to say that it tasted better than it looked. Delicate ravioli were filled with creamy Robiola cheese, topped with tender mushrooms. What else could that need? Butter... As tasty as that was, the gnocchi secca might have outshone it: a simple, pleasingly firm pasta supporting pork and peas. Pretty close to perfect. Like Brent said in his post above, I'm normally not fond of well-done lamb, but this version, Spiedini-style, worked for us, the nice crispy crust providing a pleasing texture we don't normally get with lamb. In fact, we were commenting on how much this meal was about texture, how it was clearly as important as the flavors, in creating the overall wow factor we were experiencing. The pizza crust keeps getting better each time, and its airy crunch is largely what's making it so great. (and OK, we'll admit it, we got a Lombarda too, how could we not?) The pastas had a mouthfeel that was as distinctive as the tastes of the fillings and toppings. Overall, a very enjoyable meal, with only a couple of small odd quirks, which I'll let my companions describe.

This kind of food is probably not fast enough for you, but Penang is open until 1am, Banana Leaf says they're open until 2, but they actually close the kitchen earlier than that... There are one or two places in Chinatown that stay open really late, but I can never keep track of which they are. Jim's is open pretty late most nights and regardless of whether it's a great steak, it can often hit the spot... similarly if you're willing to detour to West Philly, Abners is open until midnight weekdays, although the last cheesesteak I got there was pretty awful. Alyan's, across 4th from Jim's is open until 11pm. I can never keep track of Ishkabibbles, never liked much beyond their cheese fries. But you're right, things are pretty bleak late.

Tried Erawan recently, and it was good, but I'm not sure it stood out as being significantly better than most places around town. They offer a slightly broader menu than many other restaurants, notably with some Northern dishes. We didn't make any special requests for the authentic experience, just wanting to try the food straight off the menu. I can't for the life of me remember what this was called, it was on the "Spacials" menu. Marinated pork, wrapped in bacon, what could be bad about that? I can't say I loved it, but I did like the slightly sour flavor of the pork, spiked up by a dip in what seemed like straight-up Sriracha sauce. The peanuts, fresh ginger and and other accompaniments were nice flavorings, but I wasn't at all clear about how one was supposed to add those elements to the pork. I think I might have wrapped them all in a lettuce leaf if I had one... Seafood Tom Yum This was also from the specials menu, not the standard Tom Yum, which can be had with chicken or shrimp. This featured mussels, shrimp, and squid in a hot and sour broth. It had a strong mussel flavor, and was pretty tasty, but in terms of both taste and quality of ingredients, the similar soup at Siam Lotus was WAY superior. Penang Curry This was very good, but I'd ordered it specifically to compare it to Penang curry I had recently, and I gotta say that Siam Lotus rolls right over this one. Comparatively, the Erawan version just seemed kind of flat and more coconut milk than curry. I'd asked for it spicy, and it really wasn't. Still, not bad in any way, just not nearly as vivid as Siam Lotus. Curry Garden Yet another special, kind of a kitchen-sink melange of vegetables, fried tofu, chicken, and some sort of undefined curry. Despite that vague description, it was really quite tasty. The construction suggests a crowd-pleasing little bit of everything, but you know, it worked, it pleased our crowd. All in all, we had a good meal, and I might go back and try a few of the more unusual things. But it hasn't risen especially high in my personal rankings. Service was very pleasant, it's an attractive enough place, portions were large, prices were fair. The overall food quality was decent, but the chicken was not especially tender, the mussels in the soup were a little chewy, the sauces were good but not as intense as other places. Again, worth another visit, but not a new favorite spot...

Thought you might have liked this part:

April Lisante's article on this very topic...

Thanks for the report, Vigna! Also, Maria Gallagher gives it a fairly enthusiastic B in Philly Mag. And aren't we awaiting a review from one of our regular posters?!?

OK, go to Apamate for some hot chocolate and churros. Then, when you leave, go straight out the front door, across the street, and walk east down South St a few doors. Repeat as necessary.