philadining

Good tip, Rockhopper! So, what's the Puff's sauce like?

It's the Pearl Vidal, which I believe is unoaked, I sure didn't detect any oak. I'm not sure how it would do side-by-side with any of the other varieties, but it did quite nicely beside some strong cheese!

A few of us really enjoyed the Iniskillin '05 Vidal Icewine the other day (Item #010211) Still a hefty $30 for a 375ml bottle, but that's half, or less, the price of other recent vintages. To our palates, this certainly wasn't a dump-the-bad-year kind of deal, we loved it. Sorry, this was after, and in the midst-of several other bottles of wine, so I don't have detailed tasting notes, beyond "wow!". I have traumatic memories of lots of bad wine made with Vidal grapes in upstate NY, but those Canadians can sure make a tasty elixir out them by letting them freeze... There's a bit out in the burbs, a few cases left downtown.

It's about 30 miles, not always on the fastest roads, but it can be a pretty drive. Harrisburg is only about 15 miles from Hershey.

I've had a couple of good meals at Lemon Grass Thai, that Mike mentioned. I noticed that the menu is almost identical to a few other places scattered along Lancaster Avenue, from Philly all the way out here. One tends to remember odd names for dishes, such as "Young Girl on Fire," "Angel Breast," "Swimming Rama" and "Between the Sheets." Despite the strange wording, the food was pretty good.

There' a good list of Indian grocery stores here>>.

I think there are shops in West Philly on Walnut AND Chestnut, or did the Walnut one close? I (obviously) haven't been in for a while. Anyway, there's a little shop out here in Malvern, I'll take a look and see if they have Dhansak Masala.

I agree with the above posts - those prices sound about right - we did both a full-on 7 course, and the vegetarian version last June. I'm with Gordon, if you're doing it, go big... but as Geoff says, if it's down to price, the vegetarian tasting menu is pretty spectacular. The times I've gone, I haven't been with wine enthusiasts, so we'd just get a bottle and a couple of glasses, it's entirely possible to do that affordably. There's no a la carte menu anymore, but we were told that if you really wanted to just have a few courses from the tasting menu, not the full extravaganza, that they'd work something out. You might want to verify this beforehand if it's interesting to you, the policy could have changed, and I have no idea about prices for something like that. I'd encourage the Susur experience over Lee, even though I've enjoyed both. Lee is good, but not nearly as unique or adventurous.

For some reason I never think to go there for lunch, thanks Tim! In other Phoenixville news, I noticed the Destiny Brew Pub looks closed, building for sale. That leaves Phoenixville with only two brewpubs, how ever will we get by?

he's sharing them so they're co-fidential. We'll never see the confidential ones... Couldn't just be a typo... nope... not interesting enough!

I'm surprised! I had a few of those same things and was pretty struck by how fresh and flavorful they seemed. I think I know what you mean when you talk about the lunchroom tacos, and I thankfully didn't get that flashback from the chorizo! It's a little too soon for them to be on autopilot... I wonder what happened? Did you have cocktails?

Yeah, I don't think we're going to come up with a single, uncontested winner, I just figure that if this crowd tells us their favorites, we'll come up with an array of some of the "best" in town. It's a fair point though, maybe we should use the term "favorite" instead.

Yet another rave (surprise, surprise) from The City Paper. I think it's just a typo, intending to be "candele", but is there such a thing as "canela" pasta? There are so many names for the various shapes and formulations that I can't keep up, so there might be... I'm just curious!

Nothing at all wrong with being informative, SP! This is not directed at anyone in particular, but just in general, I think this thread will be most valuable if we could keep it on the track of, like, really great mussels you think might be the best in town, rather than just places you can get decent mussels. Of course I'm always happy to be waved-off truly awful ones too...

Excellent report Matt, thanks! Your descriptions make me want to check this place out soon, even more than before... For some unknown reason I haven't been in there since it changed from the Thai Royal Barge.

How could I forget?!?! Indeed, I'll say I like those at Majolica better than even the Tap... As I think I suggested in the original post, we think there's some sort of illegal addictive drug in the broth.

Now that you mention it, I stole some sort of mussel from someone else's bowl up at the Grey Lodge and it did indeed rock. Thanks for the reminder!

Diann, it might be our fault, the phrase really might have just tripped out of his mouth, and we were so visibly amused by it that he kept it in his repertoire... (ETA: David, and Diann, thanks very much for poisoning my fond recollections of that cheese with your lovely imagery!)

Jeez, I thought the "fudgy aftermath" was a charming, spontaneous, odd turn of phrase, but it turns out it's just a line he gives all the customers... I feel cuckolded.

Wow, this is spooky, I have a vivid memory of you saying they were really good there. Oh and you admitting to being the second gunman. Wait, was that you? OK, official notice, don't trust my stories any more! Anyway, must go to Marra's to verify and document. Darn. But on that general tack, there must be more noteworthy Italian-style mussels in South Philly that we're overlooking. Thanks for the Rembrants tip, keep them coming!

Once again I feel like we've had some good discussions scattered around in a few different threads. So, when you're feeling like mussels, where do you go? I know Professor Fenton has mentioned Marra's. Mrbig nominated Standard Tap. Despite the widely mixed reviews I've been hearing, a friend and I both agreed that we'd had good bowls of them at Ralph's. (Personally I don't think there's any beating Walt's King of Crabs, but that's not an option anymore....) I've been on a little binge recently: Eulogy: Our group rated these poor-to-fair. The mussels themselves were rather large and mushy, sometimes even tough. The broth didn't have us diving in with the bread to soak it all up. This was the "Moules di Pietro" version. I'd be willing to try another version here just to see if we happened to hit a day when the mussel supply wasn't so great. Monks: These were great, among the best I've had anywhere. This was the "Ghent" version with bacon, leeks and bleu cheese. They were smallish, which is how I like them, cooked really well, and the broth was delicious. My only complaint is that I'd prefer a more neutrally-flavored bread to soak up the broth, the brown bread kind of dominates the flavors. Standard Tap: OK, I may have to throw my vote in with mrbigjas, these were my favorites so far by a significant margin. They were excellent quality, and the broth was studded with big chunks of spicy sausage that was just perfect. Every drop of that sauce got sopped up. So, I have to get to Marra's and... where else?

I realized that the Siam Lotus thread was veering off-track, and it seems like we probably should have a more generic Thai discussion here. So, are there places you especially like? The general consensus seems to be that there's plenty of decent Thai food to be had, but not much exemplary dining. Are we missing something? I've been impressed by Siam Lotus, Vientiane, (which is really Laotian, but they serve many dishes that are generally thought of as Thai) and of course Nan, although I rarely get the things on the menu that are more traditionally Thai, opting instead for the fusion stuff. That said, he makes some fine straight-up Thai dishes... Matt says he likes Smile Cafe. What else?

That used to be Amara, right? Is it still the same folks? As you can tell, i haven't been there in a while..

No joke, there was an insane amount of seafood in that bowl, in the original shot you can just barely see the crab claw peeking up at the front. Next time I move, I want this chef to pack the truck for me. And I agree about the column A-column B thing...

I think this is a fascinating topic, but I suspect it's getting a bit off-track because some of the statements on all sides are being taken a bit too literally. I'm quite sure vadouvan doesn't believe that there will be NO pastry chefs in ANY restaurants (outside of his original exemptions.) I think it's called hyperbole (learned no doubt at the foot of Doug Pirhanna, he knew all the tricks...)(oops, name-dropping!) and as we've seen here, it's a very effective rhetorical technique. All I can say is I've had some rocking desserts lately that have all been coming from what would have previously been considered the hot kitchen....