philadining

I heard that Apamate is planning on bringing in some guest chefs in for special dinners from time to time, and I just found out about the first one. Are you ready? Date: Tuesday, March 27, 2007 (I'm not sure about the time, I'll try to find out...) Guest Chef: Shola Olunloyo Menu: Chick Pea Stew Chorizo "Bolognese" Paprika Oil Shrimp Roasted with Paella Spices Salsa Verde Slow cooked Egg Lobster-Piquillo Broth Braised Chicken "Escabeche" Lentils, Morcilla Almond Milk "Queso Fresco De Cabra" Fresh Cheese Sorbet Arbequina Olive Oil Olive Sugar Price: $50 per person BYOB It's a small restaurant, so I'd call them and reserve a space soon if you're interested. This is looking like a ridiculously good deal to me, I don't even eat shrimp and I think I'll go anyway! I've had that chickpea stew, and I think I'd go just for that... This is their info from menupages: Apamate 1620 South St, Philadelphia 19146 Btwn S 16th & S 17th St Phone: 215-790-1620 I guess you'd just say you want to reserve for the special dinner on tuesday. Ask about what time it starts...

I got a dose of pretty serious Le Creuset envy in that kitchen. I think they might haul that big blue one out into the yard and use it as a hot tub in the summer...

Seriously, I wonder if we showed up on their front step and looked pathetic enough...

technically correct on both counts, I think! That said, I think the term has come to signify toast with that chopped tomato/onion/basil/olive-oil mix that one sees most often around here. You know, Italian salsa... So do they at least say "brew-sketta" ? Sounds like it would be pretty good on a cheesesteak in any case!

A few Philly eGulleteers were lucky enough to be invited by Monsieur and Madame TarteTatin for a dinner of cassoulet and, of course, tarte tatin! Food and company both were superb. snacks: lamp pepperoni, truffled popcorn, radishes cassoulet #1 cassoulet #2 hidden among the two different beans was duck confit, pork belly, pork shank, a couple different kinds of sausages...I'm probably forgetting something... whatever was in there, it was truly delicious. if only we'd had something to drink... somehow in my porky thrall I failed to get a photo of the wonderful frisée salad that served as a nice bright counterpoint to the rich luxury of the cassoulet. I regained my senses in time for the cheese course: and how could we have dinner chez tartetatin without Tarte Tatin? Much respect, and major thanks to chef! and of course to Madame TarteTatin for the very gracious and generous hospitality. Thanks too to the other Philly eGulleteers at the table for the fine company and fine wines!

OK, I'll bite (literally) what's a bruchetta cheesesteak? (oh and welcome!)

ahhh, finally, I've been waiting for a Spelt tasting....

I think I've heard others mention this recently, but when trying to click over to food articles on the Citypaper website, I frequently am met with interminable page loading delays, that usually never complete. I sometimes get through after several tries. Is it just me? I was curious to check out their take on Pojangmacha, which Foobooz linked to as "a new Korean restaurant in Upper Darby" despite the article mentioning their 15-year history. (Elisa Ludwig liked it, BTW)

Another alarming discovery: chocolate = good. a tasting package from Soma Chocolatemaker in Toronto.

This was actually quite an informative and enlightening experiment, even though we were not especially surprised by the results. I remember being chided by a professor back in college for commenting that some study's conclusion seemed "obvious." He suggested that even if some phenomenon seemed like common sense, it was worth investigating, describing and verifying. So, what did we learn? Better beef tastes better. We'd largely concluded this from the first steak tasting, but we were curious whether the cooking method would overwhelm the differences. While some of the methods certainly made the supermarket steaks pretty darn tasty, the Flannery steaks were consistently better. No surprise, but worth verifying. Grilling beats pan-searing. Again, no big surprise, but I know I wasn't alone in hoping that a simple pan-sear on a really good steak might be at least close to as good, just so I could avoid the hassle of setting up a charcoal grill. But the smoky overtones really vastly improved both steaks, even the supermarket strip. Sous-vide dramatically concentrates flavors and makes for a luxurious, tender texture. Again, not that big of a surprise for most of us, and a little bit of a bummer for those of us not ready to devote the money and space for circulators and water baths in our kitchens. The light brush of hazelnut oil on the CSV steaks was a really nice accent. These Whole Foods steaks were significantly better than the one we got for the earlier tasting. This is good and bad news: on one hand it is indeed possible to get a good dry-aged steak from Whole foods; on the other, buyer beware, get a good look at the steak before they wrap it up, there seems to be a range of quality. Although the Whole Foods steaks were pretty good over all, in the array of 6 samples, the plain pan-seared Whole Foods steak ended up tasting like nothing at all. So if you are constrained to doing it in a pan, you might want to plan on an interesting sauce, or compound butter or something. If you can grill it over good charcoal (or sous-vide it with some nut oil and herbs) you'll be fine with a plainer prep. So, no big surprises, but some vivid confirmations of some of our presumptions. And a pretty enjoyable night in any case! Big thanks to V for the hard work, and to dagordon and rae for beef wrangling.

The hostess has offered to take my coat when I've been there. (But I've never taken her up on it, as I have a camera in the pocket....)

Hey Gordon, did you leave the Olive Tree out of the Greek category on purpose? It's been a couple of years since I was there, but it was pretty good then... But you might have not considered it part of this category because it's a little pricey/formal than most of the other spots you mention, with the possible exception of Le Lemon Grass. Or maybe you don't like it. Anyways, thanks for the list!

A field guide to the Frietjes of the Philadelphia region in their natural habitats: Eulogy: Monks: Eulogy certainly has the size and shape more typical of traditional Belgian frietjes, but Rich reports that Monks is using Bintje potatoes, so I suppose the argument can continue about who's being more "authentic." Both places have pretty tasty sauces (and none of them are Arch Deluxe sauce!) As I mentioned upthread, I personally like the Eulogy version better, but the Monks fries were pretty good too...

Thanks! Most recently I've been using a Nikon D-50 digital SLR, with either a 50mm f1.8 or an 18-55mm f4.5 lens.

What an odd conicidence: I'd stumbled across agalarneau's blog a couple of weeks ago and hadn't gotten done compiling my list of links to post it. Anyway, nice blog! Good Buffalo info. And amazingly enough, there actually are Rochester food blogs: First, the winner for the best name: rahchachow rochesterfoodblog miseblog smitaservesyouright Rochester Writers jayceland rochesterdrinks

I liked Dashen (503 South Ave). Doesn't look too great from the outside, but it's nice enough inside. I don't think injera travels really well, so I'd eat there rather than getting takeout, but they'll box it up for you to go if you want.

Sorry to hear this about Zot, but they're pretty new, maybe they can get it together soon. Thanks for taking one for the team!

Foobooz has posted a pdf of the menu. Looks good... (And the graphic designers among us will be happy to see that guy Lorem Ipsum finally gainfully employed in the kitchen, holding down a responsible job for a change, rather than just standing around taking up space...)

We had several different Belgians from the taps at Eulogy, and all those were there. I can't testify about the bottled selection. A lot of these places have those telephone-book sized lists of bottled beer, are we confident that anybody scrupulously keeps all of the brews in stock?

OK, regardless of opinions about quality, or depth of authentic selections on the menu, isn't it a little wild that Philly will shortly have 3 Eulogies, 2 Monks, a Zot, and a bazillion places pouring Abbey dubbels? Do other cities have this Belgian craze going on?

Le Lemon Grass on Monroe Ave does a kind-of upscale, elegant, expensive Vietnamese. 942 Monroe Ave - (585) 271-8360 Dac Hoa is the typical small, divey place, but with pretty good food. Service is S--L----O----W--- 230 Monroe Ave - (585) 232-6038 Those places will be your best bets for good Vietnamese food and Iced Coffee. Gordon, do you know anything about Pho Duang Dong on Otis St? Sounds like a weird tiny shop, but some of the best Pho places are! For other ethnic, there are a few recs in this topic. There's also a new Thai place in Corn Hill, not far from the Dino, but I haven't eaten there yet. Siam Fine Thai 280 Exchange Blvd - 585.232.SIAM (7426) Oddly, they serve Pho. There seems to be a strange blurring of the distinction between Vietnamese and Thai food in Rochester, I've even noticed a best-of list with a category of "Best Vietnamese/Thai" as if it were all the same thing. One extended family that owns many of the "Thai" places around town is originally from Laos, which is in-between Vietnam and Thailand geographically, but I don't think it's actually due to that, those places don't tend to have Vietnamese food on the menus. If you weren't from Syracuse, I'd say to just eat at the Dino, but I can see why you might want to branch out while in Rochester. The Korean places, The King and I, the Indian places Thali and Tandoor are all just a little out in the burbs, not close to the Dino, but not far out of the way if take the Thruway to 390 north. (Who'd have imagined that one might stop in Henrietta for good food? )

I think we were all pretty much on the same page: the freshly-fried dumplings were very nice, both the pork-filled ones, and those greenish looking ones that were stuffed with chives and no small amount of garlic. The pork and peanut dumplings were good, but the beef and peanut version at Lakeside is a touch better, I felt. The beef that was used in the steamed meatballs and as a filling for the rice-noodle rolls had an interesting sweet, citrusy tang. But there wasn't nearly enough filling in those rice rolls, and the noodles had indeed gotten a bit gummy, well, gummier than they should be. The sticky rice had a nice variety of treasures hidden in the rice, but it sadly just didn't taste like much. The steamed barbecue pork buns were good, but not too different from others we've gotten around town, that's one item that's been pretty reliably decent most places I've been. Lakeside's were better, probably because they're inherently fresher. The sweet stuff was fine, but not exciting. Service was generally pleasant, but even though the place was pretty empty, we had some really long gaps when we couldn't get anyone's attention, either for more food, or just refills on tea or water. I think a sunday visit might be in order just to see what they can do when firing on all cylinders, but there wasn't much calling me back other than the fried dumplings.

Bumping this topic, oddly dormant for a couple of years... Anyway a few of us have gone on a spontaneous Belgian binge lately, and while I need a few more visits to come to any firm conclusions, here are a few impressions from recent visits: Eulogy: Excellent frietjes, if you're down with that thick, double-fried Belgian style of fry (I am.) I had complained upthread about getting some dry mealy specimens a while back, but the ones we recently got served with the mussels, and an auxiliary basket, were crispy on the outside, tender and fluffy on the inside, light, not very greasy at all. I really liked them. We were not as impressed with the Mussels. The shellfish themselves were very large, which might be a personal preference thing, but all of us agreed that we much preferred smaller mussels. But beyond the size, they seemed a bit over-steamed, many of them were kind of flabby and chewy and just not that great. We left some. Despite being studded with ham and sausage, the broth was not flavorful enough to compel us to soak up much of it with the bread provided for this purpose. I'm hoping to try some more of the menu. They don't have lots of especially Belgian dishes, but there's a Waterzooi, and some of the other dishes, even the burgers, are supposedly based on the owner's (Belgian) family recipes. Our waiter gave some excellent advice on the beers, pointing out mistakes in the descriptions of a few of them. This of course makes one wonder why they don't just fix the beer menu, but hey, we appreciated the service. The beer selection is very deep, both on tap and from bottles. Monks: I recently dropped-in for the first time in years. It had been so crowded and loud and smoky the last few times that I'd gone that I just couldn't take it. But now with the smoking ban, all one has to do is avoid the crowds. We hit a slow time and were pleasantly surprised. The Mussels were excellent. We ordered a version featuring caramelized leeks, bacon and blue cheese, which made for a creamy, salty broth. The mussels themselves were small, tender, and not at all sandy. Some of the tastiest mussels I've had in a while, from any nationality's cuisine. I liked the fries much better than I had previously. They're still too thin and stubby to be my ideal fry, but they were nice and crispy, not always the case when I'd had them before. Some came with the mussels and we liked them enough that we ordered more. Still, I give Eulogy the edge here, both for authenticity and for overall tastiness. I had a burger, which was decent, but pretty seriously overcooked beyond what I'd asked for, so it's surprising that it was still good at all. The DP took advantage of a brunch offering (amazingly, the brunch menu seems to be served until 5 pm) and had Eggs Benedict, which as jazzed up with good Ardennes ham and some spinach. The Hollandaise was a little subdued, but maybe that's some sort of Belgian joke about the Dutch... As always, there was a great selection of beer on tap, and an insane number in bottles. I haven't made it to Zot yet, but I'm sure others can add their impressions. I went to Brigid's recently, and beyond having a good selection of Belgian beer, there are very few traces of Belgian influence on the place these days. Still, good neighborhood bar, and I like the food, but it probably doesn't belong in this discussion. So, what are you folks liking, or not, these days?

I don't think so, I think it's next to where they were, it's not right on the corner. Perhaps the most important landmark is that it's directly across 20th street from Capogiro.