philadining

Couldn't resist the retro appeal of a Hungerford's Hot fudge Sundae. Nothing unusual, just extremely good. Rich, smooth vanilla ice cream; excellent hot fudge (from the J. Hungerford Smith Company) with a dense, but not sticky, texture; whipped cream and a cherry. Delicious, in that simple way. My only complaint is that the slightly over-filled lovely old-fashioned glass sent ice cream shooting out of a flute every time I tried to dip in with my spoon. Messy, but I'll live with it. My friend got a cone of black raspberry ice cream, which he liked a lot, with a couple of similar functional cautions. The fresh, still warm waffle-cone was tasty, but its heat was melting the ice cream more rapidly, creating perilous pools of fluid, ready to spill out any fissures in the cone. And the cone itself was pretty hard and crisp, like a bigger, thicker sugar cone, making it pretty easy to break off unpredictable sections while biting-in. Again, not a huge problem, but I witnessed a couple of uncontrolled ice-cream floes. In both cases, it was worth it, but we made a bit of a mess.

I've walked by the Aromatic House of Kabob a few times, but didn't go in until today. There are a few other Persian foods on the menu, but the bulk of it is kebabs, which can be served on pita, on rice, or on a salad. There's a cooler with basic soft drinks, but with a couple of more interesting offerings. One hint: the yogurt soda says to "shake gently" but DON'T DO IT!! It is indeed separated-out, and does need mixing, but maybe a very gentle tip, or a stir with a straw after opening would do it. My version of a gentle shake caused it to erupt violently when uncapped, and suffice it to say, you don't really want yogurt soda spraying all over the place... The flavor was pretty strong, sort of like an Indian Salty Lassi, very tangy, thick, yogurty, but with a slight carbonation. It actually went really well with the food, but was a bit too intense for me by the end. To start, they brought a complmentary plate of marinated cucumber, tomato and onion salad. This was really great scooped up with the excellent, thin, fresh pita bread. A serving of yogurt sauce was good with this, and as a condiment with the kebabs. Combo #2 is one skewer of "Koobideh" ( ground spiced beef) and one of Joojeh (marinated chicken.) Combo #3 is one skewer of "Koobideh" ( ground spiced beef) and one of Chenjeh (lamb.) All three types of kebabs were very good, if a tiny bit dry. The spicing was a little less-assertive than some I've had before. There's a note on the menu saying to ask for them spicy if want them that way, I'll have to try that. They were still pretty tasty, especially on top of the good salad. I think I might have liked the chicken the best, which is rarely the case for kebabs, they rarely stay juicy. So these aren't my all-time favorite kebabs, but they're pretty good, and a decent value at about $13 for a HUGE platter with two generous kebabs and lots of salad or rice. It's a little less formal (and cheaper) than the Afghani places on the other side of this block of Chestnut. Of course, as a Persian restaurant, it offers different food than Afghani places, but there's some similarity. I'll go back and try the kebabs more spicy, and on rice, a couple of platters went by us like that and they looked good.

It's hard to beat a good Kebab, and we've got a few cuisines to choose from: Afghani, Persian, Middle Eastern, Greek, Indian, more... Sadly, we've lost Roya from Sansom Street, formerly one of my favorites, but I read that the former owner or manager of Roya has opened a not-so-traditional Persian spot out on the Main Line (Mediterranean Grill -870 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr). I've had lots of good ones, plenty of mediocre ones, but am having a hard time choosing faves. What do you folks like?

Checked put Taqueria Moroleon tonight. Was keeping my eye out for Mixteca, or some other hole in the wall, but Moroleon won out by being the one I found first. The menu is pretty Tex-Mex, and the clientele was pretty flour-tortilla, if you get my drift. But there's some good stuff on the menu, and while I haven't tried enough of it to make any grand pronouncements, what I had tonight was quite good. Things got off to a promising start with the salsas on the table, a nice simple, chunky salsa fresca, and a smoother, hotter, really tasty, slightly smoky one. They had a Molcajete on the specials menu. As discussed up-thread, this is a term for the heavy lava-rock bowl, as well as a stewy concoction served therein, and this version was quite delicious. It had lots of tender braised beef, a couple of pieces of cheese, onion, tomato, and a roasted chile that was a good deal hotter than I expected! It came sizzling and bubbling, and wasn't much cooler by the time I finished. It came with a warmer full of corn tortillas, and a generous plate of rice, beans and guacamole. I barely made a dent, I probably only ate about a third of it, this was plenty of food for two or more people. And only $12. Thankfully the Mexican food options have improved in the area in general, enough that it's probably not imperative to drive all the way out here just for decent Mexican food, but if you're in the area, this isn't a bad choice.

Great minds think alike.... next thing, you're going to tell me you're thinking of eating at Gimore's on monday! It's just as well that you didn't post photos, I'm even allergic to graphics of shrimp. One of these days we'll all end up there at the same time and have real feast.

Hey Evan, thanks for the report. Sadly I think even amazing food in any restaurant would feel like a let-down when you had been planning on the whole Studio Kitchen experience. But hey, Pif still sounded good! It made me want to go. (And happy birthday!) I think you should do that for sure!

Late night at work...need some incentive to continue....I know! Tifco! (Hot Rabbits, ding!) I got some take-out to munch on while working, attempting to keep the sauce off of the mouse, and the hot peppers out of the keyboard. Moderate success. As usual, I got way more food than I could ever eat, but I'm totally into the leftover thing, as long as those chile peppers don't somehow reach critical mass, and create a small nuclear incident in my refrigerator. 3- Pepper Chicken: Chicken with bell pepper, hot pepper and pickled pepper (#43). Enough peppers for ya? This had a nice vinegary bite, and I didn't find a whole lot of bell peppers, just hot fresh, dried and pickled. This is a bit soupy, and the chicken is sliced, but in weird clumps... nonetheless, I like it, I'd get it again, especially in a crowd. Red-Roasted Pork: Homemade stewed Pork (#56) This was right on the edge of too fatty for me, but it was so tasty... It was big chunks of fatty pork belly, sometimes an inch or more square. I don't mind this fat ratio in thinner slices, but the sheer expanse of pork fat in some of these cubes was a little daunting. But much of it was pretty balanced with lean, and so a hearty serving of this was no worse than eating an entire pound of bacon in one sitting... There's really no vegetables in this, just pork, pork, more pork, and a nice deep, thick, red stewy sauce, with overtones of ginger, star anise, and chile. I'm confident the pork is going to get better the more I reheat it. Not sure about the chicken, that really might be getting ornery over time.

Could I just mention that it's not a REALLY good time to mail-order chocolate? In a few weeks, maybe.....

Wow, great pix! I loved seeing the assembly as well as the finished product. (and I know where you're coming from, ImageGullet is very good, but the whole iPhoto - .mac thing is so easy and elegant, it's hard to beat.) And I know that feeling of not being able to decide what you liked best. That quail looked great. We'll try to keep in mind that you had TOO much wine, but a few of us lunatics can't help but see it as a challenge... Thanks again for the report, hope you get back there soon, and have more to tell!

The pairing of the flavors there has been one of my favorite things (and Katie won the prize last night - each flavor good, even better together - why am i not surprised?) but I'm starting to wonder if some of their flavors just don't lend themselves to that, or at least might not shine in some circumstances? My white peach sorbetto really did bloom with flavor when i concentrated on it for a while, and I suspect some other flavors might be like that too. Not that the pairing is bad, maybe some of them just don't want to be paired-up. But narrowing it down to two has been hard enough, it really might not be possible to just have one flavor in a cup..... I don't know if I could do it.

They looked a little startled when we told them 16 of us were dropping-in unexpectedly. Good thing we didn't admit it was really 17, they might have panicked. But to their credit, they slapped a few tables together and accommodated us smoothly. I've been in love with the food since this place started across the street in what's now Ray's Coffee, but I realize that all this time, I've been in a bit of a rut, ordering the same few favorites. So it was really great to steal tastes of other plates as they circled the table, in our desperate attempts to keep them away from the people who actually ordered them. I find it impossible to eat there without getting the Spring Ginger Salad. It's truly refreshing with thin slivers of fresh ginger, cabbage, sliced tomato, sesame seeds, fried channa dal, peanuts, and a sprinkling of the secret-weapon dried shrimp powder. Interestingly this is traditionally a dessert. I should have gotten another order at the end.... The tea leaf salad isn't quite as crunchy, and it's got a darker, funkier, shrimpier thing going on, but the jullienne of tea leaves is still really delicious. I think that was a squid salad that went by, I managed to grab a nice tender piece for squid and some vegetables in a light dressing. I always thought "Crab Rangoon" was a concoction of the weird tiki bar tropicalia of Trader Vic's. Regardless, they serve fried crab wontons here, filled with crab and cream cheese, and I don't know if you'd find them in Yangon, but you know, they're not bad.... We had barbecue beef on thousand layer bread: three little skewers of beef cubes with peppers, on top of an oily, crunchy, addictive, pancakey bread. There was another serving of this bread with a spicy potato dip down at the other end of the table, but it couldn't cross the invisible force field that had formed midway. I saw some lentil fritters and some samosa-like golden triangles floating around, but you know, force-field. I've gotten those before and loved them. Everyone always mocks me when I order the Kung Pau Beef, but it's really quite good, nothing like the Chinese version, this is just thin strips of beef, onions, hot peppers, and some sort of salty spice. I notice that two orders of this disappeared pretty fast... There was a Basil Pork, and I think the same preparation with squid, that were both really good, herby, a deep red sauce carrying some spice. Jungle Pork (or chicken) had a nice coconut curry sauce, not too different from a Thai green curry. Pineapple scallops had a nice coconut sauce too. Lemongrass Beef was chunks of tender beef, stewed in a dark brown, coconut-based curry. I noticed folks wrestling with what was dubbed "grouper with impenetrable breading" but it looked good.... I didn't manage to get any. Festival rice was indeed a party on a plate, featuring orange and yellow-tinted rice with stewed chicken, raisins, cardamon, secret Burmese spices. There used to be little bits of bitter melon and whole spices in this, but I haven't seen them for a while, people must have been complaining about them. Coconut rice was simple but tasty, white rice cooked in coconut milk which added a decadent richness. Burmese cold noodles were good, spaghetti-sized pasta with minced meat. The Night Market Noodles were flat rice noodles with slices of pork and LOTS of garlic. I'm sure I missed a few things we ordered, what with all the different people, and the force-field and all... I hope somebody will fill-in some of the holes in my report. What was remarkable was that everything I managed to taste was really good, I'd get any of it again, especially that basil pork. And even though we had a few fried things, there was no evidence of soggy oil-soaked food as had been reported here once, at least not in the dishes I tried. Service was very good despite the chaos we threw at them. They have a decent selection of beer: Singha, Tsing Tao, Kingfisher, Heineken, and more. Our savvy sommeliere wasn't all that thrilled with her Sauvignon Blanc, go figure! Overall, Rangoon is one of the more interesting places in Chinatown, and a rare cuisine even in large cities in the US. We're lucky to have it here in Philly.

We've raved about various dishes at Rangoon in other Chinatown topics, but it seems like time for this place to have its own discussion.

Just in case it's really hot where you are, and this might be of some comfort.....

white peach sorbetto: way too subtle at first, but slowly built to a very solid, full flavor. Quietly satisfying. Toasted Almond: pretty good, but outclassed by the salted bitter almond.

It's funny I was staring at a pile of that in West Chester tonight, tempted, but feeling a little overstocked on cab. So I passed on that, but I now I'm thinking I might go back.... The Chairman is a crafty fellow, I meant to just grab some of that Arrowood Syrah, but saw great deals on Montes Alpha Syrah as well, a stray bottle of Trilogy, a Byron Pinot... I should have known better than to go in there and browse!

It's the happenin' place to be these days.....However, still no Gelato in P-Ville, so I checked out Sprazzo in West Chester, right at the corner of High and Gay (insert your own joke here.) They have about 10 flavors of gelato or sorbetto. Pretty conventional, although the pistachio was a startling color of florescent green... There are probably 20 more flavors of ice cream. I had a small cup of basic chocolate gelato, despite what you poor, misguided malcontents have to say about that flavor in the summer. It was a generous serving, and had a nice texture, and decent flavor, it was very good. I've been typing "it's no Capogiro" kind of a lot lately, and I don't really mean that as an insult. But it's apropos here, there's nothing at all wrong with Sprazzo, I'll go back, but it's not nearly as intense or exciting as what we've gotten used to at 13th and Sansom. But hey, if you're in West Chester, and it's hot, you know, if you can't be with the one you love....

Nan is an excellent restaurant out in West Philly, BYOB, and might have room on a friday, especially in the summer. Cuisine leans Asian, but not exclusively. I know it's not where you were thinking of, but not so far away for you: Majolica in Phoenixville is a nice new BYOB, and although they've been kind-of busy, they might be able to squeeze in an 8 at some time during the evening. http://www.majolicarestaurant.com/ I think you should still try for Pif, tell them the whole sad story, lay it on thick, how can they resist?!? If it weren't for the wine issue, I'd say you could get a fine meal at any of several high-end places for $100 per person, but you might go bankrupt on wine for 8 at Lacroix, or Striped Bass, or Brasserie Perrier. You could eat, then come home and drink.... not quite the birthday vibe you were hoping for. But as Andrew says, just start with a list of your favorite places and go down the list, you have the the benefit of it being the deadest part of the summer, you could get lucky.

Pineapple-Mint: surprisingly tame, almost bland, but refreshing. Lemon Opal Basil: weird dull pink color, but deeelicious. Those were both sorbettos. I have to say the gelato didn't seem all that interesting tonight. Of course there were some excellent old standards, but nothing too challenging or new. Of course there's nothing wrong with the old faves, but I'd made a vow to always try at least one new flavor. (BTW they have a petition on the counter for folks who live near 20th and Sansom to sign. I don't know if they're having zoning problems or what, but they ask those residents to help them open their second store. It's a good excuse to pop by there if you'd like a branch in your neighborhood.)

Yeah, Percy, you pretty much hit it on the head. He has worked in some of the best kitchens in Philly, but I don't think one can draw any particular conclusions from that, and I doubt we're ever going to get details from him, just because it's beside the point. Everything one needs to know is on the plate.

I am SO psyched that those are what we suspected! Thanks for finding them. Are those #18 or #19? I'm guessing #19... 18. chicken soups won tons (Chinese wonton in chicken broth) $5.95 19. red oils won tons (Spicy wonton in chicken broth) $5.95 I've liked several things here, but this is still my fave, and I might even venture to say that iI like it better than the version that I had at Grand Sichuan International in NY, which features shredded chicken. I'd be curious to know how it works as leftovers for you, I once left it for a couple of days and I just couldn't eat it, the spice had just gotten SO out of hand. But at least served fresh, that sauce is just incredible. Percy, I could be wrong, but I think the chef is a woman, I noticed she came out to make sure I was actually eating the dishes I ordered the first time I was there. But there's surely more than one person in the kitchen, I'm not sure who's the head chef. We could post the translation that SaxChik got from Babblefish, but as any machine translation from any language to another, there are lots of inaccuracies, which I think could be counterproductive. Although some of them are pretty hilarious: 71. daily family activities tendons $14.95 31. onions fragrant to burn the fish willow tree (Fish w/ Chef's ginger sauce) $15.95 14. onions regains consciousness the pomfret $7.95 and the one I like so much, it's becoming a personal mantra: 17. hot rabbits Ding $7.95 I've gotten similarly insane phrases by translating from English to German and back, so this is not any disparagement of the language on the menu, I'm sure it makes complete sense to a native speaker, idioms and all. I suspect between us here on eGullet we can get pretty close to what Herbacidal suggests, just eat everything... report back what it was, and how it was! Let's get started!!

Wow, just as I say in my last post that I wouldn't try to speak for Shola's intent, it turns out I can! Here's the word from chef himself: I know mrbigjas is out of town for a few days, so he can't continue the conversation right away, but I'll be interested to know if that makes sense to him. But here's the best part: not only does Shola check in on us lunatics here on eGullet, he says: And that pretty much made my day!

Agreed. Porkadelic. I hear ya, I didn't get a distinct miso hit off that either, but, although I wouldn't presume to guess Shola's intent, the puree just so embodied the very essence of carrot, way more carroty than any carrots I've ever had, that I'm going to suggest that the miso was there quietly amping the carrot-ness. But I'm guessing. Indeed, I failed to rave about the beans as much as I should have. And if I remember right, that smokiness was from a smoked turkey wing cooked with the beans, and that Halen Mon smoked salt at the end. Even with those tips from Shola, I doubt I could ever cook beans that good. When I popped the Nebbiolo, I was thinking that the smoky beans and aged cheese would require that gutsiness, but I didn't think to just drink it with the beans by themselves. That sounds like it would have been good! We live and learn, and next time there's a whole new set of challenges...

Central Market in Lancaster is pretty small as farm markets go, and there's less food and more knick-knacks than years ago, but it's still worth a visit. There's some good produce, but you might want to concentrate more on some of the home-made prepared stuff, you can find good meats, cold cuts, some unusual jarred products like jams and fruit butters, unusual relishes, vegetables (look for the dilled brussel sprouts!) and the like. And it's worth finding a stand making hot food and getting a cup of "chicken pot pie" which is actually a stew, with no pastry involved at all, but with big square noodles that you can buy dried out there too. Central Market Note that they close at 2pm on saturday (and there's actually not much still open at 2, get there before noon or 1 if you really want to see stuff) and they're not open at all on sunday. I've never been there, but there's a tour of a pretzel factory in Lititz, which is not far. http://www.sturgispretzel.com/ And I've come across good old fashioned Ice Cream out there, at a charming old country-store looking place at some little crossroads in some nearby tiny town, but I really did just stumble across it... keep an eye out, you'll find food. Again, I've never been there, but there's a diary tour, store, etc at Kreiderfarms which is in Manheim, again, not so far away. Keep in mind that Lancaster itself is a small city, so beyond the Central Market, it's not particularly bucolic. But in Lancaster County you'll find little shops and other small farm markets and bakeries, etc. Get out and cruise through some of the smaller villages like Bird in Hand, Paradise, Intercourse, etc. And just cruising down some back roads is kind of fun, to just see some of the farms better, and getting stuck behind a buggy or some rollerblading Amish kids. And while it's not exactly fine cuisine, leaning more toward tourist traps, there's a certain odd appeal to the big family-style restaurants, where you'll sit at a big table and platters of homey food will get passed around. Nothing really thrilling, but decent fried chicken, roasted ham, beef, turkey, bowls of mashed potatoes, dried corn, etc. These places are actually not cheap, and I'm sure some are better than others, but you can eat double your body weight in food if you want...I haven't gone in over 15 years, but I actually recall sort-of liking it in a nostalgic sunday-dinner-at-grandma's kind of way. The big ones that have been there just forever are Miller's, Plain and Fancy, and Good 'N Plenty. Sorry, I can't recommend one, it's been too long, and maybe I'd hate them now... anybody been to one recently? I suspect that if you hit the Central Market, and then the pretzel and dairy tours, on your way to these various locations you'll run across the better, smaller little shops and bakeries and markets.

This is an unscientific guess, but the sous vide technique usually involves cooking at low temperatures, often about 140f. And it's not done with simple plastic wrap or baggies, but with heavier cryovac. I have no idea if any research has been done to see if there's outgassing or any other transfer of chemicals from the plastic, but logically, one would think that the lower temperatures would create fewer problems than microwaving. All I can say for sure is Shola's lamb sure didn't taste like there were any negative effects from the cryovac!

Percy, thanks for your careful notes! Shola's combinations of flavors often suggest a very different wine than one might ordinarily pair with the main ingredient, so, just for the sake of posterity, here are my thoughts, for what they're worth: The Kurubuta Pork and Red Lentil soup paired with Piper Sonoma Blanc De Noir. We just had the bubbly already open as an aparatif, but it wasn't bad with this course... The 2002 Thierry Triolet Brut was a way more interesting bubbly on its own. The 1st course - Foie Gras two ways with silver corn juice paired with 2000 Chassagne-Montrachet It was Shola's suggestion to have a white Burgundy. And as much as I like my American Chardonnay, that LaTour 1er Cru was so elegant, so light, yet powerful, it's going to be hard to go back to the exuberant loudmouths from our left coast. This matched beautifully. 2nd course - Dayboat scallops... paired with 2003 Pierre Sparr Reserve Gewurztraminer As I had mentioned in my first post, I think this concept was good, and a spicier Getwurtz would have been really good here, but this one happened to be a little sweeter and smoother that I had expected, not a perfect match, but in the ballpark. 3rd course - Tomato water Risotto ... paired with 2004 Kim Crawford Sav Blanc This was also Shola's call, we had been all over the map on which way to go here, and we just happened to have a couple of bottles of this Aussie Sauv Blanc, which had a nice crisp freshness that accentuated the tomato and crab really well. (Thank You Pedro, and Chairman Newman!!) I liked this match quite a lot, but I think Pedro had some other ideas, which, frankly, I'm surprised we didn't pursue. It's not like we didn't have enough bottles to try... I might just have been too enraptured by the risotto to get up and try to operate a corkscrew. 4th course - Australian lamb sous vide... paired side-by-side with 2003 Langhe Nebbiolo and 2001 Arrowwood Syrah "Le Beau Melange" The Nebbiolo was a very nice wine, but not quite right with this lamb (it was really good with the goat cheese in the next course, although not so much with the salad as a whole.) The Syrah was exactly freaking perfect. And I might even suggest that it's that particular Arrowood that was so right. Spectacular. (Thank You again Pedro, and of course Chairman Newman!!) 5th course - aka "cheese course" paired with 1989 Aigle Blanc Vouvray We'd originally thought of this with the corn soup, but it would have been a little big there (good call, Bill) and we were steered to the much more appropriate Burgundy. But the Vouvray did a really nice job with this cheese, and was just all-out luscious anyway. 6th course - dessert paired with Sky River [Dry] Mead and 1998 Chateau Haut Bernasse Monbazillac The Mead was a delightful surprise, an elegant version of this honey wine, not too sweet and very complex. Thanks for putting up with our skeptical raised-eyebrows, Lauren! I really enjoyed drinking this, but it didn't really go with dessert. Thankfully the Monbazillac did, really well. That was a real treat, thanks yet again, Bill. We had about 10 more interesting bottles on-deck, so we'll have to find an excuse to crack those puppies soon!