serpentine

The Reading Terminal Market (history via RTM website) was not municipally owned, it was owned by the Reading Railroad. The Reading Company owned it until it was acquired by the Philadelphia Convention Center Authority (when the Convo. center was built.)

My favorite sushi within city limits, though I haven't been recently, is Shiroi Hana on 15th Street. However, it's not where I would host a birthday dinner, really...it's just a very simple casual spot with a limited menu. Kisso's probably your best bet for a more celebratory atmosphere.

guzzirider: No. But nice try. Diann, suadero is a cut of beef. The closest approximation I can think of is that it's a bit like pit beef -- thin, tender, a bit dry without sauce, with tasty charred bits on the end pieces.

Taquitos de Puebla got a mention in LaBan's "scary food"article. Yeah, they've got eyeball tacos on the menu. I didn't have those last night. I had tacos suedero, which were lovely. And I discovered tepache...which is pineapple cider. I am so a regular.

The Taqueria directly across 9th Street from Acapulco is open again...finally. (This is the place with the bright orange walls and the sign proclaiming "los taquitos de Puebla." I had eaten there once when they first opened, where I happily devoured a plate of arguably the best tacos al pastor in the city. And then they were closed, with a sign saying they'd re-open soon. And then the sign disappeared, and the place looked dead. But lo, my wishes have been granted, and they reopened a couple of weeks ago. So they have this sammich, you see...cemitas. With whatever meat you choose (suadero, carnitas, chorizo, pastor, etc.) served on a sesame seed bun. I had the al pastor, which meant that not only was the bun stuffed full of that lovely pork, but also contained pieces of the pineapple (pastor is shaved from a spit, a bit like shwarma. A pineapple sits atop the spit, marinating the pork as it turns), slow-cooked onions, avocado, and cilantro. Freakin' fantastic.

I've had Aqua's mango beef. It was excellent, and will likely win converts among the not-so-foodie colleagues. I agree that the Tom Kha was bland -- I wouldn't recommend it.

Seconded! It's smoked gouda, bacon, a pickled longhot, and that sauce, which is a mildly spicy/tangy thing. Consistant, too (for months now, so I'm confident in that assessment) and I always order med. rare. FINALLY had Good Dog's burger last week. Excellent. Easily devourable. (Not in my neighborhood, though, so it'll only be an occasional treat.)

Any local sources for yujacha spotted?

Horrors! A TEN-MINUTE WAIT? On Sunday? Who'da thunk it. Good thing he fortified himself with that coffee. (I like the people who confirmed that the service is sketchy, but acknowledge that they haven't been since it changed hands.)

Thumbs up. I can't find my menu and therefore can't tell you what my dish was, but it was under specials, and I remember that the description was chicken slow-cooked with lemongrass and...other stuff. It was terrific. Lovely sauce, mildly spicy, tender meat. I'm eating the leftovers for lunch today. The owner was bustling around supervising waitstaff and chatting with every table about the food, and inviting feedback on food and service. Nice guy.

Can anyone provide a comparasion to the excellent drinking chocolate at Rosalena's? Is Naked's very different? Better? Worse?

It's been a B&B since 2004. Morris House B&B site

Southwark does this too. The chicken liver mousse is totally freaking awesome, but it is a generous portion that comes with four little fingers of toast. I suppose the rationale is that it's not as aesthetic and distracts from the pate or whatever to pile toast on the plate. But a small basket would solve this problem.

Not to derail, but what's with the stingy toasts trend? Seems like everytime I get pates/terrines/mousse it comes with fewer toasts, and greater resistance to bringing more. Sometimes the table bread works as a sub, and sometimes it really kinda doesn't.

I was thinking the same thing. Honestly, there are dozens of restaurants that might stoop to this attempt at buzz who are in fact "longtime established," especially considering restaurants all seem to throw a few tables on the sidewalk these days. Even if Rich has some kind of insider scoop that Estia was considering this, it doesn't mean that this ad is for Estia -- it's hardly an unknown marketing ploy. (Mind you, I don't really care about Estia. I just don't love it when threads spiral into mere gossip.)

It's a shame that his early reviews for the Times-Picayune aren't archived online. Because I had a terrific chat with some restaurant folks in NoLa a number of years ago who mockingly referred to his inability to focus on the food -- they were highly amused that he hadn't learned his lesson yet. (This is before he improved. Thank the gods he did.) Suffice it to say...yes.

Um, confidental to MarketStreetEl, Ricci's is very Italian inside. It's the customers who are an increasingly multicultural bunch. Anyway. Stop in and get a darn hoagie, for pete's sake. They're awesome.

It's easier to go with a friend who can guide you through it all friendly-like. Yes, it's okay to eat sushi with your hand, especially if you're afraid you'll be unsteady on with the chopsticks. For beginners, it's okay to bite it in half (it's an awfully big bite if unfamiliar.) Stick with yellowtail, smoked salmon, tuna. (Note: These fish taste less "fishy" raw than they do in their familiar cooked presentations.) I convinced at least a couple of friends to try sushi thanks to the ubiquitous seared-sushi-grade-tuna-appetizer-cliché -- it was just a short hop from seared to raw.

I'm not a fan of the "my boyfriend didn't like it" school of reviewing, particularly as it generally seems to imply (probably unintentionally) that the reviewer didn't bother to taste the dish in question. Or worse, has no opinion. It's a lazy way to: infuse a boring review with some chattiness, cover for a reviewer's inexperience with food, or break up the monotony of pretentious babbling. Let's not paint this as a "Philly thing," though. I read the altnewsweeklies and niche papers for a number of different cities -- it's an ongoing epidemic everywhere. And thanks to Mr. Latte, an amateur's trick has been "legitimized." Sigh. This is what I want from reviewers in lower-tier publications: 1) What's the food like? 2) Does it work? 3) What's the service and atmosphere like? 4) Is any particular aspect either outstanding or very poor? 5) Would you return? Everything else falls onto this scale: clever, amusing, cute, too cute, dumb, TMI, gross. MarketStreetEl, I definitely think LaBan has grown into his role at the Inky. His couple of years of writing here were marred by reviews that spent curious amounts of space discussing everything but the food. (I remember reading his reviews with "but what the eff did you EAT?" consistantly running through my head until mid-article.) (Also, rest assured that those more focused on music, theatre, art, film, architechture, and so forth have similar concerns over the knowledge and writing ability of those writers, including equivalents to "my boyfriend says..." And don't even get me started on the state of travel writing in major newspapers.)

And most importantly for the night owls among us, the kitchen will be open until 1 am.

Is the report moved or removed again? Can't find the link on the PhillyMag site.

It's pretty bizarre to include Tony Luke's in the same category as Pat's & Geno's & Jim's. It's neither walkable from Center City nor remotely near any other tourist attractions. I would classify Pat's and Geno's as "touristy" in that they are a veritable tourist destination in and of themselves. (I live very close by and get asked for directions nearly daily. Jim's has its own following, but it's South Street that is the primary tourist destination generally.) And if Tony Luke's is "touristy" in the ho-hum-the-secret's-out way, then so is John's, largely thanks to Dr. LeBan's own cheesesteak article. (Maybe someone took him for a tourist at Tony Luke's and gave him grief?)

Yeah, yeah, I get why the recommendation for warmer water exists. However, I also know that 15 seconds of vigorous friction works whether the water is hot, cold, or tepid. I didn't have any issue with the "employees not washing their hands properly/often enough" violation. I'm just saying...water not hot enough (or water too cold, for those establishments cited for not having cold water!) is not in the same league as mice crap found in the rice or a swarm of roaches. But I digress...

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't get how the citations at many establishments for not having hot water at handwashing stations or in restrooms is a critical violation. It's not the temperature of the water that's killing the germs, it's the soap + water and the friction of your hands. (Temperature of dishwashers is a whole other story, as the dishes are actually being sanitized. But hot-to-human-skin water does not "sanitize" your hands.)

Anyone know how comprehensive this report is? It states the time period, but I don't know enough about restaurant inspections to know what percentage of Philly restaurants would generally have been inspected during that time. (I would be surprised if this report was meant to be comprehensive of all restaurants in Philly.) I agree with some of the others -- occasional infractions happen, but ongoing major infestations (um, the roach report at Striped Bass) are not acceptable.