Dorine
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Posts posted by Dorine
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I have and really enjoy it. I also love guava paste on manchego. For anyone keeping score, we've served about 175 people so far and everyone agrees that the Crayeuse is fantastic! The comte is good, but I've had an 18 month which was far superior to what we're having today.
You've got me wanting to find the crayeuse here!
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Today is a special food festival in our town so we're sampling
Comte
And I'm on a kick to have people understand that toppers can actually improve a great cheese, so we're adding Black Mission Fig Syrup to the Comte
And we're serving Tomme Crayeuse which is a new cheese for me - as the name implies chalky, but really nice.
And we're topping that with Quince Jam
ave yu ever tried a Spanish classic, manchego with membrillo (thick, stiff quince jelly)?
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Please tell me more about the cheese box in the pantry. I'd like to get somethig like that together.
Thanks!
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I walk very slowly but probably can handle it.Following myself up to throw a question out to the multitudes:Would a walk from Old City to Independence Mall to Wash West be beyond anyone's capacity to handle?
I ask this because when I put up the original itinerary, I thought that La Cipolla--the third "Best of Philly" east-of-Broad pizzeria--would be too far for some to walk. But with Apollo (615 Chestnut) as a midpoint, I think that it might be possible to walk from 132 Market Street to 140 South 11th. Your thoughts?
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Also, there's a nice article in the Philly Inquirer about the old/new neon sign that will placed outside of the market:
What good--great--news! I remember the sign from long ago, my newlywed days shopping at the RTM. Just as I remember the injunction to drink buttermilk to ensur a long life actually being over a place where I could sit on a bar stool and order a glass of buttermilk to drink. Or a glass of goat's milk. Who else does?
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Would you believe pumpkin pie flavored coffee?
You know, I'm not a coffee drinker, but my sister is, and she's quite a coffee snob, but she said that pumpkin pie flavored coffee really is quite delicious and my non coffee snob boyfriend agrees. When she comes to visit she'll usually bring him a bag of pumpkin pie coffee beans.
I find adding *any* artificial flavors to coffee repugnant! Why ruin someething so good with artificial chemical flavors? I won't add artificial whiteners to it, either.
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<...>
I only refrigerate sap sago during the hottest days of summer, otherwise it lives in a cheese box in the pantry.
Please tell me more about the cheese box in the pantry. I'd like to get somethig like that together.
Thanks!
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there are at least two winners on each side of Broad, although one of them--Patou in Old City--is a fairly chi-chi restaurant whose pizza is an appetizer.
Still, we can produce two itineraries:
East of Broad: La Cipolla (Old City), NYPD Pizza (Wash West), and the in-town restaurant run by the owners of Apollo Pizza in Media (7th and Chestnut; this used to be called Apollo like the place in Media, but I think it's been renamed since to "<mumble> at Apollo"). There are also two white-tablecloth restaurants in this bunch: the aforementioned Patou and Upstares at Varalli (Broad and Locust).
West of Broad: Mama Palma's (Fitler Square), Pietro's (Rittenhouse Row), Towne Pizza (near Rittenhouse Square, one of the earliest winners), Montesini's (Liberty Place food court), Pete's Famous Pizza (Logan Circle).
The white-tablecloth places are really outside the spirit of this odyssey, though if enough people really want to try one, we could arrange for a group visit. There are clearly more winners west of Broad than east of it; however, the place that's currently serving the best pizza in Center City, IMO, is east of it--NYPD Pizza. We could add one South Philly winner we haven't hit yet--Lorenzo's at 9th and Christian in the Italian Market, a by-the-slice honoree--to the East of Broad stops, or perhaps a very good but as yet unhonored place like Paolo's (Pine just east of Broad).
My own personal preference would be to visit the original Apollo in Media over the Center City outpost as part of a Delaware County tour segment, but there's no reason we can't do both.
So the first thing I'd like to sound people out on is which of the Center City places they'd most like to visit, and the second is what days in the rest of September or early October work--or definitely do not work--for them. As I've not yet tried Mama Palma's, I'd lean towards doing the west-of-Broad places first, but right now, the floor is open for suggestions from all interested parties.
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Oh! What a wonderful time you had! I only managed to come in second in Scrabble :-( the pizza might have been better! Hope I can join you next time, and that it's soon!
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Next up on my list was...
Fried Egg with Chorizo and Potatoes (pg 171)
Yolk ... Yummm....
I did not use a cup of olive oil to fry the egg as suggested. Instead, I used the left over oil from the garlic, potatoes and chorizo. Turned out great !!
Ah, butif you use that cup of olive oil you get the Spanish texture to the egg! The crisp edges and runny yolk... Joy on a plate!
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Having gotten at least four confirmations, Thursday, Aug. 17 is a go.
We will meet at 7 p.m. at Wolf Street Pizza, 2135 Wolf Street. Itinerary, once again, is as in Post 109.
Dorine--Don't give up hope. I'll try to schedule the next one on a day when you can make it. IIRC, weekends don't work for you?
Weekends usually work for me.
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Thanks Bob! Curiosity got the better of me and I stopped at RTM this afternoon and picked up the quenepas. Here's what they look like:
I've tried a couple and they're kind of interesting. Similar to a lychee (which makes sense because they're a similar plant species, apparently) with a peachy colored flesh that is a bit slimy, fibrous and tart and tangy. There's not a whole lot of flesh - the seed takes up practically all of the space beneath the thin green rind which is quite similar to the skin of an avocado. But they're fairly easy to peel and quite tasty. They seem like an awful lot of work for very little payoff. Kind of like getting the really small steamed Maryland crabs.
I have both some rum and some cachaca in the house so I might give that recipe a whirl in a small batch just to see how it turns out. But honestly, I don't have the patience tonight to experiment and will likely make myself some other form of immediate gratification cocktail instead.
I also bought some nice looking dark cherries so I just have to go fetch a bottle of Gosling's tomorrow and the Cherry Dark and Stormys will be ready in a couple of weeks.
Iovines also had some nice strawberries and blueberries for $1 a box today. The strawberries are the sweetest I've had this summer. Delicious!
There's a pressure cooker filled with ratatouille on my stove right now that was the prize for finding several great $1 grab bags of eggplants, tomatoes, and peppers on the rack today. I picked up a big sweet onion and couple of zucchini and I was good to go. I'll be enjoying that shortly on some tri-colored couscous I found at the Spice Terminal. Should be delicious. The whole house smells like it!
Where did you get cachaca? I'd *love* to be able to make a caipirinha! I've never seen in in the PA sate stores!
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More redesign of vendor stalls at the Reading Terminal this past week. Fair Food Project largely completed their re-do. Now customers can pretty much walk through the stand with the register in the middle. Even self-serve out of the meat freezer. And lots more bin space for produce, though one has to wonder how it will look in the dead of winter when local produce is virtually non-existent except for some hothouse items. The Mirai corn was 50 cents an ear (or three for $1,25, iirc), which compares favorably with the other farm stands. Iovine Brothers was selling their farmer's corn at three for a buck. Fair Food also featured lemon cukes at 75-cents each.
Over at OK Lee, the cactus pears are of much better quality than just a week ago, and still priced at 79 cents apiece. Here's what they look like, before and after skinning:
Cactus pears (a.k.a. prickly pears) come in a variety of colors. You want to select firm, but not hard, fruits with minimal scarring. These babies peeled easily with a sharp paring knife and were sweet all the way through. Some pulp clung to the skin, so I scraped it into my food mill along with the main body of the pulp. After going through the food mill, I took unpassed seeds and their clingy pulp and pressed them in a strainer to get every last bit of delectible edible fruit. To dense juice of the five cactus pears I added the juice of two large limes and the equivalent of 1-1/2 cups sugar, in the form of sugar syrup. It will be transformed into either sorbet and/or margaritas.
Back at Iovine Brothers, green and black figs were available at $4.99 a half pint. Both lemons and limes were selling for 25 cents apiece when I visited on Thursday morning
Earlygold has joined MacIntosh over at Halteman's as the first apple of the season. Benuel Kaufman had some blemish-free pears for $1.49/pound.
I first met these lovely cactus pears in souhern Spain, where they grow wild on the mountainsides. Street vendors sell them to eat outof hand. Whwen you ask for one, they strip off the long thorns then cut it open for you to take with a paper napkin and eat out of hand, seeds and all. Aren't they wonderful!
And using in sorber or margaritas, ahhh, delicious!
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Hmmm, the "Feuerrädchen" in the Textorstrasse used to be very good - but not anymore since the owners changed af few weeks back...
So I would reccomend the "Kanonensteppel", also in Textorstrasse: Good local food like "green sauce" (a delicous *cold*, thick sauce, made of seven different fresh herbs, yoghurt and sour cream; served with potatoes and hardboiled eggs or warm slices of boiled beef), "Handkäs" or "Schneegestöber" (mashed camembert cheese with some spices and onions mixed in).
Thanks!
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Okay, folks, ignore that last post.
As of now (1 p.m. ET, 8-3-06), some of the people who tentatively signed up have told me they can't make it tonight.
That leaves me with three confirmed participants--not enough, IMO, to justify having this event tonight.
Looks like weeknights are harder to schedule than we thought!
In any event, this means rescheduling this tour date. How do you all feel about any of the following dates?
--Saturday, Aug. 12
--Sunday, Aug. 13
--Tuesday, Aug. 15
FWIW, I have a standing commitment first and third Thursdays, but I can always make 2nd, 4th and 5th Thursdays.
Sat. doesn't work. My first choice is Tues., but Sun. is okay.
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Okay, folks, ignore that last post.
As of now (1 p.m. ET, 8-3-06), some of the people who tentatively signed up have told me they can't make it tonight.
That leaves me with three confirmed participants--not enough, IMO, to justify having this event tonight.
Looks like weeknights are harder to schedule than we thought!
In any event, this means rescheduling this tour date. How do you all feel about any of the following dates?
--Saturday, Aug. 12
--Sunday, Aug. 13
--Tuesday, Aug. 15
Sat. doesn't work. My first choice is Tues., but Sun. is okay.
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Erno's bistro is no bargain. It was not a good QPR. But it was good nevertheless.
I have been back since. And been less impressed. They may well have been exceptionnally great the first night I visited because the two times I have been since, I left kinda wondering. The price is just too high... the wine list is stupidly expensive and there were misses... I have not been in one year now. And don't intend to return soon.
I have been touring the poor Frankfurt scene and well... Villa Merton served me the worst fish ever a few years back. Arrogant service. I will never return...
Cyrano... well... not bad... but too much spices, tricks, trys which were not hits. I want to be served food which emphasise a product, not some creations were lamb tastes like spice and herbs... But all in all, the food was well above (Frankfurt) average.
I have been to Osteria Enoteca too. Good... not brilliant by any means but very good.
There are a few left on the list like Silk, or Tigerpalast. But frankly, Frankfurt's high end restaurant scene is not interesting enough. I almost never spend my weekends there and when in Frankfurt, I prefer local fare... or dine at home with friends so that the wine does not cost me 5 times what it should...
I'm interesetd in the local fare, not the international restaurants. Do you know any good local restaurants? Thanks.
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Surprised this wasn't mentioned, but a dozen or so hot STEAMED crabs, piled high with Ol' Bay, and a "Natie Boe" - from good old Balmer...........
oh my, just might have to go order a couple of dozen today...............
and or softies, fried simply, with a bit of flour, on a piece of white bread.
Only in Maryland............
You're talking nectar of the gods here! I don't think you have to be born on the East Coast to love this!!!
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Yesterday I got some absolutely wonderful peaches at Iovine's at 2 lbs. for 99 cents! Fantastic!
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Pig's ears.
Agreed. Don't know where ya had to be born to like them, but wherever that is, I know I definitely wasn't born there. The texture is horrible.
Brazil, I guess; they're part of feijoada.
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Has anyone mentioned Spam yet?
Repulsive over-salted stuff, isn't it?
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Okay, the votes are in, and it's South Philly by an overwhelming margin.
Proposed itinerary:
If I wanted to make this convenient for myself--and why not?--I'd start this trip at Wolf Street Pizza (2135 Wolf Street; 1992 winner), which is very close to the Route 37 bus, and proceed from there to Russo's (1429 Jackson; best Sicilian pie, 1991) before concluding at Celebre's (1536 Packer Avenue; four-time winner--1983 [white pie], 1987, 1989 ["good old pizza"] and 1995 [city]). If we get a large enough crowd, we could conceivably add Joe-Joe's Pizza and Variety (2000 South 12th; 1993 regional winner) to this stop, or we could wait to hit that place with the Italian Market winners. This itinerary also has the added benefit of getting what looks like the evening's disappointment (based on AOL Cityguide member ratings) out of the way first.
How does Tuesday 7/25 look for you all? 7:30 pm start time?
Sounds good to me.
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Okay, the votes are in, and it's South Philly by an overwhelming margin.
Proposed itinerary:
If I wanted to make this convenient for myself--and why not?--I'd start this trip at Wolf Street Pizza (2135 Wolf Street; 1992 winner), which is very close to the Route 37 bus, and proceed from there to Russo's (1429 Jackson; best Sicilian pie, 1991) before concluding at Celebre's (1536 Packer Avenue; four-time winner--1983 [white pie], 1987, 1989 ["good old pizza"] and 1995 [city]). If we get a large enough crowd, we could conceivably add Joe-Joe's Pizza and Variety (2000 South 12th; 1993 regional winner) to this stop, or we could wait to hit that place with the Italian Market winners. This itinerary also has the added benefit of getting what looks like the evening's disappointment (based on AOL Cityguide member ratings) out of the way first.
How does Tuesday 7/25 look for you all? 7:30 pm start time?
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Some modern experiences of root beer are regrettable and depart from the drink's roots (pardon me), when the stuff is simplistic and wintergreeny.Arriving as an adult in North America I was astonished to have a soft drink foisted on me which smelled and tasted like the cut-salve of childhood.
Some root beers I grew up with were very different from what you get now from nationally dominant commodity soft-drink producers.
The stuff was a big deal 100 years ago, the de-facto national soft drink. Different people used different herbal recipes. A popular formula book from the 1920s gives a few of them, typically founded on sassafras bark or its oil, licorice or anise, and wintergreen oil. (The most complex includes five other flavoring roots and two other barks.) Circa 1970 I remember we would get a decent extract that was sold in the supermarket. You'd then add water, sugar, and yeast, and ferment it. This gave a very gentle soft carbonation along the lines of a classic ale, and a slight viscosity like an ale; an insignificant trace of alcohol (as in fresh bread or ripe fruit juice -- bubbles being the object of the ferment), and a subtle, slightly tart flavor, very satisfying.
Today I occasionally try root beer and all I taste is gross carbonation, lots of sugar, and wintergreen oil (methyl salicylate), presumably synthetic. That's a flavoring and classic herbal liniment long used also in skin medications and "medicated" cough drops.
(Edited to add: It was commonly called Sarsaparilla in its heyday, rather than root beer. The long recipe I cited is from the Ayer company and was used in its advertising, according to the formula book.)
Yes! I used to enjoy sarsparilla at my grandparents' in NYC.
Is it possible to make old-fashioned root beer at home? Does anybody have a recipe?
PIZZA CLUB 2006
in Pennsylvania: Dining
Posted
Such sweeties, Sandy and Chris! I'm not enough over my husband's death to even contemplate singles bars, but I'll keep your lovely offer in mind! Maybe you can point me to a nice gay bar where I can have a cocktail in peace. Sigh, good thing I know better than to be hurt that you don't find me attractive! ;-)
Oh, yes, I could definitely do a repeat of Sunday, and think more of you should join us. We had some *very* good pizzas! Those folks at La Scala definitely know what they are doing! I think I could do with another group excursion to Taconelli's and Marra's. Gotta try that 90-mile pie!
And that seafood pizzaat NYPD was exquisite. As you said, my shre of the leftovers suffered a bit from being walked home in the rain in the box, but the abundanat garlic was still there. Yum!
I suppose we lost some people as a result of the holiday. If the rest of the members of this group are as lovely as the aforementioned handsome men and the Ducks, it is a group well worth spending a pleasant afternoon with! Good people, good pizza, what more could you ask?