aliwaks

there was a B-day party for isreal in Rittenhouse Square here in Philly on Tuesday, And i will admit I was clueless....but I was walking home that morning slightly hungover from a friends house where I had spent the night and I wanted either a felafel or a schwarma and couldn't decide how far to walk to get one or the other or whether or not I was going to just give up and get something else and there was thsi birthday party for Isreal in teh squae just as I had decided not to walk to the felafel guy on 17th (didn;t really love his felafel enough to deviate) And there was a vendor!!!!!! a felafel/schwarma vendor!!!!! so I got a schwarma, which was YUMM he did his mitzvah by giving me 2 felafel balls (excellent felafels better than the other guy) while I was waiting and I was sated and happy it was a little tiny tiny tiny nice thing for a Jewish Girl that morning.

Different Chef at Black Sheep (though Ben M is still overall executive), name Robert Leget used to be at Vesuivio. He's got some talent. I think they fixed the hummus from when we were there Katie not as cumin-y & these Sambal wings with Thai basil that are awesome. Had a great salad at the Good Dog the other day, perfect girl salad...I will explain it was a Big Salad lots of greens (arugula, endive & I think romaine) cut nicely so you do not have half a lettuce leaf hanging from your mouth while trying to look cute and came in a great big bowl so one could say oh mi god i couldn't possibly eat all of that. Again Big Salad in a big bowl with goat cheese, cranberries & almonds, grilled chicken on top DEEEEE-lightful!!!!!! (with a $3 Strongbow on Wed, + industry discount..can't beat that) Have to say some other stuff looked better than it was (thier Mac & Cheese was pretty good w. the cornflake crust but why serve with weird industrial looking blueberry muffin, I like Black Sheep's better) I wish someone here would emulate Craftbar in NYC and do some really great bar food, I still dream about their stuffed sage leaves and a panini of taleggio, hen of the woods mushrooms & duck proschuitto. Or make a great great mixed snacky type platter with anything but mozzerella sticks, potato skins & wings (or at the very least kick-ass variations of same)

www.wetsugar.com great name, it's simple sugar individually packaged iced coffee & tea what do you think? Does it have legs?

My first egullet marriage proposal!!!!!!! Sure thing will you take me away from all this and buy me shoes and always let me have the first bite of a dip cone?

UGh Chicken Roll....I have no idea what it was but it was vile. Mustard was like the worst thing that could happen to sandwich. When I was a child I demonized tomatoes because of ( in the words of my younger self) the snot like quality of the seeds, also in snot category was gefilte fish, oysters, white sauce in chinese food (not to be crude but still not as fan of chinese white sauce as it reminds me of something I am too ladylike to name but not ladylike enough to refrain from inferring too) I love tomatoes now but only in the summer and only when they are perfect, and still I scrape out the seed sacks, I love oysters I still stay far far away from gefilte fish Mushrooms were similarly evil since they were fungus and fungus can grow on your feet, I now love them Eel horrified me my german stepfather (# 2 i think) used to fish for them when we lived in the hamptons and they would be swimming around in the sink...actually still don't like it think it is hairy. As a child to mid-20's I had a whole category of "hairy" foods they included Olives, Beans and Eel. I have slowly recovered and now really like all of those things, Incidentally my very best friend in the whole world is the only other person I know who understood the hairy quality and we overcame our fear & revulsion as our taste for dry martinis and the accompanying olives developed, she has a thing about desserts that are too "German" she can't eat them , a "German Dessert" is one that has too many oaty, coconutty , raisiny things going on the derivitive would be German Chocolate Cake...als she does not eat things that still have thier face or lamb, after a traumatic incident involving a family pert and a BBQ growing up in Venezuela Perhaps because the olives of my childhood were the canned black ones , have an awful memory of having to eat those and a tomato as part of lunch (cold fried chicken & salad) at the EST for children seminar I was tortured by in the mid 70's. The best part about it was at the late afternoon break we were given dixie cups of peanuts, raisin, butterscotch chips & chocolate chips which was quite yummy and revived us all after 6 hours of consciouness training. My grandmother (who was Ukranian) used to make this sauerkraut soup that was pretty awful My brother was worse than me he ate only like 7 things and most of them with ketchup, he is trying out more stuff now though has one of the scariet palates I've ever encountered his laters dish is black pudding rissotto (ack!! gag!!!) with lamb chops... (his new girlfriend is quite carnivorous) oh holla to my egullet stalker, PM me .

Cowgirl Creamery Osprey or Red Hawk....heaven.. I brought some home from SF last year much to the dismay of my fellow airline passengers it hit it's peak of ripeness somewhere over the middlepart of the country, but oh god was it worth it!!!

ooh tonight I made a ragout of fresh fava beans, teeny tiny fresh potatoes, tiny yellow beets & asparagus w. chicken stock, thyme, mint & some garlic + z'aatar crusted pork loin I just wish I had some ramps & morels to add

the neck, wing tips and tuchas of a turkey or chicken crispy skin skin skin the first bite of a dip cone (the part with the curlicue) the teeny tiny orange segments inside a navel orange any crispy burnt bit of a casserole or anything roasted that sticks to the pan the skin of a baked potato the core of pineapple the first bite of a cold crisp apple the end of a sugar cone with drippy ice cream in it pudding skin fat on the edge of a steak or pork chop bones!!!!!!!! cereal midway through when half are crunchy and half are soggy the fat leaves of an articoke the tip of a strawberry nearly popped popcorn kernels bread crusts the middle of a bialy icing roses first bite of a sausage when it snaps very very first sip of an ice cold martini

During one of my first meals with my father's girlfriend ( a woman who lends new meaning to inapprpriate) she jumped up from the table (which consisted of my brother, my step sister, her boyfriend, my father and four of the womans friends) grabbed her crotch , scratched furiously and shrieked loudly in her heavy French Canadian accent "I cannot keep siting 'eere I itch like I 'ave ants in my pants!!! This damn yeast infection!!" well at least it wasn't during passover, A woman I was seated next to at a dinner party (who I had met like 10 minutes before) told me all about her abortion and her subsequent candida issues, I guessed she was sahring because she had dietary concerns though when I told her she should lay off the wine since that is a contributer to candida discomfort she was wholly un interested. as a general rule I find that gynecological conversations are best left for unmixed company and unpleasant emmissions kept from the conversation if there's food around, but of course depends on who you are having dinner with. With certain freinds there is no subject that is taboo, though some scatological topics are too much for me, 'cause I'm dainty like that.

Definately get a good lease, I didn't have one and it killed me.

Ok so first of all everything sounds good but in reality it is poorly executed ( example recently ate at Butterfield Nine in DC was so looking forward to a duck confit salad with morels & toasted hazelnuts and recieved thin gloppy tastless mess with a huge lump of goat cheese in the middle, cartiledge attached to teh confit and nary a morel in site) Anyway no matter what I would order in my food hell it would be wrong, over cooked , undercooked missing a key ingreident just be crappy but in my food hell each time I ordered I would think that maybe just maybe it would be edible. The server's only response to anything I say would be Umm I don't know maam and are you still working on that. A soundtrack of Muzak versions of Cher Songs would be playing either really loud or just soft enough so you can sort of hear it The table would be uneven, glasses smudged, silverware dirty and i would constantly be loosing my napkin, whomever is dining next to me will be eating some sort of liver with cumin that will smell undgodly. My dinding companions will have just returned from a facisnating trip to somewhere really really boring and will tell me slowly and delibrately about every single ununsteresting thing that happened to them while thier baby cries and they sing along with the musak

Stopped in Black Sheep the other day for typical burger beer quizzo type evening andsaw quite a change in thier menu; Sambal wings with wasabi, quail with texas cornbread & chorizo and gaudillo pepper puree a mac & cheese to make me weep and a kobe beef burger (which unfortunately one of my dining companions ordered well done with goat cheese, much to my dismay, so I have no idea if it was good or not but it sounded fantastic) and a pork roll egg & cheese sandwich with black pepper mayo that I did not order but was clever enough to make me smile. The only thing I did not love was the arugula salad which was too shy with the dressing and a bit gritty. this has totally changed my quizzo experience!!!

darn, i thought becasue they were the stems and not the beans they would be ok, I'm not that strict but do want to authentic for my all girl mostly shiksa seder. I believe I will be the only Jew. Slightly off teh food topic what haggadah do you all use, I'm writing my own mixing in bits from different ones, used to use the old Maxwell House ones from the 60's that I got from my grandparents.

OOOH Hi Katie, that's too bad for Drew then

Is Tofu kosher for passover?

Oooh I like that, any suggestions for pea shoots? May just steam them or do a quick stir fry with ginger & garlic Also does anyone know of a quick way to achieve something equal to preserved lemons? To late to have them ready for Pesach and nowhere in Philly sells them. (may end up mail ordering from Kalustyans but would rather make them myself)

isn't that a town in Long Island? ( its what we used to call Massapequa) Am doing a Askenashi/sephardic crossover baba gahnoush w. Matzoh brushed with mint oil, cumin & sea salt Brisket w. cumin, cinnamon,garlic, olives, bay leaves & preserved lemon w. mint almond gremolata Roasted fingerlings w. harissa butter Carrots w. cumin & honey Need a green & could use some suggestions for my matzoh balls, wanted to do a slight variation on the original something sephardic-y also does anyone else flavor their mazto, and how

I had an Oscar party a couple of years ago with food inspired by the Best Movie nominees See if I can remember, Tapas for Gladiator (since he was the spaniard) For Traffic I set out powdered sugar in a big heap on a mirror, some of it cut into lines next to a bowl of strawberries and those cookies that look like straws Crouching Tiger hidden dragon: Dim sum Erin Brocovich: we made some vile looking green "poison"punch and had hostess snowballs to represent her boobs And for Chocolat we had well lots of chocolate I was most proud of Traffic, some people who came got a bit over excited before they realized it was sugar

Made lamb last night that I marinated in Pomegranate jiuce & Garlic, then served with a mint/almond/garlic gremolata served with yoghurt, cumin, garlic & mint marinated roasted carrots, spring onion & courgette & Room temp quinoa w. diced tomato, spring onin, mint & myer lemon vinagrette. It was really good and the pomegrante juice made a it a goregeous red w. a shiny glaze If you wish to stay traditional, I would maybe add to your lamb (which sounds delicious) baby carrots & snap peas tossed with mint & orange butter fingerling potatoes roasted with grainy mustard & rosemary & garlic or how about Rubbing the lamb with garlic (as you do), cumin, orange & mint Minty asparagus Black olive mashed potatoes (w.preserved lemon if you have) (I obviously have a mint thing going on, I just Love it with lamb,long as it's not vile mint jelly) good luck! have fun

Whole Foods carries organic un-sprayed roses, also may want to do an internet search (herbfarm in seattle, out of a flower in NY) or call a produce wholesaler in your area. In NYC the green market has them, quite expensive though, may want to make a deal with then to get the petals that fall off or the ones they trim in addition to whichever you buy

OOO I love this game, ok: Mae West, Picasso, The Marquis De Sade, and Colin Firth (I need to have a date at my dinner party)

Emanuelle Part One simple syrup infused with ginger, lemon grass & kaffir lime leaves 1 c sugar 2-1/2 c water 2 inches grated ginger 1 lemongrass stalk, chopped 8 kaffir lime leaves, chopped Part Two 1 c sugar peppers Part one Combine simple syrup infused with ginger, lemon grass & kaffir lime leaves; sugar, cup water, grated ginger, lemongrass stalk, and kaffir lime leaves...heat gently let sit at least 1 day, strain. cool Part two candied thai bird chilie: Heat 1 cup sugar till it caramelizes remove from heat carefully dip peppers in to liquid sugar (I used chopsticks) set on sheet pan w. wax paper let harden keep in air tight container 3 oz Hangar One kaffir Lime infused Vodka 2 squirts from squirt bottle of infused simple syrup shake with ice pour in to martini glass & granish w. candied chili & kaffir lime leaf ( RG841 )

Emanuelle Part One simple syrup infused with ginger, lemon grass & kaffir lime leaves 1 c sugar 2-1/2 c water 2 inches grated ginger 1 lemongrass stalk, chopped 8 kaffir lime leaves, chopped Part Two 1 c sugar peppers Part one Combine simple syrup infused with ginger, lemon grass & kaffir lime leaves; sugar, cup water, grated ginger, lemongrass stalk, and kaffir lime leaves...heat gently let sit at least 1 day, strain. cool Part two candied thai bird chilie: Heat 1 cup sugar till it caramelizes remove from heat carefully dip peppers in to liquid sugar (I used chopsticks) set on sheet pan w. wax paper let harden keep in air tight container 3 oz Hangar One kaffir Lime infused Vodka 2 squirts from squirt bottle of infused simple syrup shake with ice pour in to martini glass & granish w. candied chili & kaffir lime leaf ( RG841 )

in college it was wings I went to Syracuse and they had this place that had GIANT Wings, they weren't buffalo wings just huge fried chicken wings and battered dipped potato wedges they were amazing but when funds we low or it was too late for delivery we would stealthily comb the communal kitchens on other floors in our search for edibles. Later once I had a job and all that stuff, Blue Ribbon Soho for their Pu Pu Platter, goat cheese salad & marrow bones with oxtail marmalade Of course there's nothing better than finding leftover chinese in the fridge when you really need it. Speaking of cooking with substances I was tempted to try making truffles from some psilocybin mushroom odds & ends I have lying around from a long past Dead Show. Thought made I could ground them up really well and mix in with the cream. Think that would work?

there's a vegetarisn chinese place I think its Cherry Street Vegetarian that does really nice take-out their Vegetabele fried rice made with brown rice is so yummy actaulkly so is the faux lemon chicken veggie dumplings come with great suace Normally I am not a fan of vegan foods however these are good AND you do not feel nasty and greasy afterwards Sang Kee is a good bet with the DiningIn.com peopel but I find it rather expensive with thier add-ons, has anyone tried to call teh restaurant directly to see if they will deliver? Square on Square is on Chestnut btw 19th & 20th? V. good but i never remember to get their menu when I walk by, ususally end up ordering from China Rice House (20th & walnut)becasue you can order things from them with less oil and. But thier dumplings suck....ahh I miss NYC Noodles on 28th Street had the best dumplings outside of china town.