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Oooh I like this idea. One of my problems with Lee How is that the food can tend to be a little heavy, and some members in our party are on diets. Vietnamese is a good idea. How would you rank nam phuong in terms of goodness? I've been to vietnam and vietnam palace and think that vietnam is better than vietname palace. Where does nam phuong fit in? Also, is it clean enough for a Grandma? Places like Pho Ha get automatically eliminated because of the sheer amount of hoisin sauce that is stuck to the walls.

I like Snack Bar more and more every time I go. So far we've been twice this week. By the time the octopus and mussels came I was way too full, hopefully I'll be able to try those next time. That salad is great, I've had it twice this week. I could have it at least two more times and still not get tired of it. My favorite of the night was, by far, the melon soup with shrimp, cucumbers and creme fraiche or cream (Phil, where's the picture of that? Did I snatch it up and dig in before you got a chance to take the picture?) I also really liked the pudding. The texture was very liquidly, which I'm fond of (once I made pudding and my whisk was defective and the cornstarch didn't mix in fully and I loved it much better than the thicker pudding... this pudding was like that). The dirt was coffee I believe, not chocolate. I love food made into dirt. The mango added a nice refreshing counterpoint, although it could have had a little less mango. Looking forward to brunch on Sunday.

I need help. I have a dozen family members and friends coming in to celebrate my bat mitzvah (I'm 25, this is just something I skipped while 13). For the life of me I can't decide where to go for dinner. It going to be on a friday night in a couple of weeks at around 8:30 pm. Osteria would be the perfect choice because it's right across the street from our temple, but I think it's a little too pricey (Grandma wants to pay for everyone). Pif would also be great, but the whole family just went there during Penn graduation. I've been thinking about Lee How Fook (good food, good price, but Grandma seemed less than enthusiastic about it). What about the Standard Tap? Is the upstairs quiet enough for a party? What am I missing?

That dinner at Osteria last night made me very happy (despite the poor start with the moscato). My favorites of the night were the Pizza Lombarda (of course!), the gnocchi seco and the lamb. The snail pizza was good, but pales in comparison to the Lombarda. I agree the snail app was a better snail rendition, although for some reason, sometimes snails remind me of soap... The robiola ravioli were good, but we all agreed that we couldn't have eaten more than the 3 we each did. The dish oozed butter. I think it was primarily responsible for the butter-coma I had all day today. The lamb, I thought, was perfect. Overall a great meal. I do wish (and this may be just me) that they went a little lighter on the butter. I know most of you will probably disagree with me, but I love food and have a small stomach so lots of butter equals me being able to eat less (or just feeling sick afterwards). The giving of the complimentary dessert wine to V for Mr Gordon's corked glass was absurd. We actually thought she was going to give us all a glass but just started with V because he was at the end. Not the case though. Onto dessert. I *really* wanted a nutella pizza, but my dining companions were weak. V and Phil didn't even want dessert! David wanted something lighter and refreshing so he picked the coconut gelato. I added the pistachio (yummy) and the chocolate hazelnut (the best of the three) because we got three scoops. David was the first to have the coconut gelato, and he had this very weird reaction to it. I tried it at his insistence and thought it tasted off (well just not very coconuty and refreshing) and then after I swallowed came the BLAST of spice. So unpleasant. I confronted the waiter asking, pray tell, what was in the coconut gelato? "Some crushed red pepper" something or other he replied. I suggested that he, you know, mention that instead of just saying "coconut gelato." It was a sad way to end an otherwise really really really good meal.

Something at this dinner made the right half of my tongue numb. It's still tingling. I agree for the most part with Mr. Gordon. All the apps were big misses. The gorditas were overwhelmingly fried (and don't get me wrong, I love fried when it's good fried, this was soggy fried). The goat cheese sope was the best of the bunch, and I agree completely with what Mr. Gordon said about the chorizo. It actually tasted like the pasta they used to serve in my dining hall in college (for some reason the pasta always tasted like bad tacos). On to the entrees. I actually didn't think the squid itself had much taste, but the dish overall was the best of the night (do not read that as good, just the best of what we had). I liked the pork a little more than the rest of my party did, I think, but when you added it to a tortilla with some guacamole (how they suggested eating it) the flavors of the individual components seemed to oddly negate each other. All-in-all, a dinner full of one-dimensional flavors that even our secret stash of Maldon salt couldn't bring fully to life.

I was just going to say this! I went to Monk's once because so many people recommended it and ordered mussels (I don't remember what kind) but they were horribly gritty. A major turn off, I never went back. Mussels, for me, are something I only order if I know and trust the place, so in the end I rarely eat mussels. The best mussels I've had in Philly so far were at my first meal at Pif several years ago. They were pan roasted and there was a burning spring of rosemary in the pan. mmmm.

mmm steak. Now personal vendettas against WF aside, their steaks fared quite well. Even the pan-seared WF steak, while it had an obvious "nothing" like quality when compared head to head with the Flannery steak, if it had been on its own I think I would have been fairly happy. Unfortunately WF has a consistency problem (and so does Wegmans for that matter). I've had truly great steaks from both WF and Wegmans (not in taste tests) but I've also had pretty poor quality steaks from both. And a couple days back when I was forcibly dragged into WF against my will, there was a steak right in the front of the case that looked like death (although not as death-likes as come steaks I saw sold at another center city quality food establishment north of rittenhouse square...). Anyway, as far as cooking method, both the sous vide and grilled WF steaks were considerably better than their pan-seared counterpart. I attributed this to flavor enhancements more than textural differences, and leads me to think, if you "marinated" a WF steak and pan-seared it, it might help. I'm not going to pick a Flannery winner; I loved them all. I'm a purist so when you have a great steak I think why bother with the fuss (even if the sous vide did concentrate the flavors in a way). And finally, I'd have to say, for once I actually wasn't chilly... dare I say I was almost warm

I feel betrayed...