TarteTatin

The four of us enjoyed... Amuse: Radicchio wrapped tuna with balsamic. Homemade bread (a huge loaf!) with ricotta and olive oil. Apps:Two had Bruschetta with figs, goat cheese, red peppers. Octopus and white bean salad. Whipped Cod on toast. Pasta: Pappardelle with scallop and brussel sprouts. Pasta stamps with duck liver and dried cherries. Lasagna with bolognese. Agnolotti with almonds, and more? Can't remember. Entrees: Steak with a fried egg on top. Skate wrapped in Prosciutto. Veal Cheeks. Zuppa di pesce. One side of roasted beets. Dessert: 3 nutella, banana crepes. One tiramisu. $30 per person, they gave us a Sambuca at the end. Had a Gundlach Bundschu Zinfandel with the mains and a Tircaud white graves to start.

Katie, we're copying you again! We have reservations for tonight at Modo Mio! Remember when we had the chicken pot pie the day after you did too? We must be on the same food track. Funny, that!

Thanks so much for the recommendations. We've done two or three years at Lacroix (I wrote Rittenhouse in my earlier email, but meant Lacroix). Believe it or not, we haven't been to Osteria! Do you think we could "dine" there, David?

Mr. Tarte Tatin is addicted to that probiotic stuff. He puts it on his muesli every morning. I bought a pound of Hendrick's butter there last weekend. (They don't usually have it, very hard to get) It's $16 a pound! I almost died, but they said it would be worth it. AND IT WAS. Oh, my Gosh, outrageous. Like eating cheese itself. We are going to a butter tasting in Paris next week (that's not the only reason we're going to Paris!), and promised to bring some great local butter. It's an egullet event, you can read about it on the France site. Anyway, we cut it up, put half of it in the freezer to take with us. We've done this in reverse, taking butter home from France. Freeze it for a few days, and then it lasts in the luggage, and is still good when we take it out at home... The other half, we cut into precious slices, and froze individual slices. Except for one slice, that we ate with homemade outrageous Brioche that Mr. Tarte Tatin made in our new BlueStar oven. PURE DECADENCE.

You're not in the minority, Market St. El- we are Vietnam Palace people too. Their Jicama rolls are great. Or Rice Paper with shrimp, you roll your own. Served with Mint, Daikon, Carrots, Bean Sprouts, etc. - delish! Or, their 7 courses of Beef. Of course, our favorite of all is the Han Zhou or Nan Zhou hand made noodle house. I almost always get the pork soy sauce noodles- with extra scallions. Or the peanut butter (or is it sesame?) noodles. And, their greens are great too.

Wahoo! See you over there at the Butter Tasting! We're leaving in less than two weeks. Can't wait. But you get to be there for a year! We only get to be there for a week. Don't forget to eat your last Jersey tomato today. And peanut butter sandwich.

Just put it on a bit of ice and put a lemon twist in it and sip it. That's the best.

Are the Floyd shows new? I used to watch him years ago and LOVED him! He vanished for many, many years.

Besh will win. I don't think he should, but he's the most "telegenic" and knowing the TV biz- that might do it for him. He's an All American pretty boy.

Eight of us always get together for a very nice meal the day after Thanksgiving. Four come up to Philly from DC, two come down to Philly from Newtown. And us. We've gone a few years in the past to the Four Seasons. Two years to the Rittenhouse. Once to Studio Kitchen. A couple of times to Lambertville and New Hope. Where to this year? We like it to be nice. We like to dress up. We like to "dine" and not be kicked out for another seating. We've been to Vetri. We've been to James. Where else should we go? I was thinking back to the Four Seasons, since we haven't been back in 5 years... Other suggestions?

No, Sam didn't win...But his were truly the best. Indian spiced ribs with a fresh whole cranberry, mango chutney BBQ sauce. Yum. Everyone complimented him. ...3rd place was Owen from Bar Ferdinand, 2nd was Tower Investments who owns most of Northern Liberties and whose property we were using. 1st place was the cafe owners friends from D.C. (alas, seems like politics??) Sam didn't even win cooking the "anything goes" category, although he got a special mention. He did an amazing Tarte Tatin on the GRILL! Really. Made the pastry and rolled it out, right there! Grilling a Tarte Tatin! It was tasty! Jalapeno Poppers won that category, again from Tower Investments... The popular vote for the ribs- went to a guy from Esposito Meats, who had purchased extra ribs, while the 5 racks the rest of us were given for our entry fee- ran out in the first half hour. Yes, we could have purchased more in advance, but no-one else did except the guy from Esposito's. Hmm...I think the crowd was disappointed that the ribs ran out early, rightly so... None of the small neighborhood guys won. Hmmmm again! However, EVERYONE agreed that Sam's had the BEST taste. Owen from Ferdinand complimented him on both his ribs and the dessert. The guy who won -gave us a bottle of wine that he had won, since he thought ours were the best. A lot of the guests also complimented Sam's as the best... I'm VERY proud of Sam, he had fun, and the ribs did, indeed, taste the best. Who needs a gift basket anyway?

Mr. Tarte Tatin entered a BBQ Rib grilling contest yesterday in Philadelphia. For the additional "anything goes" category, he GRILLED two Tarte Tatins! Yes, you heard it right! We had our grills set up at our station. Brought apples, unsprayed winesaps from our friends backyard in Bucks County, Pa. Peeled/cored them, he did whatever he did with butter and sugar, and put them into two different sized cast iron skillets onto the charcoal grill. After however long, he took them off and let them sit there and confit. He then rolled out the pastry he'd made the night before, and topped the apples. Cooked some more, took them off the grill, and flipped them perfectly. Same apples for both. The larger cast iron pan came out with more dark apples. They weren't quite as caramel/butterscotchy as normal, but still so delicious! And, can you believe, even though the judges had never seen or tasted grilled tarte tatin, and we got an honorable mention for it, that he lost to jalapeno poppers???!! Unbelievable.

Heinz Organic is made in Canada without any corn syrup. It's the only one we buy.

Rich- Are you talking about the 6 hrs. time spent VERY SLOWLY cooking ribs over a low fire?

MERDE! I can't believe I forgot the most important ingredient of all!!!!!!!!! Foie! Yes, it was a Rib-eye and Foie entree. I just re-read what I wrote, and CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT THAT! It was a smallish (normal size) piece of foie on top of the steak. Delicious. Probably left over from the $5 foie week. But who cares. It was delicious. Edited to spell delicious right.

Mr. Tarte Tatin is entering a BBQ rib grilling competition at Full Plate on Saturday. Cooking starts at 9:00 a.m. Judging is around 3:30 p.m. All contestants have to grill the ribs right there at Full Plate. There are judges... Just found out that the contestants aren't only neighborhood people, but Bar Ferdinand is entering as are possibly some other restaurants! It's $10 if you want to eat the ribs made by the contestants plus a buffet of things made by Full Plate. I know their Mac n Cheese is one of the buffet items. Plus some vegetarian entrees, as one of the chefs is vegetarian. Come, cheer Sam on! A separate category is available to enter, and he's hoping to make a grilled Tarte Tatin in his cast iron skillet!! With local apples from our friends backyard in Newtown. (if we can round up another charcoal grill)

Just came back from dinner. It was loud and crowded, but at least not smoky! We sat on the first floor, haven't been there for dinner for awhile. (go for brunch lately) We ordered an apple, goat cheese, walnut, bacon salad to split. Then we ordered one rib-eye and foie dinner. Enough to feed a family of 6. Okay, maybe 4. Huge. Tasty. A bit fatty in a good way. Cooked medium rare. Tasty, but I kind of wanted even more beef taste. Served with a button mushroom red wine sauce. And onion rings and sweet potato chips. Bottle of Cline Syrah. Total: $60 without tip. Good grub. P.S.-We were all set to go to Modo Mio, called, and they were fully booked! Who woulda thunk? Northern Liberties BYOB Italian, on a Thursday night? Tap was packed too, and the server that we knew said this was the first busy night in awhile. I guess the weather turns cool, and people come out again.

Oui, bien sur!

Yes, it called Taco Rienda (I think). It's the same family as Las Cazuelas, the gorgeous white haired, always smiling- father of the family runs this place. He's been in the neighborhood forever, well known in the community. The restaurant is two blocks north of Girard on 5th. They share food/supplies, back and forth between the two places, but they're really pretty different. I prefer TR. It's not quite as upscale as LC. Very good, and inexpensive. BYOB, but they don't have a lot of real wine glasses or anything...

How funny. We just finished dinner, and that is also what we had tonight! Sam loved it, he found the pastry very good too. I thought it was really good for chicken pot pie. Just don't like chicken pot pie much. I like the Griggstown Poussin, and their duck breast, and fresh mozzarella. This we'll get again for himself. We had a Sauvignon Blanc with it. Went well. Also don't like daube, even in France. Ok, I do sort of like it, but really prefer other things. It reminds me of the brisket we had every Friday night (that or chicken) in a household of 7 growing up. I know, good daube is really nothing like that, but...it's just those memories.

"$40 price fixe, 3 courses, a few choices for each course, Piffy menu (escargots, veal cheeks, duck confit w/choucroute, etc.)" Yes, deliciouso. Le meme chose pour nous. escargot, pig trotter, veal cheeks, duck confit, etc. We have pics if we ever post them. Katie's after. Good grub/after dinner drinks.

Yeah, I actually heard the car screeches, and just then got to the corner of Coquette seconds after it happened. I was at the Tuesday Farmer's Market, had just gotten back into my car and was driving away....Cary Neff was right outside as it happened. His face didn't register anything, I guess he just was incredulous. The lady was sitting in her car, she just had this look of stupidity on her face. I'd say it was around 4:00 in the afternoon.

OMG, just finished Soul of a Chef, my first Ruhlman book (have read his blog, and know Bourdain's connection). OMG. So brilliant. I'll never make homemade stock again. Mine is so not clear, and I'll never have the patience to strain it 20 times. OMG.

I can't find the Pif thread through search (that 3 letter thingy), so just wondering if anyone is going tomorrow night to the Ansill, Pif night?

"...mention at this point that I am a tomato snob. I grew my own (and froze enough to cover the winter) when I lived in Pennsylvania. I developed a taste for the heirloom tom sliced while still warm from the sun, so I'm pretty difficult to please on that front." Ok, you two, not to make you jealous, but I have some amazing heirlooms right this minute sitting out on my prep table. Red ugly, yellow, green but not really green (some sort of variety I can't remember-green tiger?). We have some really cool farmer's markets, CSA, Fair Food stuff going on in Philly right now, and yes, there's nothing like a Pa/NJ heirloom! So, if the season can only last three more weeks, (it's unseasonably warm here)-I'll bring some to the Butter tasting on November 1st! Promise. Do you think I should pack them as gently as possible, wrapped well in my luggage, or do you think I can try to carry them in my carry on?