Rich Pawlak

At the 17th (or 18th, I forget) FRIDAY THE FIRKINTEENTH at the GREY LODGE PUBLIC HOUSE in Philadelphia: Philadelphia Brewing Co. JOE, rich with cocoa and coffee, and a nice chewy texture; Blue Point Oatmeal Stout, a bit thin, and lacking the depth it had when I enjoyed it at the brewery in Patchogue, NY; Iron Hill North Wales Bourbon barrel Porter, hefty, thick and slippery, bursting with burnt vanilla, oak, leather and packing a bit of a wallop, and the best beer I had that night. 20 firkins served at this event, which started at Noon on 2/13, 7 firkins at a time, and they all kicked by 7PM. Damn.

Nice blistering on the crust, cheese looks a BIT overdone, but that's a small quibble. Great color and appearance. Can he send me one? ASAP?

Indeed Jeff is correct about the recipe, which I paste in below, from the above-mentioned article: 3 Cup Chicken adapted from Han Dynasty Serves 2-4 2 lbs chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces 20 garlic cloves, minced 10 thin slices of fresh ginger 2 small chili or Serrano peppers (optional) 1/3 cup sesame oil 1/3 cup rice wine 1/3 cup soy sauce 3-4 tbs sugar 2 cups Thai basil, chopped Peanut oil for frying and stir-frying In a large wok or Dutch oven, fry chicken pieces until thoroughly cooked and juices run clear. Remove chicken and set aside. Pour out oil and wipe out wok/Dutch oven. Heat a small amount of oil in wok over high heat. Add garlic, ginger and peppers if desired. Just before garlic and ginger are about to brown, add chicken. Add sesame oil, rice wine, soy sauce and sugar. Stir fry vigorously until chicken is evenly coated and sauce is thickened. When the sauce is almost dried, add basil, toss to combine. Remove pieces to a platter and serve with hot, white rice.

Three cup chicken is a traditional Taiwanese dish, using , as I best recall 1 cup rice wine, 1 cup soy sauce, 1 cup sugar and small bone-in pieces of sautteed chicken usually topped with a ton of basil too. I wrote an article for a local magazine this time last year, following a visit to the Exton HD and it featured the recipe. I will try to source the article and recipe on my home offic e computer later and post it here. I will say this:it's a damn tasty dish.

Seriously good and seriously spicy food. Cant remember the last time I ate food that seriously spicy. But I would do it again in a heartbeat. My faves from the night were the zingy soup, the bacon and leeks, the chicken with hot pepper, the fried beef with hot pepper (movie munchies! LOL! And probably not a bad idea either....), the braised bacon, sweet and sour fish, duck in beer sauce and fish in dry pot, And that wacky mind-bender of a dessert---it felt and tasted like a fluid, marshmellowy Reese's peanut butter cup! I swear! Despite the prodigious amounts of food, I didnt really feel stuffed at the end, just overwhelmed. We also enjoyed 3 growlers of Sly Fox beer, fresh from the brewpub nearby in Royersford: Sly Fox Pikeland Pils, Route 113 IPA and Dunkel Lager, and they paired very well with all of the dishes. I know we also had a lot of wines there, but I didnt catch any of their names. What were the rest of you drinking, Katie? Righteous hosting, Jeff, it was a blast!

Philly Felafel closed about a year or more ago, and their stuff was really good too!

The only top-split hot dog rolls I ever see in the supermarket are from Pepperidge Farm; they have an outlet near Hatboro on Old York Rd, and they have other outlets all over the place. But I'd bet you could find them at Jetro or even at the Shoprite or Pathmark in South Philly.

I was told that A-B puts an additive in their beer to make the foam white, and that that additive causes many folks to suffer a headache. I do know that all A-B products give me a crippling headache, and I have thankfully avoided them for years now

That would be SPASSO, passably good, not sensational, but it's been under the radar for years.

Actually, Jeff, it was 72 folks give or take a few. TIGHT quarters, true, but way fun too.

Memories. I'd gladly ascend those stairs again too. HMUC was one of my favorite restauants back then.

I can tell you from past experience that when the Food Court at The Bellevue gets busy, it's a packed house down there, as busy as any place in town. Conventioneers do make their way over there, simply because of the building's historic status and likely because of some of its tenants, such as Tiffany & Co, Williams-Sonoma and Nicole Miller. I can recall a time in 2000, on a Monday after a Rick Nichols article on the Food Court in the old Inquirer Magazine, when a constant river of humanity poured into the Food Court for hours, mostly locals rediscovereing the place. That business uptick lasted for several months. It was an incredible testament to the power of a Rick Nichols column.

Dietz & Watson, Boar's Head and Thumann's are rivals at the top of the deli-counter heap, no doubt about it. I had heard from another source that ShopRite's Black Bear line is Dietz & Watson under another name. But thus far, I've generally preferred Boar's Head's deli meats to D&W's comparable products -- especially the regular ham; Boar's Head branded is head and shoulders above any other deli ham I've tried. The two purveyors are much closer together on roast beef, I will grant. I have yet to try Boar's Head franks, though. I find D&W's regular beef franks a bit bland for my taste. I tend to prefer bolder dogs, like Nathan's. Vienna Beef IMO is bolder than D&W but not as bold as Nathan's. I do, however, have this vague memory of purchasing some natural-casing premium D&W franks at a deli counter somewhere and finding them quite good indeed. (Edited to add: What is your neck of the woods, John? Most local supermarkets that carry D&W hot dogs carry both their beef and their beef and pork dogs, as well as the "lite" versions of each.) Philadelphians have pretty much made their preferences clear: When the Super Fresh chain, no doubt acting on orders from corporate in Montvale in the "New York" part of New Jersey, replaced Dietz & Watson with Boar's Head as the premium national brand line in its delis (the chain's delis also stock A&P's premium store brand, Master Choice; anyone know who makes it?), customers complained long and loud. Dietz & Watson regained pride of place at Super Fresh after about three months. It is. I misidentified the peppers as pepperoncini in my original post. And there is celery salt on it too. ← John Fox, arguably one of the country's foremost experts on all things hot dog, hails from Union, NJ, Sandy. To spend an afternoon touring Jersey hot dog joints with John, which I have done twice now, is to be in the prescence of expert greatness.

Rick may have a problem there, since there is also a cheesesteak place there (unless of course it's leaving); when I worked at The Bellevue (and was part of "Bellevue management"), the merchants in the Food Court all held relative exclusives on their food offerings. So I wonder how that will be handled. Also, Bob, the Food Court is open until 5:30-6PM only and is busy only at lunch. And when it's busy down there for lunch, it's really busy. I forget the traffic numbers (I left in 2002), but they were impressive from 11:30AM-2PM.

Snockey's totally ROCKS. Used to slip over there after editorial meetings at STYLE magazine, whose offices are a few doors away, for some fried oysters and chowder. Simply old school fish house, like Kelly's of Mole St and Walt's. And worth a visit.

Russ Cowan has always had an affinity AND ability to create a Chicago hot dog in Philly, first hen he ran that hot dog emporium on South St in the 80s, to Pastrami & Things at 15th and Locust a few years back, he served a properly accessorized Chicago dog, right down to the Vienna beef dogs, sport peppers, celery salyt and poppy seed roll. I suspect he would make a few with some advance notice at FAmous Deli if asked. Like a cheesesteak, or a tomato pie, Chicago dogs are iconic and worthy of worship. Once you have the authentic version, then and only then do you understand the cult following. Gotta get me to Green in Blue to see how close they come to the real deal! And how did Sandy scoop Holly on this one? I mean, Holly, ya got the Hot Dog Page and all.......

Guys: Took some friends from England to Tattoni's a few weeks ago and was pretty disappointed in the both the quality of food and the ridiculously slow service of food to our table. There is now a printed men, which is more confusing than helpful. The old unwritten menu system worked much better in the Burg. And the food took and ETERNITY to get to our table, the time between courses was ridiculous. The room was 3/4 full on a Friday night, and theer seemed to be plenty of waitresses, but they were just walking around, not working. Prices were raised a few bucks in the move to Hamilton, but, to my palate, the quality took a dive. Pastas were watery, no mattwer the sauce chosen, chicken cattiatore (their "signature dish" according to the menu and our waitress, was Ok, but had a vinegar overtone that never existed in the old place. B ut it was the timing of the food getting to our table that bugged us the most.

OK, I'll bite: what are rattlesnake beans? And how do you prepare the dish you're suggesting with Mirror Pond? On my blog, beer friend Tom Cizauskas reminded me of a beer pairing we discussed many years ago: Hefeweisens and Indian cuisine I will have to revisit that pairing!

Nothing like pairing good beer with good food; it's just pure magic when the flavors marry and dance together in the mouth. Over the years I've discovered, and been told about some really good beer food pairings, and I want to hear about yours. Here are some of mine, along with some pairings suggested by some beer friends whose palates I really respect: Red Hook IPA and an Italian hoagie (from Mike Gates, Haddonfield, NJ) Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale and a plate of nachos Victory Hop Devil and Thai curries Maredsous 8 and creme brulee (Bob Rescinito, Oklahoma City, OK) Saranac Caramel Porter and Amish sourdough pretzels Yuengling Porter and beef stew Guinness Stout and oysters Victory Prima Pils or Pilsner Urqell and Sechuan Chinese food Sierra Nevada Celebration and a thick grilled steak Spaten Oktoberfest and pork chops braised with apples and cabbage Rolling Rock and pizza Tsing Tsao and red gravy Italian, like lasagna and/or linguine and meatballs Troegs Troeginator Dopplebock and braised lamb shank over polenta Troegs Mad Elf and Christmas cookies! One Guy Brewing Cinnamon Boldy and apple fritters (Guy Hagner, Berwick, PA) OK, I've started the list, what are YOUR favorite pairings?

Wow, that is a hilarious passage in Laban's article, BRAVO, Katie! She's the baddest bartendrix in town. We gotta get her some theme music and mood lighting.

And who doesnt love diarhhea?

And a Merry Christmas to all. Well, except for Rick Olivieri. At least he's got to appreciate the karma of it.

That is beautiful. And I'm just 45 minutes away.

The Queen's physician said that he discovered a pizza parlor that made a very good gluten-free pizza, so, given the Queen's allergy to gluten, we quickly headed down to Bordentown, NJ to the original PALERMO'S (674 Highway 206 South--just north of the famous Mastoris diner; (609) 298-6771). I'm a total sucker for Trenton tomato pie. so I was psyched for some Palermo's tomato pie and I was very curious how they'd pull off a gluten free pie. According to the Bordentown manager, they buy gluten-free shells from a supplier, top 'em however the customer wants and bake 'em. I only sampled a couple of bites of the gluten-free pepperoni mushroom pie the Queen ordered, but it was surprisingly good, a corn-based pizza shell that looked pretty much like an average pizza, but the crust had good flavor, was heavier than a typical pizza crust, but not so much that you might discern a major difference. It was a good foil for Palermo's slighty sweet, chunky tomato sauce, which I think happens to make their tomato pie one of the better ones in the Trenton area.

Harold's in Edison in the Raritan Center complex and adjacent to that Holiday Inn, dwarfs both Famous Deli and Carnegie Deli in outrageous overindulgance. A simple turkey on rye with swiss is served in wretched excess, and makes at least 4 more sandwiches of large size. the stuffed cabbages are at least 1.5 times as large as Famous' and almost everything there is sized triple-X ridiculous. That being said, their matzoh ball soup and "health salad" and pickles are worth the trip, but I've always leave that place grossed out by the slobbering customers and sheer waste of food left on nearby tables. Haven't been there in years, and not planning a visit anytime soon.