KatieLoeb

I can see the tasting notes now: "insouciant hints of moldy cloth with a peppery finish"

It was still there. Very impressive indeed. ← <sigh> My thanks for the visual. It's hard to tell from the photo, but that table is just so pretty up close and personal. Each and every square is the end of a wooden wine crate with the name of the vineyard emblazoned upon it. Gorgeous. Pretty impressive view of the library as well. Chef Blank has an enviable collection (world class, in fact) of cookbooks, menus and restaurant memorabilia housed in his restaurant. It's a one of a kind collection. The University of Pennsylvania library is the fortunate recipient of his largess in this. There's no other place that these documents exist. They are most fortunate to be recipients of his collection.

Smirnoff or Denaka are good reasonably priced vodkas that work well for infusions. My pleasure. Not sure if it's sold in your neck of the woods, but you can probably order it and have it shipped from one of the online retailers listed on their website HERE Please let me know if you like it. It isn't cheap, but is certainly the smoothest thing I've ever tried, bar none.

garriga: Sorry to hear about the glitches in what should have been a perfect dinner. Hopefully the ambiance, the wine and the company made up for it. Really glad to hear that the restaurant won't be closing when Chef Fritz retires, but I can't imagine it being the same without him. I was just talking about the place earlier this evening with a few fellow PhilleGullets and we were bemoaning the fact that such a landmark restaurant is closing. I hope the chef has hand picked and trained his replacement. Was that gorgeous wine table still in the library?? Or has that been packed and shipped off to Thailand already? (read: is it too late for me to stage a late night break in and steal it... )

Not just any State Store, but possibly one of the better ones, aka a "Specialty Store" Always an excellent gamut of Chairman's Selections and well stocked shelves of spirits and cordials of the harder to find varieties. Open until 9:00PM every evening as well as 12:00-5:00PM on Sundays. Premium Collection Store 1218 CHESTNUT ST PHILADELPHIA PA, 19107-5410 Phone: 215.560.4380

The plot thickens. An editorial from today's Philadelphia Inquirer: A CEO for the PLCB Kind of what I was talking about earlier. Where was procedure here? To keep this on topic, I was glad to read about the increase in the discount for licencees of the state. It's a small incentive, but an incentive nonetheless to making retail resellers of wine and spirits have less outrageous pricing. Now if we could just get rid of that pesky Johnstown Flood Tax we might be making some real progress...

Methinks that would the horchata agua fresca.

Tuna tartare might be nice too. Provided the wine still had some of it's acidity left. I've had some very old rieslings and if stored with proper providence, can be mind boggling in their ability to stand the test of time. Both the residual sugar and the high acid help preserve it well. Riesling may be one of the few whites that has a snowball's chance in hell to last that long.

I heated about 5 oz. of 2% milk in the microwave with a healthy blob of DdL in it. I whirled it through the blender and added a couple of drops of vanilla extract, a healthy shot of Applejack and a grating of fresh nutmeg on top. Very tasty grownup version of warm milk. In fact, it's making me quite sleepy so I'm off to bed. edited to add:

Andy: That's brilliant! Your mom should be very proud. Both of herself and of her son's bartending skills... Fino sherry is a fine substitute for dry vermouth in many applications, with a more pronounced and savory flavor. I'm surprised there aren't more drinks that take advantage of that.

There ought to be lots of interesting stuff at the fishmongers this upcoming week with the Feast of Seven Fishes coming on Xmas Eve...

I've just finished boiling up a can of SCM in the pressure cooker and am waiting for it to cool enough to open up and run the can under cold water. If I have time to experiment tonight, I will, if not, in the next day or so and will report back.

From today's Inky: "This is not transparency in public government," said Jonathan Newman, adding that he learned of Conti's hiring when Rendell's office gave him a job description for the new position at 3 p.m. yesterday." I'd say that's a pretty strong and clear statement, given his usual tact. ← LCB Votes to Hire New CEO Here's the article in question. Sounds like whether or not this was an idea that had been under discussion for some time, it was done in an underhanded fashion and showed some disrespect to both the Chairman and the taxpayers by being railroaded through with no notice. I sincerely hope that Mr. Conti and the Chairman are able to work together effectively. I for one, would be very disappointed if this caused any problems with Jonathan's ability to do what he's been doing so well for the last several years. Hopefully Mr. Conti's experience will bring to the table exactly what was being touted as his strengths, and he can merely make the LCB more profitable and make it easier for restaurants to get what they need.

Funny you should mention this. As I was driving home from work tonight and passed the glowing lights of the CIra Center, I wondered when the opening was, since I knew it was sometime this week. Guess that answers my question. I'm off on Thursday this week so I might mosey over there for a drink just to scope it out. If I do, I'll report back.

Breakfast at The Down Home Diner at RTM ought to satify that jones. And it's practically across the street from your hotel. Well, OK - across the street and half a block up. Conveniently located scrapple. What more could a girl ask for? All the suggestions you've gotten are excellent ones. Poke around in the PA forum and see which places we're all buzzing about. snackbar certainly is the latest place to get our attention, but there's plenty of places, new and old alike depending on what you're in the mood for. If you haven't had any really good authentic Mexican cuisine then a trip to La Puebla or Jose's might be in order. Not fancy in the least, in fact, downright divey by some folks standards, but really really good food. For "red gravy" Italian, I'm partial to Villa di Roma. Cheap chianti from a jug and really great heaping plates of pasta. You can't go wrong. Any one of a number of BYOB restaurants would be fun and the PLCB store at 12th & Chestnut has a great stock of the Chairman's Selection bargains we all love so much. To quote Billy Joel, you can grab "a bottle of red, a bottle of white" and have a grand evening almost anywhere.

I created this one for Thanksgiving, but it would work as a late autumn/early winter drink as well. The Spicy Pilgrim 2 oz. Ten Cane Rum 1 oz. apple cider .75 oz. fresh lemon juice .5 oz. Marie Brizard Poire William liqueur .5 oz. Pama pomegranate liqueur .5 oz. Spiced Dark Simple Syrup* one dash Fee Brother's Old Fashioned Bitters Lemon rind Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a flamed lemon peel. * Spiced Dark Simple Syrup 1.5 cups water 3 cinnamon sticks, broken up 4 star anise 10 whole cloves 1/4 teaspoon red chile flakes 1 cup demerara sugar (I use Trader Joe's organic) Bring water to a boil and add spices. Allow to boil for three minutes. Add sugar, stir to dissolve and allow to simmer for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat and allow to cool. Strain before using.

Hi Doc: I'm thinking you'll have to stick to the corporate chain type places, since they're likelier to be worried about lawsuits and such for non-compliance with the Disabilities Act. Sadly, that doesn't leave too much room for really good eats. That's Sandy's 'hood, so he knows what's there far better than I do. I think Caribou is a good option. I also enjoy the Middle Eastern place that's at 13th & Walnut, but that might be too far. Irish Pub for a burger, maybe? I dunno. It isn't exactly the epicenter of cuisine around there. Naked Chocolate Cafe at Juniper & Walnut is marvelous for a light snack, some pastries and hot chocolate that's to die for. It's at street level. If I think of anything else between now and then I'll let you know.

The big store at 6th and Wahsington has the Kaffir lime leaves frozen. I've bought them several times and they are just fine.

Ay-yi-yi! That Stroh 80 is deadly stuff. The 80 stands for 80 percent alcohol or 160 proof!! Even hotter than 151 rum! It tastes different than most rums because it's made from sugar beets, not molasses or sugar cane like other rums. I keep a bottle of it in the house for when I have a really bad cold or the flu. I make up a packet of that OTC TheraFlu stuff and add a healthy shot of the Stroh to it. It knocks me out cold, I sleep like a corpse, sweat like a racehorse and wake up cured from whatever ailed me. It truly exorcises the demons from you when you aren't well. It would make some wicked strong nog.

Alchemist, you are my hero and a poet.

*bump* Imagine my surpise and delight when my January 2007 issue of Bon Appetit arrived in the mail today and amongst their "Best of the Year" trends they mentioned gastropubs. The main thrust of that section was our very own Standard Tap, featuring several recipes from Chef Carolynn Angle. In the sidebar about five other gastropubs around the country are mentioned and Grace Tavern gets a nod as well. We have seemingly cornered the market on great gastropubs in Philly! YAY!! Congrats to Chef Angle and the staff at Standard Tap. We always knew you were world class!

karoke = karaoke? Geikkikan = Gekkeikan? I'm not out to correct spelling errors; I'm just curious. I think Gekkeikan is a good sake. We must give credit to mass-produced sake too. But I must admit that I haven't had Gekkeikan for decades. Whenever I want to drink sake, I buy local sake (jizake) these days. *** Jinro is the most popular soju in Japan. Is this the case in the United States too? ← Yes and Yes. Because I can't spel. Don't know about the brand name of what I drank. It was a green bottle with a screwcap. That's all I remember. Especially after I'd had a few. In fact, after I'd had a few I was ready to tackle singing some of the songs in Japanese and Korean that were in the song catalog. In their native languages. Neither of which I speak.

Zyr Chopin Ciroc Hangar One Russian Standard

Well, since I'd never tried it before, I really couldn't tell you if it was a good one or bad one. It was merely my first one. But I found it had an interesting sweetness to it, as well as a pleasing dry finish. It reminded me of what I thought sweet potato vodka would taste like. The place I had this was a Korean restaurant/karoke club. I suspect it wasn't from the higher end of the spectrum. Many moons ago I thought that Geikkikan was good sake because it was all I knew. Now I realize it's the Japanese equivalent of Mad Dog 20-20. edited to add: You may point and laugh now, if you wish...

No kidding? That's very cool! I like soju. What are your favorite sojus? For the record, my great-great-grandparents had an inn in Lithuania around the 1850s or so and made liquor in their bathtub. That worked well, because whenever the authorities came around, they just pulled the plug -- no more evidence! I have no idea how good or bad their liquor was, but apparently, it was popular with the traders who stopped by their inn. ← Why am I not surprised in the least that there are descendants of all manner of distillers, vintners and moonshiners here on eGullet? I just tried soju for the first time very recently and I really like it. That's very cool about your family, Don. (And your grandparents too, Michael!)