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Everything posted by KatieLoeb
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This is valid logic to me. If the price is the same then choose that which tastes the best either straight or mixed. Seems like a no-brainer.
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WOW! Look at all the new members! Welcome to clam crab cockle cowrie, keeperrox and Meanderer. Stick around y'all. We're looking forward to hearing more from you...
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Oooh! The Struzziero Fiano de Avelino that Deidre recommends is also very tasty!! Both Rouge and Sansom Street Oyster House still have the Domaine de la Courtade rose by the glass if anyone cares to try it.
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Bless you, woman! I couldn't believe that nobody had mentioned Fresca as a great mixer! I love ANYTHING grapefruit. There is another grapefruit soda that I don't know the name of...they sell it at Trader Joe's; I'll try to get the name for you and post it. Edit: HANSEN'S. Came to me as I hit Post. ← I just finished a tequila/Fresca and am feeling quite a bit better, thank you very much. There's apparently a brand of Pink grapefruit soda that's sold in big flats at BJ's. They were using it as the mixer at the PLCB store which is where I first tried the tequila/grapefruit soda combo and found it delicious. I think it was the Star Ruby soda mentioned upthread. It was very tasty.
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A search of the PLCB website shows the following selections available at Specialty stores: California wines Bonny Doon Big House Pink 2004 $9.99 Cline Vin Gris 2003 $9.99 French wines Comanderie de Bargemone Rose, C. d'Aix-en-Provence 2004 $12.99 Guigal Cotes du Rhone Rose VI $14.99 (available in "Regular" stores) Cave de Rasteau, Cotes du Rhone Rose "Les Viguiers" 2004 $9.99 Segries Tavel Rose 2003 $13.99 Italian wines Falesco Rosato 2004 $9.99 All of the above are good selections and quite reasonable, as most rose wines tend to be. My personal favorite Pink wine in the whole world is: Domaine de la Courtade L'Alycastre Rose 2004 SLO Code # 054449 $11.49 This wine is grown on an island off the coast of Nice that is quite literally the sunniest place in France. It's a beautiful salmon color and smells like rose petals and sunshine. It's absolutely delicious. If you were to order a case of this and have it shipped to your favorite store you wouldn't be disappointed. This was available by the glass at Rouge and Sansom Street Oyster House, but not sure about that now. I'll see if I can call the distributor and find out for sure who's carrying it by the glass so you can take it for a test drive.
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So Katie, where does one find this soup? ← Yup - at 219 North 11th Street, next door to Vietnam and a few doors from the police station. I think it's the corner of 11th and Spring Streets? This is my go to soup when I have a head cold. Blasts it right out of you.
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What else is REALLY good there? ← The Lemon Duck, the Salt Baked Shrimp or Squid and the Singapore Noodles. Hot Pots are excellent too. But the Hot and Sour soup rules!
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One of my personal favorites: "As full of sh!t as a Christmas Goose"
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Y'all are missing the fact that most bars use frozen fresh lime juice. It's perfectly acceptable and perfectly tasty. It saves a great deal of time and effort and tastes absolutely acceptable in a mixed cocktail. The cost of produce varies far too wildly for a bar/restaurant owner to price the drinks depending on the whims and vagaries of the fresh produce market. The frozen stuff allows one to price appropriately for year around availability.
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I'd recommend lunch at LaCroix at the Rittenhouse Hotel, or for less stuffy/expensive and more casual, Caribou Cafe at 11th & Walnut.
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I was feeling lazy yesterday and went and picked up some take out from Szechuan Tasty House. Tried the Chang Du Cold Noodles and the Szechuan Ban Ban Chicken. Both very tasty, but far too similar. In fact, I dumped the Chicken into the noodles and squirted a little Sriracha sauce on it to spicy it up a notch. It was very good that way. I also got a small Hot and Sour soup to start which was quite good, but a little "thin" for my taste. I figured Hot and Sour soup would be a good yardstick for a Szechuan restaurant. The flavor was very good, but it was just too thin and didn't have enough "stuff" in it. I still maintain that Lee How Fook makes the best Hot and Sour soup known to man. I'd certainly go back to Szechuan Tasty House, but I think it would be more interesting with a large group so more dishes could be tried and there's less chance of repetition in the sauces.
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I dunno. I'll still eat a Copa burger at either the South Street or the 15th Street locations, washed down with a fine magarita. I don't think it's gotten meidocre. I think it always was a fairly middle of the road choice, but the burgers were always decent at a minimum, and the margaritas are always good. I think there are just more and better choices now. And perhaps some of us have more sophisticated palates than we used to. The stuff I thought was the cat's meow in my twenties I don't necessarily feel that way about any longer. I used to drink Mateus and Boone's Farm ferchissakes!
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Yes. It does.
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Makes your hair shiny and your skin very soft. I've also found that it clears up patches of dry skin (which I often get in the winter) from "the inside out", so to speak. I like using the oil as a salad dressing oil. Mixes well with Pumpkin seed oil which has a much stronger nuttier taste that masks the Flax oil taste if you don't like it.
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Actually it's more like a cinderblock. With a honking slab of vanilla ice cream on top too, thank you very much. About 4" high on the sides and 7-8" in the middle. Hanging off the sides of the plate if only to remind you just how utterly silly and formidable a piece of pie can be. I have yet to ever finish a piece, even with help. I've never seen its like anywhere else. It's some scary assed pie.
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I've dealt with this on a daily basis, and if you're a busy lunch spot, where folks only have an hour to get back to their office, then it's the only fair way to handle it. Why should I tie up a table for four while your singular ass waits for your dawdling 3 companions while I can get that group of four that's already waiting behind you in line halfway through their lunch while your rude friends dribble in at their leisure? The restaurant has a limited number of seats. They are a resource similar to one of your doctor's examination rooms or one of the dressing rooms at your favorite upscale boutique. Folks that wouldn't dream of taking a nap in the exam room or throwing a tea party in the dressing room have no compunctions about tying up the table at a restaurant. How is one business any different than the other?
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Perhaps that's true, but the more effective way of handling that is to say, "I'm sorry we're fully commited at 8:00PM (because of a multitude of 9:00 reservations). We do have an available table at 7:30, could you possibly be here by then?" and then let the customer decide. Never say no, and never be so blunt or oblique as to be misconstrued as rude. Give the customer an option and let them say no thanks.
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As opposed to what?? An hour late? What's the point of a reservation if you have no intention of keeping it? The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the chef wanted to dazzle you with some sort of time sensitive amuse bouche (mini souffles, tiny baked Alaskas, I don't know ) and wanted it to be plated when you arrived? Even so, given that even a bad run at the traffic lights could cause someone to miss the nanosecond in the space-time contiuum when they've promised to arrive, you'd think he'd wait until you arrived to start anything. Really it's just a puzzlingly rude question.
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Carambola (starfruit). Just like Andrew's experience - too subtle. On a separate note - I had the pleasure of meeting the principals of an ice cream manufacturing company in Ohio last weekend. Company is called Woo City Ice Cream and is based in the Cleveland, OH area. I tried several different flavors and lemme tell you, this stuff could give Capogiro a run for it's money. 16% butterfat and uses all organic ingredients! My personal fave was the Lemongrass-Ginger which was absolutely sublime. The Key Lime sorbet, the Amaretto-Peach and the Green Tea were also excellent. The flavors were all laser beam clear and the product was very dense and full flavored. They also produce a completely vegan soy based dessert called Woo Fu. I believe they ship anywhere, so it's worth investigating, especially for restaurants.
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Yeah that's it. Dock Street. I knew it was one of those formerly local microbreweries. You'd think I'd remember since I worked a temp job for them for several months.
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I love Astral Plane! Such a cute little place, kinda like attending the Mad Hatter's Tea Party in Grandma's attic. The parachute hanging from the ceiling, the mismatched china and silverware, the antiques, it's just a feel good kind of place. Brunch is my most frequest stop there, the main attraction being the "Mix your own Bloody Mary" bar. Good omelets, French Toast, interesting salads and pasta dishes. I just love the place. Reminds me I haven't been there in a while either and will avail myself of my 2 for Tuesday card as well!
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What's this Public House place at 18th & Arch? I've never even heard of it! I usually know where the bars are, even if I don't frequent them. Whassup with this place? Their Center City Sips Happy Hour looks pretty good! edited to add: [Emily Litella voice]Never Mind. I just realized this is where the old Independence Brewpub used to be.[/Emily Litella voice]
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Pasta Puttanesca is my go-to seduction meal. It sounds naughty, it's delicious and lusty flavors, and you both have to have eaten it so you can get past the garlic and get down to business.
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If you have a dehydrator at your disposal you can pit and dry cherries on your own, and then reconstitute them in bourbon for manhattans. Striped Bass does this and then gilds the lily by dunking them in chocolate. This is the garnish in their Walnut Manhattans made with Knob Creek and Nocello. A damned tasty cocktail!
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My mom trained me to mix her favorite drink (a whiskey Manhattan, Perfect, on the rocks) for her at a tender age. I never liked the stuff much myself until I was a bit older. Past my teenage years even. Turning into a Beverage Manager during my restaurant career has definitely sparked my interest, particularly in the creation of cocktails. I love to play with ingredients and come up with new and interesting drinks. I love to taste something and then figure out how to turn it into a cocktail. Last summer I tried a Pineapple-Mint sorbet and simply had to find a way to make that refreshing flavor combo into a drink. I finally ended up with Pineapple-Mint Mimosas since I thought it would be a lovely summer brunch cocktail. And my personal tastes have changed quite a bit over the years. I used to really loathe the "brown" liquors, but now I love bourbon, tolerate whiskey and am gaining an appreciation for certain less "peat-y" Highland single malts. I'd never have guessed that a few years ago.