KatieLoeb

The Chateau Montelena is going to obliterate that sea bass. And the salty sauce will make the wine taste funny. You need animal fat (generally meat, but butter will do too) to match a big tannic red. You need something acidic (and therefore probably white) if you're going with the salty Asian style preparation with the fish. Is there anything else in the cellar you could serve? I'd hate to see such a gorgeous bottle of wine not get shown off to its best advantage. Save the Montelena for a night you're eating steak or duck or something it'll stand up to.

One of my very earliest foodie memories is eating Lobster Cantonese (the dietary laws never applied in my family either) at about the age of four with both of my parents at the local Chinese restaurant. I still love Lobster Cantonese and even Shrimp in Lobster sauce (which is fairly similar) brings back those sense memories for me. It tastes like my childhood. It tastes like dinner with both my mom and my dad. This and drinking coffee (70% milk, 30% coffee and tons of sugar - more like melted coffee ice cream) with my dad for breakfast is a very powerful memory. My dad passed when I was five years old, so this is something really near and dear to my heart. Thanks for this. It's really heartwarming.

I finally got an answer to my questions from someone at AvernaUSA. There are definitely no rules, but the contest is still limited to ONE entry per person, which makes the final beverage have to be one's best effort. But that's as it should be I suspect. I'm still working on something with applejack and ginger. Fair success so far. No final recipe to report yet as there are too many permutations to decide which is best. Yet.

What he said. Those are the two most popular caterers in town.

I can't answer that, Sandy. My sour cream was of the regular supermarket sort. But when I need to refill (which ought to be awhile since I use it seldomly) I'll take one for the team and try the Russian/Canadian stuff and report back.

Bindi = gateway drug/cuisine? Think of it the way I think of white zinfandel. It gets people started on liking wine. After that I can show them true path.

Nowhere in the cocktail information are there any "rules" for the entries. Is there a minimum amount of Averna for the cocktail? Does it have to be an "up" drink or can a tall drink compete? Is there a maximum number of total ounces of booze allowable? Do we have to use commonly available ingredients? Is there a maximum number of ingredients allowed? Can we use homemade syrups or cordials in the drinks? All this stuff is usual cocktail competition regulations, so I'm surprised not to see it anywhere on the site or discussed anywhere on this thread. Is there somewhere to appeal for clarification? Time is running out.... Meanwhile I'm working on something with applejack, ginger, apricot(?), Averna and blood orange juice. We'll see how that works out.

Another excursion to Bell's Market today. This time I hit the sausage section and I got a quarter pound each of two different salami type meats and some chicken hot dogs. I also picked up some more prepared foods and smoked fish. And I couldn't resist getting some of these: Cherry Vareniki were as delicious as they looked. I was advised to reheat them for one minute in the microwave. That's a small dollop of sour cream in the middle. I also tried some eggplant halves with cheese and meat in them, some very large meat filled pasta balls (sort of like a giant vareniki), two different kinds of smoked fish - a turbot and some salmon, and another half pound of farmer's cheese with dill (I am addicted to this stuff). In produce - a piece of fresh ginger the size of my thumb and in the juice section, some blood orange juice, both meant for a cocktail I'm tweaking out for the Averna contest. Some split pea soup mix, a vacuum sealed bit of pork shoulder for the soup and some little squeezeable pouches of mayonnaise - both light and with olives. The nice young stock boy was kind enough to help me translate the labels on the mayo packets since there were like 5 different kinds and they all looked the same to me! One more bag of beef/pork pelmeni for the freezer and a rainy day. I really love this place. I spent about $45 all for everything and I have groceries for about three weeks of eating. Awesome.

See, I don't think that's a fair comparison. If you want really authentic Indian, then Tiffin is mos' def the way to go. Bindi:Indian cuisine as Lolita:Mexican cuisine. It's not meant to be authentic. It's an interpretation of a cuisine by an American chef. It's good for what it is and is trying to be. It's not trying to be Tiffin. A more balanced statement would be if you enjoy Mexican cuisine and like Lolita, you will enjoy Tiffin if you like Indian food.

I left out the Vietnamese place at 42nd and Spruce. Pho Cafe Saigon, I think. I haven't been myself, but have excellent reports from others whose palates I trust. Probably a good place for spring rolls or noodle soup with kids, if they're adventuresome eaters. Other than that, Mad 4 Mex probably has nachos, quesadillas and wings for kid friendly food. Let us know where you ended up and/or any new discoveries you make.

Linda: So sorry to hear about your friend. I wish him a speedy recovery. At least the doctors at HUP aren't as innefficient as the McD's. He's in one of the finest hospitals in the country with top notch care, so that should make you feel a bit better. Mad for Mex isn't a bad spot for a quick margarita and some mediocre Mexican food. It's on the 3400 block of Walnut Street and fairly convenient. That food court will surely have something decent in it, although I confess I haven't been there in quite some time, so I don't know what's inside anymore. The food trucks might be your best bet for quick, cheap and convenient. Some of them are excellent. There used to be a vegetarian truck at like 35th & Spruce on the north side of the street, right across from the hospital at the eastern end of the Quad that was really good. If you're willing to walk a little bit, I'd like to add Nan to the mix. It's a very nice French-Thai restaurant at 4000 Chestnut Street. Closed Sundays and Mondays, I think. They serve lunch Tuesday-Friday and dinner every night. Amazing Pad Thai, delicious fish dishes and the soups are incredibly flavorful. Not too long a walk in nicer weather and if you cut across campus via Locust Walk. A nice BYOB dinner could be had at either Rx or Marigold if you need a longer break and want to decompress with a bottle of wine. There's a Wine & Spirits shop at 40th & Market to purchase some wine to bring along.

I went to Bindi for Restaurant Week and loved it. Lots of intricate flavors, not too much heat, but definitely a generous hand with the savory spices. Not sure if the menu is the same as it was, but there was a delicious eggplant dish that my friends and I enjoyed quite a bit. Lamb was also very tasty. I'd say to bring beer or vodka/rum to mix with their yummy pitchers of mixers. We tried the pomegranate/ginger/lime one and I liked it so much I created a cocktail for my menu at work with similar flavors. If you simply must have wine then go with something with a hint of sweetness like a nice riesling or a Torrontes from Argentina.

We all know that feeling... Tim, the Italian beer you ad last time was the Birrifico "La Fleurette", brewed with honey, peppercorns and violets. Chick's had one of only three kegs of it in the country, so we were told. It didn't last long, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. It was really interesting stuff with delicious and very subtle flavors. There are some other Italian beers for the tasting with Lew on Monday. Hope to see you there.

Lou: Sorry I missed you at the wine tasting, if indeed that's the case. I'd had a few glasses of Shafer myself at that point and was wearing out my welcome with the wine pourers, so I thought it best to go. At least you were well fortified before your meeting. Not surprised the neighborhood folks were carrying pitchforks and torches. Welcome to Philly politics. I'll look forward to seeing you next time.

So, are you going to leave us hanging, or share the recipe/technique? I'd been awaiting the promised progress report over on the Limoncello thread, before realizing here that success had been reached. So: is it JAZ's recipe? Something else? ← Thanks for asking. I don't have my final recipe typed up yet, but it's a little different than the one JAZ posted. I was also in attendance at the Francesco Lafranconi lime cordial demo. The resulting lime cordial was absolutely delicious, but contained a lot of difficult to source ingredients. My version is a slight tweak on a recipe you'll find if you Google the phrase "lime cordial" and uses far more easily sourced ingredients. Tartaric acid powder is the most difficult thing to find and is easily located at a homebrew/winemaking shop or online. Other than that it should all be easily found. I promise to type out the final recipe version and post as soon as I'm able, which will likely be this weekend. There's at least a couple of folks here that have tasted the end result. They can more objectively tell you if it's good or not. I'm pretty fond of it though. I'll likely be drinking tall gin gimlets made with gin of choice, lime cordial, a splash of St. Germain and soda all summer. Quite refreshing!

Most definitely still on! We discovered today that someone at Philly.com forgot to list our event in the general Beer Week schedule! So there's still plenty of spots left. It should be a lot of fun. Really interesting French, Spanish and Italian beers in the Belgian style, paired with four courses of food. $55/person. Monday, March 10 at 6:30 PM. Lew is always an engaging speaker and the beer and food pairings should be quite delicious. I'm looking forward to it. I think I'll be working the downstairs bar that night as well, so I hope to see many of you. The second event that's been added to the schedule is an informal tasting of beers provided by Peak Organic Brewing Company of Portland, Maine. We've had the Peak Organic Nut Brown Ale on draught for the last couple of weeks and folks are loving it. The rep from Peak will also bring down bottles of their Amber Ale and the Pale Ale and will be pouring samples and answering questions about the beers. We'll have some suggested menu pairings for anyone that might wish to have an a la carte bite to accompany the beers. Should be loads of fun. Thursday March 13 from 7:00-9:00 PM. Feel free to PM me if there are any questions. Looking forward to Beer Week! Wheeeeeee!

There might be an additional event at Chick's next week. I'll get the details today and let you all know...

I guess I'll be seeking out those pasta dishes that I know must certainly be handmade in the future. I'd never really given it much thought before, but I guess certain things are more easily detectable as not "boxed". I suppose those descriptions always sound more appetizing to me so I think/hope the issue resolves itself.

Not sure if you're joking or not, but the chestnut pappardelle with my duck dish was most certainly not out of a box.

By "under the radar" I suspect Rich is implying the same surprise I feel that they aren't getting more press for the caliber of food they're serving. I helped judge the Philly Cooks competition two weeks ago. One of the desserts that came to my table was a Rosemary Olive Oil cake with Fleur de Sel ice cream. It screamed Vetri to me and I was certain it was from either Vetri or Osteria. I was stunned to discover it was Mercato that had made this delicious sweet/savory treat. Neither of Vetri's restaurants were even participating that evening. As for the difficulty in securing a table, I suspect that Mercato will be much like Dmitri's is for me. I'll never ever go on a weekend night and I'll either go early or go late on weeknights or Sunday evenings. The early reservations thing works if you don't mind starting dinner by 6:30. That worked for us tonight because of our performance tickets. I had dinner at Dmitri's last Tuesday night and had no problem walking in at around 7:15PM and getting a table immediately. There are some places that just aren't meant for prime time consumption on weekend nights. That works for me because I'm working then anyway...

Had a truly delicious dinner at Mercato this evening prior to seeing Pink Martini at the Kimmel Center (OT note - amazing concert!!). Shared the Market Salad of poached pears, mixed greens, piave & spiced pecans, w/rosemary honey balsamic vinaigrette and a Butterbean, Radicchio & Wild Mushroom Salad w/pine nuts, parsley, extra virgin olive oil, chianti vinegar to start. For our entrees my dining companion had the Grilled Jumbo Shrimp w/black & white orzo, winter squash, arugula, scallions, parmesan basil lemon butter and I had the Braised Duck served over chestnut pappardelle, roasted root vegetables and grana padano. Salads were both top notch and I really loved my pasta dish. Service was very informed and pleasant save for a bit of hovering to remove plates before I was done eating. I'm a slow eater by nature and hate that "Are you done with that??" thing that some places do. There were several other empty tables for two still available, so I didn't feel there was any need to rush us along. I have to agree with Rich that this place is quite under the radar. They also will accept reservations Sunday-Friday from 5:00-6:30PM for anyone that might have theater or orchestra tickets. Also a very extensive collection of olive oils has its own menu if one wishes to sample some different oils. I saw a flight of olive oils go by in tiny martini glasses and the presentation was quite cute. I was just too full for bread and oil or dessert. I saved myself for Naked Chocolate Cafe after the show....

Chateauneuf-du-Pape, while definitely grenache (garnacha) heavy, can legally contain up to 13 different grape varietals, including several white varietals. More importantly, there is usually a fair percentage of syrah mixed in which would make for a bigger heartier red that would pair better with the steak dinner in question. CdP is much more of an outlier on the grenache scale than a typical example. The French Rhone grenache style is a little different than the Spanish garnacha style due to differences in climate and soil as well. The Spanish vines tend to be grown in hotter more arid conditions than the French. But it's all good juice. It's probably why grenache/garnacha is one of the most widely planted grapes on the planet.

That would depends on how the meeting went for the attendee...

Dennis: Garnacha runs the gamut from lightweight Strawberry Jolly Rancher to big fat ballsy Priorat. Every bottle is different, but a bigger bodied one would certainly be tasty with a different preparation of red meat (like a stew or pot roast) if not with a simple grilled steak. Garnacha grapes grow very well in hot dry places, ripen with high sugar levels and have thinner skins, so the end result is often a high alcohol wine that's quite fruity, doesn't have a deep color and is not very tannic. Garnacha is often blended with Tempranillo in Spain, and not bottled as a 100% varietal, so that would influence the flavor profile of a bottling as well. Let us know what you thought of this particular one. On a separate note, I stopped by the Delaware and Snyder Avenue store today and the place is practically devoid of wines. No Chairman's Selections to speak of and few boxes of other wines on the floor, just the wine racks. I inquired with one of the clerks and he said that the store is getting rid of the liter bottles of spirits to make space for more wines later. Should be about 3-4 weeks for the changeover, and more Chairman's Selections will arrive simultaneously to plump up the currently anemic inventory. The moving of the liter bottles to the Licensee only warehouse store at 23rd and Washington is good news for the restaurants that usually send their SLO purchases to that store anyway, so now restaurants can pick up both their listed order items as well as their SLO's in one place. Sucks for the regular retail customers that will have to travel to Franklin Mills Outlet store to get the spirits bargains in liter bottles. I suggest if anyone is planning a party to check the website first to see if liters of the spirits they're stocking their bar with are available at the Franklin Mills store before making the drive all the way there. The liters are a really good bargain, however, since you get a third more liquor in the bottle for usually about $2 more over the cost of the 750ml size.

Lou: I wish I were, just to say hi, but I'm off and it's my birthday, so I have elaborate plans for the evening. However, I'm certain my cohort George would be happy to help you out in my absence. PM me. Don't know what time your meeting is, but I might be able to manage a mid-afternoon pick-me-up if your schedule allows.