Andrew Fenton

That's about right. With the fishcake sandwich, you pretty much have to be in the mood for some hot starch-on-starch action. Anyway, this thread + a day off = a trip to Johnny's for me today. While I was there, I noticed a sign saying that they had won a Best Of prize from Philadelphia magazine for their cheesesteak. Anybody tried it?

Oh, for sure. I'd like to see Ansill do well, and whatever gets butts in chairs is a good thing. I haven't been there too often lately, as the wife can't currently eat a lot of things on the menu (and some of what's left isn't all that appealing to her at the moment). I oughta just drag her along, so she can watch as I chow down on the osso buco...

Actually, Ansill is one of those places where I wouldn't want to BYO. With the small plates, I like getting wine by the glass. Agreed that Ansill is inexplicably under-filled at times. The upside is that, especially with the liquor license, it's a great spot to just drop in for a drink and a bite...

Unfortunately, it's not quite far enough south in South Philly that you can just park in the middle of the street... You might be able to find on-street parking; otherwise, there's the Whole Foods lot at 9th and South.

Unadulterated rhubarb? And risk the wrath of an angry, strawberry-deprived wife? A terrifying prospect...

What Mr. Big said. If you haven't been to Rangoon, I can promise you'll love it. Behold the Rangoon thread, in all its thousand layers of glory...

A friend lives near Gray (outside of Portland). When we visit him, we always go to Cole Farms (link to an earlier post of mine about it.) A great place.

Woo hoo! Good news; I thought it wasn't going to be starting up for another couple of weeks. Thanks for passing along the information, Bob.

It's been mentioned before, but I think the deal with Osteria's pizzas is: they're not Neapolitan style, they're more like Roman style (thinner, crispier crust). I haven't been to Two Amys, but I understand that it's pretty Neapolitan. That's not to say that one's better than the other; just saying. I'm on board with the octopus-love, by the way. It really is a great dish. I would like to go back to Osteria before too long. Best to just make a reservation and go...

Now that spring is officially here, and it seems unlikely that we'll be dope-slapped by another blast of arctic air, I've been thinking about spring foods. For my money, the Romans appreciate spring better than pretty much anybody else, and I wanted to have some fun with those flavors. So... dinner last night. We started with a green salad, and moved on to a risotto with peas: This is the first time I've used carnaroli rice rather than arborio. It was great: but was it noticeably better than arborio? Honestly, I couldn't tell. I'd have to do a taste-testing to know for sure. What I really wanted to make was coratella con carciofi: lamb heart, lungs and liver cooked with artichokes. It's a great Roman dish (though I have mixed feelings about eating lung: it's so... spongy). Unfortunately, the wife doesn't get into offal much, so I adapted the dish by using lamb shoulder meat and cooking it a little longer than one would coratella: A little squeeze of lemon and you're in business! So, so good.

The idea was that including Wagyu wouldn't make for a fair comparison; instead we just compared good ol' American breeds. I definitely agree that a comparison of different breeds would make for a very interesting tasting.

Interesting. I didn't know that the Tiffin owner was formerly at Karma. It might explain what I've seen as a dropoff in quality at Karma. When it opened a few years back, we liked it pretty well and went a couple of times. But when we returned this fall, it was pretty bad: greasy and bland. The restaurant, too, is starting to look pretty beat up. But I agree with the consensus that Tiffin is probably the best Indian in the city (though I look forward to trying the Palace at the Ben.) I like it; it's cheap; they deliver. It's not amazing, but it does the trick.

According to its website, the festival is on May 19 and 20th. And yeah, the porchetta is key. Gotta get some of that! James, is the boy trying his first limoncello this year? You know, the kids love the sweet liqueurs; it's a good starter liquor.

Well, let's not go overboard. The listed serving size there is 1/2 ounce. If you compare that site's numbers for potato chips, you'll see that pork rinds are equivalent in fat and calories and have twice as much sodium as chips. Not nutritious, particularly...

I'm just glad that my opinion was validated by the mighty Mr. Moore. Of course, it's been almost four years-- yow. Clearly time to try another John's steak. Because I'm nothing if not an open-minded dude.

Ahem. Well, I'll give it a try again one of these days; like you, when I get there (rarely) I go for the pork.

ooh, that sounds great! Do you have a recipe? All the recipes I can find online call for baby artichokes, which are tough to come by...

I'm afraid I've been off the regional-Italian fun for a while now; mainly been making the ol' standbys. Clearly it's time to change that. Here's last night's dinner; saffron pasta from Rustichella d'Abruzzo with a simple tomato sugo. The Rustichella pasta has a great texture; I'm afraid I couldn't taste the saffron much, but the color is really lovely: And the secondo, involtini con fagioloni bianchi. The involtini are veal, stuffed with a mixture of pork, veal and mushrooms, and simmered for a little while with the bean and tomato mixture. In theory, the beans are supposed to be "fagioloni di Paganica" (that is, from a town near L'Aquila), but I just used cannellini. It's not the most photogenic dish, I fear: The contorni aren't especially Italian; carrots marinated in sherry vinegar and olive oil, and okra. (I had a tough time finding good vegetable recipes from Abruzzo; and the wife wanted okra. Nowadays, what she wants, she gets...) The involtini were fine. I like involtini in general; but I'm not really sure if they really gain a whole lot from being paired with beans like this. Not mind-blowing, but a solid dish. --- Oh, a fun fact I just learned: Philadelphia had a particularly large number of immigrants from Abruzzo; evidently most of the Abruzzese who came to America came to this area. There are a couple of restaurants in South Philly that claim to serve Abruzzese dishes; I may have to try them one of these days...

Without getting into the specifics of John's steaks (because cheesesteak discussions are so very very boring), I definitely agree with Bruni on one thing: Normally, of course, it's the food critics who go around labeling places as shrines. It must be odd for Bruni to find himself on the other side of the table, as it were.

Well, I totally understand your problem with the non-non-spill caps. The problem with the non-spill is that it's so cumbersome to use that half the time, the person putting it on just removes the cap and fills it the old-fashioned way. So much for hygiene... One option you might consider-- I'm just speculating here-- is one of those ceramic bases. It's easier to fill than the non-spill (which I just hate, if you can't tell), and you can wash it in the sink. It's fine: it's bland, but doesn't taste funny either. It does the trick, but it's not like I love it.

David, I wish I could give you a great recommendation; I can't. But what I can do is rant about those idiotic "no-spill" caps. The (Crystal) water cooler at my office uses them, and they just don't work: I find myself wrestling with the stupid jug, trying to fit it onto the unit in just the right position so that it'll work. It's a huge pain.

I rather $u$pect there'$ a $en$ible rea$on for using fake spirits while training these folks... they're able to learn the "correct" proportions for drinks; it keeps the cost of materials down; and there's way less liability for the school. In a way, it's appropriate for bartending at Applebee's or wherever; it's the alcohol equivalent of pre-mixed, heat-up dinners that lots of chains serve. The really ironic bit, as I see it, is how that fits together with the "pro-booze" hook for the article... I don't quite know how that's supposed to work...

Indeed. To think, a commercial network trying to sell advertising space! I'm shocked, I tell ya.

Yeah, the sports announcers ought to be throwing in a few more anal-rape jokes. 'Cuz that's comedy gold, evidently! edit: Let me be more clear. There's plenty of room for a critique of the Food Network. Lots of people have done that; I'm sure that Bourdain is among them. But I don't buy the notion that a bunch of butt-slamming jokes is somehow speaking truth to power.

Okay, I'm going to have to represent for the Egg McMuffin, the finest item on McDonald's menu. None of that funky-tasting breakfast sausage or crumbly biscuit-like (but not actually biscuit) pastry for me; I'm old school. I want my coffee scalding hot, my Canadians sliced thin and greasy, and my English in muffin form. It's all about the Notorious E-G-G.