mrbigjas

sue's produce on 18th & sansom has large italian chestnuts. $4/lb i think.

which was the dish that came with the vanilla scented pommes puree and the cranberry? because it was the weirdest thing--i took one bite of those potatoes and thought 'lucky charms.' i don't know if i just didn't realize that lucky charms had such a strong vanilla component to it (it's probably been 15 years since i had a bowl), or if there was something else in the potatoes that made me think that, but it was uncanny.

i would like to just recommend everyone take another look at that last pic there. because really after all there's always a place for american cheese. how can it be wrong when it feels so right? let us give thanks.

i really liked the polenta dish as well--taleggio is stinky, fresh oregano is kinda spicy, fresh corn is kinda sweet, and all sitting on a really fine polenta to hold it all together makes for some super stuff. the brussels were excellent--really a highlight of the whole meal. but the almond milk foam was nearly tasteless compared to the intense roasted marcona almond and black truffle flavors in the rest of the dish. the miso caramel apples that everyone's been raving about were good, but i feel like i would have liked them better if the wasabi peas were ground finer. really everything was damn good, and we ate the whole savory part of the menu. the whiting and sea trout were highlights, as were the pork belly and bbq chicken. in the future i'd like to be able to work within the concept of the name of the place, and stop in and have a glass of wine and one or two dishes rather than spending 3 hours and a hundred bucks eating everything. but if the quality of the food and the nicely chosen wine list is any indication, i suspect snackbar will be so popular that i won't be able to just drop by and do that. and good on them for it! we were all yapping about what kind of place would work in a space that small and expensive, and this seems like exactly the kind of place that will.

i think it's just yellow bean paste. sweet, kinda bland, like bean paste always is. mmmm bean paste.

we had curried squid, but i didn't see octopus. but i was on the side of the table away from the carts so i couldn't see everything. i think diann is right. someone we were with hadn't really been to dim sum before, and was asking about what was in each thing, and at one point we just told her to assume that everything was pork and/or shrimp unless we said otherwise... i don't think chicken feet are too much work. i used to, but then i realized that since a dim sum dish of them only costs like $2, i could get them, gnaw off whatever i felt like gnawing off, and leave the rest without feeling guilty...

hey we were there too! i didn't see you guys. i think those are pork shrimp & watercress. (edited to say i mean, if those are the same ones we ordered which looked similar, i think that's what they were. if not, obviously, nevermind) we always end up there, because our friend who has a standing monthly dim sum thing always has it there... a couple of things you missed: their braised chicken feet are addictive if you like chicken feet. they're heavily scented with star anise and have a decent green chili bite to them. they're kind of a lot of work though, as chicken feet always are. they have a bun that they make with yellow bean paste and preserved egg in it, which i like a lot. they do the soft tofu in sugar syrup that the folks i go with always order and love, but i've never really seen the attraction of it--i mean, it's OK but kind of bland, and i'm not all that into sweets really. anyway, just like you guys, we also ordered too much too early and by the time the clam and snail cart came around, we were too full. i always miss that.

you know sometimes i think that is just the perfect dish, and everything else can just stop trying.

a few of us headed over tonight. and lemme tell ya, it's on the short list for my fave taquerias in town. a quick rundown al pastor does indeed kick ass, and the pineapple basting spit clearly shows why capaneus, andrew and i had some mixed head tacos, which are gelatinous, rich, and kind of bland. i've never seen a taco that needs a squirt of lime juice more than these. the various chewy/gelatinous bits made me think that maybe we should have ordered head, eye, etc separately, so we could figure out what was what in there. suadero, bistec, chuleta all solid, and as expected. beef ribs were an unexpected pleasure. i have no idea how the star-shaped bones in these things were ribs, but it was excellent beef cheeks were slightly mushy and rich, as ... well, it's what they are. great taco filling, beef cheeks is. who knew? longaniza and chorizo--i'm not entirely clear about what longaniza is specifically vis a vis chorizo; they're similar but different other things we ordered: frijoles a la charra was a dish of fantastic beans, bits of pork and possibly beef, and big pieces of chicharron (pork rind) in broth. it was great, but the broth was almost unpleasantly salty. served with plain tortillas guacamole was the plain kind--just avocados, lime juice, cilantro, onion, queso blanco. also kinda salty, although it may have been their chips, which unlike many mexican places, they actually salted pretty well. nopales salad was a take on it i haven't seen before--big slices of avocado and queso blanco, an almost equal amount of nopales and onions with cilantro and pickled jalapenos. good stuff. a hell of a lot for one person. the plate of radishes, cukes and limes instead of chips on the table at the beginning of the meal. why, that's downright healthy! guess what all this cost? no seriously, guess. ok i'll tell you: ELEVEN BUCKS A HEAD with tip (unless we miscalculated and screwed everyone over because of running out to get the baby home and fed, in which case sorry, i swear i'll pay you all back--pm me). i mean, note that we had several orders of a few of those taco platters up there. dang that was good. and the orders came out in under five minutes each. la lupe could learn a lesson from these folks. enjoyable from beginning to end. great place. but seriously, the tacos al pastor were the best part. they're fantastic. and the beans.

they sell parted out turkeys at godshall's. i just bought a couple of drumsticks there last week for that excellent turkey sandwich recipe in saveur this month.

it's $3.99 at total wine in cherry hill; i drank most of a case of it this summer. wait maybe it wasn't that one. capaneus, was that the one i bought for you?

if it makes you feel any better, i had a red cabbage like this the other day. it weighed about four pounds, and when i went to cut it in half, i really had to push. later, when i went to wrap up the 3/4 of it i didn't use, the center had bowed out so you couldn't put it back together as it was before you cut it. now that's some major internal tension there. maybe it needed some therapy.

you know, i looked into that myself, for the kitchen renovation we're going to be doing next spring-ish. and you know, i just couldn't justify the price. i mean, at its most basic level, a dishwasher only costs a couple hundred bucks, and shouldn't be THAT much of an issue assuming you're just replacing one and not starting from scratch. and then you get into the higher end bosches and mieles, that are closer to a thousand. it's a good amount of money, to be sure, but not generally budget-busting if you expect it to last. step up one more time to the fisher/paykel or kitchen aid drawers, and you're starting in the $1200 range, and that makes you think twice. after all, our kenmore dishwasher, which works fine and is pretty quiet but not inaudible, cost about $450. that's over 2.5 times the price. so anyway, i thought to myself, hey i'm springing, why not get a restaurant-style one-tray, one-minute dishwasher? everything would be done in a minute, every night! then i found out they start around $3500. and yeah, that pretty much shot down that idea. i considered hitting up the auctions for restaurants that are going out of business, and haven't ruled that out, but basically i've decided against it for the moment, since we just got this one a couple years ago...

don't worry about it jim--i was heading that direction anyway.

fun blog, sandy. but man oh man, up from a dead sleep for a 3:30 a.m. cheesesteak run and/or a midnight cheesesteak preparation? you're a significantly more patient soul than i am.

i filled up the tank at that very wawa today, after ascertaining that there was indeed no white castle in the area. toms river is still the closest, to my knowledge. fifty miles for some sliders... i gotta make them myself one of these days. as a friend of mine said today, it shouldn't be too bad--the only hard part is finding 60% ground beef...

wow, really? it doesn't show up on their website, so i thought the closest one was in tom's river. anyway, i need to head to jersey this weekend in any case, so i'ma hit up that scene if i can.

interesting! i thought it was referring to bronson pinchot. You are kidding, aren't you, James? James? hahahaha as balki once said, 'you can pretend to be someone else and get free soup bones, but sooner or later you're gonna have to dance with the butcher.' yeah chesterfield is real hoppy for a mass-produced beer. definitely not sweet. you may not like it, actually--but that's OK, as my dad used to say, that's why there are two flavors of ice cream... re: dock street, they did have a brewpub at 18th & arch, where they brewed some beer. the bottled stuff on the shelves was contract brewed, though. at least later. i wonder if rich is around here somewhere to help remember... sandy, was that sandwich from mcgillins so big that it was, like, two open face sandwiches, or did the pic just look that way? man that looks good.

my favorite is soup made from bitter melon stuffed with minced pork. there's a recipe here but i've never actually made it for myself so i don't know if it's any good. looks about right though.

interesting! i thought it was referring to bronson pinchot. unfortunately yuengling stopped making their best beer (chesterfield ale) available on tap, which is a real loss for those of us who don't like our beer as sweet as the lager is. on the bright side they still make it in cans, so you can find it in my fridge at any given time...

yeah, what he said. post more!

do they sell food at beer garden? gotta make 30% of your profits from food to have a sunday license, don't you? i've never gotten anything to eat there.

have you seen the size of the guy lately? i think he's had his fair share of steaks...

they would have come back sooner, you know, but business has been dying off.... ... but seriously, there's been stiff competition for their convention. Of course it's tough to schedule anything, since they're always late.... thank ya folks, thank ya. i'll be here all week--try the veal, and don't forget to tip your waitresses.

man this thread is making me hungry. i mean, good god.