mrbigjas

Where is the pojangmacha place? Details, mon. upper darby. across the way from woo rae kwan, in the old white tower in the midst of the parking lot there in that mess that is the 69th st. terminal area. wait i thought tommy dinic didn't run it anymore? am i making that up? either way, last time i was at dinic's i ALMOST ordered a roast beef sandwich. my wife looked at me like i was insane. then i came to my senses. i mean, their roast beef must be good; i have no reason to assume it's not. but i can't seem to bring myself to order anything but the pork.

i just noticed today that they have little bottles of bottarga di tonno at claudio's, in the fresh mozzarella shop. $8.99 for a little jar.

hey james, congrats on your mention in the 1/05 issue of bon appetit. (meritage got the 'where the knowing are going' mention. farmicia got the 'where to go next' honors. washington square got the 'don't believe the hype', uh, 'award.')

gotcha, shinyboots. thanks for the info. i read sonya's review, and yours? on phillylunchbox.com, too.

nope yes, and if you're shaped like a square, and have a white key, you can get the sword in the white castle. and then you're on a real adventure . pojangmacha is korean, like, bar food. and that place isn't really a good example of the genre from what people tell me (they don't carry the pigs feet or blood sausage or whatnot) but it's freaking delicious. the woman who runs the place and cooks is awesome and a great cook and friendly. doesn't speak english all that well, though. but the only real problem for us white folks is that the menu is all in korean, and burned on to a piece of wood. so it's not like there's a translation available. except i have one from a friend of mine. mr. big jas say check it out if you can.

excellent, thanks. we should start a 'what's in the old white towers' thread. my personal favorite is the pojangmacha place in upper darby. it's awesome.

dinics has a nj outpost? whoa, who knew? they have roasted peppers in the terminal location, too.

sure, you say that now. but invite that guy over for escargot and see what kind of mess results...

while i trust a.d. amorosi's culinary opinions about as much as--ah, i don't know, insert some kinda comparison here--i thought his column here in last week's city paper was kind of interesting. and i've been meaning to check out vesuvio for a while now. has anyone been in the last year or so? any good?

anyone been back here since it opened? still doing well? i'm planning on heading up sometime in the next couple weeks. are they still doing a tasting menu of any sort, or is it all a la carte now?

have you guys noticed a marked difference between the #9 on tap and in bottles? i know that's kind of a silly question; there's always a difference. but the first couple times i had it, it was on tap and i thought it was fine, if not quite to my liking. then i had the bottled version and it tasted overwhelmingly of apricot, and had an extra perfumy character that just enhanced the flavor more. i found it really unpleasant, like drinking a bottle of apricot perfume.

to me it involves romaine hearts as a green, obviously. the dressing should be assertively flavored of olive oil, dijon mustard, worcestershire, and there should be an anchovy component, though not an overwhelming one. the croutons should be crisp-chewy. the grated parmgiana cheese combined with the dressing should give the salad a hearty character--it shouldn't be light. in fact, for me a good caesar salad is a light meal. but that's me. i have the julia child recipe which she insists came from the inventor's daughter, but have never made it--martha stewart's recipe tastes good to me. edited to say that usually caesar salad dressing i get when out is too creamy. i mean, as if people had added mayonnaise or sour cream or something to it. know what i mean?

but it goes against my central pennsylvania upbringing, which says that you make the gravy in the roasting pan. i mean, you're right of course, but grammaw wouldn't approve. $275? whoa, yeah, that's... whew. edited to say all that said, i think i'll head down to the local restaurant supply place and buy a heavy steel one and not worry about it. actually what i'll probably do is keep using my cheap old one and complain about it every time i use it, just like i have for the last seven or eight years...

honeymooners; jackie gleason. it's an all-purpose stammer, good for leering at ladies, getting caught reading egullet at work, etc.

wait i don't see the problem. hominahominahominahomina hahahahaha kidding

ok so we're all agreed, then: nonstick roasters bad. cheap stamped thin stainless roasters bad. here's my real problem with nonstick roasters: have you ever used a rack with one? trying to haul 10-15 pounds worth of meat at 400 degrees out of the oven while the thing is on a rack that's sliding around the roasting pan like an eel on an ice rink is a real bitch. really, roasting isn't the problem; it's what you're doing afterwards that makes the difference. small chickens or pieces of meat i roast in a cast iron skillet or a saute pan. but with big stuff--trying to make a large chicken, turkey or something--it's tough making gravy in that thin stainless roasting pan without scorching it. anyway, i'ma look into those slt pans. they look nice.

Well, now that it's been brought up, I'll wager that somewhere out there, some BBQ fiend is right now contemplating how one might go about creating such a thing. ← To me a BBQ cheesesteak is wrong; the taste componenets of the cheesesteak, onions, beef, grease, cheese, bread, augmented by either ketchup or hot sauce or mustard or peppers and such, are, to me, sacrosanct. To add barbeque sauce seems to kill all of the other basic flavors. ← i don't even put ketchup on it. meat, cheese/cheez, onions, and that's it.

i make stuffed pork chops with them. rehydrate the porcini, chop, mix with bread crumbs/sauteed shallot, herbs. moisten with some of the mushroom soaking liquid or a little stock if you need to. let the stuffing cool, and stuff the pork chops. brown them, then bake till done. when they're done, make a pan gravy out of the drippings, some more shallots or garlic, white wine, and mushroom liquid and/or stock. enrich with cream if you want. SO GODDAMN GOOD.

you know what are surprisingly bad? neiman marcus house brand.

so it's aluminum, then? excellent. i may have to pick one up.

williams-sonoma has this one on their 'secret sale' right now. but i can't seem to figure out what it's made out of. i suspect stainless steel, but the picture makes me think aluminum. i'm thinking about picking it up; i have a w-s gift certificate from christmas, and like fittydolla my roasting pan is a cheapo stainless steel thing that it's hard to make gravy in on the stovetop after roasting something.

me too, definitely. i'm planning a trip to the dia:beacon this spring when it switches to summer hours, and you guys are right across the river. perfect!

i bet y'all are wondering how things turned out, aintcha? turned out that there was massive traffic at a place i didn't expect in philadelphia; there was bad weather (though nothing like they had in the midwest), and we ended up not getting to palena till 8, which i assumed would be a 'game over' type situation. however, we walked in and they had a couple spots at the bar just opening up; as it turned out it was a very light evening overall. so that was good. after one of them pickled martinis, we had the salad; we also had the duck wings; we also had the roast chicken. a couple more glasses of wine (have i mentioned how great the bartender was? he really is), and suddenly that $10 bar menu turned into meal that ran nearly a hundred bucks including a good tip and parking--BUT TOTALLY WORTH IT. i have more to say about palena, my in-laws, restaurant experiences, etc... but i'll have to do it later. christmas night, time for bed, etc.

damn, i'm sorry i'm too late for this, katbert. but for future reference: oddly enough, strawbridge's food court area carries several really decent bbq sauces, including stubbs' from austin.

samuelsson and starr. check it out: http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/10426583.htm