Montgomery County Restaurants

[percyn]

They don't call it roasted chicken, they call it BROASTED chicken.

...

My bad !! I guess I was really missing my almost weekly rotisserie chicken from Wegmans when I zoomed past this sign and misread it.

Oh well...good chicken though and I will have to try out the fries.

mod*betty, I was going to try Zwahlen's out tomorrow and you just sealed the deal.

[Mummer]

They don't call it roasted chicken, they call it BROASTED chicken.  I don't know what the hell that means, but it gives you a really nice texture (crispy skin but moist, juicy meat) without so much grease.  I always loved their giant fries, which were really more like potatoes cut into quarters lengthwise.

a process of frying and pressure cooking at the same time.

←

I worked for The Colonel one college summer (back in the '70s, fossil that I am) and that was our cooking method.

We dumped a tray of egg washed, floured (with the secret spices) chicken into a pot of heated grease. After it browned a few minutes, the pressure cooker top was put onto the pot and we noted with a marker the "done time" as indicated by the wall clock with two minute hands.

The KFC standard was to do two birds (9 pieces each) with each pot. The boss had us doing 21 pieces a batch. Back in the day the breast produced two "ribs" and a "keel," the best piece. I think they do 8 pieces per bird now, but I haven't eaten much chicken of any kind since that summer.

Once in a while, the pressure top wouldn't seal correctly and we'd have a foul batch of fowl, fried to death.

[percyn]

Charlie, do you remember how long it was cooked under pressure?

[Mummer]

Charlie, do you remember how long it was cooked under pressure?

←

I think the "remove" hand was 9 minutes ahead. My recollection is that we marked it when we reduced the heat and removed the pressure rocker rather than when the top was first sealed.

So the process was heat the grease to the fry temp, brown, top, reduce heat/remove the rocker when the pot steamed, pressure cook.

The finished pot was emptied onto the "dump table" where the chicken stayed on a grid and the grease was recycled.

The Colonel's "secret recipe" was a bag of seasoning that we added to a 25 pound bag of flour with some amount of salt. The ingredients of the seasoning bag said black pepper, white pepper, 9 additional spices.

[percyn]

So I made it to Zwahlen's Ice Cream & Chocolate Co. and got the flavor of the day - Turtle (caramel, pecans and chocolate chunks) based on a sample I was offered. WOW !! This place is really good...better than the creamery in Chester Springs

They have flavors that rotate almost every day

[sunra]

Zwahlen's is awesome.

The custard is made fresh every few hours. Never frozen to a hard/tasteless texture.

Do not miss out on Zwahlen's other offerings.

Try some chocolates with nuts, and you will be blown away by the freshness and wonderful aroma of the nuts. Unsurpassed.

Finally, a word about the apples. Crisp, tart granny smiths covered with your choice of confections. Yummy.

Another gem hidden in a megaplex of strip malls, behind a McDonald's!

BEWARE: CLOSED SUNDAYS

Edited September 23, 2007 by sunra (log)

[chowfun]

Everything at Zwahlen's is great.

Bluefin is really good. The fish is very fresh, the sushi rice is good. It is a pain to get in on a weekend. Early or late on a weekday night is a good bet. We havent ordered their cooked food in years, but that is not so good.

Aman's in East Norriton is a very good Indian restaurant. They will make it hot if you order your food hot. They have mostly Northern Indian food, but they do have dosa's. The service for dinner is excellent. We are not buffet lovers so we have not gone for their buffet lunch (served 7 days a week for those inclined to check it out)

China Inn (Northtowne) in East Norriton is good for a suburban strip mall Chinese restaurant. Their hot and sour soup is good. They do make salt and pepper shrimp, unusual for the burbs (but alas not squid), and if you ask they almost always have Chinese greens (not on the menu). Sometimes you have to ask many different ways to get beyond the Western veggie medley that passes for Chinese food at many restaurants.

Sang Kee Asian Bistro in Wynnwood on the other hand is as good if not better than Chinatown, high end panAsian ( a bad word in my book, but they make it work!). So many excellent dishes, why didnt they open in Plymouth Meeting or Lafayette Hill!!!!!! It makes me cry! Very good noodle and dumpling soups, Japanese style eel, tofu skin roll, chicken lettuce wraps, Malaysian baked seafood rice, excellent snow pea greens, bronzino (surprisingly great!), Peking duck, Pacific Oysters. I could go on and on. Not to mention a beautiful room and excellent service, but BIG WARNING: GO AT OFF-HOURS. This place is not just busy, it is overrun every day of the week. It is a good place for a late lunch on a weekend, a very early dinner (do not get there past 5pm). We ate there one New Years Eve and it was empty. They are no longer BYO which is not good news.

A new find for us, but not at all a new restaurant is Thai Orchid in Blue Bell. A restaurant hidden in a strip mall at 202 and Township Line road, it is a stunning room full of art and crafts from Thailand, paneled in beautiful wood, great service, and very good Thai food that they are willing to make as hot as you want. If you really like Thai hot then you must go beyond their 3 or 4 star system and ask for 8 stars or 10 stars depending on how hot you like. We ordered a dish 4 star hot as it appeared on the menu and we thought it was more one star hot. The Tom Yum was quite hot, without a special request and it was delicious. The entrees are quite generous in size and served with a side vegetable and rice. A standout was a duck salad special.

Somehow my kids had room for dessert and their desserts were just as good as the dinner. My son ordered a caramel tort and it was both unusual and excellent.

[percyn]

Is there any place that serves Dim Sum (HK style) in the area?

Also went to Desi Village over the weekend for lunch (buffet) and it is quite good, but some dishes were hit and miss.

Misses: 1) The tandoori chicken had gone cold by about 1:30pm and some pieces seemed to be well marinated while others were not.

2) The goat was not cooked long enough and was tough and stringy.

3) The vegetable Pakora were cold and tough as hockey pucks.

Winners: 1) The Paneer Matter (cheese and peas in a turmeric gravy). This was delicately flavored to allow the sweetness of the peas to shine.

2) The chicken biryani was surprisingly flavorful with a generous amount of saffron and the chicken cooked to perfection in the rice.

3) Dal Makhani (buttered lentils) was well spiced and buttery.

Keep in mind I was only there once so it is possible that this was an oddity, though I suspect I would have fared better if I ordered al a carte.

[sunra]

1) I can't believe no one has mentioned:

Taqueria Michoacan on Main and Walnut in Norristown.

Excellent Mexican food in a bright and colorful dining room.

The soups are excellent, running the gamut from real tortilla soup to posole to seafood soup, a meal in themselves. Excellent trio of salsas((tomatillo, red chile and fresh tomato/pepper/onion/cilantro), delicious guacamole(seems made to order though it is served too quickly to be so) and of course homemade tortilla chips to keep you busy. Entrees include the full range of soft tacos(well, no sheep eyeballs!), excellent enchilladas, etc. The other entrees cover everything from steak to seafood, each served with an abundance of excellent rice, beans and fresh vegeatable garnish.

The only downside would be just so-so margaritas and a limited beer menu(if they could get those things up to the quality of their food...!!!!!).

2) Aman's mentioned above is excellent. If you ask for it to be spicy, it actualy is prepared that way. Be advised that their tandoori chicken is not the traditional heavily marinated tangy yogurt variety. Rather, more of a sizzling plain, though reddish, roasted chicken which is excellent in its own right. Also, the deserts were excellent, but the Indian tea was not the cardomom-spiced variety I expected. Still, excellent overall with great service and low prices.

Don't know of any dim sum, but how could any place compare to the excellent offerings we have in Philadelphia's Chinatown.

Edited September 23, 2007 by sunra (log)

[mrbigjas]

what a coincidence, just the other day my wife's coworker gave her a business card from michoacan, saying if we ever find ourselves in norristown, we just have to go there.

[Andrew Fenton]

We had a DDC event at Michoacan maybe five years ago. I don't remember all that much about the dinner, other than I enjoyed it (and that there was a ridiculous amount of food). But if I were in Norristown, I'd definitely give it another go.

[Lisa1349]

Anyone been to Winberie on Swedesford rd & 252 next to the gateway shopping center? They got a lot of press when they opened but their menu looks standard.

[percyn]

Anyone been to Winberie on Swedesford rd & 252 next to the gateway shopping center? They got a lot of press when they opened but their menu looks standard.

←

I have been there for brunch a few times, though not recently (probably 2-3 yrs ago). Decent, but nothing to rave about.

My favorite brunch spots in Chester County were Drafting room in Exton and Brickside Grill (owned by the same people) in Chester Springs.

[Tim Dolan]

Pizza:

Roccos

Bravos

Stopped at Bravos the other day, and I must say their pizza is damn near inedible. They had cheesesteak and buffalo chicken pizza, but the "cheesesteak" and "chicken" were the of the processed-Steak-Um's variety just dumped on top of a flabby, bland pie. I'd say this place nails the description of "crummy local pizza shop". Was I at the right place, on the corner of Skippack and Valley Forge, next to the Wawa?

I gotta find this Charlie's joint. But for now, Rocco's is still my go-to spot.

[percyn]

I think that is a different Bravos. The one I am think of is in Trappe. Though after eating a few times at Roccos in Collegeville, Bravos seems a pretty distant comparison.

Has anyone tried Lou's Too in Trappe.

[philadining]

I'm probably repeating myself, but for pizza in Collegeville, you really should check out Marzella's (right on the corner of East Main and 5th Ave.)

It's somewhat ideosyncratic pizza, but I really like it. And there's a pig on their sign, which is almost always a reliable indicator of a great place.

[Tim Dolan]

I'm probably repeating myself, but for pizza in Collegeville, you really should check out Marzella's (right on the corner of East Main and 5th Ave.)

It's somewhat ideosyncratic pizza, but I really like it. And there's a pig on their sign, which is almost always a reliable indicator of a great place.

←

Just checked this place out for lunch. It's pretty solid. Their pizza reminded me of something I could get on the boardwalk, which is a good thing. It seems like the kinda place that would be my go-to delivery place if I lived in the area.

[percyn]

I haven't made it there yet...but do you know if they deliver for sure? If so, them from the sounds of it, they may have a slight edge over Rocco's.

[cdh]

Let me add a contender for the Pizza championship along the 422 corridor:

Paradise Pizza in the shopping center at the intersection of Trooper Road and Egypt Road (across Trooper Rd from Home Depot and Walmart). Great crust, well balanced sauce, all-around tasty pizza.

[Tim Dolan]

I haven't made it there yet...but do you know if they deliver for sure? If so, them from the sounds of it, they may have a slight edge over Rocco's.

←

I'm not positive, but I swore I read something about them delivering after 5:30pm. They don't knock Rocco's off the top in my book, but it's better than most places in the area that I've had.

[Tim Dolan]

I noticed on my Rocco's takeout menu that it says they serve wood-fired, brick oven pizza. I have a serious pet peeve about places that advertise as brick oven but really aren't. I knew that Rocco's has the standard metal deck-style ovens and that they bake and re-heat their pizza in those. So when I went in to grab a slice yesterday, I noticed that they do indeed have a large brick oven right next to their normal deck oven, however it wasn't fired up.

I'm positive that the reason I've never noticed the brick oven before is because everytime I've been there it hasn't been fired up. Anybody know what the story is on that? I'll definitely ask about it next time I'm there, but it would be a shame for them to not be cranking pies out of there on a normal basis. Maybe they don't fire it for lunch (which is the only time I'm there)?

[ellencho]

If any of you are on the Mainline, Felicia's in Ardmore makes brick oven pizzas that are really tasty and the prices are very reasonable.

[mod*betty]

We were in the area, pizza seemed like a good idea, so we tried Rocco's today (Marzella's had a "BRB" sign on the door).

We had a brick oven pizza- it was just about 5 oclock, and while I was a fan of the crust, the toppings were a bit mainstream tasting- "grilled" chicken was absolutely flavorless and dry, basil, mozz and sauce were OK. Granted the last pizza I had was at Regina in the North End just 2 weeks ago, so the bar is set pretty high, but still, this kind of reminded me of something you might get at a mall brick oven place.

The crust was the only thing that would make me give pause to this place, not charred,but a decent cracker crunch to the edges. Will have to see what Marzella's is like if they are open the next time we're in the area wanting pizza.

[philadining]

The Marzella's crust is nothing special, and they just have the standard deck ovens, but there's something about the whole package that works for me. The sausage and green pepper pizza always had a nice balance, but there was also something appealing about the tiny meatballs they put on their pizzas.

One odd thing I noticed: if you get your pizza directly out of the oven, you need to be REALLY careful to keep it level for a little while, there's something about their sauce/cheese matrix that would send the toppings completely off the side of the pie if you tipped it even an eighth of a degree. (Yes, I carry a protractor and a plumb bob just for these occasions.) If it had set for just a couple minutes, still hot, it was fine.

I suspect there are some weird anti-gravitation devices being tested at Ursinus, or perhaps we can blame the pharmaceutical companies.

[mike volker]

I am reluctant to do this because they have gotten so busy its hard to get a table on fri or sat night, but the best pizza/ital place in the Collegeville area is the Bella Rosy on the corner of Germantown and Evansburg rds.

Best,

Mike