What Does Philadelphia Have That New York Doesn't?

[philadining]

oooh, you should have gotten goat tacos at Los Caballitos. I have no idea about their uniqueness, but I'm quite sure of their awesomeness....

[Kent Wang]

It's been a few weeks since I got back from my trip and I've finally gotten through my Philly photos. You can see them in my Flickr collection.

Summary:

Cochon: The best restaurant I've been to in town. Cheap and BYOB. Intimate, only about 25 seats. Not as good as Cochon in New Orleans, though they're quite different.

Carman's Country Kitchen: Good, not great. The menu that was available to us at the time didn't seem as interesting as some of the ones I've read about here.

Chifa: Interesting. Cheap lunch special. Chinese-style dishes too salty.

Rangoon: Good, but not as good as a good Thai, Vietnamese or even Chinese restaurant. I've only been to one Burmese restaurant before so I don't know if this is true of all Burmese cuisine or this restaurant in particular.

Nanzhou Handdrawn Noodle House: I got the tripe noodle soup. Tough, flavorless tripe. Noodles don't taste much different than dried noodles. I know they have a noodle machine and people love this place, but I'm not impressed. Maybe I should have gotten the thicker noodles?

Fork: Pretty good charcuterie plate.

[philadining]

Cochon: The best restaurant I've been to in town. Cheap and BYOB. Intimate, only about 25 seats. Not as good as Cochon in New Orleans, though they're quite different.

Yeah, other than the name, and the fact that they have a lot of pork, they're not really the same kinds of places. BTW, you have a photo labeled "pork cheek confit" that's actually your garlic sausage plate. And the later photo is definitely pork shoulder, not duck. Glad you liked the place though, it's definitely up near the top of my list of places one must go in Philly.

Carman's Country Kitchen: Good, not great. The menu that was available to us at the time didn't seem as interesting as some of the ones I've read about here.

Hmm, looks pretty good to me, maybe a little lighter for the summer, but you shoulda tried the french toast...

Rangoon: Good, but not as good as a good Thai, Vietnamese or even Chinese restaurant. I've only been to one Burmese restaurant before so I don't know if this is true of all Burmese cuisine or this restaurant in particular.

I'm not sure how you could be underwhelmed by ginger salad! I only recently had the Burmese ribs you ordered, and I don't think they're among their better dishes. Bad luck... There's much better food to be had there.

Nanzhou Handdrawn Noodle House: I got the tripe noodle soup. Tough, flavorless tripe. Noodles don't taste much different than dried noodles. I know they have a noodle machine and people love this place, but I'm not impressed. Maybe I should have gotten the thicker noodles?

Did you get the hand-drawn noodles? It's not that they have a noodle machine, it's that they have a guy hand-stretching them.

Fork: Pretty good charcuterie plate.

It's really interesting to see how much it changes from day to day. The one you got looks pretty good, but a little less interesting than the ones I've gotten. Luck of the draw, I guess...

Anyway, thanks for your report, it's always good to get an outside perspective. Sorry everything didn't blow you away, but come on back, we've got some more stuff that might!