eG Foodblog: Percyn - Food, Wine and Intercourse..(PA that is)

[mrbigjas]

So, you slice some roast pork, put slices of provolone, then top it with warm, garlic-sauteed spinach, which melts the cheese?  Or does the whole sandwich get some heat?  Toast the bun, or no?  I want that sandwich!

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that's basically the principle, but there's a little more to it than that. somewhere on this site i gave a recipe for basically kinda faking it at home--someone was doing a philadelphia-themed party. but i just spent about 20 minutes searching for it and i couldn't find it...

[KatieLoeb]

So, you slice some roast pork, put slices of provolone, then top it with warm, garlic-sauteed spinach, which melts the cheese?  Or does the whole sandwich get some heat?  Toast the bun, or no?  I want that sandwich!

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The cheese is usually shredded SHARP and STINKY aged provolone. The stinkier the better, in fact. Garlic sauteed spinach is good, but wilted garlic/hot red pepper flake infused broccoli rabe is even better. The meat is usually pretty warm, wet with au jus and kinda melts up the cheese a little.

And yeah. You DO want that sandwich. It's awesome.

[tejon]

Oh, yes - incredible sandwich. Now I'm drooling and wishing I was back in Philly!

[Susan in FL]

Percy, my thoughts are with your aunt and you, as well. Do you have other family in town? Your blog is wonderful, but know we understand that you have another priority to tend to also this week.

I am in California following your blog! I went nuts for over 24 hours when I couldn't get access. I kept wondering what I was missing and needed a fix from your food porn pictorial. Now I'm caught up and I feel better.

[percyn]

This is one of the Parsi dishes I had referenced up-thread. I believe Monica had requested that I make Akoori, so for breakfast today, I made

Akoori (a famous Parsi style eggs with onions, potato and tomato)

Get ingredients together (serves 2) - Ghee (or clarified butter), 1 medium onion, handful of cilantro (stems and leaves), 1-2 chilies (optional), 1 medium tomato, 1 small potato diced into small cubed, 2 cloves garlic and some fresh ginger (optional), 4 fresh eggs, 2 tbsp light cream (or 1/2 and 1/2), salt to season.

Sautee onions the potato until tender. Add garlic and ginger (I used 1/2 tsp of garlic/ginger paste I had in the fridge), cilantro (save a bit for garnish), chilies and tomato and stir until the tomatoes start to break down. You may need to add a few tbsp of water to assist with this.

Add the cream to the onion and tomato mixture on a low flame. Whisk the eggs and scramble to desired consistency. Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with toast or Roti (flat Indian bread).

This is the basic version. There are several variations on this including the addition of cumin, tumeric, etc to the onion and tomato mixture. There is also a version call "Bharuch ni Akoori" (Bharuch being a place in western India), which has rasins, mawa (milk cream and solids) and hard boiled eggs added to the scrambled akoori.

Cheers

Percy

[constanela]

Wow! That sounds and looks fantastic! I think I will try it this weekend for a change of pace from regular scrambled eggs. Great blog, Percyn (I have also been referring to you in my head as "person")

[percyn]

For dinner tonight I decided to make sushi from the tuna I bought yesterday at the Reading Terminal Market

Cut up the Tuna

Feed some sashimi to the cat

Made some Spicy Tuna Rolls with avacado and carrots (no cucumbers)

Wrap the roll

The end result

Enjoyed it with some Trimbach Riesling

Dessert was Cassis over vanilla ice cream

Cheers

Percy

[mizducky]

Percy, the tranced-out look on your cat's face when she's accepting morsels from you is just totally cracking me up.

[percyn]

Percy, the tranced-out look on your cat's face when she's accepting morsels from you is just totally cracking me up.

Well, she is my "little miss foodie"

Part of it could be due to the flash, but she does tend to put her ears back and squint her eyes when she is enjoying her food

[Mottmott]

when it comes to greens, dinic's only has spinach, to my knowledge, so it's not like percy had a choice there.  it's excellent garlicky sauteed spinach, slightly spicy with red pepper.  i would eat it plain if they offered it as a side.  in fact, i do, at home, a couple times a week.  (edited to clarify that i make sauteed spinach; i don't buy dinic's)

for those of you who don't know, several of us have been on a campaign for years (for me, it's been since before my chowhound days, which were before i signed up here) to make the roast pork sandwich the true ambassador sandwich of philadelphia, replacing the cheesesteak. 

you could say it's all part of a great sandwich culture--the troika of cheesesteak, roast pork, and hoagie is pretty unassailable--but the king is the roast pork, if you ask me.  with aged provolone and greens.  you can't forget the greens, because they make it a complete meal in a bun.  a sloppy bun, soaked with pork juice....  oh man.  guess what i'm having for lunch tomorrow?

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No, no, no. If we don't keep pork sandwiches quiet, they'll be all over the city and mostly mediocre. Fewer means better where you find them.

[percyn]

..

Also, what was the "little dessert" pictured in the photo above the Basset ice cream shot?

Ludja,

That chocolate dessert was from Metropolitan bakery and I believe they called it a Metromon (?), which was a chocolate cookie, topped with fluffy marshmallow and covered in chocolate.....hmmmm

[Behemoth]

Great. The midwestern farmer's markets are in full swing, we're having great weather, there are cute cows in the prairies on my drive home, and for the first time I'm not feeling all that homesick. Then I find your Reading Terminal pics. Thanks a lot, buddy

[Megan Blocker]

..

Also, what was the "little dessert" pictured in the photo above the Basset ice cream shot?

Ludja,

That chocolate dessert was from Metropolitan bakery and I believe they called it a Metromon (?), which was a chocolate cookie, topped with fluffy marshmallow and covered in chocolate.....hmmmm

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Like a Mallomar on speed!

[percyn]

For breakfast today we had -

Fried egg with Smoked Duck Breast

Regulars of the Breakfast! thread are familiar with the smoked duck breast that appears in some of my posts. Well, it has been a whole 48 hrs since I had duck

Render some duck fat and fry the egg in it

Top the egg with some truffle butter

Hmm...yolkkkkk

Inspired by Alinka's paninis and the breakfast panini I had in Budapest, I decided made my wife some Sarrano Ham and aged swiss cheese paninis.

The aroma woke the cat up from her nap (which she takes on what used to be a leather recliner with massage and heat.....now called the "cat chair").

[*Deborah*]

Reading this blog, I keep looking over my shoulder to make sure my two cats don't see the fantastic treats yours gets, or I'll never hear the end of it!

Lovely blog!

[little ms foodie]

Percy, my husband just walked by as I was looking at your panini pictures and stopped dead in his tracks... "ohhh! YUM!"

great blog, your pictures of the market brought back memories of when I visited it with my mom a few years back before she passed away. Yep, we were 2 of the tourists eating steak sandwiches at the stall!

[Susan in FL]

For breakfast today we had -

Fried egg with Smoked Duck Breast

Regulars of the Breakfast! thread are familiar with the smoked duck breast that appears in some of my posts. Well, it has been a whole 48 hrs since I had duck   

Render some duck fat and fry the egg in it

Top the egg with some truffle butter

Hmm...yolkkkkk

Inspired by Alinka's paninis and the breakfast panini I had in Budapest, I decided made my wife some Sarrano Ham and aged swiss cheese paninis.

The aroma woke the cat up from her nap (which she takes on what used to be a leather recliner with massage and heat.....now called the "cat chair").

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Pardon my language, but holy shit. Your eggs rule. Yes, these photos are what we love about you on the breakfast thread. This one single post should be eG award winning, if there were such a thing. Oh Percy I love what your breakfast posts do to me!

[mrbigjas]

This is one of the Parsi dishes I had referenced up-thread. I believe Monica had requested that I make Akoori, so for breakfast today, I made

Akoori (a famous Parsi style eggs with onions, potato and tomato)

percy, i just made this this morning. my god is it good. how have i lived my life this long without this dish?

[percyn]

Thanks all, maybe I should start a breakfast place

MrBigJas, glad you enjoyed the Akoori. It is a bit more work than regular scrambled eggs, but you can make the mixture and freeze it and use a bit at a time.

[Mottmott]

Thanks all, maybe I should start a breakfast place 

MrBigJas, glad you enjoyed the Akoori. It is a bit more work than regular scrambled eggs, but you can make the mixture and freeze it and use a bit at a time.

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I find the Akoori very attractive, whether for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It looks scrumptious. My only problem is I'm cilantro averse. I do try it from time to time, but can't seem to wrap my taste buds around it. Not exactly soapy, but it adds a shrill note to most dishes I don't like much. What would be the best, or at least most acceptable substitute? Parsley? perhaps mint? Thai basil? Is cilantro an ingredient indigenous to Parsi cuisine?

In fact, I'd be interested in a kind of overview as to what are the mainstay ingredients of that cuisine. For example, a constellation of garlic, olive oil, olive, pasta, polenta, tomatoes, eggplant would be part of what says Italian to me. Add putting fruit to savory dishes and a few more spices and I think N.Africa. What is the constellation of ingredients that say Parsi to you?

[percyn]

There a lot of catching up I need to do on my post as I have been running between the hospital and being a "powerhouse of consumption" (thanks MrBigJas...I think ).

Yesterday I decided to head into Amish land....

The first stop was an Amish family run farm where I usually buy eggs from and occasionally baked goods and milk.

Pumpkins are out

Some fresh local produce

Home baked goodies

Sticky buns anyone?

I ended up buying some eggs, small apple pie, apple cider and chilies.

For lunch I decided to swing by the Amish Barn, located in Bird-in-Hand, PA. They serve a buffet of down-home cooking.

Creamy mashed potatoes, steak tips, crispy fried chicken, rotisserie chicken and a piece of corn bread

Boiled carrots, ham, an OK meatloaf, but had to get some more of that fabulous mashed potatoes and steak tips.

Tried a bit of their chicken corn chowder, which tasted a lot like the Chinese sweet corn chicken soups (minus the soy sauce).

For dessert - blueberry cobbler, apple pie (flipped on my plate), egg custard and carrot cake. Most were OK, the carrot cake was moist and delicious.

I wonder why they call it the Amish Barn ?

Amish Traffic

Some of these pics were taken a while back, but I wanted to include them to share the full effect.

Cheers

Percy

[Megan Blocker]

Percy, does the price tag on that pie really say $1.75? What a deal!

[percyn]

I find the Akoori very attractive, whether for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It looks scrumptious. My only problem is I'm cilantro averse. I do try it from time to time, but can't seem to wrap my taste buds around it. Not exactly soapy, but it adds a shrill note to most dishes I don't like much. What would be the best, or at least most acceptable substitute?  Parsley? perhaps mint? Thai basil? Is cilantro an ingredient indigenous to Parsi cuisine?

In fact, I'd be interested in a kind of overview as to what are the mainstay ingredients of that cuisine. For example, a constellation of garlic, olive oil, olive, pasta, polenta, tomatoes, eggplant would be part of what says Italian to me. Add putting fruit to savory dishes and a few more spices and I think N.Africa. What is the constellation of ingredients that say Parsi to you?

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In fact, Akoori is often served at Parsi Weddings (known as Lagan) for dinner. These weddings are huge events with typically 500-1500 guests and dinner comprising of 5-10 courses.

The main staple ingredients would be onions, garlic, ginger and often accompanied with tomato, chilies, cilantro and meat (remember most of India is vegetarian). In essence, the base of the akoori is the base of most of the parsi dishes. More on this later in the blog....

I guess you could substitute cilantro with curly parsley, but I would really encourage you to try the real thing, even in sparing amounts.

Edited October 2, 2005 by percyn (log)

[percyn]

Percy, does the price tag on that pie really say $1.75?  What a deal!

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Oh yeah...besides tasting great, most of the stuff is extremely cheap !!!

The store is run by the kids in the family, who are very cute and I sometimes tip them a little extra because I feel like I got too good of a deal.

[Abra]

Percy, I'm wondering if PA Amish food differs much from what we saw/tried when we lived near Amish country in Ohio. I'd had a romantic notion of old fashioned whole foods type baking and preserving, and was shocked to find, in Amish stores, that it was mainly mixes, hydrogenated fats, bleached flours, and artificial flavors. Very disillusioning! What's the situation in PA?

I am so making that akoori!