Archive for the ‘Happenings’ Category
and … we’re back!
t says: So, we’ve been gone for a while due to the holidays, but now we’re back and ready to blog blog and blog some more.
Here’s a little teaser:
ramen … in chocolate?
see the ramen!
Yea, so I have a notorious sweet-tooth, so I like me some chocolate. Also, as you can remember, I also like ramen. So would the combination reward me with a sweet-savory one-two punch? Well … kinda … I enjoyed the flavor combination – the salty/earthy/umami of the ramen was fun with the not-too-bitter chocolate. But I just didn’t quite like the noodle bits – they added an awkward crunchiness that wasn’t as desireable as I had hoped. This is on contrast to nuts, which kinda crunch and go away; meanwhile, the raw noodles had this crackley-crunch that just kept going as the uncooked noodles broke down into smaller pieces of uncooked noodles. I don’t think I’ll be buying another one of these in the future, but I still think they’re worth a first try if you haven’t had one yet. Maybe buy it and share with three friends? (each bar is made of four blocks) – it’s worth the experience just so you can have an opinion.
Philly raw denim
t says: As mentioned briefly in the “MANual”, I’ve been following raw denim for a while now. I was unaware of Philly’s raw denim scene until made aware by a. Coincidentally, rawr did a little article on Norman Porter, which is Philly-based. While I haven’t seen any myself, it’s worth keeping an eye on … just so long as it’s not overrun by hipsters …
how g and t do Thanksgiving … for two!
t says: So, after last year’s expertly-orchestrated Thanksgiving cook-a-thon, g and I were ready to dominate T-day again this year … until it turned out that we weren’t going to be able to spend the holiday with our families. On one hand, it stunk that we weren’t going to see our parents on Thanksgiving (but we’ll see them soon thereafter). On the other, it presented another challenge: what would we do if we were cooking on our own? Apparently, it looks like this:
T-day dinner at home … g & t style … with mood lighting …
So, I need to set the record straight and say that I had absolutely nothing to do with any of the dinner preparations. g was all over the table-setting, the cooking, the plating, everything (I guess she figured it’d be too easy if both of us worked on it?). All I did was decant some wine and provide some entertainment while she chopped, sauteed, roasted, etc. Normally, I don’t like being sidelined, but g was on a mission, so who am I to object to an effort-free meal? Plus – I had to focus my thoughts on the wine: a 2008 Ayoub pinot noir from Oregon, which was perhaps the most elegant OR pinot I’ve ever had. I sent a a tasting note to be tweeted, but I am confident that he won’t be able to squeeze the entirety of it in one tweet, so here it is:
2008 Ayoub Pinot Noir (Oregon). Nose of anise and black cherry pie (and later a bit of cocoa). On the palate, simple up front with red fruit and a bit of characteristic OR earth, followed by a very lengthy 60+ second finish of evolving red fruits (strawberry to raspberry to cherry), hints of cedar, and an undertone of loam. Smooth as silk and containing impressive elegance and restraint/balance – it’s a fairly lightweight pinot that just keeps going and going, drawing you in with each passing second. It’s most like ‘the girl next door’: dressed in pajamas and lacking make-up, she is not astoundingly pretty up front, but then as you get to know her, you find out that she is a professional violinist, is writing a novel, loves doing the moonwalk, and can often be found in her kitchen baking pies while effortlessly mumbling answers to Jeopardy clues on the television in the background. The longer she’s around, the more your discover, and the more you’re hooked – it’s seduction in a very complex-brainy-dorky sort of way.”
So yes, g and I enjoyed the pinot. We also had a great French sauvignon blanc, but its description didn’t warrant such a verbose tasting note, so I’ll skip it. As for the food … well, g went all-out:
Centerpiece: Turkey (duh!); New-for-our-T-day: Sweet-potato-and-chorizo hash, craisin-sausage stuffing, summery succotash; Nostalgia: Cream-of-celery gravy, Brown-n-serve rolls, and ‘Can’-berry sauce
- mixed berry pie and ice cream … both bought (i.e. not homemade), but so delicious we didn’t care … (and check out the design on the silverware!)
All I can say is that every bit of food turned out wonderfully; g has proven that she can single-handedly conquer Thanksgiving. The only drawback is that now we have approximately 10 meals worth of leftovers (the smallest turkey our grocer had was 14 lbs), so it’s going to be a long haul … fortunately, it was so good that I can’t wait to be hungry again!
tastykakes misstep
t says: Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a sucker for Tastykakes. Mostly this is because that is what I ate for the majority of my childhood – we’d go to WaWa and I’d get some assortment of pies/krimpets/kandykakes … you name it, and I ate it.
When I saw that TastyKake was going to do some collaboration with Hershey’s, I was intrigued. Could it be that the joining of two of my favorite junkfoods of youth would result in some sort of unparalleled deliciosity? I wanted to find out … but just couldn’t for the love of me find out where they were sold …
And then one day in the cafeteria, they appeared!
Why buy one when I can fit two in my pocket?
So there we go – I bought one of each and shared with my colleagues.
My colleagues preferred the Reese’s …
Both of the cakes were surprisingly spongy – I thought they’d be denser, like a krimpet. I think the texture kind of threw me off because you’d think they’d be more “solid”. The choco+PB one tasted a little like a PB KandyKake, which is good, however, the ratio of chocolate and PB was all kinds of weird … There was too little PB, and the cake’s chocolateyness was underwhelming, leaving only the coating to provide any real chocolate texture/flavor. I don’t know – it just rubbed me the wrong way … in every possible way.
I preferred the S’mores
The S’mores was slightly more unique of a combination, but once again, the excessive amount of bland cake kinda-sorta-ruined everything. Give me one more stripe of marshmallow, another layer of graham, and a slightly thicker layer of chocolate, and then we’d be cooking with gas …
So what’s a chocolate-lover to do in light of these failures?
Well, I’ve been eating these:
as previously seen here … now over a year later and I’m hooked!
Mercato keeps the dream alive
t says: g and I have a confession to make. We’re “over” Restaurant Week. Back in the day, when it was $30pp, we were all over it like white on rice. But nowadays, with that $5 price increase (actually, I think the increase is a couple years old now), we’re just not so optimistic. The restaurants are crowded. The servers are overworked. Chefs whine/complain in the blogosphere left and right. Of course, there are some exceptions out there (looking at you, Amada!), but all-too-often, the food just isn’t a good representation of what the restaurant can do (which is kinda-sorta-the-fault of the restaurant – if you can’t deal with the RW crowd, then don’t participate! Go on vacation, like Kanella used to!). But … this season … g and I got back into it RW. Why? Well – we had some wine to taste from our Napa trip and people to taste it with (a and v) but nowhere to eat! As we looked at BYOs to go to, g remembered one we hadn’t been to in a while: Mercato! AND – because they did a great RW some years ago, g tasked a to set it up. a got the job done (he’s dependable like that) ,and we showed up, ready to eat and drink …
October 2012, Tuesday Restaurant Week Dinner, Party of 4. g and I met a and v at the restaurant. I pulled out the wine selections for the evening (I caught a with his pants down: his Philly wine stash was low, so he was happy to leave the choosing up to me this time):
wines for the evening … the sauvignon blanc is from a rising young-gun, while the red [covered to conceal its identity] is a lesser-known varietal by life-saving winery Ehlers Estate
Ok, so back to the food …
meet [nearly] the best antipasto in the city!
Here are shots of a’s and v’s appetizers and food.
a’s app: soup of some sort
v’s app: artichoke – v didn’t seem to really take to it – I guess she was imagining something a little more interesting than artichoke and some aioli
v’s main: chestnut fettucini – it smelled wonderful – and I liked how it tasted like fall on a plate!
a’s main: blurry picture of veal: a’s was absolutely delicious! that veal was so succulent, so well-prepared, and the sauce was impeccably seasoned. i loved it! (and I only had one bite!)
t’s main: gnocchi with braised beef and broccoli rabe
I remembered the gnocchi dish from the last time we went to Mercato, so I felt the need to revisit it. And, to be honest, it wasn’t quite as good as I remember. So instead of “in-the-running-for-the-best-gnocchi-in-the-city”, it’s going to settle in as “better-than-La-Viola”. As you might gather, there were some issues. I think the biggest had to do with the sauce consistency – it was just a little too thin for my taste – it didn’t really cling to the gnocchi at all, so in the end, I had some gnocchi that didn’t have a lot of taste due to lack of coverage by the sauce. The beef was also a little lackluster – it just wasn’t “loved” with the intensity during cooking that I wanted my cow to be loved (I realize that this sentence makes no sense – but I’m sticking with it).
pyramid pasta stuffed with lobster shrimp and cheese
g felt that she won dinner. I’m not sure I agree, because a’s dish was so wonderful. However, g was in the mood for something a bit “lighter”, and so she was very satisfied with the surprisingly-light brown butter sauce, the sweet sweet shellfish/crustaceans, and the fresh veggie flavors. Between this and the super-citrus of the Massican sauvignon blanc, she was in heaven …
The desserts … hmmm … to be honest, I can’t find the pictures of dessert. I suspect that the lack of pictures and the lack of memory means that they were unremarkable. g and v had some kind of apple pie thing with cinnamon ice cream (g loves-loves-LOVES cinnamon ice cream). a had panna cotta (that unfortunately failed the “woman’s-breast-test”). I had a molten chocolate cake (that fortunately passed the “I-hope-this-doesn’t-suck-test”). The desserts solid overall – I’m not sure they’d be worth $8ish dollars, but the way we see it – RW is kind of like “you-pay-for-two-courses-and-get-dessert-for-free”, so we couldn’t complain.
In all, 2 of 3 appetizers and 2 of 4 mains were exceptional. The remaining dishes ranged anywhere from “good” to “could-probably-be-great-with-some-execution-details”. With better menu selection on our part, we could have probably assembled a flawless dinner (each of us was deciding between at least two options for every course, so I guess we just got a little “unlucky” for the less-than-exceptional choices). The four of us felt that this was a big win for Mercato. We’ll have to keep it in mind for future RW when we want to sling some wine.
awesome[-chocolate-]sauce
t says: Yesterday, I ate a spoonful of homemade chocolate sauce for dessert. g thought it was disgusting. I disagreed – it was delicious! And, as bw has pointed out, my chocolate consumption could have some very significant positive implications down the line …
after dinner sneeze 