Archive for the ‘in Philadelphia’ Category
Talula’s Garden crushes brunch
t says: We had heard that Talula’s Garden was now offering brunch – naturally, we just had to go. Oddly enough, it actually took us quite a long time to get there – maybe a bit more than a month? (That’s odd for Olexy-fans like us.) Whatever the reason for the delay, we finally went this past weekend – and we were on a mission! You see, this upcoming weekend, for Mother’s Day 2012, we’re going to do something absolutely stupid – we’re going to have brunch with our parents … in Philadelphia … at a restaurant … It’s. going. to. be. insane. It’s Mother’s Day, it’s graduation weekend, and Dad Vails are in town. Insane, but I guess we’re up for a challenge. In preparation for the insanity, g and I reasoned that we at least had to do some reconnaissance at the brunch candidates – namely the longtime adsz favorite Cochon and new-kid-on-the-block Talula’s Garden. So we donned our service uniforms, packed our hi-tech image acquisition apparatus, and force-marched it to Washington Square … (btw – we went to Cochon recently – they’re still ridiculously tasty).
May 2012, Sunday Brunch, Party of 2. After sitting down, g and I dove into the brunch menu – we were quite hungry from the morning stroll. And it hit us: the menu oozed pure awesomeness. My mind was boggled – there were too many dishes to try: blintzes, pancakes, butcher’s breakfast, pastries, cheese, donuts … I’d say 50-67% of the menu was totally t-worthy. This conundrum was great news, as all of the preliminary reports featured so few dishes that I feared a lack of selection (which would have stunk for Mother’s Day if there was nothing that mom liked …).
After much consideration, g and I forced ourselves to limit our choices to 3 selections – three that we were pretty sure most people in our party next weekend would choose (Party of 12 baby!). Here they are:
breakfast pastry trio + lemon curd + butter + berries
Hidden in the menu was the breakfast pastry trio – as it’s not called that at all. Nevertheless, as soon as we spotted a single item, we knew we had to start with the breakfast pastries. That item: lemon ginger scone. While I’ve mentioned them in passing in Talula’s Table posts (although I’m currently failing to find them right now), I think that this blog has failed to completely capture g’s (and my) love for Talula’s Table’s scones, especially the lemon ginger ones. And if TG’s scones are even 23% as good as TT’s, we would be happy. How did it stack up? We’ve decided that it was almost as good as anticipated. It was a bit cakier/cakeier/more-cake-like than TT’s, which makes for a lighter pastry – but the flavor was spot-on. There’s pluses and minuses to this, though. On one hand, there’s a certain richness that TG’s scone lacks, but on the other, you don’t feel completely full after eating just one scone, so it’s definitely not too much of a letdown because we had more food to eat! And while the muffin and coffee cake (especially with the lemon curd) were also very good (giving Parc’s pastry basket a run for its money), you just can’t beat a lemon-ginger scone, even one operating at 87% of max-deliciosity (you have to try them when they come straight out of the oven at 7am at Talula’s Table in Kennet Square … only then will you understand our obsession).
g’s main = “crab benedict” over fresh English muffin + potatoes
g ordered an egg-based savory breakfast dish … surprised? Not I. This one was featured egg, crab, and some kind of ?tomato-based? Hollondaise/Bearnaise-ish sauce and accompanied by those wonderfully-gold brown potatoes … and it totally rocked g’s socks. It was funny, because although there weren’t massive chunks of crab, that sauce tasted so much like crab it was kind of like what would happen if capo giro made crab-flavored gelato. Ok, maybe that’s not the best picture to paint, but you get the idea – it had a very vivid crab flavor! The eggs were perfectly poached with good yolk runniness. And then there was that English muffin … that English muffin was crazy! We got word from one of our fave TG staff that these were made in house and required some time to perfect before they released this dish – well let me say it was perfect! (I’m contemplating swearing off Thomas’s.)
t’s main = wheat pancakes + bruleed bananas + pecans
What you see before you is my main. The wheat pancakes pictured above were oh-so-fluffy – coming within a hair of the reigning pancake champ at Cochon in terms of thickness, but still pretty impressive! The bananas (with accompanying sauce like a bananas foster) and pecans were fantastic (although perhaps obvious) accompaniments, and reminded me a little of the bananas that Cochon used to put on their Elvis French toast (back when they used to offer the Elvis French toast). Actually, I loved the Elvis-themed toppings so much back then that I frequently asked them to put them on top of their super-wicked pancakes. But alas, they Elvis no more. Ok – back to TG’s pancakes: while “wheat” is normally not a desirable flavor for me (just ask g about my thoughts on wheat bread), it actually added a little bit of a savory pinch in the background of all the sweet on the plate – I liked it! I think overall, the dish needed some salt – maybe a piece of bacon or something, which I guess I should have ordered, myself. Be that as it may, in light of Cochon’s lack of gussied-up pancakes (they only do French toast dressed with sausage gravy on their menu right now – pancakes are a “side dish”, and while they’re still fan-frickin-tastic, they lack to bananas and bacon ice cream of old …), it seems like there’s a new pancake champion in town … Talula’s Garden! Woop woop! Raise the roof! And other such cool exclamations!
And then we were full …
g and I were bummed – there was still so much food our mouths wanted to taste, but our stomachs had had enough! We decided that TG was the way to go for Mother’s Day brunch – not to say that Cochon would have been worse, but there really is something special about their brunch. While it’s not as heavy as Cochon (which g and I like – we were full, but we didn’t feel disgusting), it’s also not as inexpensive as Cochon, so I don’t know how often we can afford to go. I think Cochon will remain our usual adsz Sunday brunch pick, with TG winning “special occasion Sunday brunch”. So great job TG! We look forward to seeing you this weekend. I hope you guys are ready for the crazy that is Mother’s Day.
Supper’s still got those red velvet waffles
t says: I know we/I kind of ragged on Supper’s brunch the last time we went. Sorry Supper, we gotta call it like we taste it. Be that as it may, we did give Supper another whirl recently, and I feel that to make up for the bad things I said last time, I should focus only on good things this time. Fortunately, Supper made that easy for me with their long-time brunch standard bearer:
red velvet waffles (enlarged to show texture)
This time was even better than I remember – the waffles were moister, the sweet cream was fluffier, the sauce and cherries had more of a vibrant punch. I’d say that this is probably Supper’s best brunch dish. So go there. Eat it. And if you don’t like it, then you have no soul (or you don’t like sweet brunch foods). Now if only Supper also had a dynamite savory dish to go along with these waffles (I’m not sure if the burger counts – I’m looking for an awesome egg-based dish I suppose), we’d be able to consider them again for “best brunch” …
alla spina – good fun!
t says: We went to Alla Spina with k and cm and another friend, super-excited to try out some Vetri-sanctioned food without having to pay for “the meal of our lives”. But don’t get me wrong – I wasn’t expecting dishes like from our most recent visit to Vetri, rather, playful almost-finger-food-like dishes meant to be shared and enjoyed in a bar-like atmosphere. Let’s see how they did.
April 2012, Friday Dinner, Party of 5. This is going to be short – and not because I’m lazy. There were just too many dishes on the table (cm used his elephant-like memory and did the ordering) and my own memory has faded some. Be that as it may, here are the highlights:
-Mushrooms: yea, that’s right – “mushrooms”. But not just any “mushrooms” – these mushrooms are what I imagine Zeus would have been served had he ever wanted “mushrooms”. They were crispy and oh-so-delicious – so much so that g ate them. I’m serious. This is huge! g only eats mushrooms in her mom’s Thanksgiving stuffing. Trust me – these will be a must-order if/when we go again.
the puffed pastry thing on the left is the pig pot pie
-Pig Pot Pie: This was my favorite. It seriously made me wonder why on earth anyone would ever use chicken ever again! Imagine a chicken pot pie, but take out the often-overcooked chicken and replace it with succulent pig meat. Furthermore, I suspect the sauce was made far more flavorful by addition of some pig fat. You’re reading it here: I’m swearing off chicken pot pie – Alla Spina has ruined them for me forever.
la-zag-na
-Lasagna: Everyone else’s fave was the lasagna. (I suspect it’s because they are wimps.) It’s no surprise that a Vetri-associated restaurant can make lasagna … Everything was done right even the sauce/gravy! Amazing!
The biggest letdown of the night was most likely this sucker right here:
bacon chocolate sundae
This dessert turned out to be a little hokey. Those chocolate stick-looking things were chocolate-covered bacon … so there was no bacon anywhere else. Boooooooo. The rest of the sundae was unremarkable. This kinda made me sad – I think I might have pouted a little.
Another shortcoming of Alla Spina was the horrendous wine list: a red (Nebbiolo), a white, and a bubbly … and that’s it. Sure, there were lots of beers, but for the bubble-intolerant, you’re S.O.L.. I understand if they want to avoid the “stuffiness” of wine, but I firmly believe you’re going to have to pack at least 3 reds and 2 whites and a bubbly. Come on, man!
Overall, we feel like Alla Spina is probably a good place for bar-like energy in a restaurant – and the food was pretty good for the most part. Sure, Alla Spina’s gonna be a little pricey – not Vetri pricey, but pricey for a bar akin to how Amis is a bit pricey for “Italian food”. Also, don’t forget that as you drink, you begin ordering more and more of these little plates, so that’s probably going to lend to a pretty large bill. Finally, Alla Spina’s located kind of in the middle-of-nowhere (but Osteria and Route 6 are there!), so we won’t be there every weekend, but we’d be happy to go if anyone else suggests it!
Meme: totally 70% worth it!
t says: A long time ago, Savored.com was running this promotion where you could make reservations at any of their affiliated restaurants for free (normally $10 a pop). So I did! At every restaurant I could see myself ever going to! One of the restaurants was Meme, a small New American place that’s so close to where we live that it takes me literally (yes, literally) less than 3 minutes to walk there. And yet, it was the one place that I felt I’d have to push g the hardest to go to …
Why? We went once a long time ago (pre-blog), when they first opened after kicking Melograno out. We brought drb along with some ’05 Bordeaux. While the food was “good” (drb had his first skate wing), we got the feeling that they were still finding their way. Overall, our meals were promising, but pricey. Then we heard that they were only BYO while waiting for their liquor license to come through, which was a bummer, because when it did, g and I never returned because then the food definitely wouldn’t justify the bill … well, that’s not completely true … we returned once … for brunch … and it was yucky. We don’t care what phillymag says, it was not good.
So now enter the new Meme. No, nothing’s changed in terms of who’s running it, rather, this Meme emanates a little whiff of despair – or at least I think it does. I feel this way for a few reasons. First, it’s often empty on weekday evenings (maybe a few tables occupied – or maybe we’re just not looking through the windows at the right time). Second, they returned to BYO. And finally, most recently, they’re now on Savored. Yikes! On the bright side, they do get a lot of PhillyMag press, so maybe that’ll keep ’em afloat.
After much pushing and pushing (g still had that horrid brunch on her brain), g finally acquiesced to a Thursday date night. It was 30% off, so we were looking forward to eating more cheaply than a “normal” date night.
April 2012, Thursday Dinner, Party of 2. We entered and the place was pretty much empty. There was one occupied table and that was it; it wasn’t particularly confidence-inspiring. Nevertheless, the hostess/waitress/server was very pleasant and offered us our choice of seats. We chose wisely and got the party started. Their menu is small, with something like 5 appetizers and 5 entrees, but it covers a wide range of offerings, from meats and fish to salads and bone marrow.
g and I made our selections: g went with the lambchop (whoa! g went with the lambchop? no “tuna crudo” or wimpy salad for her this time!) and I opted for the bone marrow. The waitress told us that it’d be 15 minutes for the bone marrow, and not to worry that we’d be “forgotten”. I appreciated that – I don’t like feeling forgotten.
We chomped on some bread and passed the time with the usual mix of chit-chat and gossip that married couples enjoy. Good times. Not too long later (I didn’t time them), our appetizers landed.
g’s app: lambchop, eggplant, cucumber concoction
I have to say that I was impressed with the size of g’s lambchop. Normally, when I think of lambchops as appetizers (or even as entrees!), I think of little dinky, wussy, lollipop-sized teasers. This one was quite substantial. I’ll let g say a few words …
g says: It was way bigger than I thought, and it was quite good!
back to t: g’s a little pressed for time right now (i.e. she has a real job, and I [kind of] don’t) so she’s a little short on words. She ate it all – so take that as evidence of its goodness. Moving on, allow me to present my appetizer:
t’s app: roasted bone barrow, herb concoction
I hadn’t had bone marrow since eating at Ad Hoc with k and cm some time ago. I was happy to get back on the wagon. Result: it was great!! It had good texture to it, spreading like bitter but still capable of holding together in your mouth. It tasted unctuous (as bone marrow should), with a smoky/roasted overtones. The accompanying herb mixture rounded out the flavors quite nicely. I also liked how Meme didn’t muck around with the bread, letting me focus on the subtleties of the bone marrow, itself. And for a measly $8 (pre-30%0off), I was more than satisfied with the size. Actually, I’m glad it wasn’t cheaper because then I might have ordered two …
After a nice showing on appetizers, g and I got down to business on the entrees. The first thing we noticed when they landed was the quantity: they weren’t holding back! These were legitimately sized portions! I thought maybe for Savored reservations they’d skimp on the entrees, but no, they pulled no punches.
t’s main: NY strip, salad with belu cheese, lentils, roasted onion
As I prepared myself mentally for my cow, I went to the lentils first. They were prepared well with a nice mix of bite and give. It definitely wasn’t the pig-infused bomb that Bibou serves, but at the very least had a good spice that I can’t put my finger on and a meatiness about it to make it seem like the lentils weren’t “just” an afterthought. Good for them! Then I went in for the steak. It was perfectly medium, had good seasoning (some might find it a little heavy-handed with the salt, but I liked it!), and possessed just the right amount of caramelization on the outside to give it some oomph. Once again – it’s not the profoundly-sauced masterpiece that Bibou has, but I was impressed none-the-less, as it was definitely a step above Parc and probably a hair (a very small, very fine hair) better than Cochon. The salad was a little cumbersome to eat (the leaves could have used one or two more passes with the knife), but added some nice bitterness and blue cheese funk to play with the steak. The onion was a little superfluous, but at the very least brought in some sweetness.
g’s main: pork, greenes, polenta, tomato
Now on to g’s dish, which I sampled extensively. I need to give you some backstory before continuing. You see, whenever we go to restaurants, I get the pork and she gets the steak. And very often, I end up wishing I had the cow. This time, we played the game a bit differently: g went with the pork so I went with steak. Now, keeping in mind that I was actually pretty happy with my dish, I was very envious of g’s dish. Her pork was a sizeable portion of well-cooked, well-seasoned (not as salty as my steak) pig that played oh-so-nicely with swiss chard. But the key was that tomato on top. It’s funny because g offered me some tomato and I turned it down, thinking “oh, it’s just another roasted tomato”. She persisted. She was right. This was no boring ol’ “gee-we-should-add-some-red-to-the-dish” tomato. This tomato meant business. The flavor was concentrated punch to the face that really brought out the pig. For me, the polenta was a little boring, but g seemed satisfied with its texture (I wanted a little more flavor … I don’t know of what, but something). Darn. I went with the steak and g still won.
And then there was dessert:
g & t dessert: strawberry shortcake
For dessert, we finished with the strawberry shortcake. Unfortunately, this dessert wasn’t as great as the rest of the food, but it wasn’t bad, either. The biscuit had nice texure, but little-to-no flavor. The strawberries were a bit mushy, reminding me more of the strawberry topping that ice cream shops have for ice cream than real strawberries. We did like the whipped cream, with a nice solid vanilla, creamy flavor. But don’t get me wrong – we did eat it all, so it’s not like we hated it.
In the end, g and I feel that Meme did a surprisingly good job. The food was simple – nothing we had was all that unusual or fussy or novel, but it was well-done for the most part, with some very tasty highlights. Furthermore, by the end of the meal, we were STUFFED. I’m glad we live so close because I could quickly get home and put on some pajamas. Also – the cost wasn’t bad. In total, the pre-Savored bill was around $77. After savored, it’s low 50’s, and then tack on a pre-Savored tip, and you’re mid-60’s. That’s cheaper than restaurant week! (And bonus savings: no cab fare! and BYO!!).
It was such a good deal that we returned two weeks later with dz and smn.
April 2012, Tuesday Dinner, Party of 4. I went with the bone marrow and pork T-bone and they were once again spot-on. It wasn’t a fluke the first time – chef can cook! (The T-bone was a little smaller this time around, but I was still stuffed by the end of the meal). g went with the salad appetizer (which was massive and had some potatoes in it, so it was very filling – dz had to help her out!) along with the pork T-bone. I was shocked when dz put forth some praise for the cod oregenata main that he had (dz isn’t picky, but I feel like for him to suggest that something tastes good without being prompted to do so should be considered an accolade). I don’t know if the beet salad or the salmon that smn had rocked her socks or anything (in the past, she and dz have only been “meh” on Meme), but maybe she’ll share an opinion when she reads this post.
In this humble writer’s opinion, Meme is absolutely worth the Savored price – we can see ourselves going back for weeknight dinner, easily. Now, is it worth the un-Savored price (i.e. going on the weekend)? That’s tough. Looking at only French and New American places, Meme is definitely not going to threaten Bibou. It’s not going to replace Fond. And the list of great BYO’s keeps going if we expand the scope to include other cuisines: Melograno, Koo Zee Doo, Modo Mio, etc. I think that the “fight” really comes down to Marigold Kitchen vs. Meme. It’s funny because I think the entrees are better here than at Marigold, but Marigold has all of those cool amuse bouches, so it’s more like an adventure! So weekend dinners will still be up in the air for us to consider going to Meme. Maybe it’ll be our go-to for some kind of “super-simple” nights? Maybe one of those Fridays when g and I are exhausted, we don’t have plans, we’re wearing boring clothes, and all we really want to do is drink good wine, but we want some properly cooked food to go with it (e.g. why drink a $30 bottle of wine with a $10 pizza?)? I guess that potentially could make Meme our “neighborhood joint”? Hmmmm … we’ll think about it …
“winning dinner” at cochon
t says: I’d like to take the time to introduce our latest cast member: alf. Hiya alf! So, lc and alf were in town visiting the other weekday so I was tasked with finding a dinner spot for the four of us. I had a few requirements:
1) Not expensive (entrees < $20)
2) BYO
3) Red wine compatible food (lc prefers red and I had a hankering for pinot noir)
4) Easy availability (i.e. last minute reservations on a Wednesday)
And while yes, there are plenty of such places in Philly, how many of them could do:
5) Guaranteed delicious
And with that, I knew what we had to do … We had to go to Cochon …
April 2012, Wednesday Dinner, Party of 4. Ahhh, Cochon. Comfortable, casual, homey, and oh-so-piggy. It’s one of adsz’s most under-rated restaurants – if only it was closer to where we lived, we’d be going all the time …
And so, with a bottle of pinot burning a hole in my “cellar” (i.e. the cardboard box underneath our wine fridge), we climbed into a cab and $10 later we were in Queen’s Village, ready for a much-scaled-down pigs-and-pinot feast. Interestingly, the place wasn’t that empty when we had arrived – a good sign because we’d hate for them to go under due to lack of business. Please readers – go to Cochon!
Now … down to business … g and I started with the gnocchi appetizer:
gnocchi + peas + crab + bacon + ?some kind of sauce?
Our appetizer was pretty good overall. The cream sauce with the peas, crab, and bacon was wonderful, but the gnocchi were a little flawed. I feel like they were trying to go for a super-uber-volatile gnocchi like at Vetri, but alas, the pasta came up crumbly instead of whipped/creamy/cloud-like. But don’t take this as “bad” gnocchi, as I assure you that had there been an entire plate of it, I would have been a happy camper to have had it for an entree.
lc’s appetizer, for which I do not have a picture of, was the fried oysters. I need to confess that when she first ordered them, I was hoping that she wouldn’t regret it, because seriously, it’s “fried oysters” – how good could it be? Answer: DAMN GOOD! In my opinion (not that I’m a fried oyster connoisseur, as I’ve had it only a handful of times), these were perfect. The meat was just cooked on the inside and it had a tissue-paper-light crispy breading on the outside. It was as close as one could get to eating a raw oyster … without it being raw. Consequently, Cochon has singly-handedly re-opened my eyes to the world of fried oysters (although now that I’ve said that, I’m sure I’ll be let down by the next 5 places I try it at).
My dish was a “special”:
pork shoulder + mustard crust + Brussels sprouts + lentils
The shoulder was beautifully prepared, with a deeply piggy flavor beautifully balanced with the mustard. The lentils were not quite Bibou-esque in flavor, but respectable in terms of texture. The Brussels sprouts were impressively charred on the outside, just how I like ’em (I think others should note how to do it). In the end, I felt that in the game of dinner, my dish was a winner for sure. So let’s look at the competition:
steak + fries
g went with the steak and fries (with the ubiquitous cochon aioli). The steak was cooked perfectly and well-seasoned. There weren’t any real “mis-steps, and it had some nice bonus smoky/grilled flavors. However, it’s not a very “complex” or “subtle” steak; if I could be sexist for a moment, I’d say this is a “man’s steak” for sure – straightforward, bold, meaty, no frills. Consequently, it wasn’t Bibou-good, but g was still happy with it.
pork tenderloin + dried cherries + nuts + Swiss chard + Israeli couscous
And now enter lc and alf’s main … They ordered a “special” pork tenderloin over swiss chard, nuts, dried cherries and some kind of reduction. The pork is the new most tender pork I’ve ever had (not including pork bellies, which is all fat, so it doesn’t count). Was it prepared sous vide? It sure tasted like it – but what do I know? It had playful sour cherries opposite earthy nuts. If my dish was like a down-and-dirty devil, there’s was the lively-and-cutesy angel. Two dramatically different takes on pig, for sure. I preferred mine, they preferred theirs. Counting lc and alf as one vote (it wouldn’t be fair to allow them to count as two votes), we looked to g to settle the argument. g proclaimed alf and lc the “winners”. No way! We asked the server for a second opinion – he sided with me. Obviously, I’m going to refuse to let lc and alf “win”, so I’m going to say that we co-won dinner.
As you can see, Cochon is still doing things beautifully. If you want meaty meats with pigs and steaks and fat and butter and friedness, then it’s really tough to top. If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, you might not find a whole lot here (although they technically do have a vegetarian option upon request). Similarly, those wanting a light-and-fit meal might be disappointed as well. But everyone else should be more-than-happy with Cochon’s offerings. And, between Cochon’s BYO-ness and Savored’s 30% off, going there is a pretty sweet deal, indeed. I hope they continue to get the love that they deserve.
Pierre Calmels is such a pimp.
t says: I’d like to know what you were thinking as you read the title of this post. Maybe you don’t know of Pierre Calmels, in which case, you might suspect that I’m talking about a character onsome sort of Jersey-Shore-meets-France crossover. It’s not. Sorry. (Actually … I’m not sorry.) For those of you who know that Pierre Calmels is one-half of the dynamic duo responsible for Bibou, a perennial favorite of adsz, maybe you’ve stumbled across this post thinking that I’m going to reveal some sort of sordid indiscretion he committed. It’s not. (And shame on you for thinking that Pierre could do something like that!?) So what is this post about? Quite simply, this post is here to further illustrate Pierre’s uncanny ability to make grown men cry and women swoon … through food.
March 2012, Friday Dinner, Party of 6. g and I were dining with a, v, and a’s parents. That’s right, it was time for us to “meet the folks” (g had already met them, but I had not). And, because a and his dad are real big into wine, I was super-excited about what kinds of wines were going to show up. They didn’t disappoint (more on that later).
Now, with so many adsz posts already dedicated to Bibou, we don’t want to go into such great detail about ever dish again. Yes, the pig’s feet rendered v speechless. Yes, g got the steak again and had no regrets. The escargots were still ridiculous. a and v’s parents had the fish entrees – maybe they’ll have a word or two to say in the comments!
But let’s talk about me – after all, that’s what I do best. After tackling my first ever plate of frog’s legs with g (that’s right – g went for frog’s legs … and liked it!!), I wondered if I was going to regret going for the “special” instead of the steak or the pig’s foot, both of which are my faves. They’re just both so consistently delicious! Had I made a mistake?! … And just when I thought Bibou couldn’t possibly be more delicious …
Pierre goes and does something like this …
... and totally crushes it.
What you see in the above pic is a duo of pork. I eschewed the pig’s foot and the beef in favor of this “special” which included [essentially] a T-bone of pork and a slab of pork belly. Yes, there were greens and a root puree. But I need to draw focus to the pork belly. Now, my favorite pork belly has long been Lee Styer’s at Fond. This one is nothing like Lee’s. There’s no dense crust. The portion is fairly petite. But the flavor! O! M! G! (Don’t you love it when I do that?) The flavor! The rich fat disintegrates in your mouth instantaneously, letting out a deeply piggy flavor framed in such a wonderful sweetness, but not in a cloying way. And it just keeps going. I was brought to silence, and, had I had enough wine, perhaps a single tear could have escaped from my eye. It was so beautiful. It was like seeing a baby being born (except that I don’t proceed to eat the baby). And in that instant, Pierre stole the crown from Lee. It. Was. Epic.
The best part was that when I told the server about how delicious the belly was, he said, “that’s great! you should also go to Fond and try theirs”. I told him that I did and that Pierre’s was superior. He was impressed. And then Pierre himself came around. He did his usual super-humble-Pierre routine, where he thanks you, tilts his head, and flashes his bashful smile, as if he just “doesn’t know how it happened”. He said something like, “the secret’s in the pig … we get it from <insert source here – I couldn’t hear him>” Sorry Pierre. That’s bull$h!t. And you know it. Unless you have some sort of genetically engineered pig that eats chocolate and craps cinnamon buns, I can only conclude one of the three possible explanations:
1) You are in possession of some kind of magic wand and aren’t afraid to use it.
2) You are straight-up lacing your food with some kind of French cocaine
3) You are a brilliant chef.
Regardless, it’s more than just the pig. And so, for refusing to rest on your laurels and continuing to produce entrees that repeatedly blow us away, we salute you.
(And yes, we salute Charlotte and the rest of the Bibou staff as well … they are top-notch, too!)
a says: Pork belly was AAAAAAAamazing. The pig’s foot and steak was great, as always. Fish dishes were good but didn’t have enough to remember major themes.
no overhyping in FedNuts’s chicken
t says: The other day, a and v decided that it was time to rectify a wrong. We had had Federal Donuts’s donuts, but not the fried chicken. So we set out to fix the problem:
March 2012, Saturday Brunch, Party of Several. We ventured over the 2nd and Federal (actually, it’s a block over from 2nd and Federal), where we were greeted by a huge line. Fortunately, a and v were already there, in line, and right about to order. Woohoo! They ordered, we transported the chicken back at their crib, and then I proceeded to plate the chicken.
FedNuts chicken
I can’t remember all the flavors, but I’ll see what I can do: chili-garlic, traditional buttermilk, zatar, honey-ginger-something, and something else.
The chicken was easily the second-best fried chicken I’ve ever had, with first place going to Meritage’s Korean Fried Chicken. Ironically, it was the chili-ginger (i.e. the one most like a Korean fried chicken) that was the crowd favorite, for its vivid flavors and spicy oomph. The chicken was fabulous on all the flavors, however. It was nice and juicy and tender despite the car ride and time spent waiting for me to arrange the chicken into like groups on a single plate for the above picture (I was drooling the whole time). I think a special honor goes to the buttermilk, which was most surprising for us – I guess we expected it to be a bit boring when compared to the other fancy flavors, but no, it hung right in there with the rest of ’em.
Moral of the story: despite Rotisseur‘s frequent jabs at FedNuts (I’ve gone there often enough to overhear a comment or two), they do a good job at a great pricepoint. We’ll be going back again for sure – and I think a and v already have!
after dinner sneeze 