Archive for the ‘in Philadelphia’ Category
adsz claims another victim …
t says: We went to Snackbar a while ago – it was right after they got three bells, but also after their superstar chef had left. We liked some aspects of the food (julienne snow peas, raw egg on pizza) but were somewhat underwhelmed given its reputation. And then Barbuzzo totally killed Snackbar’s carbonara pizza with their uovo pizza. Add to this Snackbar’s incredibly peculiar service, and what do you get? Result: We never ever returned to a restaurant that is merely two blocks away from where we live … and now they’re closing. It obviously must be the adsz-kiss-of-death! Lacroix better watch out … (yea, right – as if they have anything to worry about …).
New Brunches [for us]
t says: We hit up some new brunches …
12/2010, Saturday, 12pm, Party of 2. Not one week later, g and I were up for some brunch – but it was Saturday and a hot snowy mess outside. g suggested that we not drive off for another round of Supper’s brunch, rather, try to find someplace walk-able. She suggested Day by Day. Now, we’ve gone to Day by Day before, and it’s been good, but really, nothing super-crazy going on there. So perhaps I was less than excited to go, or maybe I was just hungry-grumpy. Nevertheless, we rolled out, walked a few blocks, and voila – we were there! Good thing we went, because this is what we got:
Like Sabrina’s, Day by Day offers a special “stuffed French toast” which has large slices of French toast flanking a cream-cheese based filling. And normally they are as good as, if not better than Sabrina’s (I like the French toast, itself, better here than at Sabrina’s, but Sabrina’s normally has better filling). Well this time, Day by Day got an extra gold star: Tiramisu stuffed French toast. Mascarpone filled, with some chocolate chips, almonds – wonderful. Unfortunately, one can never predict the special French toast at Day by Day (their normal stuffed French toast is good, too – but not as good as this). As you can see, g opted for some sandwich concoction which I believe she found to be quite delicious – and she ranked the potatoes somewhere inbetween those at Supper and those at Cochon. Quite respectable! And the prices were pretty cheap, too! I guess next time I won’t be so quick to poo-poo ’em!
Fond … Understatement of the Year!
t says: g and I were looking for a BYO to have our Merry Christmas dinner together … but the usual suspects were not under consideration … We had just recently gone to Cochon, we’ve done GTC to death, and Bibou was closed for the holidays … What to do? What to do? g was in charge. She suggested Fond. What’s Fond? Fond is a restaurant tucked away in South Philly that has garnered much praise recently from Zagat and Philly Mag, but perhaps only a so-so review from LaBan. To be honest, I wasn’t super-thrilled at first – it’s just so far away from where we live. Would cabs for our return be easy to come by? Would the food be worth it? Well, by the time the date rolled around, I couldn’t come up with any other ideas and, to be quite honest, I was a little excited (it had been a long week).
December 2010, Thursday 7pm, Party of 2. We gave our cabbie the address, but he had no idea where it was – Passyunk’s slant throws everybody off. Fortunately, the iPhone led the way. We arrived 10 minutes early!
When we walked in, we were greeted by the hostess but were told that they might be running a little behind so that we’d have to find something to do for 20 minutes. She did, however, say that we could go and grab a drink at Paradiso just a few doors down. That sounded like a plan …
g says: having a drink before dinner is the kind of thing that i generally think of as only happening in the movies. it’s not something we do all that often, if ever (t is a lightweight and we love a byo anyway) but this was a celebratory meal, so i thought it might be the perfect time to class it up a little. when the hostess said that paradiso was only 3 doors down, i was a little surprised since i hadn’t noticed passing it on the way. it is the only restaurant that we had ever been to in the area (for d’s graduation celebration this past summer) and i felt comfortable walking into their place for a 20-minute visit since it was familiar territory. fond’s waiting area/foyer is super-tiny as well, so it really doesn’t make much sense to try and stand there waiting for your table while others are trying to enter and exit the restaurant.
so, off we went to paradiso. that place is actually pretty spacious, which i appreciate. it wasn’t terribly crowded, and we were able to sit right down at the bar. it’s a family-run establishment, the bartender for the evening being a pleasant young girl whose aunt donna made the complimentary pizzelles on the counter. t ordered a glass of rose, and i went for a glass of bubbly. we were joined at the bar by some regulars (read: old italian south philly men) whom all seemed to know each other. this strangely put me at ease; it was like their version of cheers, except they had cookies instead of beer nuts.
about 2 sips into our drinks, fond called t’s phone letting us know that our table was ready. he told the hostess that we had just received our drinks so we might be a little late. she said that was fine, or that we could just bring our drinks to dinner with us. interesting. my immediate reaction was something like, “wait, she -the hostess- said that we can walk out with their -paradiso’s- drinks? what do es she (nodding toward the bartender) have to say about that?” i was not about to be chased down passyunk in 3-inch heels and 30-degree weather by any angry paradisians. t asked the bartender, and she confirmed that fond and paradiso are indeed very friendly and would allow us to carry our glasses to dinner, as the staff at fond would bring them back at the end of the evening. an arrangement unlike anything i have ever heard of – very interesting, indeed.
we made it to fond without dropping anything (thank goodness) and were seated right away next to a friendly couple of guys who were finishing up. they had pork belly on their plates, and it smelled divine – t was hooked. it wasn’t uncomfortably packed in the dining room, but our waiter did come over to let us know that they would nudge our table over a bit once our neighboring party had finished to give us a little more elbow room. how thoughtful! though we really didn’t mind being so close to the pork belly aroma…
anyway, i ordered the yellowfin tuna crudo and the hanger steak with crispy polenta, both of which were so delicious. the tuna was chopped, mixed with jicama and pickled pineapple, and seasoned with curry and cilantro. it was light and refreshing, yet still complex enough for me to feel that i was eating a decadent hors d’ouevre.
fond’s hanger steak is the strong, silent type; an equally humble and satisfying plate. t reminded me when it came that i would have to compare it to the bibou version, which is my favorite in the city. this was excellent in its own way, completely different from bibou’s approach. this hanger steak was not marinated in wine, and its jus was very simple. no hit-you-in-the-face flavors here, just really lovely subtleties. it was more of a mom’s pot roast jus, which i happen to appreciate. i will say that they make the best polenta i have ever encountered. the texture was just fluffy enough, and the top perfectly crisp. the best bite of this dish was a combination of the steak and polenta, swirled around in some jus. they had passed the test of making something otherwise simple really shine – one of the two ways that restaurant food can impress me (the other being a dish so creative and well-conceived that i wish i had thought of it).
t says: Allow me to review my dishes … First off, the foie gras was absolutely awesome. Now, I don’t eat foie often, so please understand that I might not be the best foie critic (it’s not a cruelty-to-animals thing, rather, an it-doesn’t-taste-any-better-than-butter-and-tofu thing), but I have had it at Bibou (I think), O Ya, Talula’s Table (twice), and a few other places that are supposed to do it well … But this dish was different than those … Well, except O Ya. Both O Ya and Fond attempted to marry their foie with dramatic “other” flavors … and to be honest, Fond’s was the better of the two, and also the best foie I’ve ever had. So what’d they do? They seared the foie beautifully (nice and dark on one side) and served it with some caramelized apple, a dollop of ricotta, some “pie crust” (puffed pastry-esque), and likely some other ingredients I couldn’t identify. The end result far exceeded the sum of the parts – there was a symphony of flavors and textures that worked so well together that I couldn’t quite wrap my head around how good it was despite being a somewhat simple idea (foie and apple pie!). g had some, too, and she was less impressed than me, but of course, she’s not so keen on tofu-esque textures like foie.
And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, the pork belly appeared. That’s right – I ordered foie and pork belly in the same meal. The waiter commented, “So, I guess we’re going for a light meal this evening?” – funny guy. Back to the belly: it was ridiculous. The top had a super-dense crust. I suspect that they braised the pork belly, cut out a slab, and then deep fried the top (?maybe with a coating of sugar?) just before serving. Of course, as I’ve said before, what the hell do I know about how they did it? Neverthless, however they did it, it was the single best piece of pork belly I’ve ever had. Better than Cochon. Better than Morimoto. Better than Talula’s. That said, the dish as a whole just missed the title of the best pork belly dish I’ve ever had. Morimoto wins for superb incorporation of “other” flavors, and Cochon’s garnishings felt like they added a lot more dimension than Fond’s Okinawan sweet potatoes – which were good, but really, pork belly doesn’t need more rich potato flavor, rather a little something to cut through the fat and reset the palate between bites of pig – maybe some veg or something zippy/zingy/sour/spicy/sweet – I don’t know. But don’t get me wrong – I demolished the entire dish – and that was after eating a foie appetizer (I obviously did not go for a low-fat, low-calorie meal), so it’s pretty darn fantastic. And actually – I’d even order this dish if I had to order again, just so I could taste the pork belly once more, which I’m not sure I would do for pork belly dishes elsewhere.
I think we may have had a sorbet sampler for dessert – I actually turned down some sort of super-deep chocolate desserts for fruit-based dessert!! THAT says something about the rich-ness of the other foods I ate. I remember the sorbets being good – I think blood orange and strawberry were two of the flavors we went for – I forget the third – maybe a chocolate sorbet (I was thinking it’d be lighter than like a chocolate bake/cake thing). We’ll have to get at their dessert list the next time we go …
And now … back to your regularly schedule programming …
g says: our fond-love-fest, er dinner, was not without comic relief. about halfway through our meal, a table of 6 senior citizens was seated next to us. they were cute – it made t wonder if we would be like them when we are their age, going to dinner and talking much more loudly than necessary with friends, attempting to read the menu in dim lighting. they weren’t a terribly rowdy crew, and as i mentioned before, it wasn’t a totally cramped dining room, but WOW we had a lot of elderly butts in our faces. it seemed like someone from that table was up to use the restroom every few moments, shimmying by us, unaware of their behind hovering over our table, dangerously close to our glasses each time. t had to rescue our wine bottle from spillage on more than one occasion before we decided to shift our entire table over. this put us a bit closer to the table on our other side, a new party of 4 much closer to our age, so we hoped they understood.
certainly no butts-in-the-face ruined our evening, though, and we were able to have a good laugh. when we were ready to head out, our hostess called us a cab. they said it would be 15 minutes. after about 30 minutes, the hostess called back and they said it would take up to 2 hours to get a cab out there. t started to worry. what if we couldn’t get back? walking was not an option, as we were far too south of south, and although we knew there was a subway stop nearby, it just didn’t seem like the best time to be figuring out the philly underground that late at night. t called a few more cab companies himself, offering “whoever gets here will get a BIG tip!”
as he made calls by the door and strategized with the hostess about how we could get home, i stayed seated at the table. our new neighbors to my right were 2 young couples with a few open bottles of wine. the guy seated directly next to me was pretty happy at this point, and wanted to make small talk – mostly about my handbag. he kept talking about how awesome it was and showing his wife, who kind of rolled her eyes, half trying to be polite to me and half embarrassed that her husband was so interested in it rather than their party’s conversation. i kept my end of our conversation brief so as to let him get back to his friends, but this guy was not just friendly – he was drunk friendly, which in his case meant that talking to me/my handbag was more important than how many times his wife kicked him under the table.
finally, i was able to make a quick escape when we saw a cab drive up – which we jumped into immediately. turns out, it was not one of the 4 cab companies that t/the hostess called. oops! sorry, cab dispatchers…
t says: Overall, the food was great, but the location kind of stinks. There’s only one thing to do … we need to go to Bibou for a throwdown …
Baby Blues
t says: a and I went to Baby Blues recently for lunch. It’s a barbecue “chain”, but can you really consider it a “chain” if the other locations are only in California? I wanted to make this one cm-style (a can chime in if he’s so inspired):
(1) brisket was ok. great texture but there weren’t any super-awesome flavors in there like at Percy Street.
(2) mac and cheese was mooshy and bland … unless you consider the profound butter flavor.
(3) fried okra was a little bland.
(4) service was weird (e.g. they never came back to take our drink order)
(5) hush puppies were ok – right in the “middle of the pack” of the ones I’ve had.
(6) we got to sit under a tv and talk about manly things.
Hmmmm … ok, so perhaps I won’t be endorsing Baby Blues in the future. Of course, if you take into account that there really are not that many great lunch places in that area (and the ones that are good are kind of pricey), maybe it’s not so bad. I guess I’d rather just venture north to Lemongrass or west to Distrito if I wanted to eat (or go to a cart). Fortunately, a is so much fun to dine with that he can make up for even the most mediocre of foods.
Revisiting JG Domestic …
t says: cm had an opportunity to go to JG Domestic. He had a far better experience than when we went on opening night.
cm says: just had first visit to garces domestic with a friend of mine … synopsis:
(1) “plant” table issues seemed to have been corrected, very comfortable and open
(2) had the “whole” rabbit, 4 cuts, was delicious – rib rack, front leg, back leg (much darker/tastier than front leg), and loin
(3) star of the show was the blue crab gratin, was almost like a big crab cake, big chunks of crab with a somehow light sauce in a cast iron small skillet with toasts
(4) had a delicious veggie dish with kale that was amazingly not bitter and delicious squash
(5) had these beignets for dessert served with a maple sauce and vanilla creme, were great, better than even the famous cafe du monde in new orleans
plus the bread they served when you sit down was buttery/salty amazing
all in all a really good time and great food.
t says: cm’s a straight shooter when it comes to blogging … but I think we can see that he was very pleased with his meal. After hearing from him, now even I’m excited to try it again!
Meme’s Brunch is Meh …
t says: It was mighty cold over the weekend, so g and I forewent our usual Sunday brunch trip to Cochon and we went to go check out Meme instead. Let’s get to it!
12/2010, Sunday AM, Party of 2. We sat down and I was torn by the menu. Do I go starch, or do I go “something else”. g convinced me that going for the cornmeal pancakes was basically dooming Meme for failure, as clearly they wouldn’t be able to surpass Cochon. So I instead went for their Brussels sprouts and bacon with a “side” of a biscuit and sausage gravy. g went for the steak and eggs special (it was either that or the omelette).
The place was kind of empty, so we expected the food to be out in a dizzying speed … we were wrong. So g and I made chit-chat while we looked around and wondered why we hadn’t quite gotten around to eating brunch at Meme sooner – after all – it was so close to where we live.
Before the food came out, we smelled the Brussels sprouts. Mmmmmmm. One of the fun benefits of an open kitchen. As our plates appeared, we dug right in. The Brussels sprouts were quite good. Not as well seasoned as the ones we’ve had at Barbuzzo, but that’s likely because the nice piece of breaded-and-friend bacon was sitting next to it. Ahhh. Brussels sprouts and bacon. It’d be hard for this dish to not be successful. The bottom of the bacon was a little tough (I’m not sure why), but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t chew through, so I wasn’t complaining.
Unfortunately, that’s where the deliciousness died and my mental complaining began … The sausage gravy I had was fine, but it was no better than any standard sausage gravy that any diner in South Jersey could pull off. Furthermore, kp’s gravy put this one to shame. Bigtime. Yes, he is our resident expert of “the South”, but his access to equipment and ingredients has to be less than Meme – and Meme couldn’t quite muster the flavors to surpass him. And then the biscuit … it was about one notch above a Pillsbury Grands biscuit, which puts it squarely at “mediocre” in my book (I’m sorry if everyone loves Pillsbury Grands biscuits – they’re just not as good as the cinnamon rolls). So why am I dissing the biscuits? Well, to be honest, it just left me puzzled. Where’s the flavor? Where’s the flakiness? Where’s the buttery moist center? None to be found.
g’s steak was not much better in terms of taste … or execution … or appearance. First off, it tasted like cow. That’s it. It was clearly underseasoned and wasn’t accompanied by any pan sauces or drippings or anything to suggest that the chef did anything more to it than take it out of the fridge and stick it on the grill. And it showed just by looking at the poor piece of NY strip – it wasn’t that dark caramel-colored brown that steaks normally get, rather, an anemic, acholic brown (not a typo) – very weird. And then the execution: the thick part was way undercooked. This was surprising. You see, g and I routinely order our steaks medium at restaurants until we trust that they can execute steaks consistently enough to pull off a medium rare … here’s a prime example of a failure: g’s medium steak was downright rare at the thickest part. Fortunately, by the time she got to that part, she had had enough of the steak so we weren’t going to go through the hassle of having to send it back to get it cooked a little more. (As a sidenote, I wonder if you could send back a steak because it tastes boring?) At the end of the meal, g wished she had ordered the omelette (which we saw go out to another table, but really, even that looked like an omelette we could have made at home). Of course, she’s not so rude as to admit such a thing to another person out loud, but I saw it in her eyes.
g says: I feel compelled to step in here for a moment and express how very disappointing my dish was. First of all, steak and eggs was one of the -specials- of the day, which led me to believe that it would be aptly named. t described the steak already, but I must also admit that the other items on my plate were pretty sub-par as well. The potatoes were underseasoned, and the fried egg was gross. That’s right. The yolk was cooked enough that it was no longer runny, yet the white was half rubbery and half a clear/gooey/snot-like mess. Oh, and also unseasoned.
It’s funny – when our server delivered our food, she asked me if I needed ketchup or hot sauce for my meal. I responded with my usual “no thank you,” as I expected that the chef would have seasoned everything to his liking. Perhaps I should have taken her up on her offer… End note.
t says: Conclusion … Meme’s breakfast was kind of “meh” – we might try the Brussels sprouts if we absolutely had to go back. I sure hope that dinner is far more spectacular, especially given the praise that Meme got from Philly mag and our friends. But for brunch, we’re probably not going back voluntarily. Sorry Meme. We’d rather go to nearby Sandy’s, where there is absolutely no intention of trying to do anything “special” – just plain homemade food. At least that way, we get what we expect (well, unless you order the “hot Italian sausage”, right sr?).
after dinner sneeze 