foo’s gold
t says: I had the good fortune of being stranded around36th and Market around lunch time. With a good hour for lunch, I set out to browse the food truck offerings … and should they fail, I knew I had that whole new Drexel Village complex a short walk away as backup. But of course – as hard as I tried to go and see all the options, the first one I went to grabbed my attention and didn’t let me go …
May 2014, Wednesday Lunch, Party of 2.
Behold! A brightly-colored food truck! It’s “Foo Truck”.
Like a bee attracted to bright colors, I knew I had to check out this truck. Unsurprisingly, it was staffed by near-hipsters (real hipsters are so “over” food trucks – they’d peddle around a hot dog cart so they could be more ‘green’). Surprsingly, it took me a few seconds to try and piece together what it was they were selling: what was a “foo”? (I kept thinking of Mr. T: “I pity the foo'”) Furthermore, what was a foo-which? Are there items on the menu that aren’t foo-whiches? And why was there a big blank under “specials”? Ok – it turns out that they are selling their take on a sandwich, in which the “bread” is a grilled flour tortilla, and the innards are the variety of fillings that they boast on their menu. Being half-korean, I could not help but hear the kimchi fried rice (with Chinese sausage!) calling … One foo-which please!
What came out was a griddled, square shaped, tortilla-wrapped object filled with …
… kimchi fried rice! I would best describe this thing as a hot pocket … but more delicious and less likely to cause diarrhea. The filling was great, with a nicely cooked kimchi (it was hot!) and good chunks of sausage. And, because rice was a major component, it was very filling indeed – try as hard as I could, I couldn’t finish it – it’s about 85% the size of a chipotle burrito. As much as I liked the filling, I do want to suggest that the thing could have benefited from some sort of charred leafy green (maybe like some brussel sprout leaves?) or perhaps a crunchy vegetable (bean sprouts?) – just to try and add some textural variety and fiber to the gut-filling rice and meat (yes, i know that was what the kimchi was for – so maybe include more of the leafy green parts of cabbage next time!). My colleague had one involving an assortment of veggies and quinoa – she approved!
dessert at Foo Truck consisted of these red velvet cake balls. they. were. crazy! Imagine a cakeball … and then make it 3.7x better … and that’s what this was. It’s a pretty darn steep price at $1.50 for one (or $5 for 4) and as you can see, they are pretty tiny … but they’re probably so loaded with sugar and fat, so you probably shouldn’t eat more than one.
I was very satisfied with my lunch at Foo Truck. I will blame it, however, for inducing a food coma that I could only remedy with caffeine (from Joe Coffee, of course). But if that’s really the worst thing about eating at Foo Truck, then I’d say they’re in good shape. I’d go back. I will go back!
P.S. Similar to last time’s post about Joe Coffee’s vegan chocolate chip cookie, this time I bought a gluten-free salted PB cookie, and it was awesome. Great saltiness, awesome thickness, and wonderfully chewy … I’m thankful I only got one, because I had gotten any more, I would have eaten them all.
that’s a serious board!
t says: You know, there is nothing like a weekday lunch to bestow awesomeness upon a week. Here’s the rundown of a liesurely lunch at Zavino in University City …
May 2014, Monday Lunch, Party of 2. The space for the new Zavino is quite nice – a modern-looking place with ample seating … and some soccer on the big screen at the bar for occasional score-checks. But the food! Let me tell you more about the food!
when I first walked in, I knew we had to get me some charcuterie – as they had several logs of meat behind some kind of charcuterie counter on the right … just waiting to be sliced paper-thin. We ordered the meat board, and it came with some cheese, olives, pickled items, and bread which looked a lot like nan, but was probably just some plain pizza dough rolled out. This was one helluva serious board! Oddly, we found the meat to be pretty unremarkable – i mean there was great texture, but we could have used more flavor in both meats. Similarly, the cheeses were just “fine”, both being mild (and one coming across as a pretty plain cheddar – although who knows what it really was). Ultimately, the ample bread was the most interesting part, allowing us to construct little mini-pizzas from meat, cheese, and jams. They just gotta step up that meat and cheese to get a real nod of approval.
the ravioli of the day, featuring rabbit, was pretty delicious, albeit small. the flavor was interesting because it had a very potent herbed essence that hit me in the back of my mouth/palate exactly like the secret-ingredient-laden KFC original recipe. i’m not sure if zavino would want that, but i know i loved it. a agreed with its chickenyness – not necessarily the KFC-ness, but he, too, liked it quite a bit.
the pizza was a site to behold. “the stache” as it’s called had a gloriously prepared whole wheat crust, as well as pesto and arugula. i can see how some of the previous critics laid into the doughiness of the crust (it’s not paper thin and has some squish to it), but I kind of like that! that’s pizza! this isn’t just some thin slice of grilled bread with toppings – this is pizza! a decided that he and v are going to totally rip this combination of ingredients for their future homemade pizzas – he just has to convince v to use their pizza stone.
so with the above criticisms I’ve laid down, why did I feel like this meal was worthy of “awesome”. this is the key, right here. the real winner of the meal was this rose, which contained everything i want in a summer drinking rose: berry nose, little bit of tropical fruit, finishes with a clean refreshing zip … it’s quite wonderful!
so what lunch would be complete without dessert? i didn’t want to stick with one at zavino, as I was in the mood for some coffee at Joe just down the street. while waiting in line, a jar of cookies caught my eye. i immediately resolved to get one … right up until i found that they were vegan … but then, maybe that one glass of wine had me in a buzz, but somehow, as i thought, “why would someone want to eat a vegan cookie?”, i jumped to: “why the hell not?” – and plunked down a whole $2.25 for a single cookie. in the end, it was pretty darn good. it reminded me of a snickerdoodle cookie, but with less cinnamon, some good chocolate chips, and a nice hit of salt. while the cookie had far less cakeinness than I enjoy (it was more like crystalline sugar), it was not a bad showing for a cookie … I wouldn’t buy another … but I wouldn’t avoid one if it was put in front of me.
So … Zavino … great for lunch [with wine]. Try it out on a weekday – you’ll thank me later!
No words to describe my emotions.
t says: look at the prices. i don’t know what to say:
someone else has taken my road not taken!
t says: That’s right! A loyal adsz reader and sometimes guest contributor, rch, took one for the team and went to Matyson last week for their Philadelphia-inspired menu. Read the bottom of that post for the just-now-copy-pasted review! Thanks rch!
amis, it’s been too long!
t says: We were lucky enough to have come into an gift certificate for a Vetri restaurant (except not Vetri), so g and I had to figure out which restaurant to go to. We love Osteria, but it is kinda-sorta-out-of-the-way. Alla Spina had great food, but we were in more of a date-y mood. We knew what had to be done: Amis.
April 2014, Friday Dinner, Party of 2. As documented in one of the rare phenomena of adsz (an entire post written by g!), we did like the food overall at Amis, but not so much as to make it back … at all … over the past 4 years. Yikes! Well, we were about to see how much has changed since then:
First off, lets just say that the server was fantastic. He didn’t over-sell us on food, he memorized our order to perfection, and checked in with us frequently to make sure we were happy with everything. Also, as we had brought our own wine, he was very courteous with refilling our glasses, making for a very happy, buzz-filled evening. He gets thumbs-up all the way.
crudo: special of the evening was a crudo of some sort of bass that was superbly executed. minimally treated with salt, pepper, olive oil, and a few garnishes, the fish really sang through. probably some of the best crudo i’ve had from an Italian restaurant!
sal’s meatballs were fascintating. the meatballs, in combination with a tomato-potato sauce (well, less “sauce” and more “stewed tomato and potato”) came across more like a breakfast dish than anything else. if i closed my eyes and savored the moment, it did taste more like home fries, stewed tomato, and a piece of Italian beef-pork meatloaf. it’s not a bad thing at all, as the meatballs were moist and homely, just unexpected.
We ate other foods, too, but the pictures were all darker than this one. As we had hinted at before, the atmosphere in Amis can be very date-y, which is great, as it has those darker woods, dim lights, etc. Be that as it may, it is incredibly loud in there – even at the octogenarian time slot at which we ate (~6pm), the evening din was more like a cacophony … which was peculiar because indeed the restaurant was full older patrons. Fortunately, g and i were up to the challenge and easily matched the volume of our surroundings. But back to the food: the escarole salad hit g in all the right places – how can you say no to fresh greens, fruit, and cheese? As far as the pastas, we went for the cacio e pepe (above) and the spinach-and-meat lasagna. The lasagna was good and homey – g dug the spinach aspect. But to be honest, i’ve seen g’s mom (and g!) throw together a better lasagna, with a firmer noodle and more flavorful meat (g sometimes likes to brown the whole meatball first, and then break it up for the lasagna). As for the cacio e pepe, it was very cacio, and not very pepe. I preferred melograno’s cacio e pepe, which has a nicely salty cheese and a pronounced pepper bite. But, what I will say is that Amis’s noodles were perfectly al dente and the sauce’s texture was luxuriously rich due to the cheese. Nevertheless … I felt like maybe they could do better … (more to come below). But you know what they could not do better with is the Brussels sprouts. Those bad boys were fried. Not pan-fried – they were fried-fried. And they. were. incredible. Now of course, Brussels sprouts were supposed to have gone out of style about 2 years ago (along with pork belly, to make way for kale, which has already come and gone) … but you just can’t keep a good sprout down.
what dinner would be complete without dessert? Here is the nutella covered waffle with some ice cream. Bam – now that is a dessert. A perfectly crisp waffle, luscious nutella, and a creamy ice cream. Is it a $10 dessert? No way. But it sure is a great one.
While I did complain about Amis’s pastas some, g and I were plenty enough impressed with the food as a whole that we had a wonderful time. Amis’s service and pacing were spot on (oh, and did I mention that their bread was off the hook?) so it’s probably one of the best date nights out we’ve had in a while. The damages ended up being comparable to eating at Talula’s Garden, but of course … if you’ve got a totally bawler gift card in your wallet, every bite tastes better, every sip tastes sweeter. Three cheers to the gifters! Oh – and there was the morning after, too:
g and I had some leftovers: the cacio e pepe and the fried sprouts. this got me thinking: why not have a dish with both? you could still get a rich cheesey pasta, mixed with a hit of pepper (I added more), and the sweetness of fried sprouts? it probably isn’t “traditional” or whatever, but you bet your bunsen burner that it was a dynamite leftovers lunch.
after dinner sneeze 