a & v ascend to “Steak 9”
t says: After my great experience at GTC for their all-you-can-eat steak adventure, I brought some friends to get a second opinion. Just to recap, it’s all-you-can-eat steak, all-you-can-eat French fries, and [presumably] all-you-can-eat salad … for $25 … and GTC is corkage-free for the first bottle, and $10/bottle corkage therafter. Oh, and now it’s officially on the menu! Hooray! Long live steak! In any case, this is what a and v had to say:
v says: Mmmm… steak was delicious. We are on steak 9. My favorite sauce was a’s, but I couldn’t have eaten as much of his as I could mine… It was so good I could have continued making room for more if I wasn’t worried about undoing the buttons on my pants. The fries were also great. What stands out, though, is the salad. I immediately noticed they used the same dressing for this salad as their Lyonnaise one. Great decision, unfortunately, they’ve toned down the flavor due to a couple of complaints about the intensity of the dressing. The service was more than eager to continue serving us, which was great, because we didn’t feel like the gluttons that some of us (a and I) were.
I will wear an elastic waist band next time…
a says: I agree with v’s take. Best $25 complete meal in Philly and bonus: it’s AYCE. My dessert was good but I really didn’t care at that point since I, too, was on steak 9. Let’s do this again real soon! N.B. Plan to walk to AND from the restaurant.
Also, the wines were delicious and fun. Most had a typical aspect: nose for the Pinot, mouth for the Sauvignon Blanc and Cab, but then proved more interesting in other aspects. The Pinot was full in the mouth with nice viscocity, it stood up to the steak – the standout of the night (check it here). The SB smelled like rubber (burnt rubber, actually) and hay then switched to strong petrol in the mouth. The Cab smelled more like a Shiraz or Merlot with lots of red fruit and some green earth but then went to dark fruits, vanilla and good grip (t gestures: “grip!”) on the tongue (check it here).
t says: Ah, yes, the wine … That Sineann pinot noir was most definitely a cab-drinker’s pinot. It was rich and full and void of a single rough edge anywhere, even if it was missing some of that hallmark Oregon funk and acid … but it was still delicious. Not a single person, including me, could object to it. I wish more of the ’08 could still be found (I personally don’t know if other vintages taste as good – but one can hope!). I’ll give it a nod as wine of the night, as it was straight-up more interesting than the Hall cabernet. Even moreso interesting, however, was the Sauvignon Blanc that we had. Now, this is not some “easy-breezy” Sauvignon Blanc. This one slaps you in the face with petrol, petrol, and more petrol. I estimate that 99% of casual wine-drinkers will not like this wine. I estimate that 90% of wine enthusiasts will not like this wine. But g and I love it (a and v liked it, too, but it’s not like they’re clamoring for more). It will now be added to the cellar so we can have some of this $10 beauty on hand at all times. If you manage to find it, buy a bottle and give it a try (or take us to dinner and we’ll bring a bottle for all to try!). I bet that people who kinda-sorta-secretly-enjoy the scent of a gas station will like this wine (seriously!). Also – if this is your kind of wine, then you’re our kind of people: let’s eat and drink together. If not, then, well, we can get you some Woodbridge Chardonnay or Cavit Pinot Grigio (burned! … j/k!).
Kris is bananas for brunch
t says: g and I met up with some friends at Kris for brunch the other weekend. Our brunchmates were Kris-obsessed, so when they heard that g and I had never gone, their hearts broke (I exaggerate for effect …). It has been a while since we’ve gone, so my memory has faded about what everyone else had. <Checks his iPhone> Actually. That’s a lie. I can’t remember what anyone else had because I was too busy focused on this:
bananas
I apologize for the quality of that photo, but I was trying to be nonchalant with my photo-taking (I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of our friends … and I didn’t want to embarrass our friends in front of the restaurant staff, either). And boy am I glad I did … because I totally housed this dish in a matter of 5 minutes. These pecan-crusted brioche french toast slices are topped with caramelized banana. It reminded me of a more elegant form of this monster (that I still love/miss/cherish to this very day). Say what you will about how “boring” some nuts, French toast, and bananas are, but this was damn delicious. All the textures were dead-on. Give me a scoop of bacon ice cream up in there and I could have gone into a food coma a happy man … as it was, I ended the meal pleasantly full, not grossly full … until, of course, we split an order of the nutella crepes which were amazing (although I have to confess that the dish is really kinda-sortuva pretty obvious excuse to just eat nutella for breakfast).
g had some kind of egg dish. If she was still awake at the time I was writing this, I would ask her about its details. I do remember her being happy, though – happy enough to want to try it again – both for brunch AND dinner!
It’s still early in the game to make a call on Kris, but I have to say that so far, it seems like they’re going to make a strong case for us to journey south-of-South more often!
have a capogiro affogato … even if it’s not on the menu
t says: A colleague and I hit up Capogiro for a post-lunch pick-me-up. Anticipating a somewhat-boring afternoon, we wanted some caffeine, but also wanted an excuse to have gelato as well. Problem solved:
affogato!
This concoction of coffee/espresso and gelato wasn’t on the menu, but the gelato-dude (?gelateer? gelatorista?) was happy to concoct one for the each of us. I went with marshmallow gelato, and the end result, while not quite in the proportions I was expecting (it was quite a good bit of gelato for a small amount of liquid … but I guess I could then reason that I was getting my mone’s worth!), was delicious. It reminded me of a hot chocolate with marshmallow … except with coffee … leading me wonder: why don’t people routinely add marshmallow to their coffee as they do hot chocolate? I think I might have to start! Also, while I had never had their marshmallow before, it might just be my new second-favorite flavor! (You can’t beat the dark chocolate.) So check out an affogato the next time you’re there – you can get your sugar-high and caffeine-rush on all at once!
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!
sadface dinners …
t says: g and I have hit up two dinner recently that left us a little … wanting … I’m going to consolidate their stories here so we can minimize the number of negative posts …
Brick American Eatery. It’s no wonder there seems to be a “deal” like a Groupon going on here every time we turn around … the food is a miss! I don’t want to harp on every dish we got (actually, dz’s dinner, the Asian noodles and the Fish-n-Chips, looked pretty darned tasty! … nevermind they were the least “American” items on the menu), so I’ll pick the worst of the ones we had (i.e. out of 4 appetizers and 3 mains). It was mine. Check it:
the food was so bad that the picture didn’t even warrant a proper Snapdish quick-fix.
The sprouts: pale, no char, no texture. The steak: pale, minimal Maillard, no flavor. The jus: insipid, no salt, no pepper. People! It’s a steak! It’s a steak and Brussels sprouts! It was popular in 2009! If the $25 all-you-can-eat steak is better than yours, you should just take steak off the menu so you can stop breaking the hearts of customers. No matter how good dz’s entrees looked, nothing can save a restaurant from a bad steak … the mediocre salmon and stale duck nachos didn’t help either. Consequently, I have no choice but to withhold adsz’s stamp of approval (actually … it makes me wish we had a stamp of dismissal … can I do that?). Fortunately, the company was good, and the glass of wine was deep …
Jamonera. So, going in, I imagined that Jamonera would have been like Amada with the feel of Barbuzzo … Man-o-man was I disappointed. And it wasn’t just me! It was g and kp, too! (And kp is perhaps the second-nicest-guy-in-the-world!) The dish the best encapsulates our frustration:
Papa Frita Snoozefest!
So … the papa frita … It’s normally a deliciously fried seasoned potato. And the one thing jamonera did superbly was frying it – I have never had so wonderfully-a-crisped potato. But they were missing one very important aspect of the dish … flavor. What was that weak aioli they had going on? Where’s the seasoning? Where’s the oomph? I wanted it to hit my mouth and make me go “wow”, and then follow it up with a warm, soothing hug of fried-potato-comfort … and this did neither (I don’t find that quantity of aioli comforting … clog-inducing, yes, comforting, no). The other items we sampled that night were similarly lacking in flavor. Their albondigas made me wish I was at Barbuzzo. Their charcuterie made me wish I was at Amada or GTC. The were definitely not winning any adsz awards that night! Oh well – I guess even the mighty Val and Marcie can disappoint once in a while! I suspect that Jamongera may go the way of the Bindi. It’s ok – there’s always Lolita and Barbuzzo …
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!
after dinner sneeze 