Fond keeps killing it
t says: A gaggle of peeps went to Fond recently. I was slated to go, however, felt a bit under the weather, so the other 7 had to go on without me. Fortunately, a and v and g paid attention and reported back … (but took no pictures …)
August 2012, Friday Dinner, Party of 7.
g says: The crudo was the best crudo they’ve ever made! And I had the beef … it was delicious as always.
a says: We had three appetizers. The foie has no equals, and it was somehow made even better by the lemon-ricotta. (Note to Fond: Where can I find this stuff?) The speck wrapped shrimp was OK, though I was warned by Steve (t explains: Steve is Fond’s charming, bigger-than-life waiter) that it wouldn’t hold-up to the foie. I actually think the corn risotto under the shrimp was more interesting. (v jumps in: Actually, the risotto dish is second to the pigs feet at Bibou on v’s list of favorite dishes in Philly.) For my main, they do the best skate wing I’ve ever had, but I don’t know I’ve had it anywhere else. Whatever, it rocks. v’s spanish octopus had good texture and a lot of flavor, and not surprisingly, she wasn’t sharing much. They accommodated v and I’s sharing of the cheesecake by pre-splitting and serving two plates. The cheesecake and shortbread cookie went together perfectly, resulting in a lighter, summer dessert . The service was outstanding in that we are treated like family (or at least a second cousin). We appreciated the honesty about the menu and thoughtfulness when serving of the staff. We can’t wait to go back and share a few more shots with them in their new location. Hopefully they’ll still be on the house.
t says: Sure, there were more stories and more people who had impressions about the food, but because I haven’t interrogated them, personally, I don’t want to put down what I heard they might have said – that’d be heresay. The gist, however, is that the food continues to rock at Fond. Actually. If anything, it sounds like it’s even a little better than before, as the desserts which I kinda-sorta-poo-pooed last time were very well-received by the group. We’re happy for their success and wish them luck in the future … even if they do move to a new venue with a liquor license …
imitating nutella
t says: Nutella is for me what Sriracha is for kp: it could go on pretty much anything, and I’d be happy. You can imagine my surprise then during my last grocery escapade when I cam across a Nutella imitation … by Jif!
“choosey moms choose Jif …”
Feeling the need to do some investigative journalism (and the need for an excuse to shove more chocolate-flavored goodness in my mouth), I decided to do the above three-way comparison. No – I have no idea why I thought to include peanut butter, but it seemed like a good idea at the time (in truth, I probably included it because it was right next to the other two in our pantry).
nutritional information
I decided to first compare the labels. I was tempted to call the original Nutella “healthier” than Jif’s version … but then I realized that because both are kinda-sorta-really-awful for you (I mean, seriously, who’s eating either of these thinking that they’re “healthy”?), the minute differences are silly to point out. They both have a lot of fat. They have a lot of sugar. Period. What is interesting, however, is the picture of Nutella’s “example of a tasty yet balanced breakfast”. Yea – I’m pretty sure that the inclusion of Nutella contributes absolutely nothing to the overall “balance”/completeness of that breakfast … as demonstrated by Nutella recently losing a lawsuit over the claims of promoting healthy eating. Sorry Nutella – you’re not fooling anyone.
straight-up!
On to the taste-test! I elected to start by eating a bit of each of them straight-up. I thought for sure that Jif would have a different texture than Nutella – but I was wrong – it’s very similar. Kudos to Jif for being able to emulate that oddly-soft-yet-cohesive-and-sticky quality of Nutella; I thought for sure that they’d screw it up and make it texturally similar to peanut butter. As for taste, I can say that Nutella and Jif are indeed different. Nutella is smooth-as-a-baby’s-bottom: it’s creamy/milky the whole way through, with a gradual onset and recession of a smooth hazelnut flavor. It’s like the tide rolling in and leaving. Jif, on the other hand is punchier. On top of the milk chocolate and hazelnut is some kind of tangy/zippy flavor throughout that I feel is most similar to a pistachio. Consequently, the Jif is more dynamic – it draws attention to the fact that there’s some kind of nutty flavor going on – it’s more like throwing in a few strikes of lightning to an otherwise serene rolling of the tide. Could I tell them apart had I not tasted them next to eachother? Unsure. But there’s a definite difference when you do …
and again … with accompaniments!
I then went back and tasted them again with honey wheat pretzels and then again with prunes. What was odd is that I liked the Nutella with the pretzel (that creaminess is nicely balanced with the pretzel’s salt and mild wheatiness – whereas the Jif’s extra nuttiness masked everything), but preferred the Jif with the prune (the extra nuttiness was useful against the palate-dominating plum flavor).
So I guess this means that for crazy people, there might be individual roles for both spreads. And while I’m pretty crazy, I’m not so crazy that I’d stock them both. So who’s going to “win” the next time I go to the grocery store? Well, after they run out (I mean, obviously I’m going to have to work my way through them both), I anticipate that I’ll return to the Nutella – that creaminess is just too addictive. Jif did a great job (a spoonful of Jif hazlenut spread works just as well as Nutella in picking up your mood after a tough day) – but there’s something about the original that just can’t be beat …
paris 2013
t says: It just got real. g and I have never been, but now it’s settled: plane tickets have been booked (hooray for Chase Points! It’s only going to cost us $700 for 2 tickets, non-stop, round-trip!). Accommodations are very-nearly-booked. If anyone has any suggestions of places to go/see/stay/eat, hit us back in the comments or email us: afterdinnersneeze@gmail.com.
Our Philly Diner en Blanc Primer
t says: Ah yes. Diner en Blanc. Pictures are everywhere. We have some, too, but a lot of them have our mugs on ’em, so we’re not going to be able to show those off. Instead, we’re going to treat this kind of like a “how g-&-t-&-a-&-v do Diner en Blanc”. Hopefully this post will be helpful for our planning next year …
g and I easily sourced our table and chairs, but we had to decide what was going to go on the tabletop. There were so many options of glasses and utensils that we needed to visualize it. Fortunately, Dr. Moody (a gift from lc) was ready-willing-and-able to help out:
Dr. Moody lends a helping hand by modeling different dinnerwares …
Eventually, we did decide on our tabletop selections, and everything looked pretty darn spiffy:
our tabletop!
The ONLY regret we had was that our selections were damn-heavy. The glasses: real glass. The dishes: real porcelain (and there were two!). The silverware: real metal. That bottle our water was in: real glass. g and I are not World’s-Strongest-Man material – we can say that by the time we got to the site, we were quite pooped. And we can only imagine what a was going through, as his table was even heavier than ours! Of course, part of why we were pooped was due to stupid-as-crap route they took us to go from 30th street to Logan Square, but that’s another rant … (“To the Main Line!”)
The official g & t mascots of Diner en Blanc … hiding under the shrubbery … we should have won “best table” for them alone … nevermind the edited, classy display of properly placed utensils, a single vase, a single candle, real steak knives, antique cheese spreader-thingees, big wine glasses …
The four of us also brought our own home-made food. There were others who did the take-out thing with some classy-looking foods (table next to us had some sliders, I saw some Italian take-out elsewhere). I saw there were a lot of people there trying to be “unique” by bringing sushi, but that ultimately ended up being as “unique” as getting a butterfly tramp stamp <re-read this sentence and play the effect at sadtrombone.com for full effect>. Ultimately, v and g took it upon themselves to craft a meal that was built especially for DeB. The food needed to be able to be served at room/outdoor temperature. It needed to be transportable. It needed to be light. It needed to be filling. It needed minimal number of components (i.e. minimal number of gladware). It needed to lack any sauces that would dribble everywhere or leak in our picnic basket. It needed to be pair-able with wine. It needed to be shareable in case we got friendly with neighbors. It needed to be eaten with fork and knife (after all, this is a classy event …) This is what they came up with …
quinoa salad
v made a quinoa salad and it was scrumptious. v said that it was based on a recipe she found here – except no gouda and a different vinegar; it turned out to be a feast for the eyes as well as the mouth. We paired it with a rose that a picked out from the PLCB and we were in heaven (seriously, this may have been the best rose I’ve had all year … it’s been such a tough year of roses for me – nothing like a legit Bandol to really show the world how to do a proper rose). I could not think of a more fitting start to an outdoor summer meal.
“g surprise”
g whipped up a pasta dish inspired by something her mom crafted the other day. The main idea was pasta and cheese and chorizo and wilted spinach and multi-colored bell peppers for some crunch. g’s still got it! And, of course, we microplaned some more cheese at the table. For this course, a pulled out a delightful red he found at Moore Bros. I was worried at first that it was going to overtake the summery pasta, but the tango was pleasant (there was a good amount of cheese in the pasta, so there was some richness and flavors in there to compete with the red). The pairing probably wasn’t “perfect”, but of course a also had no idea what was going to be in the pasta, either (we literally called it “g surprise” when we made up the sample menu).
cheese plate
For the cheese plate, we had some Pecorino Fulvi, a triple creme goat/cow blend from GTC, and garrotxa. This was accompanied by garlic dulce de leche (not pictured), some pistachios, prosciutto, and fig. It was a very interesting assortment of mild cheeses – fun to mix-and-match with accompaniments and wine. By now, we moved on to Erath “Le Jour Magique” White Pinot Noir … it rocked my socks again.
dessert …
We finished with an apple tart that v made (recipe here). It was beautiful (and somehow we managed to transport it still intact). I topped it with some crushed heath bar, and we would have had some diced cherries had I not forgotten them at home (my one actual regret!) Nevertheless, the tart was bold enough to stand on its own, proudly proclaiming its appleness and showing off a crust that kept me coming back for more. The dessert, combined with a Vouvray bubbly (NV Francois Pinon Brut, of NYT fame) was a solid outdoor sparking wine (not that I could drink the bubbly … but I’m told!). I heard so many positive things that I bought another bottle!
In all, DeB was a great time. We liked our food choices. We liked our wine choices. The “lows” of the evening were probably the lugging of our stuff to Logan Circle/Square and trying to manage a cracked cork without spilling red wine everywhere (I hope a’s official DeB attire is ok!). The people around us were nice enough. Fun was had by all. Can’t wait for next year!
w’s bash
t says: w’s thoughtful and loving fiance threw her quite a party in celebration of a milestone in her career. I have to admit that I was pretty tired that evening (i.e. I was working that weekend), so I wondered whether I could find a gracious way to bow out – sleep was very desirable. Boy am I glad I did no such thing … cuz then I would have missed this:
Lord of the Flies, anyone?
w’s fiance wasn’t kidding when he said he would supply “lots of meat”. g and I were thinking, “charcuterie platter?” No – this was WAY better. And it didn’t just have shock value – it was a damned tasty pig. Super-succulent. And it also had a gallon of what I can only imagine are pig drippings in case you wanted to have some jus on the side. (Speaking of which: kp, did you freeze that stuff?). This was perhaps one of the most brilliant moves I’ve ever seen at a potluck-y celebration – so much so that I will certainly steal it. If anyone knows where the pig came from, comment on the bottom and I’ll add it.
There was a LOT of other food there – and it was all spectacular. g whipped up her nana’s potato salad, which seemed like it had some pretty fervent supporters. Stay tuned for a post in the recipe section for more details on how to make it.
And finally, there was a ton of great homemade desserts. The one that caught my tongue the most was this one:
[a melting] key lime pie
after dinner sneeze 