KFC’s One-upmanship
t says: Burgers are “cool”. Burger joints are opening and you can find new over-the-top, gourmet burgers in lots of Philly restaurants. But what are fast food places doing? I suppose it won’t be long until you start seeing foie gras or truffle on McDonald’s cheese burgers … In the meantime, KFC has decided to think outside the bun, with their own over-the-top version of a burger. While I think that this concoction is absolutely ridiculous, I know I’d order one just to see what it looks like in real life. I also can’t wait to see restaurants offering a similar variation of their burgers …
Yogorino: Not Yo’ Mamma’s Fro’ Yo’
t says: When I used to think of frozen yogurt, I thought of TCBY. Essentially, I thought of custard (or “soft serve” as most people call it) that never tasted quite as good as ice cream (also, the texture was less “creamy” and more “frozen”). Well, Yogorino apparently recognized the taste disparity, gave ice cream the middle finger, and shouted defiantly, “we don’t want to taste like ice cream”. The end result was a super-creamy soft serve creation that tasted liked … yogurt! It’s actually quite stunning how much like yogurt it tastes – especially upon your first bite when your mouth and brain expects “oh, vanilla soft serve” but bam! it gets that yogurt twang instead (yea, there’s creamy vanilla and sugar, too, but the yogurt flavor is what makes the biggest first impression).
Yogorino has this one shtick: yogurt. They only have one flavor of yogurt: “vanilla” (or more accurately “vanilla yogurt”). The Yogorino experience is with the variety of interesting toppings – they have dry (including chocolate shavings, nuts, other candies), fresh fruit (changes frequently), fake fruit (fruit sauces), and wet (other sauces, like chocolate and caramel). I’d be willing to bet that fresh strawberries and either chocolate shavings or chocolate sauce is the most common combination – makes sense to me – they taste good together!
Now, g and I have been there a few times, but I never felt particularly “moved” by it. Personally, I like the taste of yogurt, but mostly with my Indian food or for my breakfast. For dessert, I’d rather go to the nearby Capo Giro, where if I order something vanilla … it tastes like vanilla! But tonight … Yogorino changed it all for me … and for the better! Maybe it was the company? Maybe it was the beautiful weather? Maybe it was the peace of Rittenhouse Square at night? These were great … but I’m pretty sure it was the yogurt. Or should I say, the toppings? I ordered a small with chocolate sauce and pistachio sauce (not the nuts … a green sauce). The end result was an interesting brown-green puddle atop a mound of white. It looked atrocious, but it was SO tasty. The pistachio flavor was light, the chocolate was inviting, and the yogurt twang actually tasted like the sour you would get from fresh fruit, not from yogurt. According to my brain, I had a chocolate-pistachio-fruit soft serve … it was awesome! Plus, with the “probiotics”, it’s good for me … right?
g got caramel sauce on top of hers, and she said it was the best topping she’s ever had on top of Yogorino. I disagree … mine was. But hers was a close second …
In the end, I’m glad I’ve come around to liking Yogorino. I’ve heard so many people talk about how it’s the greatest thing ever, and now I feel like I can at least join the conversation with the aspects that I like about it. But … will I ever choose it over Capo Giro? Maybe … it depends how close I am to Capo Giro …
An Ode to Bobby Flay
k says: This is an ode to my culinary hero. I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Bobby’s Burger Palace (BBP) just a few blocks away from our apartment. First, a little background on the topic that is so close to my heart —
I love Bobby Flay. Now, I know there is some controversy here. t himself has bashed Bobby on a few occasions, even in this very blog. And yet we’re still friends … t thinks that Bobby is inferior to Morimoto and that he was kind of a whiner in that classic Iron Chef episode where they first faced off, and similarly childish when they rematched in Japan. While I agree, it’s now over 10 years later and the new Bobby is not like that. The new Bobby makes shrimp and corn tamales that still make my mouth water one year after eating them. The new Bobby has humility. He is always a little embarrassed when he wins a Throwdown. The new Bobby knows how to share the stage and is always open to learning from others on Grill It. t will mention that Bobby is sometimes criticized for playing it safe in competitions, only sticking to the cuisine he knows best, relying heavily on southwestern flavors and his favorite chipotle. True, but who sticks to what he knows more than Morimoto? And nobody criticizes him…because it’s delicious! A robust statistical analysis will show that Bobby consistently wins in the “taste” category during Iron Chef competitions. Bobby has cultivated a style with bold and complex flavors, as evident by the Mesa Grill menu, that in my opinion is quite delicious.
A full restaurant review is forthcoming …
t says: If I see Bobby tomorrow, I’ll fight the urge to buy a burger from Supper (or a burrito from the nearby Chipotle) and challenge him to a throwdown … But on a serious note, I’m totally down for a good burger – I hope he delivers the goods …
Garces Trading Company: Our Wallets Are Scared …
t says: A few weekends ago on a Saturday, g, her mom, and I were in the mood for an early lunch. There were many available opportunities (no one has wait times at 11am), but we knew that g’s mom is a Garcesophile, so we had to try out his latest venture: Garces Trading Company (GTC for short … cuz I’m lazy). GTC is a combination market, restaurant, and what I’d like to call a “bistro”. Wait – a restaurant and a bistro? That’s weird. I’ll explain [eventually] …
When you first walk in to GTC, the space appears quite open, with the market, prepared foods, and to-be-prepared foods along the left and rear walls and a refrigerated cellar-esque wine room along the right wall. In the center of this massive space are some normal-height tables (like the ones you’d find at a restaurant). This center area was set apart physically from the circumference of the room as well as from other tables that were much taller with stools. What gives with the different tables? Is Garces segregating tall-ies from the shorties? Well, if you opt to go for the short tables, they are fully serviced with wait staff who will take your order and bring out your food [and obligate you to leave a tip] … like a restaurant! Alternatively, you can walk around the circumference of GTC and pick out and order whatever you want and take a seat at one of the taller bistro tables on your own (i.e. without service). But if you go for this option, you have no control over what seats are available or who you may be sitting next to. Regardless of where you want to sit (or whether or not you want to be waited on), the available food options are the same! I like that! You could zip in and get your food and run without feeling like you were missing something, or you could stay and linger (perhaps with a bottle of wine you just bought?). It’s quite an interesting setup.
What about the market? Well, the “market” seemed kind of small for what I was imagining. I guess I was used to something like Talula’s Table that has a lot of random food-centric things that fill up a considerable amount of space. GTC seems like it doesn’t have as much, but in retrospect I think it’s just that the market occupies such a small amount of space versus how much space GTC as a whole takes up. So what do they have? They have a selection of olive oils, which you can [freely] sample right there with the [free] provided bread. These range from “nice olive oils” up to black and white truffle oils … which I tried … which was fantastic, and way too far out of my price range. The black truffle oil tasted just like “truffle”, but the white tasted a little lighter with a bit of spice to it (maybe like black pepper? not sure). It was earthy with a small jab of liveliness. I have no idea what I’d do with it if I had it in the house – maybe just sit there eating it with bread … or maybe d would come over and we could try to make Melograno’s pappardelle tartufate? I later found out that truffle oils are usually synthetic, so I don’t know if GTC’s was the real deal or not, but who cares? It tastes good, right? Before you poo-poo on synthetic truffle oil, I just want to say that if you’re thinking that your favorite truffle dish at XYZ restaurant surely comes from real truffle oil, then I think you should go and ask the chef next time … you might be eating your words …
Back to GTC … they have a selection of meats (including house-cured charcuterie) and cheeses as well, which I know very little about but looked good! And, they have a wine room … I walked into the “cellar”, wanting to flex some CSW muscle (I studied at the Restaurant School) by reading some labels and seeing how much I could recall. Geez – my knowledge of Spain has grown quite rusty, which is a shame because Jose seems to have a few bottles beyond the norm. All-in-all it was nice to browse. The selection wasn’t nearly as extensive as you’d find at a Wine and Spirits Shoppe, rather, it had more medium-to-high priced selections. There were some cheap bottles there in case you just wanted a little pick-me-up in the middle of your weekday to go with your lunch.
So … on to the food:
3/2010, Saturday 11:30am, Party of 3 (Bistro Tables). As we walked around, looking at the foods, I was tempted by the pizzas and the “special” beef burgundy for 2 (made with shortrib). However, I wasn’t in the mood to wait a long time (I was eyeing the Chicago deep dish pizza – which requires waiting 30 mins) or over-eating (I save over-eating for dinnertime). There were lots of things that sounded great – but in the end, I just let g decide for us … We got the lamb sandwich. Lamb sandwich? That’s it? Yep. But it was a damn good lamb sandwich. It featured perfectly cooked lamb loin with eggplant and chickpeas, and a little side of roasted red peppers. The lamb sung, “I am cooked as well as any lamb dish you’ll find in a restaurant”, while the bread chanted, “I’m as good as Tony Luke’s bread, cuz I’m crispy on the outside and soft on the inside”. See? The food was so good, that it started singing to me.
g’s mom went for a salad: Insalata Semplice. She was super-impressed by her meal, between the pomegranate, blood orange, and pistachio. I’m sure if she is so inspired (even though it’s been over two weeks), she’ll leave a comment down below (::hint:hint::nudge:nudge::).
g and I will definitely go back to GTC. It was just too good (and reasonably priced). Between the market and the food, I just don’t understand how anyone who lives or works in the area isn’t completely flat-out broke. Boy am I glad it’s not within walking distance of where we live …
Chocolate Taste-off: Vosges vs. the World
t says: Back when I was a wee one, I ate Hershey’s chocolate bars. They were yummy. They had that classic Hershey’s texture where no matter what temperature it was outside, it was soft and flexible – almost like a fudge or really thick ganache. Flash forward 20 years, and I’m still eating Hershey’s chocolate bars … how can you make s’mores without ’em? I guess I don’t consider them to be “fine chocolate”, but I still consider them as tasty … “things”. At a recent Philly food tour, I was introduced to better chocolates and was intrigued … but hadn’t had the chance to really explore these fancier chocolates …
One day a month or so ago, lc sent us some Vosges chocolate, which was flavored with bacon. She thought we’d get a kick out of the concept. I did! My response was “ooooooo, bbaaccoonn …”. But g’s was, “oooooo, Vvoossggeess …”. I had never heard of Vosges, aside from the mountains. g tells me it’s some really nice, really expensive chocolate. I took her word for it. I imagine real choco-philes would probably snub Vosges (much like they snub Max Brenner), instead preferring some kind of chocolate that was had from a certain cocoa plant that was fertilized with a certain type of manure from a sacred cow that fed on a blessed field of grass. Whatever. I was going to judge for myself just how “good” these chocolates were; would they fulfill the ultimate criteria: would I buy it again?
A few weeks passed and I still had not yet tasted the bacon chocolate – I kept holding off until we got more other chocolates to taste with it. Of course, I kept forgetting to pick up other chocolates when I saw them (e.g. at Naked Chocolate Cafe). Then g and I just happened to run into a store in Kennett Square that had a clearance on Vosges – buy one, get one free. I considered it but was not super-convinced it was worth $8 for two bars ($8 each, normally). Then the manager gave me a piece of the Vosges chocolate that featured chiles. I put it in my mouth and was greeted with a nice bitter dark chocolate. As it slowly melted in my mouth, the taste of chocolate increased as the bitterness faded – it was delicious! But then came the heat. Now, I like heat, and I even like heat with my chocolate – but it was a little distracting – it just screamed “I’m hot and I’m here and I killed the chocolate – what are you gonna do about it?”. So I decided that I wanted to try more Vosges but vetoed getting the chile one – we picked up one creole bar (flavored with chicory, espresso, and cocoa nibs) and one naga bar (flavored with curry and coconut milk). The stage was set – we were going to have a four-way taste-off … or so I thought …
Two more weeks passed, and I found myself at the local drug store staring at Cadbury chocolate bars that were on sale for $1. g and I have a thing for Cadbury fruit-and-nut bars (especially the one that kp brought back from England, i.e. not made by Hershey’s), so I was thinking of throwing it in the mix. I was sold when I saw the “2009 Chef’s Choice” or some other meaningless award advertised on the package. Then, a few days later, in Picnic (I needed some eggs and the drug store was too far away), I had to buy some more stuff so that I could use my credit card. They had some other chocolate bars – these were by “Chocolove”! Swayed by the goofy name, I bought one that included crystallized ginger and another that was “cherry and chilie” (I hate spelling it like that). Now, it was going to be a 7-chocolate tasting! A random Thursday night came around and I figured that I should put this tasting to rest or risk buying more chocolate “for the sake of the blog”. I was totally ready for it. g was also psyched … but she fell asleep before I was done opening each of the packages (she’s narcoleptic like that). It was just me and the chocolate (I saved her some) …
That's a lot of chocolate!
The chocolate's ready!
I couldn’t figure out how one should go about properly tasting chocolate. For wine, you normally start with those that have less body/flavor/tannin and increase – so light, herbaceous whites, followed by fruitier, intense whites, followed by light reds, followed by hit-you-in-the-mouth reds. For chocolate, do you go by the bitterness or by the sugar? I was afraid to go for the milk chocolate first because then the dark ones might come off as far too bitter. I was also afraid of getting full if I tried to save the Vosges for last (that’s a LOT of chocolate). So I did the four Vosges at random, had a Cadbury interlude, and then finished with the last two (which I figured would be sweeter than the Vosges).
The creole bar was first. In retrospect, this was very dumb because it was the darkest of the bunch (I think), but random is random – so that’s the way it was. As soon as I put it in my mouth, all I could taste was “yikes, that’s bitter”. It was very bitter. But there was something about this bitter – it didn’t taste like chocolate. It was something else … I remembered the espresso … there we go … that’s what it was – the flavor of bitter coffee was up first … then the chocolate took over as the bitterness faded. Next came a slow building up of coffee flavor that eventually dissipated, returning once again to chocolate, but now it had a very enjoyable sweetness. It was a rollercoaster for my mouth – I enjoyed it very much. There was also something crunchy in there … not sure what it was (?cocoa nibs?), but it was fun to munch on. I did taste this again later, just to make sure the tasting note was consistent … it was.
Next was the Naga bar. Even before I put it into my mouth, my nose caught a whiff of the curry – it was strong, but delightful. I thought I knew what was coming – it was going to be a blissful marriage of savory and sweet … Unfortunately, what I thought was coming was actually better than what came. Yes, there was curry flavor, and yes there was chocolate (more of a milky, sweeter chocolate than the creole – ?coconut milk?), but I just didn’t think the two played well with one another. It reminded me of the Vosges chocolate-chile sample I had in the store – both flavors were there and vivid, but that doesn’t mean it’s a great combo. Would you dip your chocolate in curry?
The bacon bars were next. I had high expectations. Having made bacon-chocolate-chip cookies, I knew this was going to be fun. I bit into the milk chocolate bacon bar, immediately running into something with crunch. It was bacon. I was surprised! I didn’t think that it’d actually have bacon in it – does that mean it should be refrigerated? No idea … In any case, the bacon flavor was profound; the chocolate barely touched the bacon flavor – that was weird (it made me sad). Then a bacon bit got stuck under my tongue (it made me mad). Fortunately, the second bite, which had far fewer bacon bits, had more chocolate-bacon balance – woohoo! I found the chocolate to be very nice (texturally and taste-wise), but it was a little on the sweet side. I looked forward to the dark chocolate …
The flavor of the dark chocolate bacon bar swung the balance in favor of chocolate – the bacon flavor was only there in the presence of a hint of salt – which was nice with the chocolate, but in honesty, the bacon bits tasted more like salted nuts than actual bacon. The bacon flavor only really came on well after I had swallowed the chocolate. It was good, but I want some more bacon up front. In any case, it was very interesting to see what the effect of the chocolate had on the taste of the different bacon bars.
Yeah, Cadbury chocolate bar that was next … dumb idea. It tasted like a sweet, sugary mess. It almost tasted gross which is weird, because it’s normally not a bad chocolate at all – for $1 it was a steal! I guess its cacao percentage just couldn’t stand up to the bolder chocolates I had had up until then … For a split second, I felt like a full-fledged chocolate snob!
The chocolate-cherry-chile bar hit me in the face with cherry from the get-go. And then I bit into something soft – presumably a cherry. Splash! My palate got another dose of sweet cherry. I was caught offguard and regretting that chomp (but I liked the texture – it was the first squishy thing of the evening). But then the chile flavor turned on and saved the day, adding some refreshing spice to my mouth. The only thing – I really didn’t get a whole lot of chocolate – some was there (more up front with the cherry), but it didn’t last. Still – cherry and chile was a fun combo – I think I’d eat it as a 2pm snack for a little fun pick-me-up – like one would eat some sour patch kids or something.
Finally … the last chocolate of the night (well, except for having to go back and re-taste the creole bar). I faced the chocolate and crystallized ginger. I put it in my mouth, not knowing if I could handle the perfume of ginger if it was turned up as high as the cherry was in the bar before. Lo and behold, it was quite tasty! Just the right amount of sweet and tangy ginger to balance the lush and bitter chocolate. Why didn’t I think of this? It’s so simple! While perhaps not as complex an evolution of flavors as the creole bar (ginger and chocolate turned on at the same time and ended at the same time, with the sugar from the ginger buffering the bitter from the chocolate), I was still super-happy. I could totally see a crystallized ginger-dark-chocolate-chip cookie coming out of this. I’m going to have to try it soon.
And I guess that’s it … Summary? The chocolate, itself, in the Vosges bars was great! I think the other flavors that were incorporated ranged from great to ick (*sighs* curry). I think that it’s probably a good idea to sample a variety pack and decide for yourself which of these flavor combos works the best. Nevertheless … I still recommend the bacon for everyone (even though I preferred the Creole one) – if for no other reason than it’s a great conversation starter.
New BYOB at the Shore!
t says: g and I love to hang out at the shore during the summers – we don’t get to go as nearly as often as we’d like. We have noticed, however, that, at least in the town we visit (Sea Isle City), there really isn’t a place for foodies to visit. AC has some good places, but they’re pricey and not exactly local (it’s still a half hour or so away). Don’t get me wrong – there’s great food in Sea Isle (shout out to Andrea’s Trattoria!) – and there’s certainly “fancy” places to go for classic seafood if you want to empty your wallet – but you’re not going to find too many places taking risks and offering non-traditional fare like in Philly (e.g. like shortrib and hanger steak that used to be the “it” meat, and pork belly, which seems to be the current “it” meat). That might change … Some of the crew at Pub and Kitchen is opening up “The Diving Horse” in Avalon. While the focus is on fresh-caught seafood (as reported by The Insider) I’m hoping that they bring some of the deliciousness that P&K has been fabled to have. The prices look on par with what you’d expect at a Philly BYO (for seafood). Of course, we haven’t even eaten the food at P&K yet (we’re wary of “bar food” not because of the food, but because of the bar – paying for alcohol can get expensive, fast), but I’m sure that we’ll at least get to this new shore BYO this summer.
after dinner sneeze 