Odes to Kitchen Equipment
t says: We’re going to start up a new category of posts on the after dinner sneeze. Sorry to disappoint, but it won’t feature poems – only more of the same stream-of-consciousness prose that’s on the rest of the blog. But this time, we’re talking about things, not food. Ever since we we got married, g and I have come across some interesting and not-so-interesting pieces of equipment. We’ve decided to showcase a few items here as a way to pay homage to their makers. We can’t live without these. Some of these will be weird. Some these will be obvious, but are loved for reasons you wouldn’t expect. Some of these will be just plain obvious.
Here’s our top 5 …
4) Gravity-Activated Salt and Pepper Shakers/Grinders
3) Sharp Knives
2) Rice Cookers
Honorable mention: Dutch ovens
Meritage goes cheap[er], Supper goes BYO (kinda)
t says: g and I enjoy Meritage – we can walk to it and the entrees are reasonably priced and have some novelty (see review here). Also, Chef Anne Coll’s really cool. Well, Philadelphia magazine reports that they are having a new fixed price deal on Tuesdays. It’s a dinner for two featuring a whole roasted chicken, parsnip puree, Brussels sprouts, and Chinese sausage for $30 per couple. I think that’s a pretty good deal (I suppose it depends on the size of the chicken)! I’d try it.
Another weeknight special: While this is old news (and maybe I already mentioned it), but g and I have still not had the chance to go to Supper for their new BYO nights (Sundays and Wednesdays). I wonder what wine would go well with their awesome burger? (see review here)
City Food Tours: Educational AND Fun
t says: Part of g’s birthday present was to go out for a Philadelphia “food tour” run by cityfoodtours.com. The company puts together visits to a few locales throughout Philadelphia, and tourists are escorted from site to site (all are within walking distance), taught a thing or two about food at their destination, and given samples. The tour I chose was “Flower Show” themed; we were going to learn/taste cheese, tea, and chocolate with a special focus on incorporating flowers and herbs. Unfortunately, g fell ill, and we ran into the one super-negative about cityfoodtours: the tickets are non-refundable and tickets cannot be applied to any other tours than the one scheduled. Thus, if no one used my tickets, then we would have wasted all that money. In my opinion, this is an absolutely ridiculous policy. Because of this, g informed me that we needed to either find someone to give the tickets to or find someone to go with me; she refuses to waste money (she feels the same about food). I mass-emailed and texted some friends, but no bites. Then k made the mistake of signing into gmail and saying that she was free, but didn’t want to go by herself (cm was working or studying or something). After a few minutes, g managed to persuade (i.e. brow-beat) her into going with me. It was the start of another t and k adventure (like Zahav lunch)!
3/2009, Saturday 3pm, Party of 2, “Flower Show Tour”. We showed up at DiBruno brothers, where we were greeted by our slightly over-enthusiastic, but friendly guide, who happens to be an owner of the company. However, he did make the mistake within the first 10 seconds of meeting me by making a comment about my glasses that I found offensive – he said something like, “nice hipster glasses”. Such an accusation is dangerous – I have many friends who hate hipsters. Also, I’m not a hipster and these aren’t hipster glasses; neither my glasses nor I are “ironic” (or cool) enough. The tour guide redeemed himself later on by commenting that “every halfie is hot”, including me. I say he redeemed himself because in retrospect, it’s a hilariously generalized statement to make; however, at the time, k and I had no choice but to sit there with our awkward turtles in silence. What was also funny was that he assumed that we were married, (which led to another awkward turtle). We are … but not to each other! Overall, k and I both think he was quite a character and did a reasonable job teaching and guiding, although k was not amused by the name game in the beginning (when he made everyone introduce themselves as an icebreaker) or by the “canned jokes”. Personally, I think it’s better than no attempt to get us to open up and laugh.
Our first “stop” was at DiBruno Brothers. I was kind of weirded out because the group didn’t have a designated sitting area, rather, we just stood near the cheese the entire time. Basically, it looked like we were a group of normal shoppers who happened to be standing around the cheese case in a circle. The thought that crossed my mind was, “Gee, I wonder if this entire project is a dude taking us around to different places to shop for stuff – with no actual coordination with the sites, themselves?”. It turns out that there was some coordination, as each site had an “expert” who could tell us more (in about 10-15 minutes) about what we were going to taste. So, at Dibruno, our guide gave us a lecture/primer on cheese, including types of cheeses, the process of making cheese, whether eating rinds was safe, whether cheeses ever go “bad” (and what to do if mold starts growing on cheese), and a potential origin of cheese. We also tasted a selection of four. They were each unique, but there’s no way I can remember any of their names. I did take the opportunity to buy a Pecorino cheese (I know – bboorriinngg) that should be tasty with our pastas later this week. k couldn’t find hamantashen and was sad.
Our second was TBar, which was interesting because as little as I know about cheese, I know even less about tea. Once again, we learned about the historical origin of tea, how tea was made, and the different types. There was a little workshop on how to organize a planter containing different plants that one could use to flavor teas – it was a little boring (all he was doing was putting plants into the planter!). Next time, skip the planter altogether and just have us pass around some fresh sprigs from the plants, themselves, so we can experience the aromas (and then give us some to take home in little baggies!). We tasted four teas – I liked the lavender-cream tea – but k preferred the rooibos (which is not technically “tea” but we still call it “tea”). I picked up a small sample of “chocolate tea” (i.e. black tea and chocolate) for me as well as a sample of “white bliss” for my ailing wife (it was described as tasting like peaches – g likes peaches!).
The third was Naked Chocolate. Anyone who knows me knows that I love Naked Chocolate. Those caramel-stuffed waffles are amazing. The same deal – we learned about chocolate and then ate some chocolate. Although I did have to miss out on some of the learning (I had to buy more time for the parking meter), what was said about the care, techniques, and specificity that Naked Chocolate pursues in their chocolate really raised my opinion of them as a legitimate source of chocolate treats. Our tour guide’s opinion of Max Brenner’s chocolate outpost in Philadelphia, however, was less than favorable (but I see his point). Very interesting how, like wine, cheese, and tea, there is a world of chocolate snobbery, too! We got to take home lots of chocolate, so I’m super-thrilled. ALSO, there are Irish potatoes at Naked Chocolate! Who woulda thunk it? g says they taste good, so we’re happy to see them.
In summary, check out city food tours – I think they’re a great introduction to foods you may not know a whole lot about and was a good fun activity to do. Don’t expect a rigorous education or a classroom environment – basically, it’s some guy who leads a group of people around to different establishments, introduces them to the broad category of products (e.g. cheese, beer, chocolate, tea), and arranges for a sampling of those products. The tour guide was good, the tastings highlighted differences well, and I have a lot of leftover chocolate, so I’m happy! I know that g would have especially loved the tour, so I’m sure that we’ll go again (that’s right, it’s good enough to go to more than once – but a different tour of course)! Special shout-out to k for coming out last minute – you’ve made g sleep easier knowing that nothing went to waste!
Babbo: New York’s Vetri
t says: How dare I insinuate that a well-known NYC restaurant is a “version” of a restaurant in Philadelphia!? Babbo was first! Babbo was created by Mario Batali – who’s this “Vetri” guy? I apologize, I didn’t know what I was thinking – but I got your attention, right? I actually have no intention of trying to make the case that Babbo is New York’s Vetri … I will mention, however, that Batali and Vetri are friends, and Batali has been quoted saying that “Vetri is possibly the best Italian restaurant on the east coast.” … I’m just saying …
g was recently gifted Batali’s The Babbo Cookbook (thanks l!). It brought back memories of the two times that g and I had visited. Because they were so long ago (over 2 years ago), I’m a little fuzzy and what in particular made it so great. Was it the energetic, yet soothing atmosphere? Was it the impeccable wine service? Or was it the gigantic wine list that included actually good makers from actually good years for only moderately-increased prices? Or maybe it was the food – the way it was rustic Italian with a twist here and there? All of the above. Because I have very little specific recollection of our visits, as they were so long ago, and so much wine was consumed, I guess this really isn’t a “proper” review – but take my word for it that it was delicious overall. Interestingly, I remember that none of the pastas are horrendously expensive, so it wasn’t too much of a bankbuster (I think they rely on wines and the meats/fish to bring in the $$).
I do remember a single dish. I had it on our second visit – it was the end of February 2008. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was cold outside, and we had just squeezed in to one of the few tables of the restaurant specifically set aside for walk-ins. I wanted someting warm and rustic. Something that was meaty and heavier than just “pasta”. And there I found it: gnocchi with oxtail ragu. This was the first time that I had had oxtail outside of Chinatown, and, despite the unattractive name, it was amazing! The gnocchi were perfect fluffy pillows. The meat clung to the pasta via a very thin sauce that brought forth sweet onion, tomato, and, of course, meat. The meat, itself was as tender as can be. It was like taking Osteria’s gnocchi and combining it with Melograno’s short rib ragu (well, except using oxtail instead of short rib). As a whole, I think it still holds the title as the best Italian gnocchi/pasta dish I’ve ever had (I use “Italian” as a qualifier because Talula’s did have a dumpling dish that was equally out-of-this-world, but not traditionally Italian).
I bring all this up now because in the cookbook, there are recipes for some of the dishes we actually sampled on our visits. Among them is the oxtail ragu. It’s time to get cookin’ …
O Ya: Oh Yeah!
t says: We wanted to go to Cape Cod for k’s wedding last year – we were excited for the event and had also never been to the Cape before! But, when planning our trip, we had a big decision to make … With limited funds, we could either stay in a mediocre hotel and eat a medicore meal the night before, or stay in a very “inexpensive” hotel and splurge on dinner. As you might have guessed – we went for option 2 (that’s just our style). I’ll spare you the details of the hotel, as they are not appetizing (but g and I were fully prepared – we had brought our own soaps, towels, pillows, and sleeping bags – we could have just slept in our car), and just tell you about dinner.
We read that this little restaurant called O Ya was supposed to be one of the best restaurants in all of Boston. It was new, trendy, and tasty. What really interested me was the type of cuisine – a modern take on classic Japanese (sashimi with a twist). We had never had raw fish that had been “fooled around with” so extensively. Well, that’s not completely true – we had had ceviches, but this promised to be an entirely different animal altogether.
9/2009, Friday Dinner, Party of 2, Chef’s Tasting Menu. The chef’s tasting menu is supposedly created “on the fly”, however, we found that it was essentially composed of several options straight from the normal menu. The format was 18 courses, but each was either one or two bites of food per person. But, because these were “bites” of sashimi/nigiri, they were large bites. With so many courses, there’s no way that I’d be able to even begin to remember them all. There were oysters and squid and fish and kobe beef and truffles and even foie gras. I wish only that I kept a copy of the menu or the receipt so I could give you more details. In summary, this meal was the intersection of decadence and raw fish. And the depth of flavors were so expertly coupled with fish – there was everything from bright citruses to deep truffles. The kobe beef was superbly cooked, and the chocolate-foie gras dessert (it’s pretty much an obligatory dish should you go – they’re famous for it) was both intriguing and actually quite tasty – and I must confess that I’m not a huge fan of foie gras (it reminds me of butter+tofu).
As much as we loved the dinner, there were a few cons in the meal. I felt that salmon made far too many appearances (?4?) for an 18 course meal. Additionally, by course 14 or 15, we kind of really wanted a nice slice of “plain” fish in lieu of the doctored creations put out by the kitchen (n.b. anyone expecting classic Japanese sushi/sashimi is going to be severely disappointed with the entire experience) – I just needed to press the reset button once because my palate was getting a little tired.
All in all, it was a wonderful experience – we’ll remember it as our first trip together to Boston and a great preamble to a wonderful wedding. But, I don’t think we’ll end up going back anytime soon … unless someone else is paying.
Sampan: The Old, the New, and the Inexpensive
t says: Our recent poll ended in a tie, so we were left to choose where to go for g’s birthday on our own. After much thought, we decided to save a few bucks (we’ve been eating out a lot lately) and ventured through the rain to 13th and Sansom to Sampan – the pork banh mi was calling our names (as we’d had it once before – review here). Speaking of which – we don’t actually know if it’s pronounced “pork bahn mee” or “pork bahn my”… if someone knows their Vietnamese foods, please let us know!
3/2010, Wednesday Dinner, Party of 2. Because it was raining, we couldn’t get a cab. Because we couldn’t get a cab, we going to be late. Because we were going to be late, we had the irrational fear that the kitchen would close or something like that. Fortunately, problem-solvers that we are, we called to notify the restaurant that we were going to miss out 8:30pm reservation by about a half-hour and the hostess said that it wouldn’t be a problem. When we arrived, we were promptly seated at the bar overlooking the kitchen. Some people might not like sitting in barstools side-by-side – and normally I agree – but this time we were 4 feet away from one of the cooks and definitely within reaching distance of the food . We could watch as the dishes were prepared and feel the heat from the kitchen on our faces! It was like dinner and a show!
We ordered a pork banh mi, crispy brussels sprouts, and the Korean rice cake dish. The pork banh mi came out first. No longer clad in plain kraft paper, rather, a stylish paper with “Sampan” printed all over it, it still bore the blue painters’ tape. That made us smile. But the sandwich was a little different this time …
g says: For some reason i remember it being larger last time – perhaps it was because then it was cut in quarters after being wrapped, hiding the sandwich’s true size. Or maybe it was all mental, as I knew that Michael Schulson was at the restaurant during our first visit and I hoped he had prepared it himself (he was at some kind of speaking engagement this past night, I believe). It had a little less of that interesting mystery sauce and the bread wasn’t as fluffy, but it was still yummy, and just enough for me. Birthday girl was happy, what more do you want, t?
t says: I agree with her assessment – it was still a very delicious sandwich, and it coupled extremely well with the crispy brussels sprouts, which were still awesome. These two are still on our list of things to try if you go. They cut the sandwich into four pieces when they serve it, so it’s totally share-able.
The new dish for us was the Korean rice cakes. I must confess that I was hesitant when considering this dish as I feared that it would not meet my expectations. For instance, when we ordered pad thai last time, it was a little different than just pad thai; their rendition was lighter and more lively, but lost some of the classic pad thai appeal that I wanted. So this time, I had to ask myself – did I want Korean rice cakes done the traditional way, or did I want them the Sampan way? I eventually realized that all I really wanted was the actual rice cakes (I really like rice cakes as a starch in a meal), so I ordered it. Good decision. I think this is a great example of Sampan’s interpretation of a dish working out splendidly. Now don’t get me wrong – I did like the pad thai, but I didn’t love it. This dish, I loved. The rice cakes are kind of like a gnocchi in texture, but sliced into oblong coins. They were in a spicy sauce with some kimchi, sausage, and what I assume were chiles and scallions – there were some other ingredients that I didn’t easily recognize. In sum, the dish still resembled the hot-and-spicy rice cakes from my younger years, but the other flavors were like swapping out some Gregorian-chanting monks for a rockin’ gospel choir. For me, this dish was equivalent to the pork banh mi the first time we had it, and actually surpassed the banh mi we had this time. That said, not everyone will appreciate the Korean rice cakes – for instance, I think that g’s not too crazy about the taste/texture of the cakes, themselves. They’re almost like a pasta, but not really. They’re probably closest to rice noodles (e.g. drunken noodles at Thai places), but they’re thicker, so they’re a little gummier in the mouth and you actually taste more of the noodle, itself. On top of that, if you’re not comfortable with spice, then this is not the dish for you. It’s not SUPER-spicy (we have some friends/family that would laugh in the face of this level of spice, and we have yet to have something at Sampan that’s too spicy), but if you consider yourself a spice-wuss, then avoid this dish.
For dessert, we went for this interesting pineapple-coconut themed concoction. There were three tea cakes (which contained toasted coconut), topped with a pineapple compote, topped with a scoop of coconut ice cream, topped with a slice of ?dried? pineapple (looked like a mohawk). It tasted very good – but we wished that the cake:ice cream ration was a little lower, as the cake was a little dry. Sadly, the chocolate bomb was no longer offered.
Service was good throughout the meal. Random staff who weren’t our waiters stopped to ask how our meal was going – we felt well taken care of (although we did have to wait a while between the pork banh mi and the rice cakes).
Our meal was $40 before g’s glass of Australian bubbly (she really likes the bubbles), thus the final bill was cheaper than two tickets to the flower show! Defray the cost with our $20 opentable.com dining check (kaching!) and we just went to dinner for less than 1 person during restaurant week (kaching-kaching!). BUT … were we full? Indeed. We were stuffed. In fact, we were so stuffed that g started sneezing. For those who didn’t read the “why sneeze” page, g sneezes when she’s full (hence, the name of this blog). She’s not a huge fan of sneezing in general and especially dislikes sneezing in public, feeling that it draws attention to herself. Well, tonight she had the usual satiety-induced multi-sneeze bout (they don’t come rapid fire – there’s 20 seconds or so between each). She was totally embarassed, but even moreso than normal given our proximity to all of the food! Don’t worry … g does a good job covering her mouth.
Melograno: Our Nearby “Go-To” for Italian
t says: Ah, Melograno. You’ve never given us a bad meal. You’re BYO, and you’re within walking distance, thus saving us cab fare. And your pastas … there’s just something about your pastas …
We’ve been to Melograno four times, and g and I alone have had 7 pasta dishes. The first time we went, I had a special of the day – a braised short rib pasta that was to die for – it actually was the reason why I had to find a recipe on how to cook short rib pasta at home! The third time we went there, g ordered another special of the day – a lamb ragu pasta – another genius dish (now I have to start cooking some lamb). And then Melograno sprinkles in those “weird” dishes – we once had a mushroom and pear “lasagna” as an appetizer (g says: actually, I think it was peach, not pear) – it was such a great idea and so close to perfection (the textures of the ingredients were a little mismatched – the pear [peach?] was a little lost).
But of course, we need to be fair … Melograno has had some issues. The cheese plate (which we also had the first time we went) was an atrocity – they need some cheese guidance up in there (and this is coming from a guy who knows absolutely nothing about cheese). We haven’t tried it since for fear that it hasn’t improved (but maybe it has – who knows!?) Also, they had a pasta carbonara on the menu that totally misled one of our pork-loving friends (their version used anchovies as the salty protein in lieu of pancetta) – on one hand it might have been his fault for not reading the menu – on the other hand, it could have been their fault for not printing in bold letters the lack of pig in the dish (someone’s gotta take the fall). Finally, the portion sizes are a bit small, which is definitely not helped by the fact that they serve their pastas in ridiculously large dishes, so anything seems small the moment it hits your table. Additionally, I firmly believe that they have somehow calculated exactly how much pasta it takes to fill someone up adequately and don’t give a single noodle more; I’ve never been hungry after eating there (but I’ve always had room for dessert – luckily Capo Giro is right there), but I’ve also never had leftovers (g has had leftovers once). While most are ok with not having leftovers, if you consider that other Italian BYOs are ~25% less expensive (e.g. La Viola) and give you a bit more food, you really have to ask yourself what you want out of a meal. Is the taste worth it?
We recently realized that we had not gone to Melograno in a while – with all of the new restaurants we’ve been trying, we had forgotten about the old goodies. So, what we needed was an excuse to go. Aha! People’s birthdays! Excellent excuse! We got together a party of people and looked forward to some good Italian …
2/2010, Sunday 5:30pm, Party of 7. We got together a party of 7 (there were some birthday friends among us) and headed out to Melograno at the geriatric time of 5:30pm – it’s the easiest way to book a table this large. The original reservation was for 9, but we had two last-minute cancellations – it was an opportunity to see if they could roll with the punches (although I guess a real challenge would have been reserving 7 seats and then showing up with 9 people). The hostess (actually – I think she’s one of the owners?) looked at me kind of funny for a few seconds after I told her that we needed to change the number, but after contemplating what I was saying, she said that she thought it would be fine. She left to go adjust our table (they had just pushed together a bunch of tables along a wall for us, so she just separated a two-topper) and was back in a flash to let us know that, if we wanted, we could be seated before the rest of our party arrived. We were happy to hear this, as we’re so “over” restaurants making parties wait until everyone’s shown up when it’s clear the table’s ready, and moved to colonize our own little territory of the restaurant. It’s a good thing we did – 2 of our party didn’t show up ’til 6 (but we still love them).
We ordered an antipasto plate for the table – it was fun to pick at. Overall, it was a solid antipasto with a selection of grilled vegetables (e.g. eggplant) cured meats, mozzarella, and pickled vegetables (g especially liked the celery). Personally, I think Mercato does it better (theirs is a little more “rustic” – I still remember the grilled peppers – mmmm), as does Vetri (duh), but Melograno’s wasn’t bad at all – definitely leagues ahead of La Viola.
I ordered the pasta carbonara. WHAT? Pasta carbonara? Did I not just whine and complain about this dish in the second paragraph? Yes, I did. But this time was different. While I was browsing the menu, I noticed that Melograno had swapped out the anchovies for pancetta in their pasta carbonara (too many fooled customers?). It was a sign – they were begging for a chance at redemption. I knew I had to try it – that and there was no lamb pasta of the day. When it came to my plate, it looked plain – a neat clump of off-white spaghetti against a large white bowl. My eyes were not amused. But then I ate it. It was the second best carbonara I’ve ever had (the first best was made by our pork-loving friend that I mentioned above – that’s right, a home chef still holds the title). Melograno’s pasta was perfectly cooked, there was just enough sauce to cover the noodles, and the bits of pancetta were nice little meaty surprises. It was a very rich dish, so, in retrospect, I’m happy there was only as much as there was – if there was any more, I would have eaten it and been unable to move.
k was also at our meal with us. A Melograno virgin, she maximized the number of things she’d taste by ordering two appetizers as dinner. Her first was the roasted portobello, which I sampled. It tasted quite good – a little more umph than just a mushroom, but I didn’t hear her say “holy crap”, which I’m pretty sure I’ve heard her exclaim about food in the past. For her second, right before she ordered, we had an interesting discussion:
k: What is carpaccio?
t: It’s really thinly sliced raw meat.
k: But this says pear carpaccio …
t: Oh … ummm … really thinly sliced pear? or are they going to hide meat somewhere?
It turns out that it’s thinly sliced pear, an aged balsamic, and micro-greens. k liked that dish as well, as [I feel that] she’s a huge fan of a good aged balsamic. I kind of wished I had seen that on the menu because it definitely seems like something I’d order.
d was also at our meal. After seeing him at this dinner, I can say with complete confidence that he has a food obsession, which is surprising because he normally “keeps it real” and thus seems like he’d be immune to crushes, obsessions, and fetishes. I figured he would “like” a lot of things, and maybe even “love” some things – but no – these terms cannot even begin to describe the affection he has for Melograno’s pappardelle tartufe. This pasta dish seems simple on the menu. It has mushrooms (shiitake, button, and portobello), truffle oil, cheese, and walnuts. See? Simple. But, you know what – if there was a woman who could make this dish like Melograno (or maybe even only half as good), I’d bet he’d make her his wife … like, tomorrow. But you better act quickly, ladies – I hear he’s going to start trying to make it, himself …
g says: I can’t remember the name of my dish, but it was a spaghetti-like pasta with some olive oil, grated cheese, and fresh cracked black pepper. That’s all. And it was AMAZING! Sometimes I need something simple to satisfy my cravings for homemade italian – it resets my palate, bringing it back to a baseline standard for greatness.
Also, all that jazz about t being so picky-picky — you can take that with a grain of kosher salt because this place is certainly one of our favorites. It has delicious food, pleasant atmosphere, and plenty of space to breathe (not like many other tiny Philly BYOs which can cause claustrophobia). And their bathrooms are pretty darn nice, I must say. Bravo to them!
t says: In summary, Melograno did a fine job. Everyone seemed satisfied with how everything tasted – there really weren’t any complaints. I’m happy that pig is back in the carbonara and that they’re still experimenting with interesting appetizers (I guess they have a thing for pears?). I do wish that they would have a dish featuring their namesake, the pomegranate. Yes, they do have some in one of their salads (and I had a few seeds in my water – but no one else did – weird!), but I’m hoping that one day they have some sort of melograno appetizer that every first-time visitor just has to get. We had good friends and good food (and good service – I didn’t really notice them, so I assume they were good) – we had a great time. Nevertheless, we didn’t stick around for dessert – Capo Giro is less than half-a-block away.
after dinner sneeze 