Posts Tagged ‘Philadelphia’
Meritage: KFC is “Doing Chicken Right” (and a Sampan bonus)
t says: We’ve been to Meritage a couple times before and liked it. To summarize those experiences: Chef Coll has some talent brewing in the kitchen, and, while not every dish was a smash hit, I really appreciated the creativity, and g really appreciated good food for a good price. But what’s happened since then? Not much, really – at least – not for us. We’ve just never really found an excuse to return to Meritage. Its price-point puts it at a similar cost to Melograno, which is BYO … meaning that we’re going to go to Melograno every time. It’s such a shame. Well … let me tell you that things are going to change …
7/2010, 8:30pm, Party of 3. It’s a Thursday. At Meritage, that means it’s Korean Fried Chicken (KFC) night. $25 gets you a meal for two: 6 pieces of fried chicken in a spicy/savory/sweet Korean bbq sauce, a few sides, and 20-oz of beer. It was on like Donkey Kong.
g and cm visited first. I don’t want to put words in their mouth … but I will. They reported that the chicken was cooked deliciously (but not really “spicy”) and the sides were also very good, but small. They suspected that 3 people sharing two orders would be the “ideal” amount of food so that everyone would be “very full”. Yes, they had other details, too, but if I told you what they were, then you wouldn’t read the rest of this post …
g, kp, and I then made reservations for the very next week. We were seated promptly and then taken care of by a very friendly, enthusiastic server. No, he wasn’t so bubbly that it seemed fake or overwhelming, rather, just the right amount of energy to put us in a good mood (not that we were in a bad one, but we were even better after talking to him). He told us of that night’s special fried chicken dish as well as some other meat dish that we instantly forgot about. We ordered two orders for the three of us, but asked if they could have a little extra spice to them – I pointed out that although kp and I were new, my wife was there last week and wanted a little more kick on her KFC. I did this for a few reasons. The first is that I apparently like dropping the W-bomb. It makes me feel older, more accomplished, worthy of respect. I like that. The second is that I wanted to draw attention to the fact that at a table of two Asian dudes and a small white girl, it was the small white girl who felt that there needs to be more spice – so the chef definitely needed to kick it up a notch if she was going to appeal to the two Asians. Am I playing stereotypes? I sure am (actually, g can handle more spice than me … *hangs his head in shame*).
When the chicken arrived, it looked amazing. Two plates, heaped with 6 pieces of chicken, emanated this beautiful scent. You could smell the sweetness and spiciness of the bbq sauce, as well as something that reminded me of soy sauce (like if you could “smell” savory) – but not like smelling saltiness. I don’t know – it was hard to describe; it smelled “great”. The chicken’s crust was delightfully crispy, and easily gave way to juicy tender meat. The savory and sweet hits your palate first with heat coming on as you chewed. The chicken was so moist and tender that it tasted like it was braised and then deep-fried at the last second. Apparently it had been brined, so maybe that was the trick. Amazingly, after you swallowed, the spice dissipated, which was nice, because it didn’t overwhelm the palate. The other amazing/weird thing was the size of the chicken bones – they were quite small. g asked kp and me, “What kind of chickens are these? Do they like work them out in a gym or something? Do you think it’s because they’re super organic? Or maybe they use super hormones? I mean, I don’t really care, cuz they’re freakin’ delicious.” g is funny.
The sides were pretty good, too. The spinach reminded me of classic Korean spinach (sigumchi) – except for not as much sesame seed as I’m used to. g said that they had more sesame seeds the previous week, so I’m sure it was spot on, as that was really the only thing that could have taken me way back to eating at Korean restaurants with my mom and grandmom. The pickled daikon and pickled carrot were also very good – they added the acid that you needed to cut through the chicken’s Korean bbq sauce, so I hope these stay on the menu to give the dish some “lightness”. The Korean slaw was a bit of a miss for me. It tasted a little heavy for a slaw – probably because of either sesame oil or sesame seeds. There was some cilantro to try and pep it up, but there wasn’t enough. Man, if this was only a little zingier – maybe add a bit of mint in there or something – then this would also be a perfect foil for the chicken. I don’t know if anyone who knows anyone who knows people who could make this suggestion to Meritage actually reads this blog, but it’d be nice to see if whatever my brain imagined actually was a good idea. Maybe next time, I’ll bring my own mint and try it out.
The beer … it was beer. Neither g nor I drink beer, so kp had to take one for the team. Actually, he had to take 2. That’s right, he downed 40 ounces of beer on a Thursday night. Hooray for livers.
Upon the conclusion of the chicken, we ordered desserts, too! Actually, we ordered only one, but, for reasons I cannot reveal here, more than one came out (we’re mysterious like that). To be honest – these desserts were better than our latest outing at Zahav – although that probably isn’t saying much. Passionfruit creamsicles dipped in chocolate – surprisingly fantastic – especially on a warm summer evening. The chocolate-mint pot-de-creme was luscious – and the pistachio biscotti was among the best biscotti I’ve had in a long time (I’m a sucker for pistachio). We also had the chocolate-peanut-butter bomb … That is one helluva-rich dessert. It was so rich, I kind of wished there was more of the berry jam to cut down the richness. Actually, even more chocolate would have cut down on the richness, as the peanut butter creme was insane – it was like peanut butter and super-extra-creamy-cool-whip had a baby. Don’t get me wrong, though, it was “too rich” not in a “I’m-going-to-be-sick” way, rather a “I-wish-I-could-eat-it-faster-but-I-can’t” way … don’t worry – I did get around to eating every last bit.
In the end, we each paid approximately the amount one would pay when going out for restaurant week, and I, for one, was uncomfortably full. So, go to Meritage. Go with 3 people and pony up $17 each, and enjoy the deliciousness.
SAMPAN BONUS:
We also went to Sampan the day after Meritage. We wanted to eat deliciously on the “cheap”, so we went for a 6pm 1000-pt opentable reservation with the intent of going after the beloved pork bahn mi, the crispy Brussels sprouts, and the Korean rice cake dish. It was … disappointing … Our favorite pork bahn mi maker wasn’t there, so the ratio of meat and toppings and sauce was all wrong – AND they didn’t even wrap the sandwich in the kraft paper – they just left it open! The crispy Brussels sprouts could have used a bit more time on the heat, as they were quite hard. And the Korean rice cakes didn’t have as many rice cakes as I remember (but at least it tasted good!). We suspect that maybe their “starting lineup” in the kitchen was on vacation, and they were letting the “B-team” take over or something. Well – either that or Meritage was so good the night before that their KFC has displaced Sampan’s pork bahn mi in crave-ability? Shazam! There it is … I went there … it’s over … done.
Zzzzzz is for Zahav
g says: Zahav was one of the few places that t had ventured without me, so I knew we would eventually end up there — because I was really interested in what Israeli food tasted like, and also so you could hear my take on their acclaimed food as well (important for any fair and balanced blog). It was a hot Friday evening, and we were looking for something to do. Walk over to Old City from Rittenhouse? Sure, sounds like a great idea. No matter that it was hotter than Hades and we were walking further than we would on any other day with much cooler temperatures — we were going to DO something. (It really did seem like a good idea at the time…) Anyway, it was 95 degrees at sunset, and we ventured off into the night. Besides the profuse sweating, my dress blowing up in the wind, and getting slightly lost, we arrived at our destination without much incident. But we were admittedly gross, tired, and desperately wanted to use the restroom to freshen up – a couple of hot messes, indeed! Maybe we should have realized then that the evening wouldn’t be quite as smooth as we were expecting…
7/2010, 9:30pm, Party of 2. We walked in right on time for our reservation and were greeted by two well-dressed guys — one friendly, the other not so much. Not-so-much showed us to our table swiftly, and even pulled out my chair for me (what a gentleman)! I was thrilled to be there for about 5 seconds until I started noticing how many servers were constantly bustling all around us (and a bit too close to me for my taste). I get a little claustrophobic, so I scanned the dining room for other seating options. There were plenty of tables as well as seats at the bar, so I suggested to t that we ask to switch tables quickly before we were too settled in.
Now, I completely understand that restaurants seat their diners at specific tables to keep order in their dining rooms, and I would never normally ask to move, but I was feeling really anxious so I thought it was worth the embarrassment of being one of “those people.” t asked our server, who had stopped by for a minute to introduce himself, if it would be possible to switch to one of the other open 2-seater spots. To which he replied that we would have to leave our seats and ask the host ourselves. I was perplexed. I’m no expert, but isn’t that his job? Once we wrapped our heads around this new concept, we walked back to the front desk and posed our request. Friendly guy was professional and accommodating. Not-so-much was clearly annoyed — he would have to walk us about 30 feet to our table again (the nerve of us). The new table’s location was totally fine, and I was happy, though I wondered why the seating thing was such an issue to these people. My guess is that not-so-much acts like not-so-much to the rest of the staff as well, and our server wasn’t looking to mess with him.
Our server is a whole other story. He looked like a nice enough young fellow, but I felt like we didn’t look nice enough to him because he kept staring off in space when he would speak to us. I thought maybe he was new and nervous (scared of not-so-much, still?) but t seemed to remember him from his first visit, and it has been a while since then. He warmed up to us a little throughout the meal, though, so I wasn’t feeling quite so awkward by dessert time.
What’s that? You’re tired of me yammering on about the people and want to hear about the food? Well, here goes: we both ventured the tay’im, the smaller of the two tasting menu choices, and ordered different items so that we could try more dishes. I anticipated some of the best food I would have all summer (with such rave reviews, how could it not be?) but felt overall the dishes were a little hit or miss. The hummus and flatbread were simply divine — sorry, Audrey Claire, you have been booted from my #1 hummus spot, because this stuff is amazing! The salatim (8 different little salads) were also fairly tasty, but didn’t seem like something that I could not make for myself at home. For entrees, I chose the fish kofte (total hit! they were delicate and savory, and not too fishy either), tahcheen (a bit of a miss for me, but there was just some sort of spice in the rice that I wasn’t wild about), and the hanger steak (another hit, as I very much liked the flavors of the steak and pureed eggplant, but this just wasn’t seeming so special to me – there are a few other restaurants I have in mind that do their hanger steak just as well and better). t went for the watermelon salad (could have been a hit, but the watermelon wasn’t quite sweet enough), grilled veal tongue (hit on the meat, miss on the accompaniment), and duck two-ways (a half-hit … duck one way was a hit, but the other way – a dry ground duck patty – was a miss). My cashew baklava won in the battle of “who-ordered-the-better-dessert,” but that’s mostly because t’s pistachio cake with cherry compote was a bit dry — there was definitely potential there. Like Marlon Brando, it could’ve been a contender.
While neither of us were wowed by very many of the dishes, I certainly wasn’t unhappy with anything that came out of Zahav’s kitchen. I think t was a little disappointed that he had such great food on previous visits, and this time it was so-so. I, too, was looking for the wow-factor, but found it to be a little bit of a snooze.
But I think I have learned a very important lesson from this experience (besides the one about not trying to walk 25 blocks before dinner in a heatwave): Israeli food isn’t really my thing. To me, it is certainly good, but not cravable. I feel similarly about Greek food — rarely will you ever hear me talk about being in the mood for Greek food. I have nothing against it, and would absolutely accept an invitation to dine at a Greek restaurant, but I would not choose it over other types of cuisine. It must be the traditional flavor profiles that just aren’t my favorite, or maybe a few spices rub me the wrong way (get it? spice? rub? MAN, i am on fire!)
All in all, we had a fun evening out, and we ran into nothing that a glass of cava couldn’t fix. On a return trip, I think I would probably just fill up on hummus and baklava… which actually wouldn’t be so bad, would it?
t says: Just in case you’re wondering about that veal tongue … It looked like a piece of scrapple … in the shape of a tongue. The taste of the meat reminded me of oxtail, but the texture was different, as the strands of meat were finer and shorter. Overall, it was an interesting and delicious meat to eat, but not so delicious that I’d want to try and cook it at home. In short, it wasn’t as good as beef cheek. Out of all the dishes we had, my favorite style of food was that watermelon salad. Yes, it was an overall “miss” – but the way the flavors evolved in your mouth was intriguing and unexpected. A lot of Zahav’s other flavors, while being bold, seldom evolve like this on the palate – and that’s what I like the most when I eat.
On another note – don’t mess with g when she’s on fire. Not only is she funny (she is funny), but she can get pretty fiesty. I mean look at that title – pretty harsh, right? I knew the food might not have been sneeze-worthy – but I didn’t think it was snooze-worthy, either …
The Lightning Round!
t says: As I had mentioned before, there was a lot of food consumed at restaurants recently. Rather that review each individually, here’s a super-fast highs-and-lows …
20 Manning Grill:
Props: Beef sirloin noodles. Despite having so much beef, this dish’s flavors are lively and playful; it’s also not served “hot” so that helps keep it light. I think I didn’t order the “full” order, but boy that was more than enough – I don’t know how some people might eat more! Slops: A salad (not sure which one). g’s mom ordered a salad with grilled chicken and loved it … except that the plate they had used was so small and the salad so heaping that there was no way to cut the chicken without having some greens escape to the table. The weird part is that even the server admitted, “Yea, it’s such a pretty dish, but it’s not practical …” – then why do they use it?
Village Whiskey:
Props: BBQ pork sandwich. Yea – it’s ridiculously good – probably better than their burgers (in my opinion) and almost as good as the short rib cheddar fries. It’s as good as Cochon’s (but different – Cochon’s is saltier, while VW’s is sweeter). Slops: Our server was obviously let down that we weren’t ordering “enough” – and his attitude showed it. Yes – we’re splitting burgers. No – we’re not ordering drinks. And no – we’re not ordering desserts, either. So yes, “that’s all”. And your passive-aggressive, like-a-teenager-not-allowed-to-take-the-car-for-the-night attitude won’t change our minds. Deal with it, or the next time, I’ll order a single burger for a party of 8.
Miga:
Props: Dukboki – the best I’ve had in a restaurant. Overall, the food tasted good enough for mom to admit it was the better than Giwa or Han Wool. Slops: Dolsot bibimbap was not as good as Giwa’s version with the eel.
Szechuan Hunan:
Props: The food was solid take-out Chinese food. Slops: The food was solid take-out Chinese food.
Sandy’s:
Props: The BLT and french fries. Slops: Italian sausage (i.e. a hot dog).
Mix:
Props: The Tomato Pie (the second time we had it) had some fresh tomato, a great crust, and a not-too-sweet a sauce. Slops: We’ve had some of their other pizzas that are only “ok”. The margherita is very hit-or-miss.
Talula’s Table Pop-up: Maybe a Taste of the Future?
t says: As I mentioned before, g and I were lucky enough to score reservations at this Stephen Starr event. Three of us went – it was a g, t, and cm outing! I’m telling you right now … there’s going to be a LOT to read – so let’s get started!
7/2010, Thursday 8:30pm, Party of 3. We arrived, not quite knowing what to expect. Would it be a restaurant? Would it be a warehouse? Would it be a tent? No idea! All I knew is that it was not BYO …
The venue turned out to be this place right on Washington Square that had an indoor section and an outdoor section. You enter what looks like a large outdoor patio, complete with umbrellas and lounge-worthy sofas and chairs and tables, and then find an entrance to the actual restaurant off to the side. It was a very unique layout. The outdoor patio also had a bar towards the back that was selling a selection of mixed drinks and wine. I have come to understand that anyone is allowed into that outdoor patio/bar area, even without a reservation – and cm believes that food was offered out there as well – so there may be a back door into these events. The drinks were quite pricey, but perhaps on par with what you’d expect from Mr. Starr …
Speaking of which … we saw him. That’s right. Mr. Restaurant, himself, was seated in the outdoor part with another guest (no idea who it was). I guess he wanted to mingle over some drinks in lieu of eating the very fine meal? The funny thing is that g was the first (and only) of our party to recognize him and pointed him out in a very dramatic fashion: “cm … … that’s Stephen Starr …”. We confirmed via iPhone google images to ensure that she was correct. Never doubt your wife. We didn’t have the nerve to really say anything to him – but we really wouldn’t know what to say, as in all honesty, Morimoto and this pop-up are but shining stars in a sea of over-hyped mediocrity (cm and k also really like Buddakan – we have no beef with Buddakan – it’s good! – but we love Morimoto much more, given our penchant for raw fish – Pod is also good, but only on all-you-can-eat night).
As we waited for our table, we decided to enjoy a drink outside. g and cm both went for the raspberry sunset, featuring Patron, Cointreau, lime, and raspberries. From what I understand, it was quite tasty. I, on the other hand, went for the mojito. We all agreed – there was something special about this mojito. The ingredients didn’t seem like they were that different from the usual suspects that you’d find in a mojito (Appleton Estate V/X, mint, lime) – the only difference was that instead of mint it was “Aimee’s mint” – but I doubt that the source of mint, alone, could have made up for the dramatic increase in taste versus any normal mojito I’ve ever had (including the countless 10Cane mojitos I’ve had). In the end, we still don’t know what the secret was!
Right when we placed our order for drinks, we were told that our table was ready. We waited around for our drinks to be prepared and headed inside to be seated. The inside of the place was quite nice – almost like a Stephen Starr “light” restaurant. There wasn’t too heavy of a theme in there (after all, it is a “pop-up”), but, there were tall ceilings, nice tables and chairs, and, much to our chagrin, too much modern … “art”. A lot of the pieces that adorned the walls as well as the free-standing sculptures around the room were trying just a little too hard to be cool. This place was so not Django, which was more of a “rustic home” – with flower pot bread, mismatched silverware, well-worn Laguiole knives, servers in jeans, etc. So not Talula’s, either, which is even more rustic with its farmhouse table and chairs. In these places, because the atmosphere-o-meter was turned so far down, you could focus on the two most important things – the people you were there with and the food you were eating. What more would you need? So, yes, this restaurant was Starr-ified a little – but the one element that I think best captured Djano/Talula’s was the use of potted herbs as centerpieces … cute – very cute.
But enough about atmosphere – let’s talk about food. After we had ordered [I’ll tell you what we ordered below], we were presented with the “cheese bread”. No, they didn’t call it that – I call it that. It’s this small dinner roll-esque bread that is made with gruyere cheese. It was warm and airy and even more delicious than I have ever had it at Talula’s. It melts in your mouth as the flavor of gruyere comes on and fades away like a peaceful wave at the beach. It definitely brought me back to those chef’s table dinners. The three of us fought valiantly against our primal urges to demolish these poor defenseless little rolls. We lost the battle … and the rolls lost their lives. But then … magically … as if we had willed it into occurring with the sheer sorrow in our hearts for the shameful deed we had just done … our waitress came around and formally introduced us to the cheese bread they were serving that night and gave us each a roll. Holy crap. She totally forgot that she had already given us one! Score! The second one was as good as, if not better than, the first. We did take our time with our second rolls, but we ensured that our plate was absolutely clean … just in case she actually had anterograde amnesia (i.e. think “Memento” … or “50 First Dates” …).
When the wine guy came around, g had another moment of recognition. It was Brian [Freedman]! It was the dude from “The Wine School”. A while ago, a few friends and we took a few-hour course on Italian wines at the Wine School (Groupon rocks!), and we were super-impressed with both the presentation and quality of wines sampled (and quantity, too!). We highly recommend it. Brian was our instructor, and, while most of his jokes were “canned”, we liked his enthusiasm. He was no less enthusiastic at the pop-up restaurant. His passion for the wines he described as well as the descriptions, themselves, persuaded us each to venture an additional glass of alcohol. g and I went for two different glasses of red (mine was Spanish “Cap De Barbaria 2005”, g’s was an Austrian “Sattler St. Lauren 2006”), while maybe cm went for some French bubbly? They were all delicious and went well with the food – but I’ll leave the descriptions of the wines to those wine professionals out there.
Now, I feel obligated to warn you in advance that my descriptions of the food are going to be a little spotty. On one hand, a substantial amount of time has passed, and g and I have eaten out a LOT recently due to our move, so we’ve had a lot of very delicious food, and I’m easily confused. On the other hand, because I ordered a glass of red wine in addition to the mojito I mentioned above, my Asian genes probably kicked in, interacted poorly with the alochol, and prevented long term memory consolidation … sorry! Maybe g or cm can fill in the blanks?
We ordered three “middle” courses and shared. These were the smoked scallop ravioli, the chicken sausage, and the fried squash blossoms. g’s fave was the fried squash blossoms. I appreciated the play between the delicate blossom and the delicate fried-ness. They were accompanied by a green tomato ketchup which tasted so good that I wonder why green tomato ketchup is not commercially available (yes, I realize that perhaps one time Heinz may have had green-colored ketchup, but I don’t think it was the same as this ketchup made from green tomatoes … I hope …). Now that smoked scallop ravioli was something else. It had a sweet pea sauce and some micro-greens. And somehow you’d get that smokey flavor radiating throughout your mouth, surprising you as you chewed. The greens and peas added just enough vegetal zing so the dish felt light and summer-y. That was definitely a dish that had Talula’s written all over it – it was the kind of dish that made you close your eyes so you could concentrate on your mouth. The chicken sausage dish was good, but to be honest, I’ve forgotten any and all details about it, so it was definitely outshined by the other two.
We ordered three “dinner” courses as well. I was a little surprised at the expense of these courses, as I was clearly promised $22-28 on the phone both when I made the reservation and when I confirmed. The actual range was $28-30. Liars! I wave my fist at whoever it was propagating the deception.
The Kennett Square mushroom gnocchi was definitely the most massive of the three “dinner” dishes. It featured mushrooms, gnocchi, and cheese – what more do you need? The gnocchi were very soft and pillowy – less “bite” than I’ve experienced from Django. They actually verged on being as volatile as Vetri’s. That said, they were insanely rich – they filled your mouth with goat cheese that just begged to be foiled with the salty grated cheese and the mushrooms. A few interesting notes:
1) Outside of her mom’s Thanksgiving stuffing, these are the only mushrooms I’ve ever seen g eat.
2) The cm and I actually disagreed with g about whether the mushrooms were too salty – and it seemed that cm and I, two people who tend to want to add more salt to things, were arguing that perhaps there was too much salt, while g, who is super-sensitive to salt, argued that it was just fine. I think what we later found was that the grated cheese, itself, was very a very salty cheese – reminding me of a pecorino romano, so that’s probably the reason why the mushrooms had quite a salty twang to them. We agreed that the mushrooms in combination with the goat cheese was the way to go for maximal per-bite enjoyment.
Another dish was the beef cheeks, risotto, and cheddar. The beef cheeks melted in my mouth. I am going to find beef cheeks. Seriously. They were that good. The risotto was well-cooked – and I’m sure there were other components, too, but those beef cheeks … And you know what? g ate the beef cheeks, too! She normally doesn’t go for cuts of meat that sound gross (e.g. oxtail, pork belly), but she ate these beef cheeks. For me, of the three larger dishes, this one most reminded me of Talula’s, as, much like the smoked scallop ravioli, there were a lot of different flavors at play. It made me want to sit back and just think about them. I like food that makes me question the meaning of eating …
The other dish was a duck (prepared sous vide) in cherry sauce with tater tots. I’ll leave it to my trust dinner mates to describe it because I just can’t remember it at all! I know it was there, but it was one of the last things I had tried, and by that time, I had reached the bottom of that glass of wine …
We did venture the “Not Your Granny’s” cheese course. And while I could tell you each of the cheeses (I have the list right here), it’s better if I just tell you that the cheese were great, and their pairings were awesome. I’m going to stick all of my “vintage gouda” in caramel from now on … I will admit a little disappointment that Aimee, herself, didn’t present the cheese plate (some other blogger mentioned that she did), but they seemed very busy that night, and, to be honest, we could just visit her in Kennett Square, so we’re not crushed.
Finally, we were given an Eclat chocolate with our bill. Gotta love Eclat. It’s not your normal caramel-filled chocolate. If you have no clue what I’m talking about, go and buy some right now.
Summary: There was a lot of good food to be had. I personally feel that the highs were right on with Talula’s (which is not shocking as I saw some of these dishes on their menu!). True, some of the dishes missed the mark for me, but a “low” for Talula’s is still above mediocre dishes I’ve encountered elsewhere – so perhaps that’s not a fair assessment. I suspect that given more experience with serving up 90 diners a night in lieu of less-than-20, they’ll be able to pick up right where they left off with Django. We liked what we saw, and we hope that Aimee finds her way back to Philly, although I personally hope it won’t be in the form of a venue that’s this large and “classy”, I’d even consider going even if it wasn’t BYO (just so long as Brian’s still there picking out interesting wines for reasonable prices).
Bibou: Their Hanger Steak Reigns Supreme
t says: After a seemingly never-ending hiatus, we’re back!! And there’s tons to do. The problem is that the longer we’ve been away, the less I remember about the places we’ve been, so I guess I’d better get crackin!
6/2010, Sunday 9:30pm, Party of 2. Ahhh, Bibou. How we love thee. Not the least bit pretentious. Not super-spendy. No glitz or glam. Just good food. We had to choose one BYO for our anniversary dinner, and Bibou was our first choice. We had originally scheduled dinner there after the Idina Menzel concert at the Mann Center in Fairmount Park, but sensing that she would run late, we rescheduled to a Sunday. As a side note, Idina is absolutely silly … but we think it makes her awesome-er. Yea – and she can sing your socks off (the Philadelphia Orchestra was also great, too!).
We arrived at Bibou and were promptly seated. I forgot how small the place was. It didn’t matter – we wanted small. The waiter asked if we would like our wine, and, noting that it had already been opened (I wanted the wine to breathe some before we actually got to dinner), asked if I wanted it decanted any more. I had never had such an offer at a BYO. I kind of wanted to say yes just to test their wine service, but didn’t really want to draw attention to ourselves – after all – it is a small place.
The meal was their fixed price Sunday 4-course dinner.
The first was a chilled cauliflower soup. It was surprisingly good. No, it wasn’t super-complex, but it had a lightness despite being what appeared to be a creamy soup (maybe it was just a really smooth cauliflower puree). It was perfect for summer, and a great start to the meal.
For the second course, I went for the escargots and g went for the duck liver terrine. Yes, the escargot were as good as I remember. g was perfectly happy with the duck liver terrine, but confesses that it’s not the type of dish that she dreams about … Sorry we’re short on details for these two – but it’s because the next course was just too memorable …
We actually both ordered the same dish for the third course – there’s just something about the hanger steak that just KILLS IT. It has just the right balance of savory and herb. The asparagus reminded me of the asparagus omelettes my dad would make on Sunday morning breakfasts when we used to invite over the extended family. The potatoes were addictive. The meat had bite, but was tender, and, unlike at some places, was substantially large. g said she liked it even more than the steak served in Cochon’s steak-and-eggs brunch dish … and that’s a LOT.
I opted for the pistachio ice cream, while g had some sort of berry tart. Alone they were good. Together they were a perfect combination that lent an air of humility to the meal – it was like eating a warmed slice of pie with a scoop of ice cream … well, except better. Thus, the dessert was good, but not not quite Zahav-good. But with a meal that was so splendid overall, I really can’t complain. Somewhere in the meal Pierre Calmels came out to greet us. He seemed like such a nice guy. Of course, it would be hard to seem like a bad guy in the face of all of the praise that we were showering on him, but he humbly accepted our comments and wished us a happy anniversary. Indeed, it was a happy anniversary.
g says: i’d like to take a moment and recognize how delightful the tiny complimentary madeleines are at the end of the meal. they are about one-quarter the size of normal madeleines, but probably contain the same amount of butter… mmmm… a must-eat!
also, a note about pierre’s visit to our table — i was a little starstruck, i have to admit (i get that way sometimes, i just can’t help it! and it feels oh-so cool to have such an acclaimed chef offer us his personal attention) but i could barely understand a word he was saying through his thick french accent. it didn’t really matter, though, because every syllable was so dreamily smooth, i just stared at him smiling for most of the conversation. conclusion: i thought he was an impressively nice guy! t thought he was impressively tall…
GTC vs. Distrito: Battle French Toast
t says: That’s right – you read it – a Jose Garces vs. Jose Garces battle. We’re absolutely sure that Jose is going to win. What’s more interesting is that this battle was kind of … accidental. It all started on Saturday morning …
6/2010, 11am, Party of 3. g, her mom, and I were in the neighborhood at our appointment with the hair doctor when we found that we were quite hungry. Whole Foods failed miserably to satisfy my desire for breakfast (no pancakes? no French toast? why!!!), so I managed to make some not-so-subtle suggestions that we should revisit GTC for lunch. Little did we know that GTC now does weekend brunch! It didn’t really change much for g or her mom, as they again went with the lamb sandwich and the insalada semplice. But not me – I stepped outside the box. I asked to have the blueberry muffin French toast as a separate order ($25 worth of brunch is a lot of brunch! I just wanted some starch!) for ~$10-14 (I can’t remember). Yes, the other two had delicious, delicious things to eat … but this French toast was amazing. What could possibly taste better than getting a soft Blueberry muffin, dipping it in an egg batter and then frying it (I imagine it was fried)? Nothing. Well – almost nothing – more to follow. There really isn’t much more to describe about the dish, and there’s only one thing left to say, “duh! why didn’t I think of that?”.
So, I was right about to write up a “best French toast in the city” bit for adsz … then we found another contendor …
6/2010, 1pm, Party of 2. g and I had some recent success at Distrito for lunchtime. As a mini-review of that meal (too lazy for a separate write-up), here we go … The Blue demon special is a REAL DEAL. The nachos ignacio (vegetarian nachos) and queso fundido (duck and cheese) are an insane combination – I couldn’t finish it (but brought it home and ate it for lunch the next day)! And that chocolate flan is my new favorite chocolate “thing” – displacing chocolate bombs, chocolate gelato, chocolate brownies, chocolate cakes, etc. Seriously – this place really REALLY has surpassed Tinto in terms of food. And, if you go at lunch, you leave with money still in your pocket. it really only lacks Tinto’s selection of cheeses and its dark, seductive atmosphere (which I like – it makes me feel suave, like I have style – but of course, some people might actually prefer Distrito’s funky pink interior).
g and I decided to go back to Distrito for the Mexico vs. Argentina soccer game because cm reported a Jose sighting when he and k went there for a World Cup game. We were destined for a chance to flirt with celebrity and indulge in nachos. We walked in, were seated, and were handed a menu. As I stared at the page, I wondered, “Where’s the blue demon?”. ALAS! We went during weekend brunch! Frick! I was upset, as I recalled brunch at Tinto, which, while absolutely delicious (I’ve enjoyed brunch at Tinto several fold more than dinner), is very pricey if you want to leave feeling full. I maintained composure and reasoned, “well, the game will come on soon, and Jose might show …”. As I contemplated an exit strategy, my eyes found “Tres Leches French toast”. A fellow coworker [and his wife] made a tres leches cake and brought one in to the workplace that was ridiculous! It was so good that I wanted to use pieces of that cake as sponges to bathe myself (I’m not actually sure why that imagery popped into my head – but it was so weird that I had to type it). So I figured, “well, if this is half as good, I’m set”. I ordered it and waited, wondering if French-ifying tres leches cake would do wonders the way it did to muffins.
It came to the table and I was beside myself … there were two large, golden brown deep-fried pieces of cake in front of me. I had no idea that it’d be that large. I had no idea it’d be that … fried. As my fork broke through the super-crispy crust, I knew good things were to come. As I chewed through the crunch, I got a super-indulgent mouthful of creaminess, caramelized sugar, butter, etc etc. g said it reminded her of funnel cake. Funnel cake is less fried than this dish (read that again and contemplate it). Basically, this is exactly what one should NOT be eating if you want to live to see 28 (it was the day before my 28th birthday). But I couldn’t stop. I chuckled as I ate the strawberries and blueberries – they couldn’t cut through the fried sugar goodness of the toast at all. So if you like things fried, you will like this French toast more than anything in the world. BUT, there’s an evil side. I felt full for the rest of the day. But not just “full” – it was more of a “disgusting, uncomfortable full”. It’s the kind of full you’d get if you ate two bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits from McDonald’s. AND – I didn’t even finish it!
So, yes … For taste – go and try out that Tres Leches – but I’d share it if I were you – maybe foil it with something lighter and less greasy (unless you want digestive troubles later). For something a little less heavy, although not much healthier (muffins are notoriously unhealthy), head on over to GTC.
PS No, Jose didn’t even show up to the game. Mexico didn’t even win. But at least we got to try out something new!
Amis: We Mees You Already
g says: our finer things club skipped the month of may (gasp!) there was just too much going on between graduations and moving apartments, holidays, and vacations. okay, so maybe kp was just doing all of those things, but we couldn’t have a meeting without him. (kp is worth waiting for – a stupendous dining partner, for sure! hear that, ladies?) anyway, so we held off until june, and made this month really count by trying a new restaurant that all 3 of us have been talking about visiting since its opening: amis.
this is marc vetri’s newest venture in center city, and all of us had fabulous previous experiences with vetri restos (t and i had a spectacular dinner at vetri for my birthday last year, then kp highly recommended osteria to us, and we confirmed his suspicions of there being some of the best gnocchi in town there). we had been looking for the perfect opportunity to try what promised to be a more rustic, casual version of vetri, but not quite as casual as osteria. the only negative we heard was that although the prices on the menu looked reasonable, the portions were smaller than one would expect, therefore nullifying a seemingly great value. oh, and it’s not byo — which is a negative by our standards, but none of vetri’s restaurants are byo, so we weren’t expecting anything different.
6/2010, 9pm, Party of 3. it was a perfect friday evening — warm, yet comfortable — and kp was not working (hooray!) we cruised in to the restaurant right on time for our reservation to find the nice-sized, yet cozy restaurant completely abuzz with diners. there is a full bar with an interesting selection of cocktails, round tables for groups, and also a large sort of communal table where they seat smaller parties together. although we had a reservation, there was no table ready for our party of 3 — we could either wait for a regular table or sit at the communal. i suggested we sit outside at one of the patio tables instead, which turned out to be a great idea. we were seated immediately, and got to work crafting our wish list of items to order.
it was the moment of truth — we heard that plates are small at amis, yet as we looked around at other people’s food, some dishes looked fairly generous. we decided be cautious and to order 4 dishes and share them all; if we were still hungry, we could always order more. our server was professional and friendly, answering all of our questions with ease. i appreciated her calm much more than the hostess, who seemed frazzled when we showed up for our reservation and did not have an open table for us.
when our server showed up with our drink order, i knew it would be a good night. my prosecco came not in a champagne flute as i would have expected, but in a white wine glass, generously filled at that. there’s that value i was looking for!
our “imported bufala ricotta and black pepper” bruschetta came out first. it was so simple – just a small bowl of fresh ricotta, olive oil, and black pepper served alongside thick slices of grilled italian bread with sesame seeds. holy. crap. i don’t know what they did to that bread, but it was fantastic! it was really flavorful, and a great pairing with the cool ricotta that we smeared on top. AND they would bring us unlimited amounts of this deliciously rustic bread, which enabled us to try it with the rest of our dishes as well.
following the bruschetta, we had 2 pastas (“gnocchi alla romana with oxtail ragu” and “bucatini alla “matriciana” with pork jowl, chili flake and pecorino”) and a “mixed vegetable grill with seasonal vegetables and balsamic vinegar.” i’ll break it down by dish for you:
oxtail gnocchi – as you know from t’s posts, we have to try anything with oxtail or gnocchi everywhere, to satisfy his need to know who truly makes the best of these items. with both ingredients bring presented in one dish, we thought this would be a home run. the oxtail ragu was tasty, but the gnocchi was texturally challenging. they were shaped unlike any other gnocchi i have tried, and instead reminded me of sliced korean rice cakes called “ddeok” (not sure of that spelling), which i don’t particularly care for. spooning it out of its baking dish reminded me of scooping lasagna that had not properly set — i wasn’t spooning separate gnocchis onto my plate, which was strange. they were a little soft and mushy, and of course, diplomatic as we are, the three of us launched into conversation of how difficult it is to make perfect gnocchi.
bucatini – this was a more generously sized portion of pasta than i was expecting, but we made short work of it. the pork jowl bits were soft, but not too mushy, and had a great flavor. the dish was just spicy enough, and the pasta was a great al dente texture. thumbs up!
grilled veggies – a great call if i do say so myself (this was my pick, as i thought i spied another table with this dish earlier). there was eggplant, zucchini, peppers, fennel, and polenta, sweetened by the balsamic and all grilled to perfection. again, not a fancy preparation, but it was a great foil to the other rich pastas we ordered and lightened our meal considerably.
afterwards, we all split the dessert special tiramisu (how could we pass up tiramisu at a yummy italian restaurant? you gotta test them with the classics, ya know!) the tiramisu was delicious, not unlike other homemade tiramisu that family and friends have made for us. but certainly not a bad rendition, even though there wasn’t anything too different about it. there are a couple other dessert items on their regular menu that we would probably try on a return visit, and there is also an ice cream shop called philly flavors about a block away…
all in all, we had a lovely time. the service was pleasant, we were all quite full after sharing the 4 plates plus dessert, and the tab wasn’t too bad, either. we will definitely be returning, especially on a nice evening, as the outdoor seating did make the night for us, i think. if there are any volunteers to go with us for round two, please do let us know, as i can definitely see amis in our near dining future.
t says: Amis was quite delicious. I feel that its bucatini was on par with those from Melograno, which says a lot in my book. I agree that the gnocchi and oxtail dish was not the best I’ve ever had (i.e. at Babbo), but it was also drastically different than gnocchi I was expecting. I normally expect gnocchi to be soft and pillowy, but still with just a bit of bite. I think that Babbo and Osteria probably have had the most texturally pleasing gnocchi ever. Vetri’s gnocchi is far softer than either of these; almost like a stiff mousse (I think they call it a “volatile” gnocchi). It was still good, but just very different. I think the gnocchi at Amis was similar i texture to that Vetri, except that unlike large pillows, these were served as very large discs hiding underneath the oxtail and cheese. As a result, it was kind of like a lasagna, but the “pasta” was a little on the mushy side (overcooked? too much liquid in the dough?). We still ate it. Also, I don’t think it was like “duk” at all, as duk normally has more bite (i.e. stiffer) than any gnocchi should have, but to each their own (I love duk).
after dinner sneeze 