Posts Tagged ‘Philadelphia’
the “secret supper club”
t says: a, v, g and I are huge Aimee Olexy fanboys. We can’t help it. Be it the Table or Garden, we just love to go. And now: Talula’s Daily. We came, we saw, we ate, and we were happy …
the menu for the evening sounded reasonable – nothing too crazy-or-exciting – just a pasta dinner, right? trust me – it’s more!
the squid was served on a single plate and it was lovely – nicely done and coupled with pickled watermelon rind and those super-hot-peppers. the aioli was a little bland (we were hoping it’d be a little more herb-y), but I think that we were pleasant surprised overall with the homey-yet-better-than-an-Italian-restaurant appeal. a solid start!
this salad rocked my socks. seriously – why would I ever eat a salad with un-grilled vegetables ever again? every single component had the perfect texture (forkable, but with enough bite so you weren’t just eating mush) and that corn on the bottom was so vivid in flavor. i really think this salad ruined salads for me …
now we thought the pasta was going to be the main event … but we were wrong – the meatballs were! we were alotted so many meatballs that i cried uncle well before the food ran out. they were soft in texture, with great flavors of pig and cow, and then covered in a pasta sauce which was made with ORANGE PEEL. It was like a summer-kissed tomato sauce – very unique. Now, I can see how traditionalists might poo-poo this kind of tinkering with tomatoes, but even g, the through-and-through-South-Jersey-“my-mom-makes-the-best-gravy”-Italian liked it! So mad props to the chef on this one!
the cheese melted our faces off … like, we entered the restaurant with faces, but we left with nothing more than a few specks of blackened skin clinging on a singed skull … i can’t remember what the cheeses were (my temporal lobes were also damaged in the aforementioned face-melting incident), but they were all so delicious, with unique personalities of flavor and texture that i don’t care. Sure, there was dessert, which included a lovely home-made-lookin’ crisp and ice cream, and sure, it was also a wonderful close to the meal, typical of a meal at neighboring Talula’s Garden, but they had us at the cheese …
jamonera redemption
t says: Some time ago, g and kp and I went to Jamonera and were quite unhappy with it. Apparently, I had criticized one of their dishes by calling it a snoozefest (much like driving a Kia Cadenza) – yikes – I totally forgot about that – it’s a good thing we have this blog to remind us! Undeterred by my “cute hyperboles”, a and v journeyed out to 13th street to sample Jamonera’s vegetarian tasting menu … and were blown away! Check out their tasting menu for $40
t says: they took no pictures, but when we crashed their dinner (literally … we knew they were at dinner, we walked over to the restaurant, and then we invited ourselves over to their table before they had finished eating … I apparently have no manners …), but their summary is “it was the best vegetables we’ve had in Philly!” When I inquired as to which dish was their favorite, they named very nearly every dish – but I suspect that the setas et juevos was their decided favorite.
t says: when we went last time, we didn’t get dessert. Wow – we missed out on the best part! We sampled some of a & v’s this time, and they were out of this world. In the foreground above were some of the best fried dough I’ve had in Philly (with some beautiful caramel + ?chocolate? dipping sauce) …
… and this cake was absolutely delicious. Thumbs WAY up. Sure, both of these desserts are filling/hearty/heart-artery-clogging as all hell (i.e. these are not frilly itsy-bitsy desserts that’ll just slide in to an already full stomach – you need some space at the end of your meal otherwise you’ll be hurtin’!) but boy were they great!
Ok … so I guess the sneeze will have to lift its internal ban on Jamonera and give it another shot … eventually … I think the biggest thing that stops us from visiting now is the wine program. Much like Barbuzzo, it’s not the wine selection that’s a [big] problem, so much as the wine service: the red wine is served at warmer-than-room-temp! We just don’t understand! And this isn’t me just being hoidy-toidy about “correct” temperatures – it’s about cheap Spanish and Italian wines tasting like burning hellfire when consumed at too warm of a temperature – especially during summer! At this point, I’d recommend they just stick all their wine in the walk-in and serve it super-cold … at least that way it’ll pass through an acceptable temperature range as it slowly warms up in the glass. Geez! *gets off his soapbox*. Ok – I feel better. Summary: Go to jamonera. Eat the vegetables. Try a meat or two. Avoid their wine.
are you [cadenza] experienced?
t says: g and I went to “The Cadenza Experience” at Sbraga. We liked it quite a bit (no surprise, given the last time we were there) – but more importantly, a and v got their own reservation to go (it was their first time at Sbraga), so this’ll be kind of a combined post …
a says: With t’s guidance we got on the Cadenza waitlist, and then with v’s sweet-talk, we got a reservation for early Monday night (t says: I wonder what she said?). Having seen g & t the night before (@ jamonera … the post is coming …), we knew we were in for a good meal. And sure enough, Sbraga delivered… for free!
t says: Roll the pictures!!
a says: the drink service was topnotch for a free event, and included mixed drinks and four wine options. We highly recommend the Broad Street and the lovely Italian red blend, with soft tannins that went well even with the salmon (menu below). Our waitress was extremely professional, helpful, and knowledgeable – kudos! t says: g and I enjoyed how when we were inside, there was no further mention of the car anywhere. No server bothered us about it. No more surveys were had. There weren’t Kia commercials playing in the background. I mean, aside from the cheesy light display and ice sculpture (for real – a Kia Ice sculpture), it was pretty much a free meal. a says: By the way, the Cadenza is a perfectly capable car that looks and feels much better than any Kia in recent memory. t says: For $35,900 base price, I’d hope it’d drive better than any other Kia … but dear Lord, that was one helluva snooze-mobile – it could have induced a cataplexy at any moment, it was such a boring/bland car … a says: smartass.
t says: the offered items were straight from the real menu! they weren’t just serving us dumbed-down dishes!
t says: this was the pork belly appetizer. it was exactly the same as the last time we went and it was fabulous. No point in discussing it more – I just liked putting up another picture because this one was prettier than the last one!
a says: I went with the tomato melon soup (which is also what g had). It was a nice riff on a typical gazpacho, which I’ve been eating a lot of lately. This one isn’t as good as Ela’s but it’s up there – acidic yet sweet and very refreshing. t says: When I tasted some of g’s, I was impressed with the smokey-spicy counterpoint that kept me coming back for more – and even the mild cashew’s flavors had a part to play! It really was a well-orchestrated soup!
a says: I went for the roast pork which is the best “deconstructed” DiNic’s pork sandwich I’ve ever had. They even remembered the long hots! t brags: I told you so! I had it again, too! I just couldn’t help myself!
t says: Other dishes that were ventured include g’s pasta dish, which was quite hearty and also delicious (but wasn’t so photogenic, so we left it out of the post) and v’s salmon … which we’re not sure what she thought about it because I kept forgetting to ask her before this post went live (the sneeze waits for no one …)
a says: We ended with the cherries jubilee which had an interesting peppery spiciness thanks to the szechuan ice cream. And the pistachio bread pudding (above) we feel strayed too far to be called “Bread pudding” but was tasty nonetheless. t says: I liked how it had that strawberry rhubarb topping – nice and zippy! I mean, maybe it could have used a bit more chocolate, but that’s just because I’m a chocolate fiend.
t says: We thank Kia for the free meal. I think the event was nicely organized and would be happy to do it again. More importantly, it’s a LOT of fun to say repeatedly say “The Cadenza Experience” in an emphatic manner – it’s going to be our running joke, for sure …
and the hits keep comin’ …
t says: Sooooo … I’ve been told that my last post, despite containing some of the funniest things I’ve ever written (so I’m told), contained a lot of negativity. In an effort to minimize the spread of sorrow, I’ve lumped together into a single post a few other recent letdowns …
library bar: we went with a and v to the new-ish bar in the bottom of the Rittenhouse. the cocktails are splendid – very professionally executed with premium ingredients … however … nowhere in Philadelphia should a cocktail cost $20 … nowhere. g, who likes to play the optimist’s card, likes to point out that “at least they were very good cocktails!” … but still … it’s not like they were 50% better than any drink at Franklin Mortgage (I’m not sure they were any better, actually …) So we decided that Library Bar would be a nice place to go (good environment, very posh) to meet people for -A- drink and nothing more … but I still hope there never comes a time in my life when I’m “ok” with a $20 cocktail … (I have been known to splurge on a $20 glass of wine once or twice, but usually to taste something I’d never be able to get otherwise – so I’m ok with that)
my dumb idea: I wanted to make myself some chocolate chip pancakes but lacked chocolate chips. I reasoned that peanut-butter M&M’s would be appropriate, especially because I’ve even had the PB chips and chocolate chips in the same pancake at Honey’s before. However, unlike regular M&M’s, the moment these guys hit the batter, their colors started bleeding. The end result was the psychedelic pancake you see above. So what was the disappointment? Yea … so peanut-butter M&M’s in pancakes is actually not as nearly as tasty as it sounds [to me]. That might be a “no duh!” thing to you, but for me, I was a little sad :-(
i saw this on a ?moped?/?motorcycle? on my way to work and I just had to take a picture. I love the bumper sticker … what’s the sad part? it’s not mine. (the sticker … not the vehicle)
breakfast wine with kanella
t says: Today [i.e. the day I’m writing this, not the day this will post], Kanella served us the best brunch they have ever served us. It was a perfect storm that looked a bit like this:
Step One: Bring Riesling. g and I pulled out a delightful little not-too-sweet-but-just-sweet-enough Riesling and it was a perfect style of wine. Kanella’s breakfast is entirely savory (I mean, there are some desserts on the menu, but you’re not going to find pancakes and syrup or anything on the menu). With enough citrus flavors and a touch of honey, it’s the perfect accompaniment. And yes, if this means that you have a 10:30am reservation, you start drinking at 10:30am – it’s never “too early” for a good Riesling!
Step two: Dips of the Day are compulsory. They are that good. The above combination (one was lentil, one was fava bean, and one was garlic+potato) featured the absolute best dips I’ve ever had at Kanella.
Step three: Shaksouka … no – not everyone needs to get the Shaksouka, but one person [who shares] does. g is a shaksouka-sucker … and boy am I glad she is! The stewed tomatotoes and peppers with the multigrain bread and that just-cracked egg was stepped up to another level with lamb merguez (a $2 supplement that’s totally worth it) – it was amazeballs (before the lamb wasn’t an option and it was still amazing!).
So there you have it – three steps to a perfect Sunday brunch. Better take advantage of it now while all the people in Philly are out of town at the shore on the weekends …
Percy Street BBQ tries to class it up [some]
t says: sr, ha, and j came to visit us for my bday last month, and I chose to go to Percy Street BBQ. Now, I didn’t choose to go there because it’s the absolute best food in the city. I chose to go there because it is our Father’s Day tradition! As I’ve mentioned before, Percy Street is probably my dad’s favorite restaurant in Philly. It’s pretty spacious, it has large television screens, there’s a lot of tasty meat, he gets to use his fingers, and he loves the root beer float dessert. This year, though, things are different … it turns out that Percy Street is no longer doing it up like before – gone are the platters of meat – now things are served with accompaniments so that the dishes more resemble dishes that you could find at a normal restaurant. For example, the pork belly entree is now a sandwich with accompaniments that emulate a banh mi … it’s no longer a few hunks of pork belly and some sliced white bread. So here are the plusses and minuses of what they’re doing:
Minuses: 1) The above is the free “starter” course, kinda like bread for the table. As a note, crackers and cheese that has the consistency of squeezy cheese should never start off any meal, ever … 2) The Lockhart is changed forever – pork belly is NO LONGER INCLUDED, thus meaning that my family will never order the Lockhart ever again (*sadface*). 3) There’s no more whitebread. This is saddening. Now Percy Street is operating more like a real restaurant and less like a meatery (is that a real thing? i have no idea). This is dangerous because I never thought of Percy Street is a real “restaurant” before …
plus: So I can only think of one “plus” and that is that because things are going to be classed up, you have access to dishes like the above: wondrous pork belly, maple syrup, egg yolk, and toast that was so divine, I would have traded in my main sandwich for another two of these (maybe a sandwich made of the above concoction?). It is true – O’Shea can cook for sure and showed Philly back when she was at Marigold – I hope that the menu, now that it’s more than just meat, is going to show off her panache like this.
bonus photo: as you can see, dishes are more composed, but now you can appreciate the various pickled items (g had a pickled watermelon rind that was quite delicious!)
Overall, the family and I are shocked about the changes at Percy Street. In general, I liked a lot of what we tasted, but we still missed the pork belly in the Lockhart, which was a super-critical meat for our family. While Percy Street will probably still be the place we go for Father’s Day, I do have to confess that without the Lockhart, it misses that little bit of “fun” that it used to have. Maybe by next year, it’ll be back!
Post #500: Return to “The Table”
t says: This is our 500th post. That’s a huge milestone for us! And boy do we have a food experience for it: Talula’s Table! This little psuedo-restaurant in Kennett Square needs no introduction, as we’ve been there several times before, so let’s just roll with the pictures:
The Menu for the Evening!
Bluefish, toter tot, green onion: a surprisingly strong (but delightful) fish flavor atop a wonderfully salty, crispy tater tot. After demolishing the plate, we tried to pretend that we hadn’t received any … surprise – they were not fooled … so I guess we do have a criticism of this dish: it needs to be about 17 times larger …
golden beet ravioli with goat cheese, romaine salad on top: this was my favorite hors d’oeuvre – it starts off with a very vivid romaine that then has a palate-coating goat cheese and ends with the distinct crisp golden beet flavor – what a roller-coaster of flavors and textures! nice!
soup of cauliflower, salmon roe, cucumber, chevre: most found this to be a refreshing start to the meal. I found the cauliflower to be interesting because it tasted like straight-up cauliflower, but not roasted or anything.
Chesapeake blue crab omelette: holy crap – this dish totally blew people’s faces off. I suspect it was because it had a benign name: “omelette”. Seriously – when’s the last time an “omelette” ever did anything surprising? Well this one was like a ninja to your palate because you take a bite expecting “egg”, but instead get rocked by crab and greens and herbs, with the egg plays some mellow background music – v’s favorite of the night!
foie, turnips, radishes: a fun combination: an impressive demonstration of foie married nicely to its accompaniments. I think that foie-lovers would have gravitated more towards this dish, while I tend to prefer my foie darkly seared and deeper (this one was more light-and-springy)
pea ravioli with pork belly surprise (hiding underneath!): this was my favorite of the night – and for the record, it was not just because there was a hiding mass of pork underneath (many attested to the greatness of the ravioli sans pork). I can’t even begin to describe what made this dish so remarkable other than to admit that “pea ravioli” as I’ve called it does it a tremendous disservice.
blue fish: this dish probably had the most fans – I give it props for having just the right balance of novelty (garlic flan … no, it’s not the next generation of cooking, but when’s the last time you had garlic flan?) and integration (putting the fennel and the fava beans and the perfectly cooked fish and the flan and the sauce together resulted in a symphony that forced you to stop and ponder the meaning of life …). a’s mom just couldn’t get enough!
chicken: perhaps the weakest dish of the evening – the chicken was nicely-done, as were the curried carrots, but ultimately it didn’t quite come together in the end as we would have liked. v felt that this flavoring of this dish didn’t quite “fit” with the progression of the rest of the meal, and I tend to agree. Sorry chicken – every meal is going to have its weakest link, and that’s you (even though technically, every single item was indeed perfectly cooked).
steak 2 ways: this was a’s favorite dish of the evening, and he’s not a guy to just give props to meat for the sake of being meat. Maybe it was the squash blossoms? Maybe it was the perfect seasoning? Maybe it because the main character was given an opportunity to shine, and shine it did, with a tenderness I have never seen in a skirt steak? Or maybe it was because a brought out his 2004 Opus One that was drinking beautifully, with aromas of cigar box and dark fruit and a palate of cola, raisins, and tea? Whatever it was, it was an appropriate finale to the steady crescendo the meal had been trending towards.
cheese: cows: gouda, parm reg, cheddar, something else, and a local blue. All in all, a nice cheese plate. Personally, I would have preferred a variety of milks on a cheese plate, but the point of the plate was there to be all cows, so I understand why they did it. I think I was most surprised by the pickled asparagus and pickled cauliflower – they really reset your palate between cheeses, which I appreciated (especially because I was getting full by this point).
and now the final course …
dessert! pancakes! yay! nuff said …
double-dessert: chocolate truffles: because every meal needs a little chocolate, otherwise, it’s not really a meal …
This was one of the best Table experiences we’ve had! With really only the chicken being a little snooze-y, it’s safe to say that Chef is doing a wonderful job – I haven’t had this good a food there since Sikora’s time. The Table still delivers amazing flavor combinations despite unassuming ingredients and simplistic plating – it never fails to surprise me. The service was top-notch and the staff was very approachable, not hesitating to allow us to get up from our seats and watch them cook up and plate the dishes (even though we clearly were a few glasses of wine into dinner). The kitchen table is a fabulous experience – we [still] highly recommend it and feel that it’s totally worth the price of admission (e.g. go to Vetri once, but go to Talula’s Table as many times as you can). And so, I went to end by thanking sr and ha for their generosity that allows us to eat out like this – thanks guys! Thanks to a and v, as this event would not have been as much fun without them – we love having friends with a similar love of and priority for fine dining. And, of course, thanks to a’s parents – it’s always a pleasure to eat [and drink] with them.
after dinner sneeze 