after dinner sneeze

There aren’t many things that SF lacks when compared to Philly (excluding the obvious: affordable housing).  The food scene in SF is just so vast that g and I confess we haven’t even scratched the surface of what it has to offer.  That said, we have noticed a few weaknesses.  We haven’t quite found an Indian takeout as good as Ekta/Tiffin.  And we haven’t found hummus as good as Dizengoff.  We made it a point to eat both during our trip!  Now maybe it’s not fair to say “there aren’t any good hummuserias in SF” because that’s pretty darn specific.  But when you get some of those sunchokes (or cabbage or lamb or whatever the choices are for the day) in that smooth creamy hummus with the freshly made pita (that is way better than any pita I’ve had yet in the Bay Area – and I’ve tried a quite a few), there’s just no comparison.  I actually ended up buying a Dizengoff t-shirt while I was there, just to keep the spirit alive.  So Michael Solomonov, if you’re reading this (because obviously you follow low-readership blogs like this one), bring Dizengoff to SF (and toss in some Federal Donuts – no need for the chicken if it’s too much), and I’ll be there once a week for sure.

a and I ventured the Walnut Street Cafe for a dudes’ lunch, and I ended up ordering this sandwich.  Now it looks pretty boring.  And most might say, “you call that a sandwich – where’s the meat?”.  Hear me out.  A broccoli rabe sandwich.  It sounds so silly, but damn I miss broccoli rabe.  I feel like Philly was just putting rabe in everything, and I took it for granted.  Now, surrounded by kales and lettuces of SF, rabe (or “rapini” as it’s more commonly known out here) isn’t really used as much – and when it is, it is rarely permitted to retain that bitter greens flavor that I so love.  So of course –  a broccoli rabe sandwich was exactly what I wanted.  The rest of the dishes were pretty good (a great butternut squash soup, albeit a bit pricey; and a’s pork sandwich was tasty and filling), but I did it for the rabe.

No visit to Philly is complete without a trip to DiBruno.  And I caught them at just the right time when they had Rogue River Blue in stock.  This super-expensive cheese is totally worth it.  It’s so salty, so stinky, and just has the slightest bit of sweet – my favorite blue for sure.  I left it in my parent’s fridge without putting it in plastic and let’s just say that “they noticed” …  Thanks DiBruno’s – happy to see you’re still a Philly food landmark.

And last, we have the new Aimee Olexy joint, The Love.  If you like the Garden, go to the Love.  It’s a bit more hip, a bit more chic that the Garden, offering dishes that ride the line between the comfortable warmth of Garden and the more see-and-be-seen atmosphere of Rittenhouse.  Above is the short rib stroganoff which was insanely good.  Everything we had was delightful – we only wish we were more hungry so we could have explored the remainder of the menu (we played it safe – shortrib strganoff, spaghetti and lobster, gnudi, etc).  Gotta try out that chicken!

In all, our visit to Philly was a whirlwind.  It was great to see friends and family.  Is was fun to visit the restaurants, new and old.  There was even nostalgia when walking around my old workplace (well, a combination of nostalgia and relief from the snow … because … you know … it likes to snow whenever we visit Philly … just to remind us of what we’re ‘missing’ in SF).  Until next time … I guess it’s back to 60-degree days!