Notes from the Weekend: Feb. 7

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Notes from the Weekend: Feb. 7

POSTED: Monday, February 7, 2011, 10:41 PM

Filed Under: Notes from the Weekend

Notes from the Weekend is a Monday feature that sees the members of Team Meal Ticket compiling all the food/drink highlights uncovered during prime eatin' time, Friday to Sunday. Consider this a place for good deals, great dishes, wicked cocktails, recipe triumphs (and tragedies), bizarro conversations and more. We're eager to share our notes, but especially excited to read yours.We encourage you to leave notes from YOUR weekend in the comments. Have at it! (View past NFTW installments atÂ citypaper.net/notes.)

Erin Finnerty: EF Drew Lazor: DL Adrian Pelliccia: AP Laurel Rose Purdy: LRP

Photos | Drew Lazor

Swung by CafÃ© Estelle (444. N. Fourth St.) on Friday afternoon to kibitz with chef Marshall Green (above) about the art of cold-smoking. (He does his killer sides of salmon in the tin-can smoker outside his restaurant.) Read this week's CP for more info on cold-smoking and who's doing it in Philly. âDL The bf's parents came down for dinner at Percy Street (900 South St.) on Friday â followed an incredible meal of starters and sides with a giant slice of pecan pie. For reasons unknown, I spent the years between 1986 and 2008 rejecting pecan pie and have now dedicated my life to making up for lost time. âEF Spent Friday afternoon on a post-Tattoo Convention mission to self-indulge, and stumbled into Oyster House (1516 Sansom St.) during happy hour. Sat solo at the oyster counter, sipped on a Pinot Blanc and slurped down some sweet Hog Islands and Salt Coves that tasted like they had been plucked out of the ocean the moment I arrived. Was introduced to Periwinkle snails â tiny and hard to scoop out, but totally worth the effort. âLRP Friday: A long-overdue visit to Village Belle (757 S. Front St.), where we got down on those signature meatball sliders (top 5 Philly bar snack, no doubt!), among other plates, while taking in the dulcet tones of Rick Baccare on the mic. Dude those sliders ... I love them, for sentimental reasons. âDL Hit up the Italian Market on a drizzly Saturday morning for the weekend's produce essentials and some Tortilleria y San Roman (951 S. Ninth St.) chips. Later, did a quick lunch pass through Chinatown for a lemongrass tofu banh mi from QT Vietnamese (48 N. 10th St.). Love the sandwich artist there! âEF

Photo | Laurel Rose Purdy

After some First Friday exploration, caught up with some college girlfriends over dinner at Barbuzzo (110 S. 13th St.), which was bustling as always. Went for some dishes I had not tried on my first visit, and the glaring winner (for me) was the vegetable board. Is that weird? I could have eaten three. Delicately seasoned mushrooms â oyster and I think I remember royal trumpets â and the watermelon radish salad enhanced with lavender are stubbornly stuck in my food memory. âLRP Since I missed out on the actual BBQ at Percy Street, I made up for it on Saturday night with some hot barbecue sauce-glazed tempeh atop of a big bowl of cool, crisp coleslaw. âEF Saturday: After a party-hearty evening celebrating our friends' birthday at Silk City (435 Spring Garden St.), my roommate and I ordered sandwiches from Stan's Deli (3632 Powelton Ave.). I got a corned beef special, a bunch of pickles and a ginger ale, all of which amounted to the perfect hangover remedy. That evening, we headed over to a friend's house for dinner, where we were treated to some delicious ziti, garlic bread and chillable red. âAP

Photo | Drew Lazor

Saturday: To' up the last (but certainly not the least) dish from my recent friend-curated "Bean Swap" on Saturday night â this hearty, lil-bit-spicy chicken/chickpea stew, from Swapper Jess H. So good ... Jess, gimme this recipe! âDL Sunday: My notoriously nonathletic friends agreed that the Super Bowl is just an excuse to put together an enormous spread of food and beer. I joined them at their house, where they had made an enormous bowl of guacamole and some perfectly flaky homemade Cheez-It type crackers. Thanks to high demand, our order of hot wings arrived more than two hours late, so they were complimentary. There's no taste in the world more delicious than free wings. âAP

Photo | Laurel Rose Purdy

Hit up Kennett (848 S. Second St.) Sunday night with my beau and a friend. Felicia, you were so right about the kale salad. So much earth in the green of all greens, candy-striped beets, tangy feta and roasted squash. Also crazy about the housemade pork rillettes and array of local cheeses, especially the creamy blue drizzled with honey. The boys loved the bone marrow burger and margherita pizza. Bummed we didn't get to sample the cocktails more, but I just really had to have a glass of red. Downed a whiskey nightcap at New Wave Cafe (784 S. Third St.) and ended the weekend. âLRP Threw together a quick cheese plate built around a wedge of creamy black pepper-rinded brie and a mini-wheel of herby goat from Whole Foods (2001 Pennsylvania Ave.) while a friend and I flipped between the Super Bowl and an inordinate amount of Toddlers & Tiaras. SBXLV highlights: players' "STFU Lea Michele" faces and the Chrysler 200 ad. Detroit what. âEF

Photos | Drew Lazor

There was plenty of light and/or healthy stuff populating our Super Bowl XLV spread â crudite, peel-and-eat Old Bay shrimp, a beautiful cheese plate with homemade truffle honey â all of it designed to counterract my fat-dude piece de resistance: dry-rubbed chicken wings fried in duck fat. WHY NOT.* Thinking of cutting up the leftovers and making a bit of chicken salad out of it. Again, WHY NOT.* âDL * (This is where you guys are supposed to chime in and say, "Because, Drew, if you keep cooking shit in duck fat, you are you going to die 11,000 times.")

Steph

Posted 2011-02-08 10:07:45

I made a chicken-soup risotto on Sunday, and I don't think I can ever go back to regular chicken soup ever again! Think of the comfort-y good feelings that come with home-made chicken soup and then add the rich creaminess of risotto. It was heaven!

Erin

Posted 2011-02-08 08:33:35

Shit I love it when they do that. Need to come to Amada, need wild mushrooms back in my world.

Drew Lazor

Posted 2011-02-08 10:57:56

Excellent NFTW-age, Rory. I've never had Silk's fried chicken, worth a trip over?

morty

Posted 2011-02-07 22:23:03

i mean, you could ask right? not that hard...

rory

Posted 2011-02-08 12:10:21

the fried chicken plate I cannot say. If it's anyway as good as the fried chicken wrap? holy god yes.

Laurel Rose

Posted 2011-02-07 20:16:59

Anthony, we do that at Amada, too. Come in!

Anthony Sica

Posted 2011-02-07 19:51:09

Crazy good small plate fest Friday night at Southwark.  The snails and clams being the most memorable.  Southwark is cool, no doubt, but can I get a hand clap for the fact that they announce prices for their specials as they read them off? Bravo.

rory

Posted 2011-02-07 18:35:10

Friday night, friends from NYC came in to see the Girl Talk show. All of us under 30, yet still the oldest people on the dance floor. That was something of a bummer. The pluses? Watching the two coeds do bumps of coke next to me and playing peacemaker after my 5'0 girlfriend threw her elbow into the 5'6...larger...chick who bumped her out of her spot. Oh, and the kickass show + music.

Anyway, went to Silk City for dinner. NYCer's approved of the burger and the kona braised short ribs + "best potatoes I've ever had, I think." Girlfriend rocked the quesadilla, but was mostly eyeing my fried chicken, avocado, bacon and other good things wrap. Stoner food FTHMFW (for the huge motherf*cking win)

Saturday had to keep it going strong, so we took them to Kanella for brunch. Started with the Kanella plate. GF and I both go the dehydrated wheat + yogurt+cream+haloumi cheese soup special. MAKE IT REGULAR. Out of towners had the cyprus breakfast and the rabbit stew special. Also introduced them to dibruno's duck prosciutto afterwards.

That night, GF's aunt + uncle used our christmas gift to them to take us out to Han Dynasty. Those cucumbers? WOW. After eating something spicy, almost have a chocolate taste to them. Also glorious? The dan dan noodles and the fish in hot sauce. Must. go. back. more.

Sunday was chill day...had some oatmeal and some homemade beef+guinness stew and some beers. awesome.

Tweets that mention Notes from the Weekend: Feb. 7 :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper -- Topsy.com

Posted 2011-02-07 18:16:24

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Philly City Paper, Drew Lazor and PA General Store, Meal Ticket. Meal Ticket said: New NOTES FROM THE WEEKEND is live. Share your #SuperBowl eats and more in the comments! http://ow.ly/3S1Gr [...]

Posted 2011-02-07 18:03:10

Stuffed myself at Lee How Fook for a mere $16 (considering we ordered, no joke, 12 entrees for 14 people). I can't even begin to remember what I liked, but that price for that much food should be endorsement enough (multiply that by two considering how much I liked everything). Hint: Get anything with brisket or tofu.

But the most important thing I ate this weekend was the pita chips at Tastebuds (24th and Lombard). I think they are made out of filo dough, so light and flaky and delicious. They make my life better.

Super Bowl involved me (over)eating homemade cream cheese-filled jalapeno poppers wrapped in pancetta and and maple syrup chocolate chip cookies.

Posted by Drew Lazor @ 10:41 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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Founded in October 2008, Meal Ticket is a City Paper blog about food, drink and assorted other things that make you go mmm. We do recipes, interviews, restaurant news, commentary and much more. We don't do restaurant reviews here — those are handled in print, mostly by our critic (and Meal Ticket contributor) Adam Erace. Got a tip, question, thought or concern? Just want to say hello? Please shoot a note to caroline@citypaper.net.

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