POSTED: Monday, February 28, 2011, 11:16 PM
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 at citypaper.net/notes.)
AE: Adam Erace
EF: Erin Finnerty
DL: Drew Lazor
AP: Adrian Pelliccia
LRP: Laurel Rose Purdy
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| Photos | Drew Lazor |
I spent most of the past week in gorgeous
New Orleans, crashing at the home of our beautiful and generous friends
AR and
JR and eating and drinking and goofin' about town. Gonna share a couple highlights from our Friday-to-Sunday festivities — pictured above are po'boys from
Mother's, the local institution that came recommended by
The Corner chef and former NOLA resident
John Taus. We opted for the "2/3 size" option at lunch Friday, but if they'd given us these mofos at the full-size price I certainly wouldn't have noticed — up top's your classic fried skrimp variety, and on bottom is Mother's "Famous Ferdi," that unmistakable po'boy bread stacked up with pickles, mayo, baked ham, roast beef and debris gravy, the Nawlins term for the meaty drizzle derived from the bits and juices that collect in the bottom of the pan when you're carving up a hunka meat.
—DL
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| Photo | Adam Erace |
Friday morning, the fiancee and I made settlement on our very first house together. It's a South Philly fixer-upper with lime-green rugs, faux pine paneling, drop ceilings, aqua tile and piss-after-a-long-night-of-boozing-colored countertops. (Curiously enough, there are no mirrored walls.) We celebrated at
Artisan Boulanger Patissier (1646 S. 12th St.) with pistachio croissants and spinach/mushroom quiche. Will be fortifying myself there often, as sweat equity begins this week. First order of business: new raised beds in the backyard. Growing season is around the corner.
—AE
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| Photo | Laurel Rose Purdy |
Friday's eating began as a rushed-as-hell pickup from
Alyan's (609 S. Fourth St.) for
Foul Medames with Tehina and grape leaves to give me some Middle Eastern happy for the work night to come. But then my status went from good to great: Have any of you been to
The Latest Dish (613 S. Fourth St.) recently? Housemade sausages are happening. Newish chef
Steve Forte is showcasing his own, and on Friday the feature was a clove-y winter Cotechino over white beans and bacon. Hearty as shit, subtly spicy, actually kind of perfect — and he's doing Bratwursts with kraut sometimes, too. Get some.
—LRP
Friday: I went home to my parents' house and picked up a giant vegetable lasagna from
Di Bruno Bros. (1730 Chestnut St.) that'd been languishing in their freezer for much too long. They saw themselves clearing out extra freezer space; I saw dinner. I took it back to my apartment, stuck it in the oven, and served my roommates some delicious, well preserved veggie lasagna. Victory.
—AP
Late late, wound up at
Kennett (848 S. Second St.) again. It's just comforting to know that I can fall in there at midnight and drink a bunch of Cotes du Rhone alongside a legitimate, fresh and local cheese board. I can tell that everyone believes the hype (
did you read AE's review yet?); each barstool and every seat in the dining room was occupied for awhile.
—LRP
Dropped by
Honey's (800 N. Fourth St.) after work on Friday for a quick dinner and had the usual vegetarian chicken fried steak, as well as a rare instance of questionable service. I attempted to replicate their delicious blueberry compote at home later in this weekend and failed — good enough, but just not the same. Any suggestions or exact recipes found hidden in an armoire, please pass along.
—EF
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| Photos | Drew Lazor |
We really only treated ourselves to one upmarket dinner in NOLA — there's waaaaay too much wonderful stuff to eat and drink and see to detonate the whole budget at one or two amazing debt-inducing restaurants. (I'll be back in April,
Besh!) On the reco of
Corbin Evans, another Philly chef and former New Orleanian, we peeped
Patois, chef
Aaron Burgau's pretty neighborhood bistro (reminded me, looks-wise, of
Blackfish) that does Louisiana food "with a French accent." It was a blast. Two faves above: a scary-light potato gnocchi with hedgehog 'shrooms, jumbo lump, edamame and reggiano; and a charred octopus on a bed of fatty chorizo-flecked chickpeas. Couldn't have been happier. Thanks, Corbin!
—DL
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| Photo | Adam Erace |
Later on Friday, C and IÂ toasted with 200 friends and fam at our engagement party at the pretty swanky
Tendenza (969 N. Second St.) in Northern Libs. So busy
drinking Ketel/sodas mingling with guests that I forgot to eat. (Yes,
I forgot to eat!) But I did snag one of the root beer floats being passed around the room on silver trays. Take-home baggies of
L&M Bakery (11 Saint Mihiel Drive, Delran, N.J.) powedered-sugar cream doughnuts were lined up for departing guests, which meant lots of extras at home that I devoured during the remainder of the weekend.
—AE
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
Few more po'boys for lunch on Saturday — this time from
Crabby Jack's, a sandwich joint from the owner of the universally adored
Jacque-Imo's, where we grubbed Wednesday night. (At the latter spot, they literally deep-fry a po'boy, bread and everything. My NOLA-resident friends
SS and
BS split it and were stuffed.) From Crabby's, though — oysters, pulled pork, paneed chicken (pan-fried cutlets). Some killer mac 'n' cheese. See, this is why I didn't blow my cash wad on
August, y'all. —
DL
Saturday: I had more lasagna. For each and every meal.
At the time, I did not regret this decision.
—AP
Late Saturday morning, my brunching companion and I were literally the only two people at
Noble (2025 Sansom St.). We enjoyed a zesty lemon curry crepe special and a super-fresh wedge of spinach/mushroom fritatta. If the secret isn't out yet: Noble is open for brunch on Saturday now, people.
—EF
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| Photos | Laurel Rose Purdy |
Crushed some brunch repeats at
Garces Trading Co. (1111 Locust St.) on Saturday afternoon. I'm a sucker for those $25 brunch prix-fixes (holler at your baby artichokes in Meyer lemon broth), but especially that wheel of buttery
Nettle Farms Kunik cheese. Half goat, half cow, it's grassy and pasty and evil and so delicious. We finished by being dragged into the kitchen to ogle at the 400-pound pig that was chillin' on the prep table. Dude was about 10 times the size of me; I showed my boyfriend a picture of the pig's enormous cabeza, to which he remarked: "Look at how much head cheese they're gonna make."
—LRP
Most of my Sunday consumption was made up of picking and snacking. The main event was a tasty blend of three flavors of my only vice:
Capogiro Gelato (117 S. 20th St.). Killed the cup of Thai coconut milk, meyer lemon and Grey goose/avocado before the Oscars began. Can't wait for next year's show. I have a feeling
Hall Pass is going to SWEEP.
—EF
We avoided the brunch lines at every single brunch offerer on Sunday — when it's nice out, forget about it. So instead I had some bananas and weird Icelandic yogurt because I am a creature of many habits. Finished off the weekend late on Sunday night by sliding into the back bar of
N. 3rd (801 N. Third St.) to make fun of celebrities, drink some more Cotes du Rhone (La Chouffe for the beau) and actually eat a meal. I loved my sesame-crusted tuna with wasabi mashed potatoes, but I burned the roof of my mouth. Boyfriend had the roasted chicken, always stellar. All of a sudden there was a pile of chocolate ice cream in front of me and I don't remember a thing thereafter.
—LRP
Sunday: After OD'ing on lasagna and not having it in me to face another lasagna breakfast, I booked it over to
Steak Queen (38th b/t Spruce and Walnut) to check out their revamped menu. Brunched on a chicken cheesesteak dripping in ketchup and hot sauce and a new menu addition — spinach! For dinner, I headed over to
Pho & Cafe Saigon (4248 Spruce St.) and got my standing order: tofu rolls and the venerable No. 27, vermicelli topped with spring rolls and grilled pork. After applying thick coats of hoisin and sriracha, I downed my meal in about 4 minutes. It was a great choice for getting out of my "eat one type of food for an entire weekend" rut.
—AP
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| Photo | Adam Erace |
Sunday did a marathon house shopping, the intensity of which was mitigated by
Rocco's Sausages (1601 S. Columbus Blvd.), the little garlic-scented shed like a beauty mark on the ugly mug of
Home Depot. Hot sausage. Onions. Peppers. Mustard. Outside on a picnic table in what felt like the most beautiful weather since the summer.
—AE
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| Photos | Drew Lazor |
After traveling for what felt like 72 hours on Sunday (it was more like 12 — stupid, stupid multiple layovers!), I was in absolutely no mood to cook anything or go out and horrify everyone with the onyx bags under my eyes, so we copped some takeout from
the new Makiman Sushi near Broad and Spruce. Digging on the chirashi — that's simply sashimi draped over sushi rice, kinda like a Japanese naked burrito — and especially the pork dumpling soup, which comes with little matchsticks of fishcake.
—DL
