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Notes from the (Long) Weekend: July 5 July 6
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.
Notes from the (Long) Weekend: July 5 July 6
Notes from the Weekend is a Monday Wednesday (this week!) 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.)
Adam Erace: AE
Drew Lazor: DL
Jessica Leung: JL
Esther Martin: EM
Nicole Rossi: NR
I biked up to Reading Terminal Market (12th and Arch streets) to grab some Friday afternoon lunch, and ended up doing what any other red-blooded American boy who loves his mother would do — fall in line at the mob scene that is Bassett's for a cup of Moose Tracks in lieu of a more nutritionally wise option. Happens. —DL
Spent the holiday weekend at the Shore, hopping between C's parents' place in Cape May and mine in Ventnor. Fueled up for the weekend at Fuel (1917 E. Passyunk Ave.) on Friday night — whole-wheat Thai chicken wrap and strawberry/Gorgonzola salad for me, Spanish shrimp and roasted veg salad for her — before driving down late night. —AE
Friday was a busy day as usual, so on my way to work, I stopped by Lorenzo's (Ninth and Christian) for a $2.25 Sicilian slice — one of the best Sicilians I've had with the perfect ratio of cheese to sauce. Made my day! —JL
Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays because it gives me an excuse (like I really need one) to consume countless amounts of burgers and dogs. So Friday night, there was no hesitating trying out "the world's best burger" at Village Belle (757 S. Front St.) with my crew of seven, and we all agreed: the cheese-smothered, bacon-topped wonder was probably the best we ever tasted. After stuffing our faces and shaking the grillmaster's hand, we grabbed a table outside at Catahoula (775 S. Front St.) for beers, shots and off-color conversation. Our server, Brandon, was a great sport. —NR
Later Friday night, pulled the car over in front of Rotisseur (100 S. 21st St.) — they'd just run out of mac 'n' cheese and apple/fennel salad, the two sides I had fat-man eyes on (damn!), but that didn't stop me from running away with a quarter of dark meat, kale chips (love 'em — I'm told kale is a "super food"), corn muffins, succotash and an assortment of pickled veggies co-owner Dean Kitagawa artfully arranged in a takeout container with chopsticks. —DL
Saturday morning was spent at the airport: We were making a big journey to see my Grandma Libby in Boca Raton, home of everyone’s Jewish grandmother. We breakfasted at Au Bon Pain. They should rethink that name. After being hassled by the TSA, I got a terrible croissant from a store in the US Airways terminal. The fruit cup, however, was surprisingly good. I did see a guy with an epic mullet. That was pretty cool. —EM
Woke up Saturday with breakfast at the classy Rio Grande Diner (1305 Rt .47, Rio Grande, N.J.), where, yes, I did eat all this food. Cheese omelette with tots, chipped beef on wheat, banana pancakes. These were not individual entrees I ordered; they all came together on a Denny's Slam of sorts that cost about $7. Yay, diners! —AE
I got up bright and early Saturday to begin baking — I'm my family's go-to baker and everyone always has special requests. Cousin Jay had a specific craving for apple pie, so I made the whole thing from scratch, slicing the apples, mixing up the cinnamon/sugar filling and the brown sugar topping. Apartment smelled amazing. Pie looked fantastic and I'm happy to report it was a huge hit at my family's barbecue, where I helped myself to my second burger and first dog of the weekend (also put a pretty big dent in a bottle of Sapphire). —NR
Lazily perusing Twitter Saturday afternoon (follow Meal Ticket and/or follow me!), came across Marcie Turney bragging about her lunch from Bitar's (947 Federal St.). TWO CAN PLAY AT THAT GAME TURNEY. We headed down to pick up a falafel, plus the vegetarian spread pictured above. Loved everything but the tabbouleh (tomatoes in general aren't quite there yet). —DL
Lunch was snacks from the FL-based Publix Super Market, home of the greatest fried chicken of all time. My mom and I picked up a collection of beef-stuffed "Latin pastries"; one had a sweet glaze on the outside that didn’t quite mesh. We also got Jamaican patties, which are never bad, no matter how bad they are. —EM
Barbecued Saturday night, and repeated breakfast at Rio Grande Sunday morning. (I ate very lightly this time; just a side of chipped beef with my Belgian waffle and over-easy eggs, thankyouverymuch.) Barbecued again Sunday night and ate standout grilled hot sausage sandwiches smothered in peppers and onions on Martin's potato rolls where they were always meant to be eaten: outside, with a view of the water. —AE
Saturday dinner at City Fish Market in Boca. There were 10 of us: my family (five), two boyfriends, aunt and uncle and my 89-year-old grandma. Appetizers were "lobster morsels" (deep-fried lobster balls), Thai calamari and mussels; dinner was crab cakes, whipped scallion potatoes and green beans. Pretty sure everything was bathed in butter. I dare you to say something bad about butter sauce (h/t HIMYM). Warm brownie Sunday for dessert. Oops, almost forgot a mojito strong enough to make me yell at my mom at the dinner table. It wasn’t worth it. —EM
Somewhere between drinking a good amount and passing out in a drooling heap Saturday night, I was by myself in my kitchen, in desperate need of a sandwich. (Not sure if you know this, but buried deep within Sartre's L'existentialisme est un humanisme is a passage encouraging — nay, justifying — man's conditional pursuit of Dagwood-style sandwiches between the hours of 1 and 3 a.m. I'm not lying, check that shit out at the library.) What emerged from the ingredients in my fridge is what I like to call Dad's Sandwich, not because my pops invented it, but because, like the unreasonably powerful snowblower in the garage or the most badass broken-in armchair in the living room, it is unequivocably DAD'S. Butter-fried turkey (it was from Whole Foods and didn't taste that good so I had to hook it up), pork roll, sliced raw jalapeno, cheddar cheese, mayo, dijon, salt and pepper. Yes, you may be excused from the dinner table now, thanks for asking so nicely. —DL
The Sapphire really did me in the next day, and brunch seemed like the most logical answer, so my best gal and I headed down to Cantina Los Caballitos (1651 E. Passyunk Ave.). Ordering the same dish as the person you're dining with is one of my pet peeves, but in this instance we both agreed Eggs Benedict sounded too good to pass up. Poached eggs sitting on bacon and lime corncakes topped with hollandaise, plus fried potato/onion/pepper/chorizo hash = the only thing that could've possibly saved me. That and a pitcher of papaya mimosas. —NR
Best rugelach I’ve ever had comes from Laura's Café, a tiny coffee stand in the Festival Flea Market in Pompano Beach. The pastry's so thick and buttery — it flakes as you bite down and the chocolate inside is still melty. Kosher chocolate has a very distinctive, almost fruity flavor that never ceases to surprise me. So perfect. —EM
Broke the long streak of taking my parents to their favorite Philly restaurant Oyster House on Sunday, taking my fond-of-wieners mom and dad instead to the new Hot Diggity! (630 South St.). They loved it! That's my mom wielding the banh mi-style Saigon Fusion, and below that is my order, the Cincy-style chili/cheese coney. My mom later made me surreptitiously toss out the remainder of the hand-cut fries so my dad wouldn't eat them. Always looking out, love ya mama! —DL
Continuing with Sunday's Champagne theme, my girls and I headed to Parc (227 S. 18th St.) in the evening evening for the cheese plate (one of my faves in the city) and a few glasses of Brut. Once we finished up we decided to check out the always-reliable Alfa (1709 Walnut St.), where we kept the Champagne flowing. Our bartender was quite the character and very much resembled a WWE contender (we told him so). Not sure if he took it as a compliment or not, but either way, he took very good care of us and kept our glasses filled to the brim. —NR
Yo have you been to Feder's Fresh Produce (1822 Spring Garden St.)? Got a bunch of fruits and veggies for a slew of recipes there on Sunday. Too boring to list exactly what, but just note that it was like three bulging bags' worth of stuff and I spent about $20. At a supermarket I probably would've paid close to twice as much. Check them out, great selection and more-than-fair prices. Unrelated: Later on I came across this amazing sign. —DL
Dinner was at Buca di Beppo. I know, I brought it upon myself by joking about it. I’m not going to go into details. All you need to know is it was piles of highly caloric and slightly tasty food.We had a tricolor layer cake: red, yellow (white) and green with whipped cream/possible diplomat cream icing. Pretty awful. —EM
Lucky enough to get out of work early Sunday, so my boyfriend and I decided to go to Supper (928 South St.) for dinner. We were hoping for a "Sunday Supper" since it was the first Sunday of the month, but they weren't offering it due to the holiday — instead, we sat at the bar and started off with the Farmhouse Platter, which was fantastic — the boudin blanc and lamb pastrami were standouts. Next up we indulged in BBQ pork loin and slow-roasted chicken. Both wonderful; the only thing I didn't like was the crumbly tamale that came along with the pork. —JL
Monday morning, continued this new breakfast-out bad habit by housing an order of stuffed French toast with strawberries and whipped cream at local haunt Erma Deli & Pizzeria (635 Breakwater Road, Cape May, N.J.). Sausage and ketchup-y home fries, too. Then, rode to Ventnor for YET ANOTHER BARBECUE. Mom did a Caprese real nice with juicy Jersey tomatoes. I had a burger AND a hot dog AND a pulled pork sammy. My body hates me today. —AE
I ended my three-day weekend with one last barbecue and one more hot dog, giving me a two-of-each total (maybe not so countless) and a whole lot of calories to be worked off in the coming week. —NR
Monday was spent grilling, watching TV and just hanging out — grilled hot dogs, kielbasa, chips and lots of Abita, specifically my personal favorite, Purple Haze, the low-ABV raspberry brew perfect on a hot day. —JL
For M's family's July 4 family party, we decided to try and recreate the awesome summer salad we'd eaten at Xochitl a week before. Though my julienne skills leave quite a bit to be desired (I kept wincing and I pictured Marco Pierre White or some other gnarled-face hothead chef coming over and screaming/expectoring in my ear for chopping my matchsticks too fat), I thought the dressing was ace — thank you for the recipe, chef Lucio Palazzo! —DL
Friday night involved Veracruzana -- which I noticed I eat once a week -- and lots and lots of beer courtesy of Locust Bar WHO NO LONGER SELL THE GUMBALL MACHINES OF BEER! You want me to drink beer from a pitcher? What do you think I am, an animal?! Erie Lanes up in Kenzo still has them so I'll just have to start going bowling more often.
Saturday was filled with epic amounts of barbecue-themed goodness with the best being two different kinds of wings: mojo and chocolate/coffee rubbed. Insanely delish.
Hit up Varga Bar for the first time with the fam after a day downashore. I ordered blandly, but I could have drank that ketchup.
On Sunday, made a Bon Appetit recipe of Asian noodles and flank steak. Added lots of veggies and shrimp but it was no good. I should have paused when they told me to use spaghetti and put in a shitload of cilantro. Those ingredients don't really scream Asian. Ah well, next time.— molls to the wall- That apple pie looks KILLER.
Friday my brother and his girlfriend came over for a night of food and drinking. We made our own version of the Royal burger, with pickled cherry peppers standing in for the long hots and I made a spicy mayo laced with ketchup, garlic, sriracha, and some Crystal hot sauce. We also made Caprese salad, potato salad, and that fruit dip with the fluff and cream cheese that I can't stop eating. I made the mistake of buying my brother a package of dried ghost chilies since he's always experimenting with spicy food. In his drunken state he reconstituted one and ate it whole. Guess who was forced to chug a half gallon of milk and subsequently vomited?
That morning we made scrapple, turkey sausage, and bagels with homemade vegetable cream cheese. I spent all day Saturday catching up on Breaking Bad season three and eating Acme fried chicken.
Sunday the boyfriend went to see Transformers so I picked up a case of SeaDog Blue Paw blueberry wheat and some takeout sushi from Hikaru. Nothing fancy, just spicy tuna rolls and eel.
Monday we did the anti 4th thing-stayed in, watched Inception, shot off a few fireworks. We had grilled all week so instead I made pasta puttanesca with grilled swordfish.
And then I must note that for our anniversary we went to the most romantic place on earth-Brauhaus Schmitz. SO GOOD. We started with the spinach and mushroom strudel with caramelized onion gravy and the smoked fish platter-rye bread, sour cream, smoked trout, mackerel, and salmon with capers, pickled red onions, and salted radishes. It was unreal. Washed it down with a liter of something German and awesome (not Hasselhoff) and some apple strudel.— JulieC
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