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Notes from the (Long) Weekend: September 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: September 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. 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.)
Friday: A very light and very good lunch at Wedge + Fig (160 N. Third St.) followed a screening of Killer Elite, a movie that Friend of Meal Ticket ME and myself believe to be the first mustachioed role for Mr. Clive Owen. Congrats, Clive! I don't have sweet facial hair like his but I still very much enjoyed my nicoise-ish salad. —DL
Started Friday off at the crack of dawn in Arizona at the north rim of the Grand Canyon with a pack full of fruit and nut granola bars and tropical trail mix — my only means of nourishment for the-28 hour journey across this natural beauty. —NR
Ippolito's (1300 Dickinson St.) had some gorgeous skate for sale on Friday. Dusted the feathery wings with flour seasoned with smoked paprika, mustard powder and fennel pollen and seared them in a hot pan till golden, about 2 minutes each side. So easy it almost cooks itself. Served the skate with balsamic syrup, crushed nuts and heirloom tomato salad. —AE
Looking for some comfort food, the BF and I ventured to Chinatown on Friday. Ended up at Nan Zhou Hand Drawn Noodle House (927 Race St.) for some spicy pig ears and beef brisket noodle soup. Stuffed, we decided to walk back home. Once there, I magically managed to make room for something sweet: Haagen-Dazs Blueberry Crumble ice cream. —JL
I might as well admit this.: Friday night, I played Dungeons & Dragons for the first time. My boyfriend, who has played many times before, suggested traditional food choices when it came time to chow down: Utz Party Mix and Hawaiian pizza and a cheesesteak calzone from Ardmore Pizza. My drink of choice was vodka-spiked Shirley Temples. Not too refined, but it definitely worked for a group of hammered people trying to figure out whether or not to roll d6 or d20 when launching an attack. By the way, I'm a dragonborn warlock who spits rays of cold from my mouth while lighting everything else on fire. —EM
Twenty-four miles, 11,000 feet in elevation, a high of 108 degrees, bruises, cuts, blisters, and the end of the most physically and mentally challenging experience ever was celebrated Saturday morning with a big 'ol bacon and Swiss burger, mounds of onion rings and fries and beers at the Grand Canyon's South Rim Lodge. All hope of shedding a few pounds in the canyon was lost with the sight of this dish. —NR
Friday: After catching a late South Jersey screening of Attack the Block, which might be my favorite movie of 2011 so far (foreal it's so good), pulled up in front of Maoz (248 South St.) and managed to get in and out with a veg-stuffed pita before the crazed mobs descended. It was hard to wait until I got home to eat this jawn but it was the right move — falafel in the car action is definitely not a good look. Think I might still have tabbouleh in my vents from last time. —DL
After waking up late to an empty fridge on Saturday morning, I ended up with a Dunkin' Donuts sausage, egg, and cheese on a bagel. As I ordered it I could feel myself slowly dying inside. It was disgusting, but it was filling. Lunch more than made up for breakfast. Circles (1516 Tasker St.)! Pan-fried dumplings and hot shrimp pad thai. Filled me up and cleaned out my sinuses! —EM
Ran some errands and did some work Saturday afternoon, so I treated myself to a beer at Farmers' Cabinet (1113 Walnut St.) — this time it was house brewmaster Terry Hawbaker's punchy, straightforward IPA. Kicked around home for awhile until a craving for zha jiang mian — ground pork in a fermented bean sauce — hit me hard around 8, so I biked up to Yummy Lan Zhou (131 N. 10h St.) and had a bowl of theirs. I couldn't stop thinking about it afterward, so I decided to make my own (second pic; looks somewhat legit, yeah?). Check out this week's CP for more; I'll post the recipe here on Meal Ticket later this week. —DL
I love this panzanella my mom threw together on Sunday night for a backyard dinner at the shore. Nothing more than day-old multigrain baguette torn into pieces, some chopped tomatoes right off the vine, torn basil, balsamic and extra-virgin olive oil. The bread salad accompanied fam-fave "crabs and macaroni" (spaghetti) made with crustaceans caught fresh that morning. —AE
I love pad thai, so I am not ashamed to admit that I had Circles (1516 Tasker St.) again for lunch on Sunday. This time I switched it up and got creamy crab rangoon instead of the dumplings. Look at me being all unpredictable. Never know what I’m going to do next. —EM
Girlie made these sickkkk blondies — subbing chocolate chip for fragments of Chocolove's Almond/Sea Salt/Dark Chocolate bar was an amazing idea on her part — to bring over to a friends' house for dinner Sunday night. They went over quite well, a sweet complement to grilled Italian sausage sandwiches, pasta salad and beer. Ben the Dog was not allowed to have any blondies but I want to post his pic anyway because he is such a cute fucker. —DL
Sunday night we rewarded ourselves some more in Las Vegas with dinner at Wing Lei at The Wynn. The Three Cup Sea Bass fell apart at the sight of a chopstick, and the kobe rib-eye salad tossed with watermelon and jicama was another favorite, along with sides of BBQ rice, crunchy garlic green beans, and flutes of blanc de blanc. Bounced around between The Wynn and The Encore for the rest of the night, sipping on Sapphire Martinis and working those already-sore calves on the indoor/outdoor/poolside/shiny disco ball dance floor. —NR
While most people were probably at the beach enjoying the last of the summer weather, BF and I did something a little different on Labor Day — we ventured over to Fairmount, visited the not-so-scary Eastern State Penitentiary and grabbed a quick bite at London Grill (2301 Fairmount Ave.). We munched on chicken liver and wild mushroom on toasted bread along with some Yards Love Stout to wash it down. Still hungry, we ordered chicken-ham-cheese croquettes to round out the glorious snacking. —JL
Back in the city on Labor Day, copped a quick dinner at Santucci's (10th and Christian). I probably shouldn't tell you too much since I'll be reviewing it officially in the very near future, but suffice to say, I've now been there four times in two weeks. Meatballs! —AE
After working for a few hours on Labor Day, I headed out to Collegeville where Andrew’s brother and sister-in-law were kind enough to host us, my parents and their parents for a little grilling. There were burgers and sausages from Wegman's, French potato salad from Andrew's mom, and my mom brought a watermelon-feta-red onion salad. My offering was a peach crumble, which didn’t end up getting eaten because Andrew’s mother brought a chocolate sponge cake with amaretto icing to celebrate our birthdays (they’re nine days apart). We definitely scarfed down some of the crumble when we got home, though. —EM
Last full day in Vegas I indulged in a carrot cake ice cream sundae at Serendipity 3 at Caesar's Palace. Vanilla and butter pecan ice cream sitting on top of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and walnuts drizzled in a maple sauce with hot fudge and marshmallow and topped with whipped cream and a cherry. Yikes. Later that night we checked out Sushi Samba at The Venetian and had a few amazing plates — sea bass miso skewers, yellowtail ceviche and sashimi and fried banana/chocolate taquitos among them. The night continued with waaay too many gin and tonics, a lot of dancing and waking up the next morning sporting a Hangover-esque feeling as we dashed for the airport back to PHL. —NR
I rarely do cooking stuff in advance (too forgetful), but I somehow managed to dry-brine a whole chicken on Saturday night to roast it, in the Zuni Café style, on Monday evening. Think I might've gone a little overboard with the salt this time, but the patience-required process always produces a crisp, crackled and juicy end result. To promptly ruin any good will my chicken success might have fostered with the kitchen gods, we followed up dinner by drinking Fruit Punch Four Loko out of Champagne flutes. (Don't blame me, blame Friend of Meal Ticket JC, who bought it on impulse, or so he claims.) Stupid, stupid discovery: Adding Angostura or Peychaud's bitters to Loko makes it easier to get down. —DL
Great read everyone! I haven't tried some of these places you speak of, but judging by your knowledge of Santucci's and your choice of four loko cocktails, you guys know what you're doing!
Cheers,
A new fan— tomsauer00- Thanks for reading, tomsauer00. And while I think I deserve more derision than praise for combining Four Loko and bitters, I'll gladly accept your compliment. — Drew Lazor
- Hit up Sawatdee for the first time and decided on Pad-Ka-Paro-Talay (lots o' different seafood in chili garlic sauce). Nice little spot with SUPER attentive waiters and I enjoyed the food but I like Circles better. Beats My Thai in the 'hood either way. Also tried Fat Salmon for the first time. We had a gift certificate so we went crazy with the fancy rolls. Good, but I think we got too fancy on ourselves. Deep fried tofu is a must though.— molls to the wall
- Also, Meal Ticketers, heed Drew's and advice and go see Attack the Block because it's balls-out-awesome. — molls to the wall
- I'm posting this before reading this really crazy looking edition of NFTW because y'all will make me look bad because I'm dieting and don't eat exciting things anymore.
Friday night, hit up one of DL's favs, Tai Lake, for the first time. When we walked in I was like, Whattup eels! Whattup frogs! Sup shrimps! Mike and I split the salt & pepper soft shell crab (big ups to DL for the rec) and a giant mound of dry scallop & crab meat fried rice.
I don't remember eating anything on Saturday except for leftovers of the above-mentioned fried rice.
On Sunday I made a vegan spinach & potato curry, with fresh diced roma tomatoes, that will continue to feed me through tomorrow afternoon. ZESTY. I also ate a lot of black mission figs on this day. Obviously it was a good day.
On Monday, I hit up Blackbird Pizzeria for a slice of vegan pepperoni pie and their delicious cherry vanilla soda (hit up their fountain instead of getting a "dry" soda from the cooler, and you can thank me later). I had more of Sunday's curry for dinner and then cried over an ice cream bar on my couch, mourning my long labor-free weekend.— erinbfinnerty - I am not ashamed to admit having eaten panzanella for basically every meal this weekend.— migold
- we were just in san fran, at zuni cafe, got the chicken. i will say, without any sense of humility, that i've made a chicken that good before. however, the panzanella underneath was one of the best, rustic-est dishes i've had in a very long time.— alexr
- I didn't get to enjoy the "extended weekend" that most of ya'll did as I had to work pretty much all weekend, however that didn't stop be from grilling. Sealect Seafood in Westmont, NJ has been the best upgrade of our neighborhood. Great deals on fish and fantastic prepared foods, that place is the way to go. I stopped up, grapped a few filets of tilapia and made Tequila Lime Tilapia on the grill. Did the same recipe pan fried the next night. Both times, excellente. If yer in the Collingswood/Westmont/Haddonfield area in soJo, hit them up. Support local food!— Cropulis
- Friday night: I started the weekend off right with an amazing meal at SPTR with some friends. Started with oysters, sweetbreads (so effing good, amazing char), local wax beans with bacon, headcheese tacos and Mexican wings. Then we had burgers. Very good burgers.
Saturday: brunched at Sidecar and enjoyed their farmers skillet and a fruit cup because they were out of their bread basket goods. Finally ate at Circles for dinner and I'm so dumb and why did it take me so long to eat there. Wow. Everything was great. Shared pork dumplings, corn fritters, shrimp pad thai and drunken noodles.
Sunday: VOLKSFEST! All things German. Drank German beer and wine. Ate schnitzel, bauernwurst AND bratwurst.
Monday: Because I clearly didn't eat enough this weekend, celebrated labor day with a black & white milkshake, double bacon cheeseburger (topped with onion rings) and chili cheese fries at Nifty Fifty's.— JessRossi - The back patio at Wedge + Fig just might be the best outdoor space in the city, so charming! It would be lovely to sit out there at night with a bottle of wine and one of their cheese plates. I love that Maoz stays open late on the weekends because it is nice to have a quick takeout option that isn't gigantic pizza. And, the staff is so nice considering they work in a maelstrom of crazy.
Had a nice glass of sparkling post errand running at Farmers' Cabinet and an ok tomato salad, oddly some of the tomato was under ripe. Spent the rest of the day making batches of tomato sauce to freeze and finishing the 1st season of Boardwalk Empire.
Sunday morning was devoted to drinking coffee and baking blondies so I was super hungry when we got to L & E's house that night. I filled up on pasta with garlicky broccoli rabe and cherry tomatoes and arugula salad. Oh, I also tried Skinny Girl margarita for the first time. First and last time.
Monday morning I was treated to a delicious zucchini, caramelized onion and feta omelette for breakfast with a side of toast. Later that evening lieu of Zuni chicken I had bbq tofu and kale-sweet potato hash, the best!— MLF - We were up in Ithaca for the long weekend and pretty much ate the whole city (Simeon's for the BEST TUNA TARTARE EVER, Viva Cantina for meh burritos, Red Newt for beautiful wine trail lunch, Collegetown Bagels, Ithaca Farmers Market, etc etc etc).
We also went to Moosewood, which was ....... just OK. We figure it's sort of an institution, but we weren't super impressed (the food was good, but wasn't anything we couldn't make ourselves for much cheaper). Have any MT peeps been there? What do y'all think? Am I just being a snob?— CarolynH
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