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Notes from the Weekend: April 24
Notes from the Weekend is a 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 Weekend: April 24
Notes from the Weekend is a 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
Katie Linton: KL
Alexandra Weiss: AW
Brian Ricci at Kennett (858 S. Second St.) is rolling out a bunch of spring menu changes, so we got in early Friday night to see what he's doing. Beautiful produce is in play — Tom Culton of Culton Organics is providing crazy first-crop asparagus, the ramps in the gnocchi parisienne were beautiful and the ginger-heavy spicy braising greens is a must-get — but Ricci's also got some sick meat stuff to offer. Ordered his crispy fried pig ears with housemade "kitchen sink" 'cue sauce and his stalwart bone marrow burger, which now comes with your choice of whole-grain mustard potato salad or hot-house cuke salad. Love you, spring. —DL
Got in way late from Napa Valley mini-moon [Ed: your pay is docked for using the term "mini-moon] on Thursday night, so spent much of Friday in a dopey, jet-lagged state. I did manage to thin out the sprouts in my garden, which, thanks to the unseasonable heat, exploded while I was away. Uprooted a couple pounds of baby bok, candy-stripe beet and watermelon radish sprouts and tossed them in a salad with parsley leaves and cut chives, olive oil and little blue cheese. Made a crunchy, refreshing side to grilled chicken dusted in Ethiopoian berbere and a white pie from Francoluigi's (1549 S. 13th St.). —AE
Friday: Met my old co-teacher for happy hour at Watkins Drinkery (1712 S. 10th St.) — look for all the details on Happy Hour Hopper soon — and then biked to Newbold to make some pizza with girlfriends. We got every last thing from Trader Joe's, including the three buck chuck we enjoyed on her roof deck. —KL
Armed with a bottle of Old Grand-Dad and a 30-case, the roommate, TD, GPS and I headed up to the Poconos on Friday night to stay the weekend. Stopped to pick up pizza at Valerio's when we finally were close to the house. GPS volunteered to drive, so the three of us bought him a lemon-lime Four Loko as a thank you. Once at the house, we ate pizza, sipped Loko and played Cranium while we waited for JN to arrive. He brought a fifth of moonshine from Kings County Distillery in Brooklyn. The whiskeys both lasted us through the weekend, but after a game of Kings (yes, we are 14 years old), the beer was a goner. —AW
Visiting the achingly beautiful, overrun-with-moms-and-tots Terrain at Styer's (914 Baltimore Pike, Glen Mills) on Saturday morning. Picked up a couple cool herb plants: opal basil, banana mint (really tastes like banana!), golden oregano and lemon thyme, which I add to everything from pizza to fruit salad in the summer. —AE
Saturday: I was so caught up in a spring cleaning fit that I barely stopped to eat. Since H was out of town for the weekend, I decided to show myself a good time Saturday night. I bought myself flowers (ranunculus), my favorite beer of the moment (Dogfish Head India Brown), and made myself homemade pizza again (sundried tomatoes, artichokes, feta and pesto). —KL
Woke up Saturday morning feeling like I'd gotten run over by a herd of deer. Drank some water and made breakfast for everyone with TD. I did the recipe on the Bisquick box (with sugar, baking powder and lemon juice; I added cinnamon for fun) and TD made scrambled eggs. After breakfast we went to a flea market where roommate bought a holographic pic of Jesus and we may have gotten into an argument with a vendor over what exactly a township is. Afterward, went to Country Junction in Lehighton, the greatest place on earth. All sorts of cool down-homey pastas, spices, flours, candies, wines, etc. and a huge assortment of life-size animals, including dinosaurs. —AW
Saturday: Headed to deep south Philly for a sweet cookout at SS' house — lamb sirloin, big ol' shrimp, potato and pasta salads, quinoa, plenty to drink. Got rained on a little while crushing a bunch of Sierra Nevada cans. I like these kinds of cookouts the best because I'm only responsible for bringing booze and all the food is handled by someone unlikely to fuck it up for the entire group a la me. If you need someone to ply you with fancy alcohol while you grill, I'm your man, call me. —DL
Ordered in brunch from Newbold greasy-spoon Brunic's (2000 S. 17th ST.). Sick S.O.S., warm, comfy potatoes and soggy toast. Mmm. Later, met up with the in-laws at Georgine's (1320 Newport Road), a sprawling old-school supper club in Bristol, for dinner and post-wedding recap sesh. I crushed this veal parm and ice cream cake for dessert. —AE
Sunday breakfast/lunch: a takeout whitefish salad on an everything from Spread Bagelry (262 S. 20th St.). Someone suggested I put bacon on this next time and that person is now one of my favorite people, I cannot recall who it was, though. Anyway shoutout to that very intelligent person! Sunday dinner: takeout in the torrential downpour from the new Hip City Veg (127 S. 18th St.). I'll be real in saying I'm much crazier about their crispy chicken ranch jawn than I am about this curry tofu wrap, but all told I'm loving what HCV is doing and look forward to tasting the rest of their menu. Have you drunk their kale lemonade yet? Off the chain! —DL
Sunday: Ended my weekend flying solo with a ladies' brunch that felt a whole lot like Thanksgiving. The dozens of brunch items stayed out on the table for hours and we grazed the morning away over coffee and mimosas. The bacon met a most unfortunate end (see pic), but altogether the brunch was lovely. I didn't get hungry again all day, but still managed to eat a piece of fried chicken with H when he got home. I've taught him to eat fried chicken on Sundays like a southern boy. —KL
Picked up all the necessary supplies for a taco dinner at Hazle Park Meats and Grocery in Albrightsville, including a jar of pickles that was on sale. Arrived home just in time to catch two more friends who were visiting for the night. JN and I experimented with the taco medium by making a variation of a Cheesy Gordita Crunch, substituting refried beans for the cheesy part. We bought two more cases of beer, chocolate ice cream and wafer cones for dessert. Between games of Kings and Cranium, we paused for a pickle break. Turns out the pickles were on sale because they were expired. Whatever, ate them anyway. —AW
I started the weekend with a bomb dinner at Ulivo, ordering the buffalo mozzarella with foccacia crostini, the prosciutto with the olivada and (cara cara?) orange, ziti with lamb and white beans, and the richest gnocchi I've ever tasted. I know it's a description so overused that it's become somewhat meaningless, but they just melted. Super intense.
I was in Stone Harbor on Saturday and got to try the incredible crab cakes from Back Bay Seafood. Really charming place, friendly proprietor, and a crab cake whose most-worthy peers are probably 100 miles west. I had dinner ideas like lamb burgers with mint sauce, but a severe dent into a handle of Heaven Hill kept us away from the supermarket, and drunk burgers were grilled in the rain.
On Sunday, I stopped into Village Belle (dead) and Catahoula (packed!) for some of the Flyers game. Fun fact about Catahoula: though they had a special menu with slider deals, though this menu was on my table, though this special menu had hockey puck clip art and something called "The Puck Sampler," and though there was a Flyers game on TV, they were not offering the slider specials. Seems weird, but whatever. They were offering their biscuits and gravy, though, which, if consumed over the course of 7 days, would provide an easy and filling solution to the $5-a-day food problem. Also, the $15 Abita bucket is pretty unbeatable.
Later, I finally checked into the rebranded Kris for drinks before gloomy-weather pho at Nam Phuong. Kris serves a really great gin cocktail (I think that might even be its name: Gin Cocktail) and also stocks bottles of Stoudt's Double IPA, a beer whose absence on most lists always confuses me.— Telescope Eyes- What's the deal with the food at Kris, Telescope Eyes? You tried yet? — Drew Lazor
- Looked to be pan-Italian with the occasional wider Mediterranean influence, but I didn't order anything. I'll try to go back to check it out, but it's one of those places that I just forget about, for whatever reason. — Telescope Eyes
- I had a killer dinner at Kennet Friday night, gingery greens and a spring-tastic gnocchi dish, easily one of the best I've had in a while.
I kind of randomly worked a first birthday party for a neighbor, which meant I served wine, did some dishes, and snacked on crudite while drinking rose in the kitchen. Worked up quite an appetite at the home depot, so good thing the shrimp were large at the bbq I attended. All the food was great, especially the potato salad which was amazing, we had a blast!
I worked Sunday so I grabbed a tuna melt from Spread on the way in. Got some info on the sweets Larry will be putting out at Spread Bakery, and I can't say too much but waffles will be dipped in stuff! I had Hip City Veg for dinner Sunday night, the 3rd time since they opened, I really love that chicken sandwich!— MLF - Friday night I had my very own ~Taste of Passyunk~ with some oysters & rye Old Fashioneds at Stateside, burnt sugar/bacio gelato at Capogiro & the eggplant/parm/ricotta pie from Marra's. Yes in that order. It was a good night.
Saturday I made the easiest thing in the world for a potluck: cold soba noodles with soy/ginger/mirin dipping sauce. Later, takeout from Sumo Sushi during which I grossed my boyfriend out by loving the Philadelphia roll.
Boyfriend also got really into making these whiskey cocktails which tasted like juuuice: http://www.valetmag.com/living/food-drink/2012/whiskey-smash-recipe-030712.php— jreyes - Whiskey Smashes -- rad. I don't seem them around, really, but I think Zahav's Marble Rye cocktail is kinda similar, but with the addition of celery soda.— Telescope Eyes
- Hazle Park was legendary when I was growing up. Still love going back when I'm up there.— le sigh
- Oh god, the bacon carnage hurts to look at!
Friday I finally finally got to try Han Dynasty (Manayunk location). On my coworker's insistence me and the boy and my friend from DC ordered the cucumber appetizer (that sauce was ridiculous), dan dan noodles, wontons in chili oil, the hot pot with pork, and tea-smoked duck. Unreal. Just ungodly good.
Saturday was takeout from Shan Chuan as usual-spicy crunchy tuna and eel avocado roles. They were my "I have the house to myself so on goes the pajamas and Vampire Diaries" treat.
And Sunday was spent yelling at the Flyers during a Baptism party at the Abbington Country Club's Wet Whistle. Free lagers and roast beef sandwiches are not a bad way to spend a rainy Sunday.
— JulieC - DUDE I used to hang out at The Wet Whistle all the time in college! Does Tony the bartender still work there? I love Tony. He worked at Vintage on 611 too. — Drew Lazor
- ROLLS. I was eating Sour Patch Kids as I types, I blame them.— JulieC
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