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Notes from the Weekend: August 8
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 Weekend: August 8
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.)
Adam Erace: AE
Drew Lazor: DL
Jessica Leung: JL
Esther Martin: EM
Nicole Rossi: NR
Yo ... Friday was crazy. Went from Meal Ticket HQ in Old City to Vietnam Café in West Philly (816 S. 47th St.) to Pub & Kitchen (1946 Lombard St.), where chef Jonathan Adams generously left me a bit of pork blood for a recipe I'm working on. (I knew he used the stuff for his black pudding, which we discussed back in April.) Pick up this week's CP to see what'll become of it. Dinner after all this running around went down at the Lombard Swim Club (2040 Lombard St.), which I'd never been to before because I am poor — lucky for us, good friend MS runs the kitchen there along with caterer Mike Lynch, who took over the old Apamate space in March. Boozed just a little (members drink for free! not that I'm a member ... ) and wrecked a cheese plate, a ribeye, some caesar and other tasty plates that fortified me for a drive down to Maryland. —DL
Dinner among chattering chandeliers and warp-speed servers at Nam Phuong (1100 Washington Ave.) on Friday. First time there, and I'd go back for the minty Viet chicken salad kissed with fish sauce. Summer rolls were OK, a little gummy, and the tendon in the aromatic beef pho could have been softer. That's what I get for cheating on fave Cafe Chau (2201 S. Seventh St.). —AE
Friends and I celebrated the weekend for no-good reason other than it was Friday at 10 Arts (Ritz-Carlton, 10 S. Broad St.) with bottles of Champagne and a number of kick-ass strawberry/thyme concoctions our chatty/charming bartender whipped up for us. We were happy to be his faithful taste-testers — and honestly, who can turn down a drink on the house? —NR
Copped this featherweight puff-pastry cinnamon bun from Regency Café and the Lansdowne Farmers Market (30 N. Lansdowne Ave.) on Saturday morning. Did dinner at newly sans-Levin Adsum (700 S. Fifth St.) after ravaging bridal-registry store credit at the Cherry Hill Bed, Bath and Beyond (Mandoline! Kitchen shears! Fuck yeah one-touch can opener!). Youse should get there STAT for the exotic Colombard-Ugni Blanc, a cyclone of stewed tropical fruit in an $8 glass. —AE
Saturday morning I headed down to Maryland for Bimmerfest with the VAC crew to showcase a few can't-help-but-drive at rocket speed models for the day. The highlight of my day: driving a Skyline GTR (not a BMW, but begging to be flaunted) back to Philly. The highlight of my night: dinner at Han Dynasty (108 Chestnut St.), where my mouth was just as hot as my ride. Dumplings in chili oil, dandan noodles, cumin-style lamb and dry pot-style shrimp had my face glowing, as our waiter so kindly pointed out. No amount of water could extinguish the fire dancing on my tongue. —NR
As much as I wanted to bake myself something for my birthday this weekend, there was absolutely no time and it was way too hot. I know that sounds absurd because my job is to stand in a hot kitchen and bake, but let's be serious here. Instead I treated myself to a Belgian waffle at Bonté (922 Walnut St.). Not as light as your typical diner waffle — these are smaller, denser and much sweeter. Later that night, hit up Cooperage (601 Walnut St.) with some coworkers to do more celebrating. Had a few glasses of gin and cranberry, some laughs and then ended up face first in bed. —JL
Saturday night, boyfriend and I decided to go to Melrose Diner (1501 Snyder Ave.) to get fried chicken. Melrose usually has the best fried chicken in South Philly area, but this night it was just ... blah. Chicken looked pretty and it started off awesome, until I got to the middle of the breast and it was cold. Pulled apart my thigh: cold. Boyfriend's chicken: cold. Both of us hate to complain, but cold? Ew. The server took it back and microwaved it, which altered the flavor a little. Probably one of the more upsetting letdowns in recent memory. —EM
Yo NR, I didn't know you were holding it down on my home stomping grounds this weekend! I was right down the road from you, twisting a hose around and tending to my parents' bountiful-ass garden because they're on vacation. I harvested a bunch of tomatoes, cukes, beans, eggplant and even ampalaya, one of the worst vegetables of all time. I also watered every freaking plant on my family's property, only to watch the sky crack and torrentially downpour over everything about an hour later. DAMMIT. Luckily I didn't give a shit thanks to the secondary purpose of our short trip south — a combo birthday and graduation party for Dear Friends of Meal Ticket MC and KC. (Happy stuff, guys!) Yooo I got DOWN on Maryland food y'all — blues from Coveside Crabs (we've talked about them in NFTW), pit beef and pit turkey from Durham's in Elkton, and of course a respectable amount of Natty Bo. —DL
While the girl was a baby shower on Sunday, I scooted over to the Headhouse Farmers Market (Second and Lombard) for a blackberry/blueberry/verbena pastry cream tart from Market Day, Chinese long beans from the farmer with all the cool Asian greens, and nectarines, Rambo apples and golden raspberries from Three Springs. At home, after potting a fig tree clipping from pops-in-law, cooked down some of the softer raz with honey, vinegar and tarragon into a quickie compote for a wedge of gooey Doe Run Hummingbird, my favorite local cheese. —AE
Sunday: Woke up feeling pretty decent. I guess that’s what happens when you have a boyfriend force-feeding you water in a semi-conscious state. We headed over to the Wishing Well (767 S.. Ninth St.), where I acted like a fat kid and ordered a bacon-spinach-mushroom omelet and biscuits and gravy. I ate it all. —JL
I let my taste buds cool down on Sunday a bit with some homemade hummus and stir fry. Using only what I had in the cabinets and fridge, I mixed up broccoli and green peppers in the pan topped with a blend of soy sauce, honey dijon mustard and spices, and served it over a bed of jasmine rice. —NR
I drank two funny things on Sunday. The first was High Life out of a classy-as-fug coupe glass at Adsum (700 S. Fifth St.) — the vessel being the move of note (smooth work, @imalwaysmoody). The second? Vita Coco's brand-new tropical fruit flavor, backed by none other than Rihanna. Oh yeah yeah yeah. It was very Pon de Refreshing. —DL
After some recharging, we got dressed and headed to Alma de Cuba (1623 Walnut St) for my real birthday dinner! BF and I chowed down on a ceviche tasting, some short rib antichuchos, lechon asado (crispy roast pork), Brazilian shrimp stew and yucca. We were in a food coma halfway thru, but I insisted that dessert was still in order. The kitchen was nice enough to bring us out a goat cheese flan served with a caramel tuile and fresh fruit. Unfortunately, I was so excited that by the time I realized I should've taken a picture, I was halfway done. Twenty-two is kind of an insignificant milestone, but dinner was still fantastic. —JL
Crown Fried Chicken across from the Melrose has way better fried chicken. I don't think anything at Melrose is good anymore--maybe the pie, but I'm afraid to try it.— BarryG- AE might have something to say about this! — Drew Lazor
- Hows that turkey pit in Elkton? We always hit The Rivershack behind the Wellwood Inn in Northeast. And their fried chicken is hitttttting.— Philly Sweettooth
- The pit beef and turkey from Durham's was the shitttt! I'd never had the turkey, was really surprised by how moist and smoky it stayed. Never been to Rivershack before but I gotta check it out ... that's on the way between my hometown and Philly, a drive I make with enough regularity to make a fried chicken stop. — Drew Lazor
- Drew, glad you and Michelle could make it to the party this weekend. You weren't kidding about that Pit Turkey, leftovers the next day with some thick sliced tomatoes, whew, I might need some more right now just thinking about it. Maybe I'll just grab some on my way up to visit in 2 weeks!— MCostello13
- Had a great eating weekend! Hit up Northeast classic Santucci's new location in Bella Vista and I'm so glad it's moved down to a location I can go to all. The. Time. For those unaware, Santucci's rocks the cheese on the bottom and the sauce on the top. Both the works and plain were delish, and word to the wise: Get the long hots. So good. The service was also fantastic, very sweet waitresses. On Saturday, went to Miga after a hardcore hankering for Korean BBQ. Got the fried mandu and the beef dolsot bibimbob. It was good, but not mind-blowingly good. I would go back but I would also take recs for other Korean BBQ (Meal Ticket Q&A?). Got to hit up the new Circles Thai cafe down in Point Breeze and got the egglant stinger stir-fry and the the tofu corn fritters. Do I need to tell you it was delicious? Because it was.— molls to the wall
- Hit up Fat Salmon on Friday night. Everything was great. But really is there a better sushi item in this city than the "fancy sushi." If you have a suggestion I'm listening...
Saturday took some Montrealers to try the Montreal bagels at Spread. They were pretty good with a ton of lox/whitefish, but I'm not sure if we were given extra due to the many Montreal/Jew connections.
Saturday night ate at Opa - very good cocktail, very forgettable food. There are too many other good mediterranean places to come back for anything more than a drink.— bje55 - I miss the meatball spring roll doo-dads at Vietnam Cafe. I miss that whole neighborhood.
Friday I met up with my guy at El Rey to partake in the $1 taco happy hour for the thousandth time. Complimented the bartender on his awesome mustache and ate my weight in fish tacos. I found out the fish they use is flounder, which totally surprised me.
Saturday we went to Deke's barbecue on Shurs Lane in Manayunk. They converted a garage next to The Ugly Moose into a BBQ joint. I loved the atmosphere, it was completely low key. The bartender was so sweet-she convinced me to go for the brisket instead of the chicken and didn't steer me wrong. It came with greens, barbecue beans with hunks of pork and sausage, and cornbread. The boyfriend ordered the "Fat Guy" sandwich-pulled pork, brisket, and sausage. Crazy. We also had a side of their mac and cheese and split some chocolate bourbon pecan pie. I love any place that serves their drinks in mason jars.
Sunday was dinner at mom's-t-bones, smashed potatoes, her mushrooms sauteed in soy sauce and butter, and roasted carrots. Followed by chocolate chip pound cake.— JulieC - Adam, your cheese plate looks amazing!
Molls to the wall, Santucci's is so good! At least once a day I think to myself that I must go there and eat pizza.
The Costello family party was a blast, rife with homemade deliciousness, particularly the quinoa salad. I had my fill on the best part of any party: hors d'oeuvres! Cheese, veggies, hummus, olives, more cheese, and guac. I was in heaven, snacking with abandon while the adults in the group took shots of rum.
Sunday morning I happily raided the already harvested crop of garlic, onions, shallots and potatoes to round out our produce haul. Thank you Maryland! A quick stop at Adsum turned into several dishes and a couple drinks. Can't wait to go back and try the fried oysters!— MLF - Gotta love KC's love of the food processor. Now when I am at the grocery store thinking about picking up hummus, I remember I would much rather have hers...I am convincing her to make some Old Bay Hummus that I will definitely bring with me when I come up! — MCostello13
- DL - I'll be heading back to Maryland in a few weeks - Baltimore specifically. Share your food/drink suggestions please!— nicolerossi62
- Nicole-
Make a reservation for Woodberry kitchen today, it is amazing!— MLF - I miss Maryland! I was going to post about my weekend eats but instead just got bummed that it didn't involve pit beef and crabs. Boo!
This weekend I went to Oscar's and drank big beers. That is all.— kibby - Friday we did dinner at Stella - surprisingly good! We had reservations at Twisted Tail but they called Friday morning and told us they weren't serving dinner - but when we went after Stella they were packed and everyone was eating? We were a little miffed.
Saturday had takeout from Circles - penang curry, duck pad thai, curry seitan spring rolls, and the tofu corn fritters. They are as amazing as everyone said! I hid one in the back of the fridge and had it for breakfast on Sunday.— marianne215 - Thanks for the suggestion! Coincidentally, I actually do have a dinner reservation there - so stoked! Any brunch spot suggestions?— nicolerossi62
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