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Notes from the Weekend: February 28
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: February 28
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
Friday: Surprised H with a pancake breakfast for his 28th birthday. That night, I took him to his favorite spot, frequent Meal Ticket haunt Santucci's (901 S. 10th St.). We always order off the blackboard because chef Bobby Saritsoglu keeps his specials interesting, seasonal and affordable. I got the salmon with mashed potatoes and leek fondue for $15; H did fish 'n' chips for $10. We split the flourless chocolate cake for his birthday dessert (Only $3.50?!). The pizza is what people focus on, but they've got some of the tastiest inexpensive food in South Philly. —KL
Made it to Izumi (1601 E. Passyunk Ave.) for the first time in a whiiiile Friday night, and was psyched to see my fave, aji (Japanese mackerel), on special. Reserve your judgment, mackerel haters — I'm among you, but this fish is smoother, milder, with a welcome smokiness best experienced in sashimi and nigiri. Izumi offered it both ways, sold by the whole or half fish cut to order. Killed that, as well as a couple rolls, the sick seared scallop with buffalo mozz on a wasabi crepe, buttery anagao (salt-water eel) and impeccable live uni. The only time I've had better urchin was last winter in San Diego, where local vendors were butchering them live. —AE
A buddy of mine runs a food blog called Zen and Potatoes, so I thought I'd make something for Friday-night dinner using one of their recipes. Settled on Khauk Swe Thohk (please tell me how to pronounce this), essentially egg noodles, lime, fish sauce, chili oil and a bunch of shallots and garlic topped with hard-boiled egg. We added some chicken for meat-eating purposes. Highly recommended for a quick, easy meal. Popped over to El Bar (1356 N. Front St.) real quick before heading to a party to drink Yards Poor Richard's Tavern Spruce Ale from a keg. Classy keg! —AW
Stopped by the fam/friends reception for Alla Spina (1410 Mt. Vernon St.) for a spell Friday night — tried a little bit of everything, but my fondest fat fella food hugs were reserved for the pig tails and the veal milanese hoagie. Cheers to those guys. Fulla food, I shot down to Union Transfer (1026 Spring Garden St.) and parked in my secret UT spot (not divulging) to catch sick sets from Soul Rebels Brass Band and Galactic. No one in Philly can touch UT's sound, it's unparalleled. Ended up at American Sardine Bar (1801 Federal St.) to close out the evening with onion rings and a stupid amount of shots. Is any amount of shots not stupid? I'm getting too old for this shit. —DL
Saturday morning, swung by Belle Cakery (1437 E. Passyunk Ave.) for sweet provisions (passionfruit pates de fruit = amazing) and convinced Jessie Prawlucki to bake me off one of their speck croissants, normally only available on Sundays. The corkscrew pastry is hot on the heels of Artisan for my favorite in town. Later, headed up to the in-laws for all-day-braised brisket and buttercake for dessert. If you haven't experienced this gooey, sweet dessert, a Northeast Philly specialty, get yourself to Mayfair Bakery (6447 Frankford Ave.) stat. —AE
Got tickets to see A Dangerous Method at Ritz East with JN on Saturday afternoon, so we decided to forgo brunch and have regular ol' lunch in Old City at Pagoda Noodle Cafe (125 Sansom Walkway). I had the shrimp dumpling noodle soup (just $7) because it was frigid and I really like noodles, OK? It had bok choy and some sort of other interesting flavor element in it... tamarind? Beats me. Point is it tasted good. —AW
Saturday: Kanella (1001 Spruce St.) is one of my favorite brunch spots in the city — it's BYO, accepts reservations and it has such unorthodox brunch offerings to boot. I ordered the shaksouka, two eggs poached in a cumin tomato/pepper stew and served with grilled bread. I hardly had time to work up an appetite before I was chowing down on more spiciness with my overdue-pregnant friend at Han Dynasty later that night (108 Chestnut St.) — we ate dan dan noodles and garlic sauce tofu. She didn't go into labor, but we were both glad for the excuse to eat Chinese. —KL
I did the NYC thing Saturday into Sunday. BoltBus'd up and made it a point to peep dinner at Totto Ramen (366 W. 52nd St.), which everybody's flipped their lid about to me. They weren't screwing around — their paitan bowl, a chicken-based broth topped with blowtorched pork belly and accompanied by a side plate of atomic-hot bamboo shoots, was one of the best bowls of soup I've eaten in eons. I'm glad it was, because we waited for like 90 minutes outside teeny Totto to slurp it. I'm generally impatient as F but that was worth it. —DL
Fully intended on going to Stateside (1536 E. Passyunk Ave.) for dinner Saturday night, but I fell asleep at 5 p.m. like a jerk. Ended up getting take out from Ken Shin (301 Spring Garden St.) and watching another movie. We ordered a few rolls, including the "Hot Sea" (spicy salmon and avocado topped with seared pepper tuna) and got free crab rangoon because our order cost more than $25. Cool incentive, right? Although I'm never sure how to feel about it. The premise is great, but usually ends up tasting like weird cream cheese. After musing about rangoon a bit more, we decided we should go socialize like real live twentysomethings and drank Sly Fox Royal Weisse at Johnny Brenda's (1201 Frankford Ave.). —AW
Grilled up a lime/soy-marinated skirt steak for Sunday dinner and made a pot of this pureed cauliflower soup to go with. The soup gets its flavor from cumin and coriander rubbed on the florets before roasting, plus about 10 cloves of garlic that get caramel-sweet in the oven. I'll get you the full recipe on Meal Ticket this week. It's so easy and flavorful, you'll want to make a huge pot and eat it all week. —AE
Sunday, it was Friday and Saturday repeated. H and I reheated leftover pancakes for a late breakfast, and then I reheated Han Dynasty for dinner. Dan dan noodles taste better on the second go-'round. Leftovers for life. —KL
Made up for a non-brunch Saturday by going to Café Estelle (444 N. Fourth St.) on Sunday. The wait was long, so we went to Spring Garden Market (400 Spring Garden St.) looking for hamburger candy and eating faux Funyuns. Once we seated, I really wanted the eggs champignon with mushroom confit, but the server told us they were all out. Settled for the trusty stand-by, eggs benedict. Drove up to my parents' house Sunday evening, where they were making short ribs and venison for dinner. My uncle has a hunting lodge in upstate New York and rarely catches anything, but has bagged deer the past two years. We had Goodnoe's chocolate raspberry ice cream for dessert. R.I.P., original Goodnoe's. —AW
I figured I'd keep it rolling Sunday on the real-real-ramen-weekend tip (the weather was right for it!) — peeped hakata-style pork soup at Ippudo (65 Fourth Ave.) for lunch in NYC before schlepping back to Philly for the second Roundeye Noodle pop-up. I've already shared my thoughts on the name controversy those dudes are working through right now, but it's worth mentioning that Ben Puchowitz is capable of crafting a dope noodle, eye geometry notwithstanding. (Photo above by my main dude Neal Santos.) —DL
Actually pumped that I have an exciting weekend in eats to share today.
Friday night at Prohibition Tap Room, where fellow journalism lackeys and I split two orders of fried green beans (it's cool, they're green so it was healthy) and far too many beers. Migrated to West Tavern after, because, you know, it's just one of those places.
Saturday morning brought work and leftover lentil soup before hopping on a late bus to the Big Apple, where I grabbed a vegetarian assortment of Ukranian cuisine's top hits at Veselka (including a vegetarian stuff cabbage that is killer). Followed up with some aquavit cocktails at Vandaag. Veselka again for a late brunch (great place to get your omelette jawn on too, who know?), which I ran off by hustling to midtown to grab the Megabus. Where I ran into half the people I know in Philly (what up, DL?)— migold- Finally checked out Sidecar on Friday with two friends. They shared the chorizo nachos and some carnitas while I had the small order of chicken fingers (I'm a sucker for good cf) and the bleu cheese, pear, and grilled radicchio flatbread. After four hours of Founders Breakfast Stout and multiple ciders I was done. Evil evil night.— JulieC
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