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Notes from the Weekend: January 28
This weekend Adam is in San Juan (yes, we're insanely jealous) and Caroline is weighing in on a serious chili competition.
Notes from the Weekend: January 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. We'd love to hear all about YOUR weekend eating adventures in the comments. Go for it! (View past NFTW installments at citypaper.net/notes.)
Adam Erace: AE
Caroline Russock: CR
Emily Kovach: EK
Started my weekend in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where I'm still writing from today. Man, the pork here is good, roasted on a spit at one of the mountainside lechoneras (Thursday night) or topping the ultra-garlicky mofongo at Punta de Vista in the pastel colonial part of town (Friday afternoon). Dinner Friday took us too the tres-chic 1919 in the Vanderbilt hotel for a tasting by the freshly minted chef, a veteran of Blue Hill in NY. The service was comical, but the food was pretty accomplished, including passionfruit-splashed crudos of fluke and hamachi on a paper-thin mosaic of octopus carpaccio.—AE
Every once in a while I get it in my head that eating fast food is a good idea and I do something dumb like order pretty much everything on the menu at Popeye's. This is exactly what happened on Friday and once again I realized that this always a terrible idea. A little later on in the evening I drowned my fast food-related sorrows at Kung Fu Necktie.—CR
This icy, frigid Friday night was as good a candidate as any to order in dinner and cozy up to an HBO On-Demand marathon. But plans with friends were already in place, so Ry and I braved the slippery streets to Point Breeze, where we joined two friends and their supercute 1-year-old for pepperoni pizza and beer. I brought along a big green salad and a homemade loaf of wheat bread (have been cranking out a loaf a week since getting the most excellent My Bread by dough guru Jim Lahey). We listened to records and many an Ommegang BPA was cracked open before finally, carefully, heading home.—EK
On Saturday morning I headed over to The P.O.P.E. for some very serious business i.e. judging their annual chili cook-off! Me and my co-judges tasted our way through about a dozen entries and after some heated, jury room style back and forth we crowned the lamb and lentil chili from the kitchen at Kris the big winner. A few beers, a brief stop back home and then up to Alla Spina for a few glasses of PA-vinified Petit Verdot and plate of taleggio-stuffed polenta and then over to Union Transfer to see Christopher Owens.—CR
But the best meal came Saturday night at Jose Enrique, a total locals' joint in the Santurce neighborhood. Loved their crispy smoked pork nuggets with onion escabeche, custardy pan-fried veal brains, alcapurrias filled with lemony crab salad and braised shirt ribs with shaved radish and local celery root purée. Fantastic service here, too.—CR
After scooping up Ryan's cousin at the airport at noon on Saturday, we drove out to explore Mt. Airy, a neighborhood which I'm not at all familiar with. Our adventure which was supposed to end with lunch and pints at Earth Bread + Brewery. However, due to a rare case of poor fact checking on our parts, we didn't realize that they're not open for lunch, even on weekends. We considered plying ourselves with Southern food across the street at Chef Ken's Cafe, but ultimately settled on diner fare at the Trolley Car Diner. I'd only ever been to the Trolley Car once before, years ago, and was surprised to find some changes inside - most notably, a giant selection of bottled craft beer, which could be ordered to the table, or taken away in mixed-6 packs. Despite some wicked spotty service, our patience was rewarded with perfect milkshakes and sandwiches exploding with fillings. Mine was a hard boiled egg club, which was a no-nonsense, textural delight.—EK
On a recommendation from a friend, we took our visitor for cocktails at Lemon Hill in Fairmount. After miraculously finding a parking spot nearby, we gathered around a high top table, and sipped Old Fashioneds, Dark & Stormys, and snacked on caraway studded soft pretzels and amazingly fluffy fried cheese curds. For the second round, Ryan's cousin bravely ordered the Hot Buttered Rum, a blend of three rums, hot water, honey, and bitters. We were all a bit speechless when the drink came out with a giant pad of butter bobbing about in the glass. As the bar filled up, mostly with a raucous birthday party, we decided to pack it up and headed across town to Ressurection Ale House. We shared bowls of bacon-y, apple butter-y brussels sprouts, squash and cranberry laden farro risotto, and smoky white bean and cabbage gratin with tasso ham. Many beers were poured, but the highlight was the Stone Enjoy By 2 15 13, a big, floral, double IPA "brewed NOT to last," according to Stone's website. "It's got a hint of gasoline on the nose," our server friend said with a wink. "In a good way."—EK
With tickets for The xx at Electric Factory on Sunday night I almost went back to Alla Spina but opted instead for Prohibition Taproom where I made another ill-advised order - Korean grilled squid and a side of mac and cheese. Seriously, I have no idea what I was thinking with that bizzaro combination. Luckily I made a better choice with a few tulips of Lagunitas Sucks, a seasonal strong ale from the California brewery. Over at Electric Factory things were, well, lets keep it positive and just say that The xx were wonderful.—CR
On Sunday, we hauled it down to Delaware for an 80th birthday party. The food was pretty standard catered fare, though I will never complain about any situation involving mini meatball sandwiches. After doing the family thing all afternoon, Ry and I indulged in a low key evening, with homemade tofu soup and some TV time. We watched some of ABC's new cooking competition show, "The Taste." Though the production of the show is kind of bizarre (one contestant nailed it when she made a wry comparison to "The Hunger Games"), the blind tasting, ridiculous contestants, and scathing commentary from the judges - Anthony Bourdain, Nigella Lawson, Brian Malarkey, and Ludo Lefebvre - makes the show rather addictive in that way only bad television can be.—EK
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