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Notes from the Weekend: July 11
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: July 11
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
There's been a lot of talk about Guapos Tacos, so I waited over 20 minutes on hot-and-sticky Friday to devour what Jose Garces had in store. I started off with the hongos (mushroom) tacos, in a tortilla with roasted poblanos, salsa, black beans and shaved queso fresco — hit the spot with a dash of hot sauce. Dove into the short-rib tacos next — this guy was piled high with black beans, minced onions, braised short rib and queso fresco. Would've been perfect if the meat was salted just a bit more. —JL
Friday, found myself at the UPenn bookstore, aka Barnes & Noble (3601 Walnut St.) — Go Quakers! — where a polite clerk informed me the Hunger Games books I've been reading and enjoying are part of a series written for 12-year-old girls. I collected my balls off the floor of the tween section and proceeded to further emasculate myself by eating a half-salad/half-sandwich combo at Cosi (140 S. 36th St.). What was I thinking? Had to return to the line with fatty embarrassment and order a second sandwich. Thanks, grilled chicken TBM. —AE
The rain held me hostage Friday night and hindered my plans of venturing to Frankford Hall (1210 Frankford Ave.) for some bday celebrations. I decided to do a little celebrating of my own and whipped up my simple-yet-heavenly batch of thumbprint cookies from scratch, using leftover apricot and strawberry jams nearing their expiration dates. They were pretty damn perfect, and my stash has been severely depleted. —NR
On Friday, I used OpenTable for the first time (I like to call on the phone but no one was picking up) to make a later-ish rezzie at Friday Saturday Sunday (261 S. 21st St.), which is 38 years young in 2011. The why-is-this-playing-successively sounds of Lady Gaga and Trombone Shorty eased the bottle of Willamette Pinot (only marked up $10, in fitting with FSS' long-standing policy) down fast, and the merguez, mussels, chicken dijon (oldddd-school) and other stuff didn't last long either. Check out this week's CP to find out why we decided to drop in. —DL
We went to my BF Andrew's brother's house Friday night with a cooler of Amish corn from the Passyunk Square Market, steaks and pork chops from Cannuli's (937 S. Ninth St.) and Little Baby's Earl Grey Sriracha ice cream from Green Aisle (1618 E. Passyunk Ave.). The ice cream was surprising — it was like eating/drinking a cup of English tea with a twinge of Sriracha that came up after it had been swallowed. If the texture hadn’t been so smooth it could have been awful. There was also Shoo Fly Pie and Funny Cake. —EM
Saturday morning awoke at the Shore, where hostess-with-the-mostess mom had a breakfast spread waiting. Cereal, bagels, strawberry pancakes, coffee, juice, all kinds of jam and syrup and three types of cream, including some grass-fed Lancaster stuff for her growing boy. —AE
Saturday was super-busy. After my crazy work schedule, we headed to the Vendy Awards at The Piazza, where we met up with NR. Tried Guapos Tacos (crispy mahi mahi taco), La Copine (breakfast sandwich, hashbrowns, quinoa salad, and PB&J banana bread), Cucina Zapata (Thai short-rib tacos), Gigi & Big R's Caribbean/American Soul Food (fried catfish, slow-cooked chicken, mashed potatoes, mac 'n’ cheese) and King of Falafel (pita, hummus, tabbouleh and obviously falafel). I loved La Copine. —EM
Before the Vendys, I stopped by my old neighborhood for a chai latte at One Shot Coffee (217 W. George St.) and some catching up with a friend. While waiting for said friend, who very nicely brought me a freshly picked cucumber from her garden, I scanned over CP and read and re-read AE's review of Talula's Garden. Good thing I had all the trucks to satisfy my appetite because his article had me famished! —NR
I have nothing very insightful to add about the Vendy Awards that hasn't already been said elsewhere, so I'll just say this: 1) Overall champs Gigi and Big R's (above) definitely deserved to win. Their food, just like the dudes making it, had a lot of personality and it's exactly what I wanted to eat, know what I mean? 2) Yes, the Michael Solomonov-sourced onstage Quizzo beatdown, as MCed by event host Johnny Goodtimes and detailed by NR below, definitely happened. I suck. Pretty convinced I would never, ever win one of those "fastest finger" challenges on the Millionaire show. —DL
With a cuke in my purse, a press pass around my neck, a beer in one hand and a taco in the other, I experienced my first-ever Vendys, and it was pretty awesome. I tried every food truck, sans Sugar Philly and Sweet Box because they unfortunately ran out of macarons and cupcakes before I got to them. I heard they were divine, however! My favorite food truck, hands down, was King of Falafel, and my favorite part of the event was watching DL getting crushed on stage by Michael Solomonov. Kidding! —NR
Solo, I think, took pity on me after the trivia beatdown and fed me rugelach and apricots, among several other delicious plates, at Zahav (237 St. James Place) post-Vendys. It was kinda like the Charlie Murphy True Hollywood Story where Prince destroys Charlie and his crew in basketball and then invites them back into the house to eat pancakes. —DL
Big dinner in the backyard Saturday night, which starred my favoritefavoritefavorite family dish, string beans and potatoes. (I told First Person Arts all about the simple but magical stew a while ago) Digested with a walk around the corner to the jammed and sweaty Ice Cream Place. This root beer/vanilla gelati cooled me down. —AE
Saturday night we went to South Philly Tap Room (1509 Mifflin St.). I’d gotten a lot of slack the past week for my hatred of mayo (especially from SPTR chef Scott Schroeder), so Scott instructed Kathryn to get me one of his grandma’s tomato/mayo sandwiches and Parm- and chili piquante-crusted corn on the cob called Eloté. I tried both because I said I would, but unfortunately, neither were my thing. So I ordered the bangin’ grilled cheese — I never order grilled cheese from a restaurant, but here I make an exception. We also got a plate of fried chicken to share; that was also delicious. And I sipped/got drunk on Sly Fox Royal Weiss Ale. —EM
I woke up Sunday morning still a little bummed about missing out on some tasty desserts at the Vendys, so I headed to Le Pain Quotidien (1425 Walnut St.) and picked up a $7 (yikes!) gooey pistachio-topped pastry and headed to Rittenhouse with yet another chai latte and a good read. The two or three men snoring behind my bench on the grass and the old man sitting across from me without a shirt on really complimented the beautiful morning. —NR
I had lots of office work to do this weekend so I put a few hours in on Sunday afternoon. Really though it was just an excuse to go to Han Dynasty (108 Chestnut St.) and cop beef and tripe in chili oil, my most favorite thing there. —DL
I was looking for some quick food after I got done work, so I went for some pho. (Yes, it was hot outside, but it just sounded perfect.) I was in South Philly for the night and the only place open till 10 was Pho Hoa (1111 S. 11th St.). Not as good as Pho 75, but it definitely did the job and didn't burn a hole in my wallet. —JL
Sunday evening I walked to Barbuzzo (110 S. 13th St.), where a friend and I shared a refreshing pitcher of blanca sangria and some delectable bites al fresco. I've been to Barbuzzo a dozen times; on this occasion I was wowed by the sheep's milk ricotta/fig bread, the spring risotto with caramelized onions, asparagus and favas, and lastly (eyes much bigger than stomachs at this point) the Coniglio pizza, loaded with rabbit-hazelnut sausage, olives, basil, oregano and chili oil. Leftover pizza, especially Marcie Turney's left-over pizza, is the best. —NR
More friends in town, more fat-kid weekends: Most importantly, had dinner Saturday at Le Virtu, in the backyard space right by the long hots, with a nice view of the basil growing in wall-mounted Woolly Pockets. It was kinda magical. With six guests we all shared at least six apps and six pasta dishes, and I still can't decide which was my favorite. (Maybe mine -- porchetta stuffed w/ sage and brown butter. Drool.) Capogiro for dessert as per usual -- ordered brown sugar (or was it burnt?) and Mexican chocolate. Next time I think I'll add strawbs and cream. (HTML deleted)— CarolynH- Dear NR, those are some adorable thumbprint cookies.
My weekend was full of home cooking (except for when little brother and boyfriend and I hit up Circles with that awesome $10 off door handle coupon and left with a bunch more coupons. Sitting down there is actually really nice. Their plating is awesome. And what the hell, tofu corn fritters? Like mozz sticks with tofu and corn. Soooo good.): scallops from Ippolito's with fennel, thyme, orange zest and other things, super rich bolognese a la Mark Bittman, and lemon ricotta omelettes with a banette (sp?) from Artisan Boulanger. We actually got there early Saturday and there were sooo many choices.— jreyes - jreyes, I'm curious about your bolognese recipe. Link me yo! — Drew Lazor
- I agree about the thumbprints, they look so cute and probably tasted even better.
Friday two of my friends and I braved the rain to go to El Rey for happy hour. Their dollar tacos/$2 Tecate deal is hard to beat. Saturday I was hungover like crazy (thank to Fleur de Lehigh) so I stayed home and ordered some pretty awesome Chinese takeout from Shan Chuan out in East Falls. Crunchy spicy tuna rolls, General Tso's, Singapore noodles, and fried pork dumplings. I couldn't decide on anything so I bought EVERYTHING.
Sunday I went to Wegman's with my sister and bought pizza dough and some awesome looking buffalo mozzarella. The boy and I just bought our first pizza stone, so we made a spicy sausage pizza with grilled peppers and onions.— JulieC - JulieC, El Rey happy hour is definitely a great deal. What I really like about it is how conscious the sweet servers are about when it begins and ends. They'll deliberately come thru and be like "Yo happy hour is about to end, you should probably order real quick!" even if we still have drinks/tacos. THANK YOU EL REY SERVERS. That of course automatically translates to me always boozing/eating post-HH.
I bought my first pizza stone recently too. It's great but I'm always afraid it's going to crack due to all the heat and emit an ecclesiastical glow like the Ark of the Covenant.— Drew Lazor - Just don't look at it! Then your face won't melt off.
The servers are AWESOME. Even when they mess up our taco order they're great-I don't care if it's steak or cheese you just gave me it costs a DOLLAR. Friday our guy knew to bring all three of us a Tecate AND a margarita with each round, he was a gem.— JulieC - Yesyesyes to JReyes corn/tofu fritters at Circles! Had them 2 weeks ago, had that same thought. Killer.— AdamErace
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