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Notes from the Weekend: July 25
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 25
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
Thanks to some sizeable Jameson consumption at Raw at the Piazza Thursday night, Friday morning was not the pleasantest of mornings. An early lunch and a trip to 10th Street Pourhouse (262 S. 10th St.) quickly had me revived. The cajun chicken sandwich, topped with sautéed peppers, onions, pickles and melted cheese on foccacia, plus a side of Cajun fries, had just the right amount of spice to prep me for the rest of the day. —NR
Friday: After a few oh-god-so-hot beers at Khyber Pass Pub (56 S. Second St.) and Johnny Brenda's (1201 N. Frankford Ave.) — the latter bar was pouring a bunch of nice Sixpoint stuff, including a one-off ale that tasted exactly like bacon — I headed to Green Line Café (4239 Baltimore Ave.) for the kickoff of CP photographer Neal Santos' new photo show, 51st and Chester. (For those who don't know, Nealage and his boy Andrew Olson run West Philly's Farm 51.) The reception coincided with a farmers' talk as well as a mini farmstand, where we copped a basil plant and a few other goodies. Go see Neal's photos! —DL
On the recommendation of AE's brother Andrew, I picked up some "lambdouille" by North South at Green Aisle Grocery (1618 E. Passyunk Ave.) last week and decided to cook up a few for Friday-night dinner. I should've known I was in for a burny treat when the two links I'd wrapped up plastic filled the entire fridge with a forest fire-esque smoky aroma after sitting in there for like 3 minutes. Tamed a spice a little bit with some 3 Springs peaches — incredibly good. Did you know the farm actually set up a Twitter account specifically for this year's harvest? Peep peachy game at @OurPeachCrop. —DL
Saturday hit Ramble Street beach in Wildwood with C and her fam. It was hot this weekend, in case you hadn't heard, and I fought off dehydration with lots of water, watermelon and water ice. Grabbed a dirty-water dog for lunch at the slightly scuzzy Beach Grill at the Oceanview Motel. More cleaning, less leaning, y'all. —AE
If you have a glaring drinking problem an immense appreciation for alcoholic education in all its forms, knowing bartenders is a beautiful thing. So big sloppy thank you to Doug Fitz — popular longtime enabler at Rouge and Snackbar, now sadly departed to Miami — for hooking us up with his signature Bloody Mary method. There's no secret ingredient or anything, but I believe there are a few elements that make Doug's Bloodys taste that much better than everyone else's — onion powder, celery salt, Worcestershire AND soy and finally, mothereffin' Clamato instead of straight tomato juice. Give it a shot. And listen to this Reggaeton song about Clamato while you're at it. —DL
The only thing that saved me from the heat Saturday besides the AC was some juicy pear water ice from Rita's (1511 Spruce St.) and a bottle or two of Meal Ticke favorite Festina Peche. The water ice melted in an instant (a straw would have been more helpful than a spoon), but the flavor was refreshing enough to still keep me cool — for a little while, at least. —NR
Yeah yeah it was smoldering as ScarJo sealed in a sauna on Saturday, but that did not change the fact that it was National Hot Dog Day — and it did not affect my desire to cop a Scott Dog from SPTR chef Scott Schroeder's setup in Old City, where Hawk Krall was also selling some of his doggin' prints. Made from scratch with local beef and pork and topped with a simple onion/pickle relish, the dogs were juicy and snappy and smoky and exactly what I wanted, even beneath the sweaty blanket of triple-digit heat index oppression. Schroeder says his dog cart will make its next appearance at The Food Trust's next Night Market on August 4. —DL
Saturday night I made a peach crumble using my mom's awesome crumble recipe and 3 Springs peaches. The peaches were so juicy that knifing into them felt like a crime. Every drop of juice on the cutting board felt like a waste, so I poured it back in the pie pan. We served the crumble warm (duh) with Little Baby's bourbon vanilla ice cream. I highly suggest you do it. —EM
Feeling like I really needed to counteract all the sausage I'd wolfed down in the days prior that's what she said, ate a healthy heirloom tomato salad with an amazing tarragon vinaigrette for dinner Saturday night. Holler if you want the recipe for it. —DL
Saturday night I headed to Time (1315 Sansom St.) for some jazz, Hendrick's martinis, a sip of a $19 shot of whiskey and probably the best mac 'n' cheese I've had in quite some time — a mix of cheddar, fontina and scallions topped with ham hock. I recommend you try some on your next visit. We then ventured south for a little blue mist-flavored shisha at Leila Cafe (1356 South St.). Still feeling full from the mac cheesiness, I passed on the homemade hummus, but its presence was tempting. The owner was very chill and nice enough to let us stay after hours and puff away like that crazy caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland. —NR
Sunday morning I brunched alone at Green Aisle. During a pick-up at Headhouse Market I grabbed a breakfast sandwich from Renaissance Sausage, which will sadly soon leave us. Bun, fried egg, cheese and their awesome breakfast sausage. The sausage has just the hint of spiciness, which warmed me up in the freezing GAG. I was cold. —EM
Sunday dinner with a group of 20 at the Grand Hotel Cape May's buffet. Ate my $27.95 worth in Dungeness crabs — not a whole lot else that interesting — then hit the Uncle Charley's and Fudge Kitchen on the Washington Street Mall for dessert. —AE
Finally, a day of rest! Instead of going out to eat in the city, the boyfriend and I spent our Sunday night watching TV — with some Chinese takeout, of course. We switched it up and ordered from Jade Garden (1525 S. 11th St.) instead of our usual dig. Big mistake — not as good as J.C. Chinese Restaurant (1701 S. Eighth St.). No biggie, though; we still ate dumplings, scallion pancakes, chow fun noodles and some General Tso's like it was going out of style. People always ask me why I don't just make Chinese food. As much as I would love to, there are some days when I just crave the takeout variety — and did I mention it arrived at my door in about 20 minutes? After crushing the BF in the shoveling-food-down-with-chopsticks competition, I was ready for dessert. At this point, I left him to finish dinner by himself as I cuddled up on the couch with my other favorite boys: Ben & Jerry. —JL
M'lady made a very easy and amazing dessert this week with an overripe mango: I like to call them lassi pops. Simply blend up a bunch of skinless mango chunks, a cup of Greek yogurt (we used Chobani brand) and dashes of crushed cardamom (no pods!), cayenne and sea salt, then pour that shiz into popsicle molds. Let it set overnight and then freak and clean out the entire mold in one sitting. —DL
Friday night was an amazing dinner at Kanella with AKJackie. Some favorites were the houmous with ground lamb and the stuffed grape leaves. The chef also sent out what he compared to Greek Grappa, but much better. It was fantastic.
Saturday was my birthday and off to Hershey Park with the family. Lunch at Nathan's for National Hot Dog Day! Dinner was at Harvest, everything sourced with 150 miles of Hershey. Of course eating my weight in chocolate was included as well.— Jilly B- Drew Lazor! Being a Maryland native, you of all people should know this...how are you going to have all those ingredients in your bloody mary and leave out the most important aspect of a bloody mary......OLD BAY around the rim. Every bartender in Baltimore just felt a portion of their heart sink with that posting.— MCostello13
- Yes yes, as a native Marylander I totally deserve that. But I gotta say, this particular Bloody recipe is so well-balanced in the savory department that I didn't even miss the Old Bay too much — plus, the liberal use of celery salt, Old Bay's primary ingredient, helped its cause as well. One IMPORTANT ingredient I forgot to mention in the note above — olive juice. Gotta hit it with some olive juice. VITAL — Drew Lazor
- Friday dinner was steak and zucchini on the grill with my mom's soy sauce/butter/thyme sauteed mushrooms. Pretty standard "it's too hot to try" dinner.
Saturday morning we did scrapple and hash browns and beer for breakfast. If I'm sweating at 9:00am I'm allowed a beer. That night me and two girlfriends went to Dandelion for dinner. They both had the fish and chip, and one of the girls raved about the gazpacho. I wasn't feeling anything heavy so I had the chicken and duck liver parfait with toasted bread and a homemade grape jam and then the butter lettuce salad with grapes, apples, spicy pecans, and Stilton. Perfect. We stopped at Devil's Alley for some sangria and then I went home to my air conditioning and beer.
Sunday I made my aunt's chicken salad with roasted garlic mayo, almonds, and blanched broccoli florets. I was Captain Crankypants because of the heat so I left the boyfriend to snack on the leftovers and a half eaten box of Cheez-Its for dinner.— JulieC - "If I'm sweating at 9:00am I'm allowed a beer."
RULES TO LIVE BY!— Drew Lazor - Drew, that heirloom tomato salad looks bangin'.— migold
- Full credit goes to m'lady for that one, she made the bangin' tarragon vin as well. As for the tomatoes themselves, copped them from AE's Green Aisle. Man this NFTW is like one big Green Aisle plug. I assume the check's in the mail, AE? — Drew Lazor
- Agreed on the heirloom tomato salad -- what's the recipe?— rkipp22
- Here's the recipe: http://www.citypaper.net/blogs/mealticket/RECIPE-Heirloom-tomato-salad-with-tarragon-vinaigrette.html — Drew Lazor
- I traveled to more neighborhoods in one night than I have before in a week, but was rewarded with beer (some good, some not) so that made it ok. Was SO hungry after our travels that I called in 3 roll special to go from Vic right as we pulled away from the lovely Farm 51 stand. 1/3 of the takeout was consumed in the car to prevent hunger-induced anger. There is nothing better in extreme heat than Vic Sushi.
Delicious broccoli, onion and herb frittata for breakfast Saturday morning along with peaches & Ric's bread toasted and buttered was a great start to the day. Followed that up with Bloodies and "Strangers on a Train" before heading out to Old City for hot dog prints and ice cold Tecate.
Spent Sunday cleaning the house and snacking on various foods, ended the weekend with more tomato salad for dinner.
— MLF
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