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Notes from the Weekend: March 27
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: March 27
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
I didn't realize this till later, but Friday was a burn-your-face-off-with-Asian-foods day. Han Dynasty (108 Chestnut St.) for beef/tripe in chili oil and cukes for lunch, then takeout from Circles (1516 Tasker St.) with some friends for dinner while watching the Chiarella's ep of Kitchen Nightmares — did the pad krapow (lots of green beans) with hot beef and some of the Thai doughnuts (get those!). I forgot the Handy cucumbers in my work fridge over the weekend, so they just sat in there growing expotentially more deadly with each passing second. I'm eating them at my desk as I type this and am kinda dying right now. —DL
Went to NYC on Friday; met up with my aunt for drinks and a movie in the afternoon. We had fancy cocktails at Noho Star (330 Lafayette St.), where I sipped a Mam'selle: gin, Campari, cava and jasmine extract (that latter ingredient totally made the drink). Saw We Need to Talk About Kevin at the Angelika. Watch it, it's real messed up. A lot of sandwich imagery in the film, too. Met up with CW later for dinner. Went to Masuya (85 Kenmare St.) for a smattering of inexpensive rolls; was too hungry to remember what we ate. Stopped by Eileen's (17 Cleveland Pl.) next door to purchase a smattering of cheesecakes for dessert — chocolate espresso, raspberry, banana and caramel pecan. Had plans to go out like actual young people, but instead we ate cheesecakes and drank Zinfandel while watching My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. Watch it, it's real messed up. —AW
I wound up at the Cantina (1651 E. Passyunk Ave.) at 4 p.m. on Friday. It was too hot to sit outside; Corona enjoyed in the bar's cool, dark nether-regions, then. Later that night I hiked up to Germantown for a friend's surprise birthday fondue party. Her husband had bought dozens of bags of shredded cheddar and I scoffed — everyone knows you need Le Gruyere for fondue, right? The joke was on me; off-brand shred-ched with a little dry mustard and lager = delicious and dippable. —KL
Saturday popped out to brunch on Official City Paper business. It was great, but I won't tell you where. Kept up the carb-loading with a little late-night FrancoLuigi's (1549 S. 13th St.) delivery. (Props to the delivery guy for coming out in the driving rain.) I think their plain white pie, with its untoned garlic and olive oil, might be my new favorite, but I loved the baki ziti — actually, it's baked penne, but with a gooey layer of melted mozzarella like that, who cares? —AE
Saturday: Hung with the dudes at Nom Nom Ramen (20 S. 18th St.) for a spell to check out what they're doing over there (more on that soon), popped into Oyster House (1516 Sansom St.) for a quick Truth About Us (boubon, Green Chartreuse, Campari, bitters) from the always-welcoming Andy D, then tofu with ginger scallion sauce for dinner. Easy breezy. —DL
CW and I met up with my cousin Saturday morning for brunch at Veselka (9 E. First St.) I used to go to the original Veselka with the aforementioned aunt when I was just a young lass and have been wanting to go back forever. Our server was an alien version of Dave Grohl, who seemed preoccupied with navigating outer space rather than working. Cousin got a kielbasa-infused bloody Mary that "tasted like meat," therefore great. I got smoked salmon eggs Benedict, which I thought I liked, but turns out I don't. Sticking with ham. We all split a blintz, which was absolutely the best, but at $10, pricey for a single blintz. —AW
Saturday: Saturday was my girl LB's birthday marathon in NYC. We started our day at Four and Twenty Blackbirds in Brooklyn with the breakfast of champions — pie. There were six of us, so we got one slice each of the six offered that day. The two favorites were lemon chess and cranberry with sage. We still managed to have appetites for lunch and dinner. Dinner was at Schiller's on the LES, where the menu was relaxed but careful. I ordered the only vegan entree they offered — roasted cauliflower with fennel, raisins and capers. I sat next to LB's mac 'n' cheese with bacon the whole time and actually preferred my entree to hers. Remarkable. We all split a sticky toffee pudding for dessert. I'd like to tell you about the speakeasy we went to afterward but that's not the way those things work. —KL
CW and I took the Chinatown bus back to Philly Saturday afternoon — my first Chinatown bus experience and you'll be pleased to know that I survived. Went to Square Peg (929 Walnut St.), which just opened on Wednesday, for dinner. We ordered the tacos in a bag, lobster corn dogs, mac 'n' cheese grilled cheese, turkey sliders, Brussels sprouts and cheesesteak pot pie. Tacos in a bag were the fave, but that M&CGC was nuts! It came with a little tomato soup on the side. Some really interesting takes on comfort food there, but overall I felt like it was a little prcey for what was being served, in particular the turkey sliders ($15 for three little guys on potato rolls with a bit of turkey and a ton of yams/cranberry?). After dinner, went home to drink whiskey and pickle juice with roommate before going to the Barbary (951 Frankford Ave.) to dance off the calories from dinner, then quickly replace them with PBR. —AW
Sunday morning, slipped up to the in-laws for wedding business and breakfast. MIL hooked up bagels, grilled bacon and dippy eggs fried in bacon grease. We get along, obviously. Cooked dinner at home (spicy buffalo chicken sausage, blue cheese-enriched canellini bean puree and lots of grilled asparagus with lemon and cilantro) before a drawn-out Mad Men premiere that, despite "zoo bisou bisou," I found about as compelling as a visit to the ophthalmologist. At least The Killing starts next week. Prediction: there will be precipitation. —AE
Tried to substitute coffee for actual brunch on Sunday. Roommate and I went to a baptism before heading to the Fishtown Neighbors Association Chili Cook-Off at 2424 Studios (2424 York St.), where homegirl TD and her bro GD were competing and homeboy DL was judging. Roommate and I were too hungry and too tired to actually eat a lot, but we did get to try TD & GD's WINNING DOUBLE DECKER CHILI! and a few other amateur and restaurant entries. What was in the People's Choice and Judge's Choice amateur chili? Beef, pork, stout, chocolate, golden raisins, carrots, peppers, toasted almonds, "spices," tomatoes, jalapenos, beef broth with cilantro sour cream and pickled jalapeno relish on top. Roommate and I felt like proud parents. Loco Pez took the top spot for best restaurant chili (wild boar, bacon, a bunch of peppers, chocolate, Guinness, beans, veg, etc.). Oddly enough, TD's place is mad close to Pez. Future chili collabo, maybe?! —AW
Sunday: Comfort Inn did us right by breakfast — I gobbled up complimentary boiled eggs and toast before LB led her overtired celebrators to the MoMa. At the end of my NYC-dough, I charged a Chipotle burrito to my credit card for lunch. A girl's got to eat. —KL
Friend of Meal Ticket JC brought me some Percy Street ribs on Sunday, which I killed before watching Mad Men (quit hating AE, it was great), and he also bought this weird Japanese faux molecular gastronomy sushi candy set he bought for $9 on the internet. The candy was a bit gross but it was fun to watch JC's comparatively gigantic hands toil with tiny candy pieces of sashimi and fake seaweed. Sorry to disrespect your craft Jiro. —DL
Got to experience the food Talulah's Garden for the first time. The scallops were melt-in-your-mouth good, as was the mushroom pate. But now I'm poor so I can't eat anything else good for the rest of the week.— molls to the wall
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