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Notes from the Weekend: May 1
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: May 1
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: Got some chef's-counter seats at Sbraga (440 S. Broad St.) for their five-course spring menu preview tasting — some real nice plates (sweetbreads with fried green tomatoes and cumin aioli!), but I think my favorite was the scallop/pork belly pair-up with tabbouleh, compressed watermelon and jalapeno. Spring! Afterward we all went to one of my favorite places, Locust Rendezvous (1415 Locust St.), for a few too many beers and a few too many Power's shots out of those little plastic cups people in movie mental institutions get their pills in. —DL
The 27th was my birthday, so I went to a special Irish-car-bomb-infused installment of happy hour at National Mechanics (22 S. Third St.) after work Friday. Afterward, JN took me to dinner at Modo Mio (161 W. Girard Ave.), somewhere I've been meaning to go for a while. It was fucked-up good. We opted for the Turista prix-fixe ($35/person); I had the snails, carrot and goat cheese gnocchi and grilled skirt steak. Too full for dessert, but not too full for a shot of sambuca on the house. I don't think I like sambuca. After dinner, we headed to the El Bar (1356 N. Front St.) for a surprise party of sorts, thrown by JN with help from roommate. Drank some Root, hugged some friends, it was great. —AW
Friday: I didn't realize I was such a creature of habit until I started writing down what I eat and drink each weekend. Would you believe I made the same homemade pizza with pesto, feta, sun-dried tomatoes and artichokes that I ate three times last week? And that for dinner I popped corn on the stove and sprinkled (OK, poured) parmesan on top? —KL
Strolled around the block to check out East Passyunk's annual Flavors on the Avenue on brisk, sunny Saturday. Food hounds lined up down the Ave, counting the seconds till 1 p.m., the time for general admission access to the event tent showcasing the neighborhood's dining scene. Apologies to them; I ducked in early and snagged baby plates of boar pate (Fond), chilled lobster miso (Izumi), porchetta (Birra), spicy watermelon gazpacho (Fuel), meatballs (Stogie's), sausage gravy-topped waffle (Chhaya) and more. Opening in in July, Noir (1909 E. Passyunk Ave.) was in attendance, too. According to staffers passing out arancini and tomato bruschetta, it will not, as previously reported, be a Montreal-style pub (although the chef is from Quebec), but a "continental" restaurant with dishes from France, Italy and elsewhere. —AE
Set my alarm for 7:45 Saturday morning, but probably actually got out of bed at like, 8:10 to go on The Junk Food Tour for MT. (Full post coming soon.) I tried my best to drink lots of water the night before, but the gallons I consumed were no match against a lovely hangover. Luckily, everything on the tour is practically the perfect food for my state (stromboli! cheesesteaks! pizza!) and each came in full portions, so I'll have leftover sandwiches for years. Five hours later, we were back at home. We eventually got hungry again, so dinner was leftovers and the birthday cake we were too full to eat the night before. —AW
Saturday: The exhorbitant amounts of salt I consumed Friday woke me up thirsty. I rotated between water and coffee for the first six hours of the day. Meant to order a low-fat iced latte while I did schoolwork at Shot Tower (542 Christian St.) but whoops, ordered a full-fat latte instead ... a world of difference. More parmesan popcorn for dinner because if it ain't broke down fix it. —KL
Saturday: Had the honor of sitting in as a judge with Tony Luke Jr., Tommy Up and Leah Kauffman at the second annual Philabundance Cupcake Smash at The Piazza. I ate what feels like 6,000 cupcakes so I can't accurately recall which ones I loved most and least (Tony loved the bacon/cheddar/jalapeno jawn above), but what's really important about the well-attended event is that it raised more than $7,600 for Philabundance — more than twice as much cash as in 2011. The funds will help Philabundance provide more than 14,000 meals for those in need. A huge congratulations and job well done to the competitors, organizers Shira Rosenwald, Melissa Templeton, Marlo DelSordo and everyone else involved. —DL
I've never been much of a bowler, but some secret power took hold of my Saturday night at Lucky Strike (1336 Chestnut St.), where wifey and I lounged during a friend's bachelor/bachelorette party. After Lucky, the group headed to walked to Ladder 15 (1528 Sansom St.), where I sipped Hoegaarden, munched on truffle fries and grilled pizza and tried not to pass out from the all the Acqua di Gio. —AE
After waking up at a healthy 11:30 a.m., I thought it would be fun and nice to make Bloody Marys and sit out on our deck. The liquor store and the grocery store are conveniently located next to one another, so we were able to pick up all the proper accoutrement (pepperoni, green olives, shrimp, pickles) in one trip. We opted for Bloody mix instead of the individual ingredients because I'm cheap/impatient, and that turned out to be a mistake. Who knew that Mr. & Mrs. T's Horseradish Bloody Mary mix would taste weird and sweet? —AW
Wrote allllllll damn day Sunday, taking breaks only for showers (I had to wash off the Acqua di Gio!) and a straight-from-the-freezer slice of wedding cake. Tradition says to save that shit for the first anniversary. Clearly, tradition does not know who it's dealing with. Wrapped in fondant and layered with raspberry cream, the pound cake was great; glad I got to taste it now, since I didn't get to at the actual wedding. —AE
Sunday: Lunch at El Jarocho (1138 S. 13th St.), my mainest Mexi jam. Tacos mixto: tripe, tongue and barbacoa, aka "the three wise meats," as quipped by Fidel Gastro on Twitter. Sunday dinner was at friends' crib in Mt. Airy where our generous hosts hooked up a sick roast chicken with Moroccan flavors (stuffed with lemons and olives, ras al hanout-ish spicing), some great veggie sides and Bassett's vanilla ice cream topped with brandy-poached berries for dessert. They eat real good out there in Mt. Airy. Must be all the kombucha helping them think of tasty recipes. —DL
Sunday: If I'm not eating popcorn these days it's only because I'm at a potluck. Went to two this weekend, and I think Sunday's was better than Saturday's. Some lady friends and I got together to swap some springtime clothing; we came carrying a bag of warm-weather clothes and a brunch dish to share. Julie used Ina Garten's recipe for tabbouleh and it rocked my world. —KL
My parents came into town on Sunday night for another birthday dinner. We went to Bibou (1009 S. Eighth St.), my parents' current restaurant obsession. And rightfully so: We all had the salted cod soup, snails, Arctic char quenelle and creme brulee. I honestly think you cannot go wrong with any dish on the menu, which makes it even more difficult to choose. After dinner, the unthinkable happened. Our server came out with a dish of macaroons and meringue cookies. With a candle in them. Meaning only one thing. Because Bibou is so small, everyone joined in on a round of "Happy Birthday." Once the torture was over, my mom tried to wrap the cookies in doilies and put them in her purse to take home. —AW
Due to writing and eating cake all day, I had no energy to cook for dinner, so C and I stepped out to Peter McAndrews's new Roman trattoria, Popolino (501 Fairmount Ave.) on Official City Paper Business. Get a load of that Tavola Calda, a gorgeous spread of mostly vegetarian room-temp antipasti. I give it two months till L&I rains on that parade. —AE
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