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Notes from the Weekend: September 17
This weekend Adam dined in D.C. and Caroline and Emily hit up Rangoon, Stateside, Morgan's Pier and more.
Notes from the Weekend: September 17
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
Standing by my pledge that I will go to Morgan's Pier as often as humany possible before the season ends, I made my way over for a dinner of lamb kebabs, crab and corn fritters, fish tacos and corn salad with my mom and a few Watermelon Rickys.—CR
On Friday afternoon, I was invited to see the new renovations at the 1920s Commons dining hall at UPenn. The outdoor courtyard and cozy sunroom with a fireplace are lovely, and the giant Starbucks/study room combo and upstairs marketplaces sleek and modern. Bon Appetit, the company that makes all the food on campus, is committed to using local and sustainable ingredients when possible, which is cool. However, the around-the-world offerings at the grand opening (pizza! tofu stir fry! sushi! curry chicken salad! sliders! cake pops!) left my stomach jet lagged. Come dinner time, it was all I could muster to scramble some eggs and fold them up with cheddar, cilantro and radish salsa into lazy tacos. Earlier in the week, I’d bought a kilo of blue corn tortillas from Tortillaria San Roman on 9th and Carpenter. Ripping open the paper wrapping and tearing into a warm tortilla before exiting the tiny Italian Market storefront is a personal tradition and one of life’s small pleasures. Much later in the night, after two birthday gatherings at American Sardine Bar and then Dahlak in West Philly, there was another round of tacos. This predictable kitchen raid involved shoving random leftovers into tortillas while my patient and awesome partner and best-dude-for-life Ryan looked on with a mixture of humor and exhaustion.—EK
I did my patriot duty dining around DC this weekend, my part to stimulate the economy of our nation's capital. Friday lunch found me at Fabio Trabocchi's chic Fiola with a facefull of sage-rubbed cotechino tortellini anointed with reduced Barbera. Dinner delivered a parade of antipasti (curdy burrata, swordfish involtini, killer squid and Roma bean salad with threads of lime zest and green olive oil) at stalwart Obelisk, which is kind of an awful name for an Italian restaurant, right? After the rest of that meal and a ton of terrific, unusual wines, I crashed at my rented pad at the Madison hotel with a bag of Tate's thin crispy chocolate-chip cookies from the minibar and The Walking Dead on my Netflix ap.—AE
Another blissful Saturday morning at Clark Park commenced with Ryan, our dog Jacket, and myself lolling about on the grass, lunching on a tofu banh mi and vegetarian chicken sesame noodles from the Kung Fu Hoagie cart. The tofu hoagie was smothered in excellently spicy mayo with strands of crunchy cucumber, carrot and daikon, and the noodles were savory and spicy. The vegetarian chicken had a righteous texture that could fool an undiscerning meat eater. All around us, there was a chorus of toddlers begging their parents, “Iwannanoodles!!” and I sympathize with them fully.
Walking into a restaurant to spot your friend already there, smiling and waiting for you, is the best feeling. After a harrowing bike ride through the city, I met Caroline at Rangoon on 9th street in Chinatown for Burmese feast. We washed down decadent fry bread, spicy lentil fritters, fermented tea leaf salad and a potato tart with Singha and house Chardonnay. Later, after the solidly entertaining Ariel Pink show at Union Transfer, we snuggled into a booth at Alla Spina for life affirming bar snacks and drinks. My highlights included the Stoudt’s Ex Gratia, a beer to benefit Alex’s Lemonade Stand - a crispy kolsch brewed with meyer lemon marmalade made at the neighboring sophisticated Vetri sister joint, Osteria. Light, tart and chuggable beer at 1AM is a dangerous, awesome thing. The night ended with platonic hugs and kisses on Broad Street, the Center City lights twinkling all around.—EK
Saturday I was privy to a soft opening/training lunch at my person favorite/guilty pleasure chain, The Cheesecake Factory. Buffalo Blasts, a gianormous burger, chicken enchiladas, a slice of piña colada cheese cake and a tall and fruity Typhoon punch makes me think that I should probably wait another couple of months before another Cheesecake indulgence. Later that night I met up with fellow Meal Ticketeer, Emily for an awesome dinner at Rangoon before heading up to Union Transfer to see the weird and wonderful Ariel Pink. We ended up back another one of my just-can't-get-enough places, Alla Spina for an after hour snacks spread of their little pretzel nuggets, a North Philly cheesesteak (!!!) and a corn, tomato and mozzarella salad and Fernet on tap.—CR
More DC dining on Saturday, starting with Jose Andres's recently renovated Jaleo for brunch--surprisingly sophisticated cocktails over there--and hot spot Little Serow for dinner. If 5:30 p.m. can really qualify for dinner. The no-reservations Thai cellar from Komi's Johnny Monis requires wannabe diner to line up for seats, as early as 4 p.m. The first crush gets the first turn in the Aquafresh-hued dining room, the rest get their number taken for a phone call when their tables open up later in the evening. The food is thrilling, totally worth the hassle, and the experience was the most infectiously fun I can recall in recent memory. Sorry, Philly, I'll love you forever, but we can't beat what DC's got in Little Serow.—AE
The weekend of why the hell not continued on Sunday when I decided to take myself out on a solo date to Stateside. As if the kitchen could read my mind, a little jar of smoked pork rillettes showed up as if by magic. And speaking of magic, there's some of it George's new parsnip soup with vanilla poached lobster.—CR
Seven quality hours of Sunday were spent with my fam crew (sister, husband, and Mom) schlepping ourselves from Philadelphia to Scarsdale, New York to celebrate Rosh Hashanah with our extended family. After maddening false starts, including a delayed train and a flat tire on the side of the NJ Turnpike, we finally arrived at sundown to open arms and icy cocktails in clear plastic cups. There is that tight, cramped feeling one has after sitting in traffic for hours that can only be soothed with gin, potato kugel and homemade brisket. Luckily, there was no shortage of any of these, and we topped the New Years dinner off with my grandmother’s brilliant sponge cake, which I’ve been obsessed with from childhood, and I swear tastes better with each year that I grow older. One of these days, she will finally share the recipe with me, and I’ll enchant the little girls to come in my family with its citrusy whisper and impossible texture. We’re sleeping over in this sweet suburban house, and greeting the morning with challah french toast. For now, there are bottles of wine to be killed, dishes to do, and stories to tell to precocious young cousins.—EK
Trained it back to Philly while sipping some Jamba Juice concoction of watermelon juice and coconut water and I'm sure ice cream. Chain store smoothies are never what I want them to be, womp. Proceeded to watch football, eat Ms. Tootsie's, write about Blue Belly BBQ (check the paper Thursday) and catch the premiere of Boardwalk Empire, which featured a short-tempered Bobby Cannavale and a cheeky King Tut number. Willow Grovers are smiling today; their town got a shout-out in the episode as the hiding place of a booze thief on the lam. —AE
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