POSTED: Monday, November 29, 2010, 9:46 PM
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.)
Rachel Burgos: RB
Adam Erace: AE
Drew Lazor: AE
Team Meal Ticket would like to apologize in advance if our discussions of Thanksgiving evoke any itis-related flashbacks within your gravy-drowned psyche.
Wednesday night, dined at the always charming, trapped-in-time
Bomb Bomb's (1026 Wolf St.) — not a strip club, as my girlfriend thought — with the fellas, a Thanksgiving Eve tradition 12 years strong. The crusty breaded calamari, garlicky mussels red and crispy continent of veal parm were great choices. Shots of Crown, not so much.
—AE
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
This, coming at you direct from my Tita Epy's house in suburban D.C., is what a
Filipino Thanksgiving looks like, y'all. There was a turkey, too, but it got relatively little love compared to the pancit palabok (the noodly eggy thing in the foreground) and the innumerable other Pinoy specialties on offer.
—DL
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| Photo | Adam Erace |
Behold my Thanksgiving contribution:
Green Meadow Farm Malabar spinach, a waxy, lily pad-like Asian variety whose succulent leaves makes for meaty eating. I stemmed and blanched the foliage Wednesday, then took it to the sauté pan with orange- and star anise-infused brown butter on Thursday.
—AE
Friday night I was still at my parents' house, so I helped my mom make soup using our leftover Thanksgiving veggies — carrots, onions, celery, kale, collard greens, cannellini beans and veggie broth all went into the mix. Halfway through, we transferred half the broth to another pot, then dropped in a Jarlsberg cheese rind into the vegetarian pot and some Spanish chorizo in the other. I preferred the latter soup due to its deep, smoky distinct flavor.
—RB
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| Photos | Drew Lazor |
Wanting to eat something as far removed from turkey/stuffing/cran as humanly possible after Thankspigout, we snagged a few bar seats at
Zahav (237 St. James Place) on Friday night. Everything was excellent (packed house too, considering most restaurants are dead on Black Friday), but two plate stood out this night: the light persimmon salad, dressed with Bulgarian feta, breakfast radishes and sumac dressing; and the fish kofte, with flavorful lil' bronzino balls floating in a pumpkin broth along with creamy vermicelli noodles. Eat these immediately!
—DL
Brunch on Saturday at
Cafe con Chocolate, a beacon of color on drab Snyder Avenue thanks to a spiffy new mural they put the finishing touches over the weekend. Their signature cup of cafe con chocolate hums with cinnamon and clove, a perfect foil for molletes (a split baguette smothered with black beans, cheese and eggs) as big as canoes.
—AE
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
Definitely give the veggie dumplings at
Giwa (1608 Sansom St.) a shake — they're one of those tricky snacks that you scoff at for being too froofy and light, and then they're like "We're actually tasty filling, you jerkoff!" and then you're like "OK OK I give up, vegetarian food is good, stop yelling at me."
—DL
Saturday I went to
Osteria (640 N. Broad St.) for the first time. Started out with the wood-grilled octopus, cured lemon, potato & chives dish which was wonderful. I ordered one of the special pasta dishes for dinner ... though I can't remember the name of it, its spelling or pronunciation, it resembled a penne/fusilli hybrid twisted together. It came with a butternut squash cream, garlic, olive oil and a touch of cheese. Such a delicate flavor, yet very hearty (holler, winter squash!). I also tasted a bite of my companions' pizzas, which were also wonderful. I want to go back and eat my way through their menu.
—RB
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| Photo | Adam Erace |
Saturday night popped my
La Locanda del Ghiottone (130 N. Third St.) cherry, enjoying the familial service, gumdrop-sized ricotta gnocchi and Geppetto's workshop atmosphere. They have two strict policies at the charming trattoria: no credit cards and no cheese with seafood.
—AE
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
Stayed in Saturday night and rocked these very easy roasted oysters (we shucked some Blue Points) out of
Eric Ripert's Avec Eric book. I really should toss gremolata (just parsley, garlic and lemon zest) on top of more stuff I eat.
—DL
Sunday I finally saw
Harry Potter with a friend at the Riverview. We split an order of pretzel bites, which were comically large and not bites at all. The "cheese" dipping sauce was an exercise in how food science can form nasty, questionable things. It looked like, smelled like, and
sort of tasted like cheese, but honestly, who the hell knows what was actually in there.
—RB
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| Photo | Adam Erace |
Brunched at
Supper (928 South St.) for the first time Sunday afternoon. Though I was seriously tempted to ravage their old-school cereal buffet (three kinds Cap'n Crunch, Count Chocula, etc.), I opted for the red velvet waffles I'd been salivating over on twitter. Airy cream cheese mousse, crushed pecan and bourbon cherries raised the light, crunchy-edged crimson grids beyond brunch.
—AE
