POSTED: Monday, August 16, 2010, 11:11 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 eatinÂ’ time, Friday to Sunday. Consider this a place for good deals, great dishes, wicked cocktails, recipe triumphs (and tragedies), bizarro conversations and more. WeÂ’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: DL
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| Photos | Drew Lazor |
Spent Friday and Saturday nights in Durham, North Carolina, the occasion being the nuptials of two very lovely friends. Had a pint of
Triangle Brewing golden ale at the bride-approved
James Joyce (top pic; 912 W. Main St., Durham) and got down on
Dogfish Festina Peche at the very laidback beer bar
The Federal right next door (914 W. Main St., Durham). Eventually ended up at
Cosmic Cantina (bottom pic; 1920 Perry St., Durham), an up-the-stairs eatery off a little side street that was stuffed, like a 12-pound burrito, with piss-drunk, digi-cam-armed
Duke students, about 75 percent of whom were wearing the same polo shirt. After my eyes adjusted to all the madras, I was able to focus my attention on some bangin' steak and chicken hard tacos.
—DL
Friday: Went to happy hour at
P.O.P.E. (1501 E. Passyunk Ave.) and had time for one beer —
21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon — before I met up with an old friend at
The Royal Tavern (937 E. Passyunk Ave.) for their delicious burger that comes topped with gouda, long hots and fried onions. If you are a fan of burgers and somehow haven't had theirs yet, you're effing up.
—RB
Friday did dinner at
Sampan (124 S. 13th St.), where the highlights included bulgogi satay and pad thai as sweet, sour and properly funky as the versions I've had in Bangkok. Those scorpion bowls don't sting as much as you'd think; my boy and I split the fishbowl of booze and juice and walked away unscathed.
—AE
Assembled a mini-crew mid-meal on Friday, then rode to some warehouse in North Philly to see the great
Ink & Dagger play. Drank a sip of someone's
Rolling Rock (I know, but it was handed to me) but decided it was far too hot to drink beer. The show was awesome. Afterwards hit up the
Temple Campus 7-Eleven for post-show treats, including Gatorade and a Coke/wild cherry Slurpee.
—RB
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| Photo | Adam Erace |
Saturday checked on my seaside vegetable plot in Ventnor to discover that
fucking caterpillars (
Ed: I looked this up to make sure this wasn't a species of caterpillar) had destroyed most of my lettuce crop. They were tiny blue-green guys, no bigger than Tic-Tacs, about two dozen clinging like leeches to once-lush leaves now riddled with cigarette-burn-sized holes. When my murderous rage abated, I remembered it's tough to be a bug, so I pried them off one at a time, stuck them in a Dixie cup and relocated them to a tree across the street. Karma, I hope you're reading.
—AE
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
Saturday: Pre-wedding eats at
Watts Grocery (1116 Broad St., Durham), a cute, vibrant restaurant where chef
Amy Tornquist places the focus on local farmers and purveyors. I jammed out on this biscuits and gravy plate with two over-easy eggs and a big serving of grits, all of which was under 10 bucks. Sweet-as-punch service, too. Highly recommended.
—DL
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| Photo | Rachel Burgos |
Saturday, took a friend who'd never been to
Green Eggs Café (1301 Dickinson St.), and got an iced coffee and the one and only
Kitchen Sink (above). For dinner, I made a surprisingly awesome salad consisting of arugula, feta, watermelon slices, chopped-up almonds and red onions, all topped with a creamy balsalmic vinaigrette. Hitched a ride to Wildwood that night for a friend's party, ate awesome party treats like shrimp cocktail, various veggies and dips and the always-successful pepperoni/cheese/cracker tray. Accidentally stayed up till 4 a.m.
—RB
My friends Sasha and Barry decided to serve
fried chicken at their wedding, which is why there are no pictures (didn't want to get the cam all greasy). Love y'all!
—DL
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
Can you identify the Philly connection lurking within this wall-scrawled crossword puzzle I spotted in Durham? If you can't, please move to North Jersey.
—DL
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| Photos | Adam Erace |
Sunday in Cape May with the in-laws. Sunday gravy for dinner, of course, followed byÂ
Fleck's (1600 Bayshore Road), a circa-1960s-looking ice cream parlor in Villas. The place's got more baseball memorabilia hanging on its cotton-candy-pink and mint-green walls than James Earl Jones' house in
The Sandlot (including an autographed photo of the Great Bambino!); the
Richman Ice Cream sundaes have names like Home Run and Triple Play. I am that scoop shoppe customer that deliberates for 20 minutes, then winds up getting the same thing he or she always gets: a chocolate banana malt. But the aroma of freshly ironed waffles forced my stomach in another direction. I ravaged half a waffle crowned with bean-speckled vanilla ice cream, hot fudge and strawberry sauce*.
—AE
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| Photos | Drew Lazor |
I was a
Bojangles' virgin until yesterday morning. That's when I placed my order (again, bride-approved) for a Cajun filet biscuit combo with fries, a sweet tea and what's called a "Bo Berry" biscuit, studded with blueberries (I think?) and topped with the most sugary icing imaginable. Thank God there are none of these up north because I would eat this shit all day multiple times a day (they open at 5:30 a.m. for breakfast!!!) and I would be considerably fat
ter. —DL
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| Photo | Rachel Burgos |
For Sunday breakfast (at 2 p.m.), six of us went to the
Star Diner in Wildwood (325 W. Spruce Ave.). I ate a perfectly-Jersey-diner breakfast consisting of two eggs sunny side up, bacon, tater tots and toast. It was great. Spent countless hours in traffic coming back to Philly. Later that night, I ordered chicken pad thai and some Thai rolls (I was starving & not feeling too adventurous) from
Circles Contemporary Asian Cuisine (1516 Tasker St.), which I landed on via the
GrubHub app on my boyfriend's iPhone. Ate while watching
True Blood, which was weird considering all the gore on that show.
—RB
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| Photos | Drew Lazor |
Got back in Philly on Sunday evening nursing an apropos-of-nothing craving for Thai food. Satisfied it with some takeout from
Erawan (123 S. 23rd St.) — do yourself a favor and get an order of their not-too-spicy green curry, done up with shrimp, scallops, squid and various veg. So serious!
—DL
* Topic: Am I the only weirdo that differentiates between real-tasting "syrupy" strawberry sauce and artificial-tasting "jammy" strawberry sauce? Discuss.
—AE
