POSTED: Monday, January 3, 2011, 9:47 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.)
Adam Erace: AE
Drew Lazor: DL
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
The most unique beer I've tried in awhile —
Genziana from Italy's
Birra del Borgo. It's an ale that counts gentian root among its flavor-radiating adjuncts (think the appealing pithy bitter bite of
Moxie soda or
Aperol), but it starts crisp/hoppy, almost like a West Coast IPA. Picked this up on a trip out of town, but there's got to be somewhere Philly that carries it. How about you,
Fork & Barrel?
—DL
Popped into
Fond (1617 E. Passyunk Ave.) Friday for a bowl of foie gras soup from their New Year's Eve menu.
Lee Styer collects uneven ends from his nightly goose-liver app, then cooks them with double duck stock, cream and brandy before an immersion blender turns the mix frothy and brothy. If you missed it on Dec. 31, you'll have to wait a week, since Styer and squeeze
Jessie Prawlucki are in Puerto Rico all week. The well-deserved vacay will be a partially working one, at least. "I'll be writing a new menu while I'm down there," he says.
—AE
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
Wanted to keep it low-key for New Year's Eve, so girlie and I decided to try our luck at
Tai Lake (134 N. 10th St.). It was packed to the exotic-seafood gills with folks, so we wandered about for a bit and landed at
Joy Tsin Lau (1026 Race St.). I wasn't as crazy about some of our other dishes as I was about this sick pork/tofu/mustard green/salted egg soup. I'd go back just for this.
—DL
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| Photo | Adam Erace |
For 2011 Eve festivities, kept it low-key at home with fam, friends and
Santucci's pizza! After the ball dropped, busted out a brunch spread of lox and bagels, ricotta pie,
L&M Bakery's cream doughnuts — the best on earth, from Delran, N.J. — and
Artisan pistachio/hazelnut croissants. So much food. Even the pup was pooped.
—AE
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
Saturday: My family always gets together on Jan. 1 to welcome the new year, and that means — despite my "eat less!"-advocating mom's best efforts — gigantic trays filled with too much food. On the dessert tip were these Grimace-hued confections, both Filipino desserts done with
ube (ooh-bay), or purple yam. I think I dug the flan-ish one on the right a bit better than the sticky rice-based one on the left.
—DL
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| Photo | Adam Erace |
Gracias/Feliz Navidad to fiancée's Latino neighbors, who knocked on the door Saturday morning with a
Tanq bottle full of homemade Puerto Rican eggnog. Laced with cinnamon and nutmeg and less viscous than its gringo counterpart, this rummy ivory merry-maker got along great with my morning coffee.
—AE
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| Photo | Adam Erace |
I bypassed the parade for my (soon-to-be) mom-in-law's New Year's Day tradition of garlic-crusted pork tenderloin braised in sauerkraut doctored with apples, cinnamon and beer. Ma says according to German lore, this dish ensures good luck in the new year. (Can anyone confirm in the comments?) All I know is it was the best meal I've eaten all holiday season.
—AE
Saturday: First restaurant meal of 2011 at
Supper (928 South St.), where we took big advantage of chef
Mitch Prensky's all-vegetarian "Daily Harvest" menu, built around fresh produce from his
Blue Elephant Farms. At $20, the vegetable quartet is a steal, and showcases some very interesting non-meaty cooking to boot — ours featured truffled bread pudding (awesome) with Brussels; a leek spring roll with beets and horseradish creme fraiche; roasted maitakes with purple yam, wasabi peas and miso dressing; and sautéed royal trumpet 'shrooms topped with a cheesy pecorino/goat ricotta combo. Vegetarians and veggie lovers alike, eat this immediately.ÂÂ
—DL
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
Sunday: The unfortunate accidental shattering of our French press (we poured some
Larry's out for you, homey) led us to finally bust out the
Chemex coffeemaker so generously donated to the Drew Needs Coffee Fund (it's a non-prof) by
Kelly of
Living on the Vedge. (Thanks Kel!) Meal Ticket fave
Bodhi Coffee (410 S. Second St.) came through in the clutch with a 100-count box of filters. I still have plenty of experimenting to do with ratios and grinds and pouring and all that stuff but I'm excited to learn. Any Chemex pointers for me? Please leave in the comments!
—DL
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
Chill dinner on Sunday night — whipped up a so-very-easy batch of
puttanesca using this
no-frills NYT recipe. The story (one of them at least) goes that puttanesca
— "whore pasta," loosely translated — was what Italian hookers would cook after a long day of ho-in' because its minimal key ingredients (capers, olives, anchovies) were stuff that any Italian, prostitute or not, has in the pantry. (Ladies of the night rarely have time to hit the farmer's market!) Regardless, I've started calling it "whoresghetti," please feel free to do the same.
—DL
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| Photo | Adam Erace |
Unhealthy two-part Sunday dinner consisted of
Sonic Drive-In (2201 E. Butler St.) — finally popped my cherry
lime soda — andÂÂ
Grey Lodge (6235 Frankford Ave.). The former's mozz sticks, cheeseburger and watermelon Sprite was better than the latter's French onion and buffalo chicken and pizza cheesesteaks. But Sonic doesn't have Russian River Consecration, 21st Amendment Fireside Chat, Dogfish 75 Min and Victory Simcoe. Stopped at
Target between the two spots, where their Archer Farms brand cocoa-cappuccino brownies made it into the oven at home, putting the fudgy finish on a weeklong bender of chocolate-frosted bad decisions.
—AE
