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Archive: February, 2012
We were on City Food Tours' website yesterday getting info on their upcoming Valentine's Day aphrodisiac dinner event and couldn't help notice that the dude tenderly hand-feeding a lady in an accompanying photo looked familiar as hell. If you ever hit up Frequent Meal Ticket Haunt Oyster House (1516 Sansom St.), you know that that's definitely the Center City seafood shop's ever-gracious owner, Sam Mink. Moonlighting as a stock photo model and not telling us, dude?! Turns out he's buddies with the City Food Tours owners and helped them out with a photo shoot about five years ago. Strong work, Mr. Mink. Fully expecting this shot to make its way into a thematic pic roundup formatted similarly to Women Laughing Alone with Salad.
Photo: zerve.com/phillyfoods/phlval
This week, Fish (1234 Locust St.) joins the Philadelphia happy hour force. Starting out strong, Mike Stollenwerk's restaurant is offering three select craft beers for $3, Anjos Vinho Verde and Cantine Povero Tralcio Rosso for $5 and the cocktail of the day for $6. From Monday to Friday, happy hour runs only from 5 to 6 p.m., but they make it up to us on weekends with additional dealage from 11 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday. I might have to push back my Happy Hour Hopper exploits to capitalize on these late-night specials.
Photo: Drew Lazor
Philly food-event collective BigBite, which has put together a number of inspired, high-energy amateur cooking competitions over the past few years, is taking that next step in 2012, landing a real-deal venue for its third annual Philly Chili Bowl. Scheduled for Saturday, March 3 at the Fleisher Art Memorial (719 Catharine St.), the cookoff is currently running registration for its 20-contestant field, the members of which are required to cook six quarts of chili, any style. Sponsored by Herr's and Narragansett, the Chili Bowl will double as a fundraiser for Project H.O.M.E.; it's $10 to compete and $5 to eat/drink/vote in the hotly contested "People's Choice" category.
I'm honored to return to the judges' panel this year, joining a serious murderers' row of Philly eaters — Di Bruno's owner Emilio Mignucci, chef/restaurateur Kevin Sbraga, Cook executive director Lily Cope and resident judge/People's Republic owner Joe Bernstein. We'll be determining who takes home the Philly Chili Bowl trophy, as well as another sweet prize: two seats to any upcoming class at Cook.
Registration closes Feb. 29, or sooner if BigBite reaches its 20-chili limit. Here's all the info you need.
A few weekends ago, I encountered a culinary artifact while brunching at Santucci’s (901 S. 10th St.) — the brûléed grapefruit. The halves of citrus sat on chef Bobby Saritsoglu's "Italian Breakfast" plate of speck, candied nuts, fresh bananas/blueberries and ricotta, their thin, torched-sugar tops looking like the frozen surface of a citric lake you’d be wary of skating on. Shattering the brûléed barrier and excavating segments of bittersweet fruit one by one, I relished the retro joy of it, feeling very much like a first-class passenger aboard the Titanic. What a civilized way to energize for racquetball below the poop deck.
It’s peak season for citrus in Texas, California and Florida, and grapefruits right now are heavy, ripe, juicy and fragrant. White, pink or ruby red, any variety will stand up to the broiler or blow torch in this recipe, which I’ve been tinkering with since brunch at Santucci's. I’ve seen formulae that call for butter and others that incorporate spices, but this is the one I like best. Concentrated bursts of blue flame from a crème brûlée torch is the best method for even sugar-browning, but no need to run to Fante's; you can also just turn your broiler up as high as it will go and get your oven rack into the uppermost slot for a comparable effect.
Fresh off he and partner Shawn Darragh's successful (and reasonably porky) Roundeye Noodle pop-up, Matyson chef Ben Puchowitz is running a five-course, pig-based tasting at his restaurant (37 S. 19th St.) from today through Thursday. He's rocking pork rillettes; crispy pig tails with apple/cuke kimchi and Korean chili sauce; pork and clams in a miso/sake broth; choucroute with housemade sausage; and blood orange tart for dessert, all for $45.
Oh, and the word on Roundeye, which we also mentioned in the Jan. 30 edition of Notes from the Weekend — Darragh tells Meal Ticket that they're currently meeting with a handful of potential investors, and that they have a second pop-up event planned for Matyson at the end of this month. There's also talk of a separate takeout-based pop-up, which might be a friendly alternative to those who struck out in line the first time around.
Photo: Albert Yee, from "Hands That Feed Us: A Peek into Our Foodshed"
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.)
Pretty much everything the Pitruco Pizza truck serves is ETI material, but there's something not on their regular menu that deserves your special attention. You don't need a password and a secret handshake to get your paws on the fresh-baked bread made by pizzamonger Nathan Winkler-Rhoades; just send the Pitruco guys a friendly email inquiring about the secret yeastables.
They've got focaccia and baguette in production at the moment, and your best bet is ordering ahead of time, as they stock bread on the truck only sporadically and it usually sells out fast. That's because said carb bombs are good — real good. The endearingly wonky focaccia comes blistered and golden, a chewy, buttery disc dressed with olive oil and sea salt. Their traditional baguette is slender, baked dark and crispy, with a malty touch and a little woody smoke flavor Pitruco-fying it.
"The focaccia is better," says Winkler-Rhoades, but for me, picking a favorite is Sophie's Choice tough. The best part is the price: Pitruco will charge you just $3 for one of each. Pay up and eat both immediately.
Photo: Alexandra Weiss
UPDATE [08feb12]: More details on Russet's menu.
Andrew and Kristin Wood are looking at Sunday, Feb. 12 Tuesday, Feb. 14 to open Russet (1521 Spruce St.), an independent venture for a hitched-chef couple who's worked the kitchens of James, Maia and Fork locally in addition to stints at Boston's Radius (where they met), Chicago's Tru and Trio and Cali's Terra and Quince.
The well-traveled duo put that peripatetic nature to best use while venue-hunting, touring through dozens of spaces before landing at the former home of Ernesto's 1521 Café. Though it's got an unorthodox layout — an outer hallway separates the kitchen and dining room, and much of the space's square footage, while ample, is relegated to disconnected rooms and the basement level — it's still got the proper Center City sheen for what the Woods want to do.
Last time we checked in with secretive publican Lêe and his Hop Sing Laundromat (1029 Race St.), the long-pending Chinatown cocktail bar had its PLCB certificate in hand, legally giving them the right to serve booze. That was back in November. Now it's February and the doors have not yet opened, but if the newly stocked liquor shelves behind the bar (lots of fancy high-end stuff) are any indication, they're close, at least by Hop Sing standards. Lêe will not commit to an opening date or even an opening month, but states that he's "97 percent" there in terms of his progress; right now is his time for staff training. He's still guarded about the nitty-gritty details of his concept, but vows that his system will allow Hop Sing drinkers to get a cocktail in less than half the time it typically takes to acquire one elsewhere — on top of promising all fruit juice will be squeezed to order.
In terms of the frequent million-dollar "why is this taking so damn long?" question, the bar owner partially attributes the delay to the local media interest surrounding Hop Sing. "The press built this place, its expectations," says Lêe, who's redone several major elements multiple times since construction started. "If it wasn't for you guys, this place would've open by now."
Photos: Drew Lazor
Monday, January 30
How the Bedford Café got away from Pub & Kitchen in G-Ho.
Green Olives is a new Moroccan BYO on East Passyunk.
London Grill is close to opening Paris Wine Bar, featuring kegged Pennsylvania wine.
Tuesday, January 31
The Abbaye hosts the Vegan Wing Bowl.
Speaking of wings: Cookie Confidential is now baking buffalo chicken cookies.
Wednesday, February 1
Rex 1516 sneak-peeks its food for First Friday.
Photos of Nomad Pizza, opening very soon in the old Horizons space.
Happy Hour Hopper visits Jake's and Cooper's in Manayunk.
Thursday, February 2
Danville, Pa.'s Old Forge Brewing Co. is now in the Philly market.
German beer hall Bierstube Tsingtau — just call it Bierstube for now — is open in Old City.
Competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi dines out with two Philly writers.
Pizza Brain and Little Baby's announce their partnership — in comic form.
Friday, February 3
Philly-based craft beer delivery service Beerjobber debuts this month.
All the latest details on the aforementioned Pizza Brain/Little Baby's team-up.
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