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Contests
Kildare's Irish Pub is presenting a great opportunity to all burger-loving, philanthropic competitive spirits: On May 31, the Manayunk location (4417 Main St.) will be hosting its first burger eating contest. Brave contestants will have 30 minutes to pack in as many of their European Union burgers (pictured) as possible — that's a 10-ounce patty topped with rashers, cheddar, swiss, fried egg and L.T.O. on a toasted onion roll. No joke. In addition to bragging rights and local Kobayashi status, the winner of this gorgefest will score a free EU burger every Tuesday for a year. Major bonus: Kildare's will be donating 50 percent of all of the $20 entry fees will go to non-profit Miles 4 MJ, part of the Children's Tumor Foundation.
Photo: Courtesy of Kildare's
We've got a giveaway copy of L.A.-based food blogger/photographer Matt Armendariz's On a Stick! — published by Quirk, it's a gorgeous cookbook literally centered around fare stuck on sticks, from curry shrimp and pineapple skewers and chicken satay to deep-fried candy bars and adorably impaled Scotch eggs. You like, you want? Entering is easy: Before 4:30 p.m. this afternoon, leave a comment on this post describing a Philly-based dish you'd like to eat off a stick, and why. It can be a restaurant dish, something from a food truck, something your Armenian neighbor makes, anything — just tell us why you want to gnaw it off a stick, dude. We'll pick our favorite by the end of the day. Have fun!
UPDATE: Cheers to Meal Ticket reader bje55 for his inspired and locally logical food-on-a-stick suggestion:
Roast Pork a la Jack 'n Jill. I'm envisioning something resembling the famous Chocolate eclair and strawberry shortcake popsicles from childhood, but in mine the middle will be perfectly roasted pork held together with copious amounts of lardo. The outer crumble will consist of caramelized onions and roast garlic with a hard sharp provolone stick.
To simplify the process of local food discovery, the Great Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation has reached into the interactive/edible web realm with its own unique presence within the grub-sharing world of Foodspotting, the mobile platform that encourages users to upload snapped photos of their eats to share with other members.
Foodspotting, which also recently partnered with Visit Bucks County, has launched a Philly-based initiative enabling users to search through a dozen custom food guides, like Philly Homegrown (centered on locally sourced ingredients), Philly Te Ama (which focuses on Latin-influenced spots), and Burger Bonanza, where you'll find photos and info on the most coveted burgers in the city. The launch will jump off with Visit Philly's With Love Foodspotting contest, which requires members to "spot" (aka order, photograph and eat) each dish detailed in the "Famous Philly Flavors" guide. Eleven winners will be randomly selected, with one grand prize of a night in a Philly luxury hotels, a $100 gift card from Garces Restaurant Group and two gift certificates for the Flavors of Philly Food Tour. Ten runners-up will receive one gift certificate for the tour. All winners will be selected on May 25. Peep all contest rules and details here.
Photo: uwishunu.com
Got some cheesy tricks up your sleeve? The Food Experiments, an ongoing series of cookoffs that "celebrate the home chef," is visiting Philly next month for a fromage-centric cooking competition. Organizers Nick Suarez and Theo Peck hail from Brooklyn and have grown their brand into a national tour attracting competitive amateur cooks.
For the past four years, Shannon Dougherty and Liz Petersen of Liberties Walk's A Full Plate (1040 N. American St.) have thrown their wildly popular rib cookoff in September — but now the duo is entering the Crock Pot fray with the first-ever A Full Plate Chili Cook-Off, scheduled for Saturday, June 11 at the beautiful Liberty Lands Park (926 N. American St.).
Petersen says AFP employees and customers alike have discussed the idea of a chili cook-off for some time, but they finally decided to pull the trigger for 2011 — the competition, with both pro and amateur brackets, will precede the Northern Liberties Music Festival. (The rib-off, of course, is still a go.) Admission ($12 for adults, $6 for kids) will allow attendees to sample chilis in three categories: Classic Red, White and Vegan. Teams must pay $25 to compete, and there will be first- and second-place prizes in each category, in addition to a "People's Choice" award. They're still rounding up the judging panel, but as of right now it features folks like Anna Goldfarb of Shmitten Kitten, Taylor from Mac & Cheese, the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association prez Matt Ruben and yours truly.
To enter, you'll need to fill out the entry form after the jump (click to enlarge). For additional info, call 215-627-4068 or email info@afullplate.net. Deadline for registration is Friday, June 3, at 4 p.m.
The 2011 James Beard Foundation Awards go down tonight in NYC, and we here at Meal Ticket would like to wish the best of luck to Zahav's Michael Solomonov (up for "Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic"), Marc Vetri and Jeff Benjamin (their flagship Vetri is up for "Outstanding Restaurant") and Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione (up for "Outstanding Wine & Spirits Professional"). Get 'em, gents.
UPDATE [10:10 p.m.]: HUGE congratulations to Zahav's Michael Solomonov for taking home the "Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic" win! Here's a shot of him chillin' backstage, via the Beard Foundation's blog. He represents the Philly region's sole victory of the evening. The "Outstanding Restaurant" award went to Danny Meyer's Eleven Madison Park, while Dogfish Head's Calagione was beaten out by Julian P. Van Winkle III of Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery for "Outstanding Wine & Spirits Professional." Cheers to all the nominees for the honor, regardless.
Our Flyers have their hockey backs against the hockey wall (both technical terms) tonight, down 3 games to none to the Boston Bruins in the East Conference semis. Since Game 4 goes down in Boston, it seems like a good evening to wrangle up the crew and order in. SeamlessWeb, a delivery-and-takeout online hub/iPhone, Droid and BlackBerry app that works with some 250 restaurants in Philly, has tossed Meal Ticket a $50 gift card to give away to our readers.
Want the goods for tonight's game? Real easy: Between now at 4:30 p.m. today, leave a comment on this post describing which SeamlessWeb restaurant you'd order from, and why. Full list of Philly spots that accept SeamlessWeb here. We'll pick our favorite answer and inform the winner via email. Good luck, and go Flyers!
UPDATE [12:58 p.m.]: Just to clarify, you don't have to spend the $50 tonight. You can use it anytime.
UPDATE [4:37 p.m.]: Check out the winning comment, from Andy B, below.
I would order from Sang Kee, so that by the third period I'll be in a hoisin sauce coma with duck fat all over my face instead of watching the Flyers' third goalie of the night flailing around on the ice.
To mark the anniversary of their first year in business, Seth Russell (left) and Harry Stormes of NoLibs' Dapper Dog cart are hosting a high-stakes dog-eating contest this Friday, May 6, in the patio area of the former Arbol Café and Second and Poplar. (The have been calling this space, now known as Garden Variety, home since the city cracked down on Second Street vendors; it'll soon host Nikki Hill and Claire Wadsworth's La Copine, too.)
For the contest, competitors must pay $5 to register by 9:30 p.m.; around 10, after the band Ryat wraps up, they'll set up what Stormes calls a "pretty traditional, Nathan's-style contest" — potato buns, boiled franks, ketchup, mustard. The first contestant to wreck 10 hot dogs, or the contestant with the most food consumed at the end of 5 minutes (like Nathan's, you can drink/dip stuff into water), earns one free hot dog a day for an entire calendar year. (The runner-up will win free dogs for a month.)
Photo: Drew Lazor
Pub & Kitchen (1946 Lombard St.) is celebrating its advancement to the final round of the Best of Philly Burger Bracket with a kickin'-sounding happy hour this evening. After knocking Good Dog and Standard Tap out of the running, P&K is going to head-to-head with Village Whiskey's fabled Whiskey King burger. Pub & Kitchen fans will be treated to complimentary Churchill Sliders — mini versions of the signature beast (above) Jonathan Adams rolled out in October — as well as $1 oysters and $3 P&K/Sixpoint Middleton ales between the hours of 4 and 6 p.m.
Photo: Drew Lazor
Last week, we posted on ?uestlove's Twitter quest ?uest to find cooks qooks to whip him up dinner, with one moving on to feed him and the Legendary Roots Crew at the June 4 Roots Picnic. Questo's team has been trickling out the five finalists for the contest (scheduled for April 3) via Twitter, and we're happy to see some familiar faces in the running — peep South Philly Tap Room's own Scott "@foodsyoucaneat" Schroeder on cam prepping a chicken-fried steak cheesesteak that looks imperative. And here are vids from two other finalists, Kenny (he works on the line at Bistrot La Minette) and Clara; keep an eye on @cook4quest for info on the final two contestants.
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