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Food and Holidays
This Thursday, May 24, is National Escargot Day, a holiday marking the end of the French snail-harvesting season. Throughout the week, Gallic-and-otherwise restaurants all over town are partaking in the festivities with special snail-centric menus. Doug Dussault, the self-proclaimed Snailman behind Potironne Company, is supplying wild Burgundy snails to the participants, and will even make appearances at Southwark and Lacroix to talk snail. Other participating restaurants include Bistrot La Minette, Fond, Matyson, Bibou and Amis. Check out the National Escargot Day page for schedules, menus and general slow-gastropod info. Reservations are highly suggested for each dinner. Some highlights from each restaurant's menu after the jump.
Mexico meets the Middle East at La Calaca Feliz (2324 Fairmount Ave.) from April 6 to 13. Chef/co-owner Tim Spinner wanted to offer a Passover menu with a Mexican feel (matzo ball soup with red chile!). Though it's not kosher, the four-course meal meets practically every other dietary requirement of the Pesach celebration — Spinner got creative with the constrictions, e.g. using malanga and lettuce for the tostadas and taco shells to avoid serving leavened bread. The Passover prix-fixe is $30 per person, and will also be offered at Spinner's Fort Washington restaurant, Cantina Feliz (424 S. Bethlehem Pike).
Pick up this week's CP for Adam Erace's review of La Calaca Feliz.
In honor of everyone's favorite irrational number, Supper (926 South St.) is celebrating Pi Day with ( what else?) pies. Chef Mitch Prensky has put together two pie-filled menus for tomorrow, March 14, one savory and one sweet. Served with a side salad, savory slices will include crab-and-Ritz pie and pork pies. The sweet list will include Mississippi Mud, peanut butter and pecan. Dessert selections can be made a la mode with housemade vanilla, bitter chocolate, caramel swirl or buttermilk ice cream. Each serving of savory pie will be $16, with sweet slices running $8. If you can't decide and want one of each, Prensky is offering a two-course pie dinner (!) for $20.
Mark DiNinno and the crew at Chris' Jazz Cafe (1421 Sansom St.), ever the astute NOLAphiles, will be kicking off crawdad season with a Mardi Gras party next Tuesday, Feb. 21. To drink, they'll have Abita's Mardi Gras Bock on tap and a few others from Louisiana-based brewery, plus $3 Sazeracs and $5 Hurricanes. Thirty dollars will get you all-you-can-eat crawfish, or if you are feeling slightly less ambitious, you can order a bucket of the little guys for $10. They'll also have shrimp gumbo for $5. Stick around until 6:45 to watch the Hoppin' John Orchestra parade down Broad to the Chris' stage for a 7 p.m. show complete with beads and king cake (yes, with the tiny baby in it).
This is just the start of crawfish season at Chris'. They'll offer a beefed-up $10 bucket deal through the spring that includes potatoes and corn, as well as daily specials like spring rolls, mac 'n' cheese and the infamous crawfish cheesesteak. You'll also be able to grab the same drink specials from the party during happy hour throughout the season. Be sure to look out for a nightly $35 crawfish-centric prix-fixe, as well as a mayhaw berry ice cream created by Franklin Fountain just for this crawtastic occasion.
Fancy dinners on Valentine's Day are cool and all, but why not do something a little different this year? We've compiled a quick list of unique things to do on/around Feb. 14, with ya boo or even stag.
- Golosa (806 S. Sixth St., 215-925-1003) is having a prix-fixe three-course ALL-DESSERT meal from 6 to 11 p.m. Bring a date and a toothbrush. Reservations are required, FYI!
- Whipped Bakeshop (636 Belgrade St., 215-598-5449) is holding a couples' cake-decorating class on Feb. 11 and 14. Don't worry, you don't have to eat the whole cake there. They'll let you take it home. It's also BYO and also requires a res.
- The Cherry Bomb Bus girls are throwing a "misery dinner," called Eat Your Broken Heart Out, at Teri's (1126 S. Ninth St.). Make sure to buy tickets in advance for the four-course dinner, with seatings at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m.
- Give some love where it's needed on Feb. 11 at Marc Vetri's TweetHeart Social, a children's event benefiting CHOP. It takes place at Nest (1301 Locust St., 215-545-6378).
- On V-Day proper, Frankford Hall (1210 Frankford Ave.) will be showing Natural Born Killers, one of several inspired choices in their Valentine's Day movie series.
- Visit Philly has compiled a whole list of date ideas for you to make your own. They're also holding a contest to win a bunch of cool and expensive stuff.
I'm a strong proponent of the stay-the-hell-home Valentine's dinner plan. (See also: the stay-the-hell-home New Year's Eve plan.) But if cooking isn't your forte, there are few meals as stressful (and potentially foreplay-dependent) as V-Day. If you've got the cash ($500, to be exact), then leave it to the experts, chef Jean-Marie Lacroix and his team of cooks at Brûlée Catering.
With 72 hours notice, one will come to your casa and prepare a restaurant-grade feast for two. Think lamb chops, black truffle risotto, Champagne sorbet and more. Don’t have five Benjis to drop? Brûlée offers two more affordable options: having a server deliver/serve your meal for $350 per couple, or pick up dinner yourself (and look like a culinary hero) for $125, definitely less than what you’d spend at better restaurants around town. With notice, menus are completely customizable, but here are a few samples after the jump. If interested, email Brûlée Catering at info@brulee-catering.com.
Unsure where to go or what to eat to ring in the Year of the Dragon? The people at the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation has got you covered: They've put together a list of appropriate menu suggestions from restaurants in the Chinatown area. Think the crispy fried squab from Ocean City (234 N. Ninth St.), salt-baked tofu from Shiao Lan Kung (930 Race St.) or honey walnut shrimp from Sang Kee Duck House (238 N. Ninth St.). Check out the whole list on the PCDC's website and mix and match as you please for a customizable Chinese New Year.
New Year's Eve is up there with Valentine's and Mother's Day in terms of restaurant cashcowitude, so opulent tasting menus with hefty prix-fixe price tags and shmancy wine pairings is often the move. But two local hangs are pulling a casual 180 for Dec. 31.
New Year's Eve is always pressure cooker, but for some reason, the culmination of 2011 feels like it’s arriving with the speed of a runaway train, transporting a side order of stress in its caboose. The rush to plan, plan, plan to be somewhere special when the clock chimes 12 can be a killer. So consider the alternative: staying in this Saturday. Chill down a bottle or two of Prosecco and cook up this easy, expensive-sounding menu of oysters, lobster and exotically spiced bread pudding. It's a helluva lot more relaxing than scrambling for plans, and a helluva lot cheaper too.
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. (Friday to Monday this time, for the holiday weekend.) 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.)
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