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Food and Web
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| Courtesy of Epicurious |
Epicurious is putting down tasty stakes at the Reading Terminal Market next week on the last leg of its second annual national farmers market tour. Stop at the recipe site's booth from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. August 17 to 22 for giveaways galore, including reusable market tote bags and recipes designed around what's seasonal in our area. (Check out Epicurious' seasonal ingredient map to get an idea of what to pick up.)
A Hamburger Today, Serious Eats' excellent burger blog, put out a call yesterday for Philly patty recommendations. Get at them in the comments.
We've been talking about burgers quite a bit around these parts lately, what with the P.Y.T. v. Butcher & Singer manly meat clash, so y'all should probably have some good recos idling in the fat stores of your brain. Us personally? Always excited to toss out a plug for one of our favorites, the Kelly's Burger at Grace Tavern � we just devoured one last night.
The Noble burger deserves some national-level props from A Hamburger Today.
Pub & Kitchen's Windsor Burger hands down
Sketch, Barclay Prime (burger not sliders) and Grace.
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Jennifer Zoga's Good Food Market, which we first wrote about in early July, has pushed its grand opening back to sometime in September. But Northwest Philly residents can still get preview of what the upscale grocery (12 W. Willow Grove Ave., Chestnut Hill) will offer. If you live within "a reasonable distance" of the storefront, Zoga tells Meal Ticket � think CH, Mt. Airy, Germantown, Erdeheim, Lafayette Hill, Wyndmoor, etc. � she encourages you to head to her site and sign up as a "test shopper." This'll give you special access to deliveries as they work out their system and menu.
Also, if you're trying to head to GFM's Web site old-school, sans hyperlink � note that the address is goodfoodmarket.net, not goodfoodmarket.com. The latter URL leads to a site about falconry. Don't you hate it when that happens?
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| japanesebirdcookingspaghetti.com |
We could stare at this all day. We stare at this all day.
www.japanesebirdcookingspaghetti.com
Yes. This is a classic. I love that dang bird.
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| Photos | Drew Lazor | |
If case you haven't been following the war of (mostly one dude's) words between P.Y.T.'s Tommy Up and Starr Restaurant Organization by way of SquareBurger � last week, Up, confident in the menu at his new Piazza eatery, challenged Stephen Starr's Franklin Square burger/shake shack to a taste-off via Twitter. Then SRO, without responding directly to the PaperStreet promoter, announced that they would be dropping the price of their $16 Butcher & Singer burger (left) to $5.95 for a limited time. (We tried it for lunch yesterday.)
If you know Up, you know he's not one to relinquish the last word that easily. So he trained his photon torpedoes at the Starrship Enterprise again with a counterdeal � bring a Butcher & Singer receipt to NoLibs, and you get a P.Y.T. burger (right) on the house. Up tells Meal Ticket that he'll keep his promotion going as long as B&S keeps theirs on.
Go ahead and say what you will about PR and buzz and egos and self-promotion and competition and what have you � at the end of the day, y'all have been given a golden opportunity to eat cheap-as-hell/free food here. If you consider yourself a burger fan, to fail to take advantage of both deals would be tragic.
@Holly: That was my initial thought as well so I was wondering what Up's incentive was... then I realized that he's indirectly trying to achieve his Starr vs. PYT burger concept, with our without Starr's consent. I'm still not sure about the payoff though. Word of mouth about the deal just to raise PYT awareness, perhaps?
I'm not sure that PYT is Avis to Starr's Hertz. My guess is that the Starr Org ran their promotion because it is August in the middle of a recession and the lunch business sucks. A big dining room to fill, much less to turn a couple of times. They are using the burger as a loss leader and expect to end up turning a profit on the meal from fries and drink sales. Would be interesting if Butcher and Singer took the offensive and gave everyone who purchased one of their burger and handout with PYT's offer for a free hamburger. Maybe even offer shuttle service to PYT that evening. Start a stampede. Unlikely to happen, but would cause havoc at PYT. PYT won't do all that bad. If people order a beer or two to wash down their burgers, PYT will at least break even on cost.
CP restaurant critic David Snyder, whose polished quotability has been tapped by the New York Times and the Associated Press, among other outlets, contributed a soundbite to this Forbes Traveler piece on the best street food in America. He's asked about cheesesteaks, naturally:
Cheesesteak-serving stands are all over Philadelphia but are especially concentrated in the area of University City. One favorite of students and tourists alike is Abner�s at 38th and Chestnut Streets. "Cheesesteaks are as much of an institution in that part of town as the Liberty Bell," says Philly-based restaurant critic David Snyder. Snyder believes that street food is such a large part of the city's eating culture that it's not viewed in a special way, rather it is just accepted. "People don't look down on carts here as they might in other cities," he says.
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Due to what they're characterizing as overwhelming regional demand, Taco Bell's mobile taco truck � the Twitter-based promo tool that some people think is fake � will apparently stop in Philly on Wednesday, September 9 to hand out free tacos and burritos at the 24-Hour Blame-A-Thon event benefiting cancer research (more on that here and here).
You know, we heard Joe Buck mention the Taco Bell Truck by name during last week's MLB All-Star Game, which would seem to legitimize its existence. But strangely enough, a Twitter search reveals a suspicious lack of after-the-fact reports (e.g. "Yum, just ate some free tacos from the Taco Bell Truck!") � and we cannot find a single photo of the truck itself. Is this vehicle's elusiveness simply a result of a hyper-regulated marketing campaign? Or is this some sort of elaborate conspiracy ... that involves Joe Buck?
If you've placed eyeballs on the Taco Bell Truck in another city, or you have photographic evidence, please speak up in the comments.
UPDATE: So the Taco Bell Truck has checked in with some rather compelling photographic evidence of its existence. Pics after the jump.
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| Taco Bell Truck at TwitPic |
Impressive reporting. For reals.
City Paper�s restaurant database is stuffed with useful information on nearly every eatery in the city, including hours, bar status, handicap accessibility, a smart synopsis � and comments. Readers submit their own experiences, adding even more useful information and opinions to each listing.
Except for Chima Brazilian Steakhouse. A strange rumor/disease afflicts all Chima commenters, who do only one thing: plead for 2-for-1 coupons. Food/Meal Ticket/Web Editor Drew Lazor attempted to stem the tide a few months ago by stating that City Paper is a print/web publication and not, in fact, a churrascaria, to no avail. The begging goes on unabated.
For the last time: We do not have 2 for 1 coupons! What we do have, however, is a partnership with Half-Off Depot, which is offering City Paper readers $39.50 Chima gift cards for $19.75, for a limited time only.
Visit halfoffdepot.com/philly to pick up major dealage at Chima, Rembrandt�s, S&H Kebab House and Mugshots Coffeehouse & Caf�, and please, leave our comments out of it.
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| Enough, you leeches! |
2 for 1
Drew, you're a scream. I love the finish "Enough, you leeches!" Keep up the rants.
Etta: While I did write the original post calling for the heads of the Chima leeches, this one's 100 percent the handiwork of my culinary co-conspirator Felicia D.
Oops! My apologies to your co-conspirator. Now can I have the two for one?
But seriously, can I get that 2 for 1 coupon?
Now why do I think both Felicia and Drew want to knock off all three of us?
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A hearty Meal Ticket hello to Grub Street Philadelphia, a local extension of New York's original Grub Street. The blog's editor is our girl Kirsten Henri, formerly of Philadelphia Weekly and Foobooz. She's kicking things off right with a slideshow of 22 of Philly's most delicious burgers, among other features.
Yea Kirsten! Great gig!
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