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My sister-in-law, Christina, despite being born in Australia — where they like to celebrate Easter by eating and singing about hot crossed buns — has in recent years taken on the very Italian tradition of making the ham pie. Ham pie is a delicious and weird monstrosity and every brick is pretty much solid cholesterol. The recipe, as per Italian tradition, varies from household to household and is supposed to be kept secret, so I won't tell you or show you everything that's in it. Buf for a good idea of the sheer density of this delicacy, please enjoy Christina's slideshow below.
View galleryIt may be hard to know what to believe in a world where the Pennsylvania Dutch are actually of German descent, but the annual celebration of their unique culture has been a Reading Terminal institution for the past twenty-two years.
This weekend, the market and surrounding outdoor area played host to handmade crafts, traditional foods, live music and Amish wagon rides in honor of the recognizable Amish that pepper numerous farmers markets in the city and surrounding areas.
Here's a peek at some of the best of the weekend's Amish offerings.
Here's a recap of yesterday's Night Market courtesy of A.D. Amorosi and Jodi Bosin.
Food Trust Night Markets may come and Food Trust Night Markets may go, but when there’s one on your corner, there's set of advantages that makes the evening all that much more pleasurable.
Standing on my corner and taking in the panoramic vista of nearly 60 portable restaurants, food trucks, carts, grills and vendors at 6 p.m. was an awesome sight: a few straggling attendees to start, an empty street devoid of children, dogs and unfortunate flip-flop wearers. The smart ones got in line early to hit up first time Night Market attendee Ka'Chi truck and taste their tender kalbi short ribs with kimchi fried rice. Smart because by Night Market’s end, the most consistently long line throughout the event, second only to Jose Garces’ Guapos Tacos.
Supper’s chef-owner couple Mitch and Jen Prensky popped up with their Scratch Biscuits’ brunch-a-phonic delights like their “Kentucky Classic” of thinly sliced Benton’s country ham with pimento cheese and house-pickles.
Still, it was hard to ignore the Night Market’s big mamoo, the ?uest Loves Food POWERED BY Graham Elliot tented lounge pop-up with spicy Blucoat gin cocktails from Farmers Cabinet and, of course, Philly’s own Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson chicken drumsticks and cupcakes. The origami heart-wrapped ‘Love’s Drumsticks’ were crisply breaded, totally succulent and lip-burning hot. And the ?uestfucious cupcakes, an Asian-inspired carrot-cake with pineapple and topped with a red fortune cookie and red curry frosting was a sweet end to finger-licking good time.
(Photos: Jodi Bosin)
Prudent oenophiles know that the quickest was to beat the heat is to pop open a bottle of something crisp and light with plenty of good acidity. Something like a bottle of Riesling.
Today the fourth annual Summer of Riesling kicks off. This celebration of all things Riesling related is the brainchild of Paul Grieco, the mastermind behind Terroir, a mini chain of "elitist wine bars for everyone" based in New York. Grieco's devotion to the Rhine varietal compelled him to share his passion, promoting this oft misunderstood wine by pouring it, obviously, but also putting on Riesling themed concerts, giving out Riesling temporary tattoos and spreading the Riesling gospel throughout the country and now the world.
There are plenty of places in town to get your Riesling on and we're going to be highlighting them throughout the 94 days of summer.
First up we've got McCrossen's (529 N. 20th St.) who will be pouring three vastly diverse Rieslings for the bargain basement price of only $5 a glass.
Mac Forbes RS 20 - A dry, almost austere sip from the wilds of Tasmania.
Von Hovel - The guys at McCrossen's are calling this easy going Riesling from the Mosel a porch pounder.
Monsters Attack - This fruit forward Riesling from down under has a sugariness that's borderline slutty.
In the coming weeks, Reading Terminal Market (12th and Arch streets) will unveil the fruits of its long-awaited construction. The new locations of DiNic's, Spataro's Cheesesteaks and Flying Monkey Bakery are now up and running, and new vendors The Head Nut, The Tubby Olive, Valley Shepherd Creamery and Wursthaus Schmitz are coming soon. Next week, Reading Terminal will be hosting a series of events to celebrate its new digs, kicking off with the Renovation Project Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on Monday, June 18, at 10 a.m. See the Market's website for more information and full list of the week's proceedings.
Critical Mass made note today of the debut of Morgan's Pier (221 N. Columbus Blvd.), Four Corners nightlife capo Avram Hornik's takeover of the old Rock Lobster/Octo spot right on the water. The revamped dockside spot is poised to draw live-music fans in with its promise of live open-air shows/DJs weekly (look out for Dave P and Sammy Slice tomorrow, then Lee Jones and Rich Medina for a Sundae dance party this Sunday), but the food's also a lure. Hornik, along with partners Mark Fichera and Joe Crouse, brought on David Katz of Mémé (2201 Spruce St.) to develop a menu reflecting what'd it be like to hit up a weekend cookout at a chef's house — nothing fancy or over-the-top, but more ambitious and finessed than a ripped-open packet of Dietz & Watson wieners.
It's been about three weeks since Rice & Mix (1207 Walnut St.) got fixin' on the opposite side of Broad from owner Yong Chi's Giwa (1608 Sansom St.). Chi, who opened that quickie Korean restaurant in 2006, says franchising has long been a goal of his, but he realized Giwa's menu was too varied to spark in markets lacking a familiarity with Korean cuisine. Since bibimbop — the popular mainstream specialty of pork, beef or chicken mixed with egg, rice and vegetables, often in a lava-hot dolsot (stone bowl) — accounts for 70 percent of food sales at Giwa ("That clearly says it all," says Chi), he figured a separate concept focusing on this dish would have broader appeal.
Around three times the size of Giwa, Rice & Mix (first mentioned here in the fall) operates on a burrito shop or Subway-style point-and-shuffle system — you can watch R&M build you a custom bibimbop bowl or select from a menu of four predetermined favorites. Other menu items include dup bop (simply meat over white or multigrain rice in a bowl), jap chae (the most famous Korean noodle dish), galbi (grilled short ribs) and, soon, bulgogi cheesesteaks and Korean fried chicken. A slew of traditional banchan, or Korean sides, are available to go, too. Full menu after the jump (click to enlarge). Hours: Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
Jeanne Chang has officially opened up her Lil' Pop Shop in the former Unitea in West Philly (265 S. 44th St.). We went yesterday to try some of the pops she told us about a couple months ago — our favorites from Chang's diverse selection were the peanut butter curry and lime mint, but we agreed with everyone else that the salted caramel brownie and Vietnamese coffee pops are some of the best we've had.
On Tuesday, Greg Vernick, his wife Julie and GM Ryan Mulholland opened Vernick Food & Drink (2031 Walnut St.), the well-traveled chef's long-planned solo joint after years cooking all over the world for Jean-Georges Vongerichten and more recently at NYC's Toqueville. See our March 20 post for more background on the concept, food Vernick characterizes as "radically simple" — examples he cooked up for us the other day included his tuna with soy-laced tomato compote, charred spinach and leek toast, whole roasted organic Amish chicken and whole roasted "pocketbook-cut" dorade. Those last three items are a few examples of dishes Vernick is preparing in his Wood Stone oven, which he rocks around 550 degrees in the tucked-away open kitchen of the restaurant's ground floor. There's a chef's counter and room for walk-ins back here; heading back toward the street you've got the bar, featuring beer, wine and cocktail selections curated by Mulholland. Diners with reservations will mostly kick it in the restaurant's bright, clean-lined second-floor dining room.
Opening food and drink menus for Vernick are after the jump (click to enlarge). Right now they're open Tuesday to Sunday from 4:30 to 11.
There's a serious oven cranking up Andorra way — Pizzeria DiMeo's, located in the shopping center at Henry and Ridge (8500 Henry Ave.), is pie-ing up the hills with father/son team Pino and Antimo DiMeo wielding the peels.
Pino has owned/operated a number of casual by-the-slice pizza parlors since landing in the area from Italy in 1988, but this location is the DiMeo clan's first to truly dedicate itself to the Neapolitan approach, something I learned plenty about when writing this 2010 story on Philly's pizza culture. Pino's hometown is strict about the starting ingredients of its dough — double-zero flour, yeast and water only (don't you dare put olive oil in there!) — and the shop is taking it even further, importing tomatoes, mozzarella and even bottled agua from Italy for their stuff. (It's a heated point of contention among pizzaioli, but Antimo swears up and down the H2O makes a huge difference.) They're plating them by the minute-and-a-half in a very clearly labeled 900-degree oven that burns oak.
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