|
|
|
Well folks, this year's Hop Chef competition went down last night and we've got to say it was a damned good time. While all of the contestants put up truly stellar plates, Southwark's Nick Macri took home the gold with a Simpsons-inspired 'meat salad' of Hennepin coppa pickled chiles, grains of paradise breadcrumbs, crunchy ballpark nuts, an orange-coriander sauce and leaves of fresh cilantro. People's Choice went to Yun Fuentes of J.G. Domestic for his duck arepas with serrano ham, cherries and Rogue blue cheese. Head over to Zagat Philly for a lovely slide show of all of the entries plus a priceless pic of a beer-soaked Macri seconds after taking home the title.
Over on First We Feast Jamie Feldmar rounded up 10 up-and-coming chefs to keep on your radar and we were more than pleased to see friend of Meal Ticket/Le Virtu chef/pasta whisperer Joe Cicala on the list. Feldmar talks about Cicala's minor league hockey career, opting out of art school in favor of kitchen and of course Cicala's signature dish, the one strand wonder: maccheroni alla mugnaia. Click on through to First We Feast for the full lineup.
Looks like there are only a few seats left for tonight's over the top Sixpoint beer dinner at the Old City outpost of Han Dynasty (108 Chestnut St.) It's five courses for $55 a head paired with some rarely seen around these parts Sixpoints like Enterprise #14, a dry-hopped ESB infused with coriander and rosemary brewed exclusively for tonight's dinner and an Imperial Baltic Porter brewed with Stumptown coffee and Mast Brothers chocolate. Menu highlights include celery surf clams, Sichuan sweet and sour fish sticks and scallop and beef tenderloin surf and turf. Oh and the always entertaining Han will be hosting. Reserve your spot by calling 215-222-3711.
Yesterday Adam told us about the pie shakes that Magpie is blending up and today we've got more shake news for you. From today until Sunday Shake Shack (2000 Sansom St.) is offering up a collaboration concrete courtesy of Montreal-style, wood-fired Spread Bagelry. This dessert hybrid is made with the Shack's classic vanilla custard with a slice of cinnamon cream cheese bread pudding blended right into it. We're thinking that since this limited time only shake has a bagel mixed in it's a totally viable breakfast option, but that's just us.
Looking for something to do between now and Hop Chef o'clock? Make your way over to the grand opening party for Strangelove's (216 S. 11th St.), the latest venture from the good folks who brought you Local 44, Memphis Taproom and Resurrection. Beginning at 5 p.m. they're celebrating with a selection of complimentary snacks (fingers crossed for reuben croquettes) and a totally out of control draft list including Dieu Du Ceil Peche Mortel, Founders All Day IPA and Omnipollo Leon.
If food TV and Top Chef stalking count among your Things: Ilan Hall was on Jimmy Fallon last night to promote his new show, Knife Fight, where chefs (probably) get drunk and compete in front of other drunk chefs for the grand prize of a knife that costs about three bucks. Oh, and one of the judges listed in the promo materials is Swimfan. (The show was originally going to start airing on the Esquire Network this week, but has been postponed because... the Esquire Network doesn't exist yet. Eventually, it will be taking over G4, which is actually a channel about video games and we're not even kidding. In other words, the idea of one demographic is growing up into the idea of another demographic, but it's faced some setbacks and won't be getting out of its parents' basement until later this summer after all.) Anyway, Fallon and announcer Steve Higgins are tasked with making breakfast sandwiches out of emu and ostrich eggs, Fallon spends most of the time fishing pieces of shell out of his pan and everyone does some quail egg shooters. Time well spent.
Quail egg shooters, knife tutorials and Montreal eats, after the jump! »
Pie queen Holly Ricciardi is coming up on the one-year anniversary for her charming shop, Magpie (1622 South St.). If you haven't been yet, go, and try out the bakery's warm-weather creation: pie milkshakes. Part pie, part milkshake, these crust-flecked blends feature Bassets vanilla ice cream and Ricciardi's fruit and cream/custard pies for $8.50 and $8, respectively.
See the flavors available for April after the jump. Our eye's on the lemon curd. »
Alright friends, we're about five hours away from the epic beer-centric cooking competition that is Hop Chef and tickets are going fast. Seriously. Head over to Union Transfer's site to secure your spot for this evening's festivities. (It's cool, we'll wait.)
Okay, got your tickets? Good. Now let's talk Hop Chef. We're sure you're already well aware but just in case you forgot who is going head to head tonight, here's the line up: Yun Fuentes of JG Domestic, Lucio Palazzo of La Calaca Feliz, Nick Macri of Southwark, Pat Szoke of The Industry, Eli Kulp of Fork and Mike Deganis of Alla Spina. And there will be plenty of Ommegang flowing to go with the chefs' beer-inspired plates. Plus we just found out that our favorite schmancy black car service/app UBER is offering a $20 credit to all ticket holders which we're basically going to take as an excuse to drink as much as you want since you're not driving home.
And as if the lure of flowing Ommegang, awesome food and a free ride home wasn't enough, Team Meal Ticket (yours truly and 10 Questions columnist Scott Schroeder) are on the judging panel. See you later!
Rachel Klein, proprietress of South Philly vegan destination Miss Rachel's Pantry (1732 W. Passyunk Ave.) is looking for a little help. Bertha, her beloved 1996 Econoline delivery van is on it's last legs and Miss Rachel and company are looking to replace the old gal. in order to make sure that all of Miss Rachel's vegan goodies get where they need to go she's set up a fundraising campaign over at Lucky Ant complete with some pretty sweet rewards for donations. $25 gets you a tote filled with vegan treats, $50 wins a brunchtime delivery of assorted vegan breakfastables and if you're really living large, pitch in $3000 for a year's worth of weekly dinner deliveries. Head to Lucky Ant to throw down for Miss Rachel's new ride.
- barstool scientist
- Booze
- Brew Revue
- Chef Salad
- Closings
- Coffee
- Contests
- Dealage
- Dirty Dishes
- Don't Front
- Eat This Immediately
- Field Trip
- Food and Art
- Food and Holidays
- Food and Movies
- Food and Music
- Food and Politics
- Food and Sports
- Food and Web
- Food Blogs
- Food Books
- Food Events
- Food News
- Food TV
- Gifted
- Happy Hour Hopper
- How-To
- In Print
- Interview
- Meal Ticket
- Menu Time
- Not So Quickfire
- Notes from the Weekend
- On Wheels
- Openings
- Patio Drinking
- Philly Beer Week 2010
- Photos
- Private Chef POV
- Product Placement
- Recipes
- Snack Time
- Stiff Drank
- SUPPER
- Tea
- Testing
- Ticket Stubs
- Top Chef
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
- Video
- Weekly Candy
- Weird Regional Foods
- We're Here to Help
- Where'd We Eat?
- Drew Lazor's Ill-Advised Rant Factory
- Pregame
- Ill-Advised Ranting
- The Week Without Meat
- Philly Beer Week 2009
- Real Big
- Where'd I Eat Last Night?
- Top Chef Masters
- The Good Word
- Next Iron Chef
- Arterial Terrorism
- Food and Radio
