Archive: January, 2011

SNACK TIME: Meat water, Soda pot, Flavor Flav's flava, Life with the Geat, Inhaling your meals, and Cookies inside of cookies

POSTED: Thursday, January 27, 2011, 8:30 PM

dinnerinabottle.com

- What, you didn't want your water to taste like Acai berry or lemon zest? You'd much prefer a Beef Stroganoff, Moules frites, even Haggis? From Brooklyn comes MeatWater, a beverage that acts as a "meal supplement" for you on-the-go carnivores. This curious product is available in an array of meaty flavors â even a salad selection for those of you craving lighter fare â all of which are still vegan-friendly (WTF?) and packed with proteins and amino acids. - While we're on the topic of strange beverages, Californian medical marijuana is now being bottled and canned as soda, Yum Sugar reports. Flavors are named after specific strains of marijuana and live in the most blacklight-owner-lava lamp-having friendly packaging. - NY Daily News reports that your boy Flavor Flav is opening a restaurant. He's parking himself right beside a KFC with his spot â Flav's Fried Chicken, or FFC â in Clinton, Iowa. Rumor has it that he plans on expanding his business into a chain group spread across the country. Check out the video for Flav's very own secret recipe (don't shortchange him, he has a culinary degree) and his plans. - The kids over at Fishtown's Music Fountain Cafe (308 E. Girard Ave.) have a very involved thing going for Philly's own television and radio personality, Jerry Blavat. Their blog centers entirely upon endlessly entertaining daily interactions had with the "Geator with the Heater" in the shop.

beckybakes.net

- Is breathing your food â instead of chewing it â the future of eating? I hope not. A couple of mad food scientists have transformed any and all food and drink items into breathable vapor that are inhaled from a Le Whaf machine, DailyMail UK reports. - The sky just dumped like 2feet of snow on us. I figured that this simple recipe from Becky Bakes for what sounds like the most incredible snack â OREO STUFFED CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE â would be a sufficient way to indulge yourself without much effort. And, a gluten-free version of the treat is a simple adaptation. Namaste.

MeatWater: Dinner in a Bottle | Downingtown Dish

Posted 2011-01-27 18:08:34

[...] today, Philadelphia City Paper tipped the local food scene off to the latest quirky craze, dinner in a bottle found via MeatWater. Acting as a âmeal supplementâ for on-the-go [...]

Tweets that mention SNACK TIME: Meat water, Soda pot, Flavor Flav's flava, Life with the Geat, Inhaling your meals, and Cookies inside of cookies :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper -- Topsy.com

Posted 2011-01-27 18:36:36

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by onestopshop2011 and Wendy Laws, Meal Ticket. Meal Ticket said: Meat-flavored water, pot-flavored soda, Flava Flav-flavaed flava and more in @laurelro's SNACK TIME This week: http://ow.ly/3Lp37 [...]

Posted by Laurel Rose Purdy @ 8:30 PM Permalink | Post a comment

IN PRINT: City Paper Food and Restaurants, Jan. 27

POSTED: Thursday, January 27, 2011, 7:00 PM

Filed Under: In Print

- Will Stone chats with Jessica B. Harris (right), culinary scholar and expert on African-American cooking traditions, about her latest, High on the Hog. The author and professor will discuss her new book, which follows the food trails of the African diaspora, at the Free Library next Tuesday. - Adam Erace is charmed by the vintage air travel theme and expert wine list at Jet Wine Bar, but has a few reservations about the menu. - Feeding Frenzy has the latest word on new openings Elixr Coffee, Le Pain Quotidien, Ha Saigon and Plenty. - A Philly-centric Iron Chef showdown, a beer chili bonanza, and badass beef and beer and more in What's Cooking. - In the arts section, Robin Rice profiles Jenny Drumgoole, an installation artist whose latest work deals with two very distinct and fattening entities: Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Paula Deen.

Tweets that mention IN PRINT: City Paper Food and Restaurants, Jan. 27 :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper -- Topsy.com

Posted 2011-01-27 14:36:46

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Rocco's Sausages, Meal Ticket. Meal Ticket said: What's in @citypaper's food section this week? http://ow.ly/3LoZM [...]

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Dance for the sake of fresh food: Kensington co-op benefit this Saturday

POSTED: Thursday, January 27, 2011, 5:28 PM

Filed Under: Food Events | We're Here to Help

The Kensington Community Food Co-Op, opening later this year, will be a grocery cooperative focusing all of its might on providing access to the freshest and most organic foods possible. The ultimate goal is to tighten up the Kensington community through the availability of local produce and other healthy goods, while promoting awareness for the overall well-being of our bodies and the environment. KCFC has declared 2011 the Year of the Co-Op, and wants to ring it in with a killer dance party to raise funds for the cause. The Saturday, Jan. 29, the fete will go down, featuring several local DJs, at the SINErgy Project Space (2310 N. American St.). You can purchase your tickets ($5) at the door, where inside you can take part in raffles featuring loads of spectacular local businesses while dancing your ass off. Refreshments will be provided. Flyer after the jump.

Courtesy of KCFC

arlene

Posted 2011-01-29 11:57:00

What a great event. I wish I lived in Philadelphia.

Tweets that mention Dance for the sake of fresh food: Kensington co-op benefit this Saturday :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper -- Topsy.com

Posted 2011-01-27 14:00:15

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Helen Lowell and kaeriey hutchinson, Meal Ticket. Meal Ticket said: Dance for the sake of fresh food this weekend: http://ow.ly/3Lp1D [...]

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Archaeologically inspired eats at the Penn Museum

POSTED: Thursday, January 27, 2011, 4:33 PM

Filed Under: Food and Art

"I swear I didn't eat the last slice of pizza!"

Back in the day, the Silk Road stretched from the Mediterranean to Asia, a 4,000-mile network linking European merchants with exotic wares for from-off lands. In February, the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (3260 South St.) â their Egyptology gallery is absolutely sick â premieres its "Secrets of the Silk Road" exhibit, featuring artifacts from the Tarim Basin of Western China. The museum's Pepper Mill Cafe and chef William Brown are embracing the exhibit with a menu that will travel from China to Greece over the next 18 weeks. First up: recreations of edible artifacts unearthed in the Tarim Basin â shades of Dogfish Ancient Ales? â like sweet fried dough twists, plum blossom pastries and savory wontons, all washed down with rare Chinese and Indian teas. We promise they taste better than their 2,500-year-old counterparts below look.

Courtesy of the Penn Museum

fried dough twists

Courtesy of the Penn Museum

wonton

Courtesy of the Penn Museum

plum blossom pastry

Tweets that mention Archeologically inspired eats at the Penn Museum :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper -- Topsy.com

Posted 2011-01-27 13:21:40

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by pennmuseum, pennmuseum and pennmuseum, Meal Ticket. Meal Ticket said: Archaeologically inspired eats at the @pennmuseum: http://ow.ly/3LnDi [...]

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AKA Rittenhouse Square restaurant aiming for spring

POSTED: Wednesday, January 26, 2011, 9:34 PM

Filed Under: Openings

stayaka.com

We recently took in a walkthrough of the still-raw space on the ground floor of the AKA Rittenhouse Square extended-stay hotel just off 18th and Walnut in Rittenhouse — it's being converted into a multi-functional, slated-for-May restaurant (no official name yet) by AKA owner Larry Korman and David Fields, who owned Salt and has been working as a consultant for the AKA chain for about four years. The busy Fields, who's also putting together dining/drinking concepts for the AKAs in New York and D.C. in lockstep with this project in his hometown, has very specific notions of what he wants at this primo address, which will hold court on a dining strip that'll include The Franklin, The Dandelion, Tria and the in-the-works Serafina.

The space itself — it's a combination of what was Le Bus and what was Ben & Jerry's, if you can picture that — will have a smooth, straightforward design aesthetic, with touches like white oak and slab marble adorning surfaces. "Not theme-y," says Fields. "Simple materials. Not tuned up, not fancy." The seating scheme includes an eight-seat bar, 10-seat open kitchen counter, plus round tables and a central banquette. Floor-to-ceiling windows, plus outdoor seating, will beckon in passersby off 18th. Then there's the food and drink — Fields has a major chef get in Bryan Sikora, formerly of Django and Talula's Table, who's working on menus from morning to night (the restaurant will serve from 7 a.m. to midnight daily). Though he did tease a few items from a sample menu to us, Fields is currently discussing the menu in strictly general terms. "I don't like to pander," he says. "I just like to do stuff that's really good. ... I don't want fussy cooking." Reasonably priced wines by the glass and bottle and a taut cocktail list will complement Sikora's cooking.

AKA Rittenhouse to get restaurant/bar

Posted 2011-01-27 17:11:16

[...] AKA Rittenhouse Square restaurant aiming for spring :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City...    "It has shown me that everything is illuminated in the light of the past" Jonathan Safran Foer        Reply With Quote              + Reply to Thread      « Previous Thread | Next Thread » [...]

Posted by Drew Lazor @ 9:34 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Monsu in pictures

POSTED: Wednesday, January 26, 2011, 8:00 PM

Filed Under: Menu Time | Openings | Photos

Photo | Drew Lazor

As we told you on Monday, the Paesano's location at Ninth and Christian now goes by the name MonsÃº, as partners Peter McAndrews and Nathan Baynes have converted the sandwich shop into a Sicilian BYOB. (Paesano's has moved down the block to 1017 S. Ninth and will be opening sometime next week.) We stopped by last night and were quickly engulfed by the amazing fam/friends mob scene that ended up with us standing by the service station and sharing sporadically materializing plates of food with friendly strangers (shoutout to bartender Joe from Rembrandt's!). Everything was straight-up delicious, and we even managed to rattle off a few photos, which you can peep after the jump. Here's chef Damien Messina's opening menu (PDF). Though everyone in Philly is freaked about THUNDERSNOW right now, Baynes says they'll run their first official dinner service from 5 to 10 this evening as originally planned. It's actually snowed on the inaugural night of each space he and McAndrews have opened over the past few years â Modo Mio, the original Paesano's, the Italian Market Paesano's, and now this â so they now consider it buona fortuna.

Photos | Drew Lazor

Tweets that mention MonsÃº in pictures :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper -- Topsy.com

Posted 2011-01-26 15:37:31

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Drew Lazor and Nikki Karam, Meal Ticket. Meal Ticket said: Pix/menu for Peter McAndrews' MonsÃº, opening tonight in the @italianmarket, thundersnow be damned! http://ow.ly/3KNMM [...]

Snow, wet and heavy enemy of butchers everywhere :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper

Posted 2011-01-28 14:47:21

[...]  [...]

Posted by Drew Lazor @ 8:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Snow Day Special Bonanza!

POSTED: Wednesday, January 26, 2011, 7:42 PM

Filed Under: Dealage

Not all snowy days were created equal, but here's your chance to make this one to remember: If your heart needs a warming, your stomach needs filling and delivery just isn't going to cut it, bundle up and duck into any of these fine establishments to take advantage of some super special Nor'easter deals. - Percy Street BBQ (900 South St.) is sweetening their Restaurant Week menu and offering your first beer on the house starting this afternoon. Their Cook + Solo sister restaurant, Xochitl (408 S. Second St.), has Restaurant Week guests' first margarita covered, as well. - North of the Parkway, London Grill (2301 Fairmount Ave.) is heating up with hot cider, hot toddies, irish coffees and special hot chocolate for $5, in addition to $8 food specials including warm winter favorites like cassoulet, shepherd's pie and wild boar chili. - Stop into Village Belle (757 S. Front St.) to fill up on $3 Miller, Peroni and Stella, tequila-spiked coffee ($8), Mexican hot chocolate ($4) and half-price wines by the glass. - Wherever you are in the city, you're never far from one of Philadelphia's many Marathon Grill locations. They've got $4 bloody marys and mimosas and are flipping a burger & beer special for $10. - Kick off an evening of drinking like an Irishman/woman with one hot whiskey on the house over at Tir Na Nog (1600 Arch St.). - Sampan (122 S. 13th St.) is extending their happy hour menu through the night at their bar and kitchen counter. Be sure to peep their $2 snacks, including crispy pork belly buns, and $4 drink specials. - Society Hill's Bistro Romano (120 Lombard St.) is busting the blizzard with a three-course special for $24.95. If that's not enough, as a thank you for coming in to thaw out, they're throwing in a $20 gift certificate to use on your next visit. - McGillin's Olde Ale House (1310 Drury St.) is hoping that you don't have to report to work at 9am tomorrow morning and pouring JAGER BARRELS (a shot of Jaeer + rootbeer) for $4. The first 100 shooters get to keep the barrel-shaped mini-mug. - Take $1 off mimosas and bloody marys at Cantina Dos Segundos (931 N. Second St.). - What could be better on a snowy Philadelphia night than boozified hot apple cider and tater tots? Answer: FREE hot boozy cider and tater tots. If you're with us on this, go to Adsum (700 S. Fifth St.), which has you covered from 5 to 7 p.m. and 9 to 11 p.m. in the bar/lounge with half-price tots, oysters and other treats, $2 canned beers, $1 shots of Heaven Hill and complimentary cider. - Twenty Manning Grill (261 S. 20th St.) is opening their arms to those lucky enough to get a head start on tonight's commute and opening an hour early at 4pm. Where will you be heading tonight? If you're staying in, what are your winter storm specials? Let us know in the comments. Stay safe and stay warm. We'll see you out there!

Erin

Posted 2011-01-26 14:56:44

I might make the safe choice and go to London for a hot toddywoddy ALTHOUGH I do love tots and the South Philly Continge.

Elizabeth

Posted 2011-01-26 14:54:34

Amazing roundup. And even though it is currently unattributed, usage of the word "peep" identifies the writer ;)

Felicia D'Ambrosio

Posted 2011-01-26 14:54:33

South Philly contingent is hitting up Adsum for the early happy hour.  Tie some plastic bags 'round your feet and come on down!

barryg

Posted 2011-01-26 17:48:23

Where are the real South Philly deals? Like, Passyunk Ave.

Tweets that mention Snow Day Special Bonanza! :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper -- Topsy.com

Posted 2011-01-26 17:46:14

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by E.F., Grillism. Grillism said: Snow Day Special Bonanza!: Percy Street BBQ (900 South St.) is sweetening their Restaurant Week menu and ... http://bit.ly/emrQtx #grill [...]

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Small Plate Sundays at fish

POSTED: Wednesday, January 26, 2011, 5:47 PM

Filed Under: Dealage

Fresh off a write-up in the New York Times, Mike Stollenwerk of fish (1708 Lombard St.) has introduced a new, Sunday-only small plates approach geared at more adventurous eaters. Stollenwerk says that the new menu â it replaces the $28 five-course prix-fixe that started at Little Fish, moved to fish, and is now back at Little Fish 2.0 for a few bucks more â is intended to get his more staid customers into untested (and hopefully delicious) territory eating-wise. Past small plates have included Manila clams with chorizo, lager and parsley ($9); Spanish octopus with braised lamb shank, chickpeas and sunchoke ($10); and fluke crudo with daikon, orange, mint, hazelnut, and soy ($10).

Tweets that mention Small Plate Sundays at fish :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper -- Topsy.com

Posted 2011-01-27 10:58:30

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by PUNCH media and Rich Pawlak, You Post. You Post said: Small Plate Sundays at fish http://ow.ly/1b2zRb [...]

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The Aerogarden Experiment, Day 14

POSTED: Tuesday, January 25, 2011, 9:24 PM

Filed Under: Product Placement

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

It's been two weeks since I "planted" my Aerogarden, and my seven little Jurassic Park basil embryos have all sprouted. As promised, like periscopes, each plant sent up its first shoots within three to four days, and after I removed the biodomes, they rapidly bushed, putting on secondary leaves like Sunday clothes. Had a minor setback with the Red Rubin basil. This opal variety has a name like a Hassidic hitman and a flavor like spicy licorice, but its tiny red-violet leaves were shriveling around the one-week mark. I had the Aeroagarden sitting on a kitchen chair that tilted the basin at a slight angle, possibly depriving the Red Rubin roots of life-giving water. I set it flat on the floor in the morning, and by the end of the day the leaves had sprung back. Huzzah! As the plants continue to grow, I'm guessing I should thin (?), but I read (and re-read) the instructional booklet and can't find any tips. If any Aerogardeners out there have first-hand experience, get at me in the comments.

Ticket Stubs: Meal Ticket Weekly Recap, Jan. 24-28 :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper

Posted 2011-01-31 12:37:39

[...] Adam Erace is getting increasingly herbaceous with his Aerogarden. [...]

Midnight Toquer

Posted 2011-01-27 16:36:41

Enough with the Red Rubin basil, what readers really want to know is: Can you grow weed in that thing?

Posted by Adam Erace @ 9:24 PM Permalink | Post a comment

The latest on Winter Beerfest

POSTED: Tuesday, January 25, 2011, 8:04 PM

Filed Under: Booze | Food Events

As it most certainly did not take place over this past weekend as intended due to an unspecified problem with the Starlight Ballroom, Winter Beerfest has been postponed until Saturday, Feb. 12, confirms organizer Troy Timpel. There will still be two sessions, 1-5 p.m. and 6-10 p.m. Whether or not the festival will be held at the Starlight or at another venue altogether remains to be seen, but we should have an official answer on that by this evening. So what does this mean for those of you who've already bought (or won) tickets? Worry not, as tix from the original date will still be honored on the 12th. If you can no longer attend the festival on the rescheduled date, refunds are available, as well. For more up-to-date information and updates, keep an eye on the Winter Beerfest website. UPDATE [26jan11]: The Electric Factory (421 N. Seventh St.) is the new venue for the Feb. 12 Winter Beerfest, according to the fest's website.

Posted by Adrian Pelliccia @ 8:04 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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Notes from the Weekend: June 17
The Lite Choice Opens Flagship Store on 16th Street between Walnut & Locust
Free stuff for Father's Day
Gone Fishin'
Happy National Beef Jerky Day!
Summer of Riesling Dinner at P&K
Hot Dog Wire: LaBan Coney at ASB
George Sabatino guesting at Scott Dogs Hot Dog Cart Pop-Up
Now Serving: Tiffin Bistro
Vetri opening in the Navy Yard, plus a nod to Le Bec

About this blog

Founded in October 2008, Meal Ticket is a City Paper blog about food, drink and assorted other things that make you go mmm. We do recipes, interviews, restaurant news, commentary and much more. We don't do restaurant reviews here — those are handled in print, mostly by our critic (and Meal Ticket contributor) Adam Erace. Got a tip, question, thought or concern? Just want to say hello? Please shoot a note to caroline@citypaper.net.

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