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Archive: November, 2009
... Meal Ticket reader Bobby, who responded to our request for a single sentence convincing us why they deserved to win with the following:
I have 5 daughters!
Here's to you, Bobby � a real American hero. Enjoy the event!
Social comments and analytics for this post... This post was mentioned on Twitter by mealticket: The winner of our Winter Beer Fest tix: http://bit.ly/3OocB9...
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Welcome back, Top Chef! I was getting tired of watching The Real Housewives of Atlanta reunion show (parts one and two) On Demand over and over while I waited out your return.
Quickfire: There are more than 67,000 hotel rooms in Las Vegas, but there's only one that features the transcendently beautiful Padma and her wingwoman Nigella Lawson wearing bathrobes and lounging in bed like two oversexed debutantes just back from an Upper East Side sex toy party. They direct the remaining six � Kevin, Mike, Bryan, Eli, Jen C and Robin � to a kitchen "deep in the catacombs" of the Venetian and tell them they need to whip up and then deliver a breakfast-in-bed dish in 30 minutes.
Jen, whose 10 Arts is in the Ritz-Carlton here in PHL, is wholly comfortable with room service, so she rocks out shit on a shingle. Nigella makes a face. Eli does a reuben-inspired eggs benedict with 1000 Island hollandaise, which sounds like it would kill you in the tastiest way possible. Mike does some Cuban shit and acts real serious about it. Robin does wack blintzes, Kev puts together a delicious-sounding coffee-dusted steak and eggs plate and Bryan does something with egg and crab that also elicits Nigellaface. Eli takes it home, earning a page in the Top Chef Quickfire cookbook. Nigella says the tang of his sauerkraut "slapped the jet lag out of me," which, disappointingly enough, was probably the most sexual comment the notoriously randy British TV cook dropped on this episode. So for the Elimination, the chefs had to ... wait, what's that, Nigella?
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Yes, I would love some cherries, thank you. So this week's Elimination challenge involved the cheftestants heading to the ... wait, I'm sorry?
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Pasta? Why not? I really appreciate you feeding me and all, Nigella, but I have to get back to
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Dessert already? How'd you eat that pasta so fast? You're too kind. But seriously, we're getting off topic. The Elimination had ...
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Christ, who invited you, Giada? You're getting tomato everywhere. Sorry, I meant POMODOROOOOO. NOW CLEAN IT UP.
Elimination: Each of the cheftestants draws a random Vegas casino from which to cull inspiration for a dish to serve 175 guests. Jen C visits the Excalibur, where she meals out on a Cornish game hen at the Tournament of Kings and watches wizards and knights doing medieval magical shit; she goes with a NY strip dish meant to ape the sword in the stone. Bryan gets Manadalay Bay and decides on a sustainable seafood dish. Robin's inspired by the vibrant, colorful Chihuly sculpture on the ceiling of the Bellagio, so she does a ... panna cotta. Kevin's sockeye salmon dish comes to him after a visit to the Mirage. Eli gets Circus Circus and makes the troubling decision to put peanut, caramel apple and raspberry frothy elements into a soup. Mike, who draws New York New York, does a slightly trippy buffalo wing-inspired plate. "Firefighters, it's something they eat," he explains of his thematic inspiration. There's probably some truth to that, but I would've just gone with the fact that Buffalo is located in New York.
At the top: Kevin, who's praised for the tomato broth element on his plate; and the Voltaggio bros, who seem to be fostering more and more unspoken disdain for each other as we get closer to the finale. Toby calls Mike's food "effeminate," to which the chef replies that he's a "strong believer in putting your personality on your plate." Haha, you just said you're a girl. She He wins, though, taking home a big-ass bottle of wine and probably an off-camera reacharound from Nigella, since she's so
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Oh, you're still here? If that's the case, then yes, I would like a Bellini.
At the bottom: Jen C, who Tom criticizes for her apparent "lack of knowledge of medieval cooking" (you tend to stay away from the Ren Faire, huh Jen? GOOD); Eli, whose Barnum and Bailey soup was deemed a textural failure; and Robin, whose panna cotta, according to Nigella, lacked "the quiver of a 17th-century courtesan's thigh," which is apparently an imperative on the bizarre sex planet Nigella lives on. Robin also screwed up the hardened sugar meant to represent the Chihuly glass, so she's sent home. Seems about right.
Next week: Thomas Keller and Mike dissing the shit out of Kevin.
What aspects of medieval cooking did Tom get wrong? The big one is that he repeated the Victorian era myth that medieval cooks used lots of spice to cover the taste of spoiled meat. It's simply not true. Just from an economic point, such a practice doesn't make any sense. Why would they use the equivalent of $100 worth of spice on a $2 chicken? Why would they slaughter animals and then let them sit and spoil instead of waiting to slaughter them until they were needed? I can give you lots of other examples, but in short they didn't. Further, given that almost none of the recipes in surviving cookbooks note the amounts of the ingredients to be used - so anyone saying that medieval cooks used a lot of spice has no basis in fact for their assertion. Medieval cooks did use a wide range of spices in their cooking, but no more so than any other cuisine in the modern world (with the possible exception to modern, stereotypically bland, English cooking). Take a look at my website - I've got heaps of research and recipes there.
Doc, can you elaborate? I'm curious to hear what aspects of medieval cooking Tom allegedly misrepresented.
I felt bad for our local girl. When I saw what the challenge was with casinos, I knew they'd throw the Excalibur into there, and that's the lamest one on the strip. You can see a joust with cornish game hen and root veggies anywhere they have medieval nights; Vegas has many better things to do. But she made it, so that's good. I'm happy that they actually have a top five with mostly everyone who has really stood out. Early on, she and Kevin and the brothers established themselves. Don't know about Eli, but he's had some good dishes. Top Chef always likes to have surprises, so I figured someone good would go too early and someone everyone hated (like, oh, Robin?) would make it far, but this is a very strong group. Maybe their best top 5 ever?
The real irony is that just about everything Tom said about medieval cooking was completely wrong.
Brutal in a great sort of way.
Most hysterical recap so far. Keep it up!!
Ha, glad you guys like. Nigella's still here.
Bravissimo. Seriously. No Top Chef in Italy... thank you for your recaps!
Hahah. Hilarious. Nigella is amazing and I love her and I wish that they would make her a regular fixture on this show. However, she definitely went a little overboard with the excalibur/sword in the stone/wench jokes when talking about Jennifer's food, right? It was like she was competing with Toby to make the worst joke. Take it easy Nigella.
Stop. Just stop. With the photos and the innuendo. Nigella needs to feed Giada some pasta. Take that any way you wish.
I laughed out loud. Six times. Thank goodness I don't actually watch the show. I'm sure I wouldn't get so much pleasure out of these recaps if I did.
danya--they're even better when you've watched the show. You outdid yourself this time, drew.
[...] not all business, though, as his notorious�Top Chef Recaps are often better than the show itself. So besides Padma, what else is Lazor taking with him on the [...]
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| Photo | Jessica Kourkounis |
- Trey Popp digs the burgers, cocktails and stagecraft of Jose Garces' Village Whiskey (look at those truffled artichokes!), but can't look past the exorbitant per-ounce brown-liquor markups.
- David Snyder visits Tazia, formerly Ly Michael's in Chinatown, and is thoroughly confused by the mixed-up, multi-culti small-plates menu.
- So much to do this weekend as far as eating and drinking goes � Erin Mae Szrankowski has details on Winter Beer Fest, a red gravy-off and more in What's Cooking.
- Joey's Stonefired Pizza, Con Murphy's and a handful of other projects are chronicled in the latest edition of Feeding Frenzy.
Drop by Center Court at Reading Terminal Market this Saturday, Nov. 14, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for RTM's first-ever Festival of Forgotten Foods, a celebration of odd and/or esoteric delicacies from the area. (There's never been a more appropriate time to apply our "Weird Regional Foods" category.) You'll be able to sample specialties like fried catfish and waffles, black walnut cupcakes, teaberry ice cream and the like, which'll likely freak out (or win over?) a few hungry tourists.
It's worth noting that many of these "forgotten" regional foods are still available here in Philly, and many in new contexts, as touched upon by Rick Nichols in the latest Inquirer. Daniel Stern's MidAtlantic is doing multiple varieties of from-scratch scrapple, among other PA Dutch dishes; Oyster House does a tasty snapper soup and the fried oyster/chicken salad combo; Cape May Salts are available via tons of local buck-a-shuck deals; stalwarts like City Tavern have been serving pepper pot soup for years.
Wow, teaberry ice cream! Maybe I'll have to sneak over from Bar Camp Philly & try that one.
Always wanted to try teaberry ice cream. Sounds like a fun weekend event.
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| goodfoodchestnuthill.blogspot.com |
Jennifer Zoga's Good Food Market (12 W. Willow Grove Ave.), the Chestnut Hill upscale grocery we first told you about in July, is opening to the public this weekend. You can meet chef Amy Kunkle on Saturday; then check out demos/samples from a number of local purveyors, including Di Bruno's, Amy's Organics, Bell and Evans and more. Good Food's posted a full schedule of grand opening festivities on its blog.
[...] Food Market, which Jennifer Zoga opened in Chestnut Hill in November, will close on April 3, according to an e-mail blast just sent out by the owner. In her statement, [...]
Tonight � starting right now, actually � Royal Tavern (937 E. Passyunk Ave.) is showing a little love to the vegans and vegetarians of Philly by populating their famous chalkboard specials board with nothing but vegan/veg dishes. There'll also be some specialty cocktails to mark the event, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society (PAWS). This one-night-only event marks the kickoff of the Royal's anniversary celebration, which we told you about last month.
Dear friend, � In order to spread and disseminate the information contained�in the latest report from the the World Watch Institute, "the 51% campaign" has been launched by an animal and environmental protection organization. The organizers wish to inform those attending Copenhagen that 51% of all greenhouse gas emissions are from the livestock sector, it is for this goal that they have created the website www.51percent.org � � If you visit the solutions page there are various actions you can take, for example the 2nd solution allows you to send a letter to a number of the EPA officials and environment minister worldwide. You can also add a 51% banner to your blog or website. � So in the run up to Copenhagen, please visit www.51percent.org � and send a letter to those attending COP15 and spread this website to your friends and Family!
Social comments and analytics for this post... This post was mentioned on Twitter by mealticket: Special vegan/vegetarian night tonight at the Royal: http://tr.im/ELU8...
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CP food events guress Erin Mae Szrankowski previewed this weekend's Winter Beer Festival in her upcoming What's Cooking column, which'll go live here on citypaper.net shortly:
'Tis the season to start getting into holiday beers, and the Winter Beer Fest is the perfect opportunity to find your favorite. Head down to the Navy Yard to grab winter beer samples from about 50 breweries, including Clipper City Brewing Co., Wild Goose Brewery, Breckenridge Brewery and Dark Horse Brewing Co., along with local faves like Dock Street and Flying Fish. Elsewhere, there'll be cooking demos from Robert Legget of Cuba Libre and Jeremy Nolen of Brauhaus Schmitz, a history presentation from local beer historian Rich Wagner, home-brewing classes and more. There are three sessions on both days of the fest, with various entry prices; tix available online. Navy Yard, 5100 S. Broad St., winterbeerfest.com.
Meal Ticket has two passes to Session 1 of the Fest, which is scheduled for 1 to 5 p.m. this Saturday, Nov. 14. We exhausted our trivia brains earlier today with that Naked Pint quiz, so we're gonna make this one nice and simple � send ONE SENTENCE to drew.lazor@citypaper.net convincing us why you deserve the pair. (You can also leave it in the comments � just make sure you input your real e-mail address.) We'll choose the best and post it here. Happy sentencing!
[...] Meal Ticket reader Bobby, who responded to our request for a single sentence convincing us why they deserved to win with the following: I have 5 [...]
I hope these will be served inside by a nice warm fire in a big wooden lodge. I can't stand warm beer and I can't stand cold beer on a cold day outside.
I have a sake bomb hangover at work and apparently that's not shameful enough. I went to my first two meetings this morning with my buttons down wrong and a glob of red lip gloss on the side of my lip. Gorgeous. Professional. Make my week better :) I promise my fly will be zipped and my pretzel necklace will be on.
"The Winter Beer Festival is proof that God wants Naren to be happy." -B. Franklin.
I'm broke and thirsty.
Quite simply, because I love beer!
Because I will be the only sober one, my guest will be the discriminating critic, and I'll be able to take EVERYthing in (including tales of idiocy that I will be writing about for the next 3 decades) and blog about it... excelsior!
I have 5 daughters!
If running naked through the woo-ids drinking strange fermented fluids was good enough for ancient druids it's good enough for me.
Social comments and analytics for this post... This post was mentioned on Twitter by citypaper: RT @mealticket Want to win two tickets to this weekend's Winter Beer Festival? http://tr.im/ELLn...
Because, as Tom Waits said, "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy."
Because I forgot to buy tickets for beer camp on friday and now it's sold out. :(
Because I just poured an entire bottle of Budweiser down the drain. ;) http://twitter.com/phillydesign/statuses/5546069535
Meal Ticket just got back from Adam and Andrew Erace's Green Aisle Grocery (1618 E.� Passyunk Ave.), which officially opened to the public earlier today. The spot, which we first mentioned back in June, is a one-stop shop of sorts for greater-South-Philly home cooks and locavore types, as they carry a wide array of products sourced from the area in addition to harder-to-find boutique products (they're the only spot in Philly to snag Q brand tonic waters, for example). Nearly all the produce they're carrying is grown locally; they also have a number of products sourced from restaurants, including hummus from Zahav, barbecue sauce from Pub & Kitchen and (coming soon) fresh pasta from James. Bread and sweets come from the likes of Wild Flour Bakery and E of Foodaphilia. Vegetarian/vegan customers are accommodated, too, as Green Aisle's stocking stuff like Ray's Seitan and soups from Miss Rachel's Pantry. (They're also about to stock Stumptown Coffee, joining the likes of Honest Tom's, Hub Bub and Savona as one of the few local places to get it.)
Adam, who's Philadelphia Weekly's restaurant critic, tells us he was initially paranoid about how running his own business might compromise his anonymity, but at this point he's decided not to stress about it too much � after all, he and his brother have got a business to run. He does, however, admit that it's "weird to be on the other side of it" � usually it's him who's bugging budding local food-biz owners for details, but now he's the one getting bugged by people like us.
UPDATE: Here are the correct current hours, our bad: Mon.-Thu., noon-8 p.m.; Fri., noon-9 p.m.; Sat., 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sun., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Also, Green Aisle is currently cash only.
Sort of like Pumpkin but greener and South Phillier! Awesome.
I am sooooooo excited about this!!!
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Cali-based beer sommeliers Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune's The Naked Pint: An Unadulterated Guide to Craft Beer, which dropped last week, is an exhaustive road map for the craft beer curious, touching on beer varieties, history, food pairing, home brewing, tasting and more. The ladies will be in town next Monday, Nov. 16, for a book launch party and beer dinner at Fork, and female reps from breweries like Sly Fox, Victory, Stoudt's, Dogfish Head, Ommegang and Rogue will be in attendance. Check out the menu and beer pairings after the jump.
Want your own copy of The Naked Pint to have and hold? Just be the first to correctly answer the following beer/lady-related trivia questions. E-MAIL ANSWERS TO DREW.LAZOR@CITYPAPER.NET, SUBJECT LINE: THE NAKED PINT. DO NOT LEAVE ANSWERS IN THE COMMENTS. Good luck!
UPDATE (12:36 p.m.): Holy crap, Meal Ticket read Kara just schooled y'all with the fast fingers. Congrats, your copy of The Naked Pint is in the mail. Answers below.
1. Stoudt's Scarlet Lady is an ESB � what does it stand for and what does it mean?
"Extra Special Bitter" � ESBs typically have higher alcohol content (and are more balanced) than your average English bitter, AKA pale ale.
2. What beer ingredient is said to affect estrogen levels in the body?
Hops!
3. Since 1999, the "St. Pauli Girl" has been represented seven times by models from what magazine?
Playboy.
reception
spicy tuna confit with capers on focaccia toasts � grilled flatbread with artichokes and saffron aioli
Victory, Prima Pils, Downingtown, PA
Stoudt�s American Pale Ale, Adamstown, PA
chef�s selection of tapas
grilled house made chorizo with spicy white beans � salmon rillettes � grilled shrimp with grits and smoked tomato jam � vegetables � la grecque � marinated olives
Sly Fox, Saison Vos, Royersford, PA
seared sea scallops
coriander, caramelized brussels sprouts, meyer lemon jam
Ommegang, Rare Vos, Cooperstown, NY
lightly smoked duck breast
spiced croutons, caramelized onion, bacon, parsnips
Dogfish Head, Raison d�Etre, Rehoboth, DE
chocolate caramel tart
lemon-thyme chantilly cream
Rogue, Chocolate Stout, Newport, OR
[...] Meal Ticket, Critical Mass’ sister blog, has been telling readers about The Naked Pint: An Unadulterated Guide to Craft Beer’s launch p... since last week. Since there’s a book involved (A&E territory!), as well as beer and [...]
Social comments and analytics for this post... This post was mentioned on Twitter by mealticket: Hey beer heads, want to win a copy of Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune's "The Naked Pint"? Just answer these questions: http://tr.im/EKNu...
Oh, my. I'd really like to go to this.
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| Photo | Mark Stehle |
Technically Philly co-founder/editor and CP contributor Brian James Kirk is a serious tea head, so Meal Ticket dispatched him to Premium Steap to check out what's new for the chillier months.
On a summer afternoon, one could likely amble into Premium Steap (118 S. 18th St., 215-568-2920) and find owner Peggy Stephens (right) perched alone at the store's cash register, patiently waiting to help customers. But recently, as a cold drizzle fell on a mid-autumn morning, Stephens had her hands full, unloading new drink accessories while simultaneously schooling a new employee about Steap's expansive selection of of 160 looseleaf varieties. "Christmas is crazy for me," Stephens told us, her neck wrapped with a red scarf to fend off the chill that comes in after the constantly swinging-open door.
Though her holiday gift lineup features contemporary cookware, Pantone mugs, travel containers and Indian drinkware, tea is Stephens' priority, and she finds that sales always get a boost when customers start jonesing for a warm cup to distract from miserable weather.� The store's "more cozy drinks" now dominate the shelves, she explained � ones that complement holiday desserts or make a brisk trip across town a little more bearable.
The store's black teas, which are typically harvested late in the season, are currently at their freshest. Steap's Indian black spiced chai has just enough bite from cinnamon, black pepper and cloves to coerce drinkers away from more conventional morning teas like Earl Grey or English Breakfast. The Chinese black Cozy Almond, our new favorite to wake up to, is flavored with cinnamon and safflower blossoms along slices of rich nut; it's delicious straight or dashed with milk.
Stephens also touted her Japanese Genmai-Matcha, a hearty green "sushi tea," with bits of rice garnished with a Japanese tea powder that give the finished product a deep, hearty flavor that's tasty alongside a spicy roll. The organic Yin Gou Chinese green, a great post-lunch pick-me-up, is smooth and never bitter. Then there's the selection of green and white teas flavored with real dried fruit: blueberry, strawberry, raspberry and everything between, all subtly touched with ginseng. Since they're naturally sweet on their own, there's no need for added sugar � and they make great iced teas, Stephens reminded us.
Walking away from the store, as the frigid rain drops turned to steam atop the warm plastic lid of our paper to-go cup, the mere thought of anything iced gave us the chills � but Stephens' collection of teas is doing its part to make winter seem a little shorter.
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