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Archive: February, 2013
Notes from the Weekend is a feature that sees the members of Team Meal Ticket compiling all the food/drink highlights uncovered during prime eatin' time, Friday to Sunday. We'd love to hear all about YOUR weekend eating adventures in the comments. Go for it! (View past NFTW installments at citypaper.net/notes.)
Caroline Russock: CR
Emily Kovach: EK
Prolong your Chinese New Year celebrations and catch up on food truck news including free bacon, treats approved for Lent, and a sandwich we are figuratively dying to try out, all on today's Afternoon Snacks!
We’ve gotta give top billing to Matyson (37 S. 19th St.) this week for their “Late Chinese New Year” tasting menu celebrating the Year of the Snake. Black sesame soup for dessert, noodles that sound friggin' incredible, BBQ duck with fried rice and mustard greens—but yeah, what’s really got us on the hook is the promise of soup dumplings (!) from Ben Puchowitz. As usual, $45 for five courses, and you can get it tonight through Thu., Feb 21.
Keep reading for menus, wine pairings, free bacon, a new take on the General and more! »
Year of the snake? 2013 is looking more and more like year of the pizza to us at least. A few weeks back we brought you the news of Pizzeria Vetri opening up on Callowhill.Then, of course, there's the stellar Gennaro's Tomato Pie that opened up in South Philly just after the new year. And we can't forget about Bufad, the wood-fired pizza joint brought to you by the owners of Prohibition Taproom.
Now it appears that there is more slice action in our future. Foobooz is reporting that the Tria crew is taking over the old Rum Bar space at 20th and Walnut and transforming it into Tria Taproom, a concept focusing on pizza and beer aiming for an April opening. And if that wasn't enough pie for ya, the Insider is saying that Zavino is looking west for a second location, moving in at 3200 Chestnut St.
Current weather conditions at Meal Ticket World Head Quarters read a chilly 31°F with the wind chill factor making it feel more like 19°F. What does that mean? Soup weather. Today chef Alex Boonphaya of Circles (812 N. 2nd St.) is rolling out three new soups at the NoLibs outpost of his Thai favorite.
The new menu additions include tom yum, a chicken and rice noodle soup, geaw teaw, a pho-like combo of beef stock scented with anise, cloves and cinnamon with rice noodles. beef balls and braised beef and perhaps the most intriguing, geaw teaw ruar, a beef-based soup finished with blood and morning glory.
So how does Boonphaya think his audience will react to this unfamiliar offering? "The Geaw Teaw Ruar blood soup has an intensely rich flavor that most guests will crave after tasting even if they aren’t vampires.”
South Philly food personality Ali Waks-Adams is launching the Philly branch of Dishcrawl next week. It's like a bar crawl, but with restaurants, and there a few tickets left for the inaugural stroll down East Passyunk on the 19th. There are four stops on each crawl, each offering three tastes to participants (vegetarian options, too) for a $45 ticket price. Two are classified, but we know the crawl will be stopping at Noir and Sophia's. Hopefully they get to check out the cheesesteak soup dumplings.
So we've got our hands on a pair of tickets to the StarChefs Rising Stars Gala on Thursday, February 21 and instead of selfishly keeping them for ourselves, we are generously offering them up to one lucky Meal Ticket reader. Ah, who are we kidding? We'll be there too.
So, what's this StarChefs thing all about you ask? Well, it's a gala which is pretty fancy to begin with, think flowing Champagne, caviar, cufflinks and clutches, as well as an awards ceremony for the talented folks who have been named Philadelphia's rising stars. That means you'll have the chance to rub elbows with the likes of Kevin Sbraga, Le Virtu's Joe Cicala, Rittenhouse Tavern's Nick Elmi and Mike Solomonov. Plus it's at the Kimmel Center which is pretty damn fancy.
So, how do you win ticket to this sure to be awesome event? All you have to do is tell us about your favorite Philly chef in the comments section. Get creative, guys, best story wins the prize. We'll get back to you with a winner on Monday.
On today's Afternoon Snacks: Lenten Friday fare, decidedly non-Lenten Friday fare, and one reason not to overdo it this weekend.
We may not be observing Lent, but we'll happily partake of all the Friday fish fry stuff anyway. Like this sandwich that Jake's (122 S. 12th St.) will be serving up every Friday, with fried flounder, spicy sauce, baby spinach, roasted red peppers and creole seasoning.
Over on Serious Eats pro hot dog-ologist and friend of Meal Ticket Hawk Krall is reporting on a one night only hot dog jamboree that happened out in Swarrthmore at Hobbs Coffee (1 Park Ave.). Hobbs' chef William Randall hosted a pop-up night creating a menu of eight signature dogs and even driving to Jers' to get his hands on karl Ehmer and Kocher's franks.
Having eaten more hot dogs than pretty much anyone we know, Krall gave the Hobbs' dogs the thumbs up, stating that the split-top Liscio's rolls that were used "might be the final word in "Philadelphiafied" hot dog buns" solving the too much bread problem that many local dog shops suffer from.
While the dogs were a one time only offering, Hobbs is hosting a show of Krall's hot dog paintings all month long.
Here at Meal Ticket education is a priority and we're always looking to expand our horizons, especially when those horizons are booze-related. On that note we're pleased to inform you that Cantina Los Caballitos (1601 E. Passyunk Ave.) is hosting its second meeting of the Tequila Club on Tuesday, February 26 at 7 p.m.
Tequila Club is a place for the agave curious to come together and learn the finer points of blancos, reposados and anejos with Cantina beverage manager Leah Martino. Having attended the inaugural meeting, we can attest that the $35 is sweet deal for a tasting flight of tequilas paired with some pretty serious small plates (think shrimp ceviche, chorizo croquettes and mocha flan).
The theme of the second meeting is Highlands and Lowlands featuring several blancos from different regions of Jalisco. Seating is limited to reserve your spot here or call 215-755-3550.
Yep, cod sperm, also known by its only slightly less gross name, milt. This particular tangled sack of swimmers is on the menu as Izumi (1601 E. Passyunk Ave.) this weekend. "It's a Japanese winter delicacy," says chef Corey Baver, "highly sought after for its buttery flavor and texture." The Japanese steam, pan-fry and deep-fry shirako, as its called there, but Baver is taking a different route, blanching the milt for ten seconds, then lightly torching it a la tataki. Accompanying is ginger yuzu beurre blanc, which sounds delicious, even if its under a pile of blowtorched sperm.
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