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Archive: April, 2011
Not sure if it's the distractingly fickle weather or the fact that I'm leaving Philly for a few days starting tomorrow morning (expect lighter-than-usual posting), but all I've really been doing today is watching the rap scene from Teen Witch on YouTube over and over again and scrolling through the Internet-birthed glory of Tom Haverfoods. For those unfamiliar, on the most recent episode of NBC's excellent Parks & Recreation (funniest show on TV, EASY), Aziz Ansari's character Tom Haverford has an extended bit about the asinine names he uses for foods and beverages ("I call noodles long-ass rice ... fried chicken is fry fry chicky chick.") Tom Haverfoods extends the joke into perpetuity; just keep hitting refresh.
Iron Chef Bobby Flay, who opened Philly's Bobby's Burger Palace roughly a year back and also inspired a Rihanna-themed headline we're not especially proud of, is visiting the city this Saturday, April 30 — aka the 10th annual "Comcast Cares Day" — to build a 250-square-foot, 240-seedling community garden for the Lauretha Vaird Boys & Girls Club at 4800 Whitaker Avenue. Construction will take place between 9 a.m. and noon. The Good Food Garden program, sponsored by Food Network, Share Our Strength and Teich Garden Systems, will also oversee the building of community gardens in Baltimore, Atlanta, Denver, Boston, Chicago, Houston, St. Paul, Ft. Lauderdale and Knoxville.
Peep our artsy photo of Flay, by the way! How stoic.
Photo: Drew Lazor
Since the weather in Philadelphia has completely bypassed spring and jumped directly into summer, it seems appropriate that farmers market season has arrived just as quickly. Philly's open-air all-star, the Headhouse Farmers Market (Second and Lombard), the all-star baby of The Food Trust, will be celebrating opening day of its fifth season this Sunday, May 1. The Society Hill market will boast an impressive 36 local vendors, including charcuterie and condiments from Garces Trading Co., ultra-fresh Lovebar chocolate, and coffee from Philly Fair Trade Roasters. Also check out Headhouse newbies Paradocx Vineyards and Penn Woods Winery, and Oley's Root Mass Farm. Headhouse officially opens for the season at 10 a.m., so rise and shine early and get the jump on the freshest of the fresh.
Last week, we told you about the Memphis Taproom crew’s new beer garden and hot dog truck. Today comes news Brendan “Spanky” Hartranft and Leigh Maida are in lease negotiations for Local 44 Bottle Shop, a retail operation connected to their Spruce Hill bar, Local 44 (4333 Spruce St.). "The two parts of Local 44 will communicate, but they’ll be separate experiences," says Maida, who’s “hoping to create kind of a record store vibe” on the bottle shop side. Expect a selection of 400 beers for carryout, "heavy on the education/enthusiasm part of craft beer ... no snobbery. [Customers will be able to] chat with the resident beer geek about what's new, etc." No official opening date just yet but stay tuned to Meal Ticket for more.
Notes from the Weekend is a Monday feature that sees the members of Team Meal Ticket compiling all the food/drink highlights uncovered during prime eatin' time, Friday to Sunday. Consider this a place for good deals, great dishes, wicked cocktails, recipe triumphs (and tragedies), bizarro conversations and more. We're eager to share our notes, but especially excited to read yours.We encourage you to leave notes from YOUR weekend in the comments. Have at it! (View past NFTW installments at citypaper.net/notes.)
In an Easter weekend miracle (it officially opened on Friday), the former Ro-Zu has been reincarnated as Big Eyes Sushi (700 Bainbridge St.). The bones remain intact for the most part, but the priorities seem a tad different. The space has come back to life as an airy, relaxed sushi spot with an emphasis on affordable Japanese delicacies. Dinner specials consisting of a maki roll, miso soup and house salad ranging in price from $3 to $6, and rice bowl entrees top out at $8. Prices for a la carte sashimi (2 pieces per order) hover around the $2 mark, and specialty rolls generally run from $5 to $8. Highlights include the "Yo Sexy!" (California roll with panko and "yam yam sauce," aka kani salad) and the "Sun of the Beach" (shrimp tempura, eel, cucumber, salmon, avocado, spicy mayo, eel sauce, green onion). Prices top out at $18 for a sampler platter.
Photos: Adrian Pelliccia
This past Saturday afternoon, David Katz over at Mémé (2201 Spruce St.) started cranking out Moroccan tacos — house-pressed tortillas topped with traditionally Moroccan ingredients — so obviously we had to swing by and try a few of these out. Katz, who's Moroccan-Jewish by heritage, says this bit of casual culinary fusion came to him awhile back when he realized just how many base ingredients Mexicans and Moroccans share. "It's just a full-on crossover — they use a lot of the same stuff," explains Katz of the veggies/herbs (tomato, cilantro), meats (chicken, beef, lamb) and spices (cinnamon, coriander) both cooking traditions rely heavily on.
Back in February, we popped into John Longacre's American Sardine Bar (18th/Federal) to find it pretty much ready to go (that's the street-level bar above). So what's the latest on the still-unopened venue from the South Philly Tap Room crew? Longacre tells Meal Ticket he has a zoning hearing on Wednesday, May 18 to approve kitchen and commercial operations on the second floor of the space. Though he could launch the ground floor for business whenever he wanted (it's ready to go), the team has decided to wait until all the elements are in place before officially throwing the doors open to the public. In other words, we'll have to wait until late May at the earliest to grab a pint here, assuming ASB's hearing goes smoothly.
Photo: Drew Lazor
Monday, April 18
Our fave yogurt Yogorino now comes in pint format.
"Let's Eat!" is a very insane and very Philly-centric new OnDemand kid's cooking program.
Dining Out For Life is coming up on April 28.
Tuesday, April 19
Moore College of Art & Design has launched a new outdoor café.
Fork & Barrel and Tap & Table, from the owners of Farmers' Cabinet, are both closed.
Biba has completed construction of its sunny deck seating area.
It's a auspicious and scrapple-topped start for Molly Malloy's in the Reading Terminal Market.
Wednesday, April 20
The beer garden at Memphis Taproom has got a haute dog operation going on.
Weekly Candy runs down the particulars of the ever-delicious Mint Aero Bar.
Mark Coates says goodbye to Fergie's to start up a mobile BBQ operation called The Smoke Truck.
Thursday, April 21
Thai takeout Circles is opening a a new sit-down café in Newbold.
Rebecca Torpie, formerly of Flying Monkey, is opening a new BYO cheese shop called Wedge & Fig.
Friday, April 22
Center City gets a Krispy Kreme location on May 4.
Adam Erace shares a how-to on candying violets. How pretty, Adam!
- Ramps are synonymous with early spring produce, but overharvesting has botanists and research scientists worried about the long-term integrity of the delicious plant, New York Times reports.
- On Monday, President Obama hosted a Passover seder at the White House, and one of the eight dishes served came from Michael Solomonov of Zahav. Solomonov presented a carrot and apple salad with pine nuts. Zahav's Passover Mesibah is being offered through Tuesday, so don't miss out on that brisket with coffee and morels.
- Capogiro always delivers rich gelatos and fruit-based sorbet flavors with playful innovation. I remember having a watermelon variety recently, and this week I came across an old Saveur recipe for a Sicilian watermelon pudding that sounds similarly refreshing and DIVINE and suitable for summa summatime!
- Easter is this weekend, if you weren't reminded by the endless varieties of Cadburies and Peeps and jelly beans. Just remember you could be in big trouble if you happen to smuggle a Kinder Egg into that basket, because the hollow egg contains a toy inside (hey, Weekly Candy). It is a health hazard and we can't have any. People are getting stopped at borders and their Kinders and being confiscated. Europeans have all the fun.
- Heineken bottles just got a really sexy aluminum makeover, and they glow in the dark, too.
- We really love stumbling upon beautiful blogs written with an insufferable passion for food. On Food and Baking, the sweetie behind it a Philly girl, is one of those sites. Sifting through recipes like grape-and-rosemary foccacia, vanilla bean challah and lots of seasonally appropriate jam, we couldn't choose just one to share, though we can't wait to make our own almond milk. See for yourselves. Thanks, Emily!
Photo: cheeryobservations.com
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