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Eat This Immediately
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
Stephen Starr caught the attention of many a Philly meathead earlier this week when his org announced on Twitter that the Butcher & Singer burger � normally $16 � would be offered for a paltry $5.95 for a limited time. Team Meal Ticket said what the F and dropped by the Mad Men-y steakhouse (1500 Walnut St.) to check 'er out for lunch today.
First, it needs to be said that this promotion is sharp � every single seat in B&S was filled on our visit. (There's been plenty of speculation that the Starrship Enterprise concocted this promotion to combat the burger smack-talk storm brewed by Tommy Up of P.Y.T., though no SRO peeps are staying tight-lipped about whether or not that's the case.)
The burger itself � at 10 heavin' ounces, the makeup a blend of Indian Ridge sirloin and chuck � is no joke. Our mid-rare patty came out fast and cooked perfectly, topped with nicely melted English cheddar and saut�ed onions alongside a hill of fries. A B&S staffer tells Meal Ticket that the SRO higher-ups have not shared a specific end date for this promotion, which means it's running indefinitely as of right now. Get in where you fit in.
Holly: Very interesting. I'm curious to see what you base this off of, considering your many years of burger-eating/making/marketing expertise â why 6 ounces precisely?
I was just being generous. Four ounces is the ideal burger. That is one thing SquareBurger got right. Perfect weight, perfect thickness. A three to a pound burger (almost but not precisely 6 ounces) is pushing ideal, but still ok. From a recent thread I initiated on eGullet.org concerning restaurants forcing a high check average. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=125329&hl= "It may be that is what customers have been conditioned to expect - the bigger the burger, the better the burger. Few grill people can cook an eight ounce burger medium rare. Or to rush things along, because the burgers take so damn long to cook, the grill guy uses his spatula to press the burger to the grill. May cook faster but squeezes out any remaining juice. Eight ounce burgers more often than not are a travesty - slow out of the kitchen unless pre-grilled, cooked medium well when ordered rare, served on a bun that falls apart in one's hands, with a pile of glop on top that oozes out of the bun and onto one's shirt." Pub and Kitchen is about the only place in town where I have received a perfectly cooked medium rare burger. Even the Pub Burger, though magnificent in many ways is pretty much impossible to eat en masse. If I want eight ounces of hamburger, I'll happily order two burgers. Hardly any restaurant serves an four ounce burger anymore, because they believe they can't price it to return enough cash per sale.
Meant to say that Pub and Kitchen is one of the few places that consistently cooks a burger ordered medium rare, medium rare.
[...] New summer menu items at Alma de Cuba• Man v. Food does sweets at Franklin Fountain• About that Butcher burger ... • Today is National Cheesecake Day ...• Do you taste... Snap? The Sports Complex [...]
[...] around this time last year, Butcher & Singer (1500 Walnut St.) began offering its $16 steakhouse burger for a measly $5.95 during lunch service, a shot over the bow in what proved to be a hilarious passive-aggressive [...]
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Short, sweet and to the point, the Wednesday Farmers Market (3-7 p.m.) at Second and Poplar in Northern Liberties has everything you need to put together a healthful, seasonal meal � or just treat yourself to a quick rack of slow-smoked ribs from Miss Amelia's Barbecue.
The Food Trust sponsors this and dozens of other seasonal markets in the city and suburbs to connect farmers with consumers. More pictures of the array of goodies after the jump, as well as an unexpected portrait.
Visit thefoodtrust.org to download a .pdf of the complete farmer's market schedule.
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| All Photos l Felicia D'Ambrosio |
| What do we all have in common?� Appreciation for good eats. |
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It all starts with asparagus. The long winter gives way to a trickling spring thaw, and before you know it, the spears of asparagus are emerging from the ground so quickly you could lay in the rows and watch them reach for the sun, no time lapse necessary.
Before you know it, summer has come and the sweet profusion we dreamt of in dark January is exploding all around. Strawberries are already gone, but blueberries, melons, blackberries, raspberries (black and red), cherries, plums, nectarines and peaches are all awaiting their turn on your table.
Get outside and bring home some local produce at one of Eastern PA's many pick-your-own farms. PickYourOwn.org has a PA harvest schedule so you can plan ahead, as well as a comprehensive listing of pick-your-own farms sorted by county.
I grew up excitedly anticpating pumpkin-patch season at Linvilla Orchards in Delaware County. In the summer Linvilla offers a dizzying A to Z of pick-your-own fruits, as well as Saturday festivals dedicated to peaches, blackberries, tomatoes, pears and sweet corn. Pack up the kids, the car and the sunscreen for a day of satisfying picking, before it's pumpkin time and the berries are just a sweet memory.
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| Photo l Felicia D'Ambrosio |
| Learn to make these three demonic eggs |
Rick Nichols profiled Supper chef/owner Mitch Prensky's many variations on the classic deviled egg in last week's Inky, providing key tips for hard-boiling eggs without that creepy green ring to piping egg filling from a portable Ziploc bag.
Well, we love deviled eggs as much as we love Nichols, so we're expanding on his theme with even more deviled egg recipes courtesy of chef Prensky After the jump, learn to make his Vadouvan Spiced Deviled Eggs with Roasted Cauliflower and Mint, Horseradish and Steak Deviled Eggs and Sriracha Deviled Eggs to bring down the house at your next family barbecue.
Taste Supper's devilish bounty all this month, where $9 buys you an even dozen of Prensky's imaginative egg output.
Supper, 926 South St., 215-592-8180, supperphilly.com
Vadouvan Spiced Deviled Eggs with Roasted Cauliflower and Mint
6 Eggs, hard boiled, halved with yolks separated out into a bowl
3 Tbsps. Mayonnaise
1 tsp.� Dijon
2 tsps. Vadouvan or curry spice
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. chopped mint
salt and pepper to taste
Garnish
Roasted cauliflower florets tossed with chopped fresh mint
Directions
Make a stuffing with all ingredients. Pipe into eggs. Top with garnish.
Horseradish Deviled Egg with Seared Steak and Blue Cheese
6 Eggs, hard boiled, halved with yolks separated out into a bowl
3 Tbsps. Mayonnaise
1 tsp. Dijon
2 tsps. horseradish
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste
Garnish
Thinly sliced seared New York strip steak
Crumbled blue cheese
Directions
Make a stuffing with all ingredients. Pipe into eggs. Top with garnish.
Sriracha Deviled Eggs
6 Eggs, hard boiled, halved with yolks separated out into a bowl
3 Tbsps. Mayonnaise
1 tsp. Dijon
2 Tsps. Sriracha (Vietnamese chili sauce)
1 tsp. lime juice
1 tsp. chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste
Garnish
Diced pickled carrot and daikon and cilantro leaves
Directions
Make a stuffing with all ingredients.� Pipe into eggs.� Top with garnish.
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| All photos l Felicia D'Ambrosio |
| Toasted cheese on naan with fried mint leaves. |
When eating NOW is my first priority, I beeline to the staples I always keep on hand � Locatelli pecorino-romano cheese, butter or olive oil and bread. Unlike a grilled cheese, which is a serious meal, this little toasted, open-faced snack is luxurious but doesn't require three hours at the gym after you've eaten it.
Here I utilize a weird method � applying a grated hard cheese (pecorino-romano) directly to the surface of a hot, non-stick pan, then topping the cheese with a single piece of bread. My favorite is Trader Joe's garam masala naan, a lightly spiced flat bread that is cheap and freezes well. You can use any sort of bread or bread-like product here, as long as it is flat: half of a roll, a pita, a slice of Wonder, a slice of a baguette, even a big cracker � they all work.
The cheese layer gets lightly toasted and crisp and forms a beautifully salty crust atop the warm bread. I fried a few mint leaves in the residual fat to top mine up, but you can add anything that looks tasty. This toasted cheese snack is the platform to build lunch upon, or just to keep you going when you only have three minutes to ingest calories and go.
Super easy method and how-to photos, after the jump.
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Basic Toasted Cheese
Go Get This:
One slice bread of choice
One tsp. butter or olive oil
2 or 3 tbsp. pecorino-romano or other very hard, grated cheese
Now Do This:
Heat a saut� or frying pan over medium heat. Add butter or oil; if it sizzles but does not burn, the temperature is right.
Sprinkle cheese directly on pan in the rough shape of your piece of bread. Allow to set for 10 seconds or so, then press slice of bread directly on top of cheese.
Leave it alone for two minutes, then oh-so-gently flip over with a spatula. If cheese is golden and crisply toasted, it's done. Let the un-cheesed side crisp for thirty seconds in the hot pan, then remove from heat.
Garnish with whatever you want (herbs are nice) or not. Eat hot, right away. Feel impressed with yourself for turning three ingredients into such a stylish snack.
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
Not sure why it's taken this long for me to profess my love for what could very well be the best pizza in the region: I'm talking about Franzone's of Bridgeport, just outside of King of Prussia.
A droopy-eyed little town with sizable Eastern European and Latino populations, Bridgeport might not strike you as Pizza Central � but take my word that Fran's is worth the 25-minute trek. (There's also a location at 1940 Main Avenue in Conshohocken.) I was introduced to the place by the girl, who was raised on the stuff (her dad's a Bridgeport native). This means we make the glorious drive out there on the reg.
As you can see on the sign, Franzone's makes sandwiches like steaks and zeps � but pizza should be your primary concern. They offer all the expected toppings, but for first-timers, I'd recommend ordering a plain to get the full effect. The crust, which can vary in thickness due to the whim of whichever friendly cargo-shorted dude is tossing the dough that day, is always blistered to cracker-like crispness, with an intermittent smattering of browned-top bubbles. (More corny eloquent food writers would probably refer to such hand-wrought inconsistency as "artisanal.") The cheese is a winning mix of mozz and cheddar. But Franzone's signature sauce, masterfully applied in a bull's eye pattern as a sort of directive for where you should aim your stomach, is the most stratifying aspect of this pie � it's unapologetically sweet, a trait that turns a lot of pizza heads off. I don't necessarily seek such sauces out, but here I think it works quite well against the saltiness of the cheese.
Eat this immediately.
Hardcore pizza pornography after the jump.
Franzone's Pizzeria, Fifth and Dekalb streets, Bridgeport, 610-275-0114, kingofprussia.com/franzones
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| Photos | Drew Lazor |
damn, i miss me some franzone's. my girlfriend's from b'port and it is home to many, many italians (as well as the aforementioned latinos and eastern europeans). have you ever been to the italian festa? its a scene.
me: I haven't, but I gotta make it out. What time of year do they hold it?
Blasphemy! Everyone knows that Tacconelli's in Port Richmond is the area's crown jewel.
drew: its usually the second wknd in july. this year: july 10-12. porchetta, pizza fritta(fried dough), meatballs, trippa, sofrito - all great reasons to make the trip. likewise the people watching in the "beer garden".
Worst.Pizza.Ever.
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| Photos | Drew Lazor |
Yesterday evening, "Honest" Tom McCusker put out the word via Twitter that he'd be slangin' fish tacos from his truck for the first time. Meal Ticket headed up to the Chester side of Clark Park to check it out. Simply delicious, these things � fresh blackened tilapia, homemade guac/pico, a bit of corn. Squeeze on some lime and hot sauce to up the drip quotient. Any taqueria denizen knows a griddle-crisped tortilla is heaven, and Tom and Co. don't forget that.
At two for $6, Tom's fish tacos aren't exactly couch-change cheap � but what other cart in the city offers Stumptown coffee? Get there � he's serving them right now at 33rd and Arch � and sip some before the so-called "backlash" against the Portland roasters seeps down to Philly.
Eat these immediately.
PREVIOUSLY: Cart Alert: Honest Tom's Taco Shop
I heard somewhere that these tacos were the work of a new cook, a new cook honest tom was forced to hire due to the fact that it takes him for fucking ever to make tacos and that his second in command is ALWAYS stoned.
ha! ha ha! ha.. still laughing.
Fat Matt needs to start acting like a real man.
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| Photo l Michael Persico |
| The pig of legend. |
Jonathan McDonald, chef and co-owner of G-Ho hotspot Pub & Kitchen, can do no wrong. Even chef-wunderkind Paul Liebrandt (of NYC's Corton) paid homage to his kitchen cred last week, donning a P&K "pabbit" shirt for a photo that ran on gourmet.com.
Not that the attention is turning Mac into some kind of spoiled schmoozer. He's still behind the line in his snap-front white dishwasher's shirt, concocting new ways to pad your belly. His spicy pulled pork sandwich, topped with swiss and layered with chipotle mayo on a grilled brioche bun, is good enough to flip even the most dedicated burger eater.
McDonald, like most good barbecue masters, is keeping his method close to the chest. When pressed, he noted that his was a labor-intensive recipe: Pork shoulders are dry-rubbed and hung for a day, then cooked low and slow overnight. The pig is pulled and dressed with a not-too sweet and hauntingly spicy barbecue sauce. Mac described his inspiration for the sandwich, which involves movie stars and murder.
I was inspired by the movie Once Upon A Time In Mexico � Johnny Depp's character was in search of the perfect PUERCO A PIB�L and every time he ate a good one he would kill the chef. On the DVD they have the director showing the recipe and how to make the dish as part of the extras, so I took it, tweaked it and added my own BBQ to make it American.
The sweet richness of the grilled brioche bun, the layered spice from chipotle mayo, dry rub and barbecue sauce and the tender, charred-at-the-edges meat make for a sandwich that will plague your dreams ... all for $10. EAT THIS IMMEDIATELY.
Pub & Kitchen, 1946 Lombard St., 215-545-0350, thepubandkitchen.com
My mouth is watering. I'm embarrassed to admit that I haven't yet been to P&K. Soon..
I also REALLY enjoy that dvd extra of Robert Rodriguez talking about pork but probably for very different reasons than Jonathan McDonald does.
Johnny Mac, or his kitchen at least, has done plenty wrong in my experiences at P&K. However, I must say that the pulled pork was excellent.
[...] Felicia D’Ambrosio urges everyone to eat Pub & Kitchen’s spicy pulled pork. [Meal Ticket] [...]
Agree with Barry - the food started off wonderful, but it's hit or miss now. If Johnny Mac is not in the kitchen himself, go somewhere else to eat.
Nice description of the pulled pork sandwich, mouthwatering. Question: what's with the crappy P&K web site? It is hard to believe that the place does not find it worthwhile to give patrons any information (menu, the days they are purportedly open for lunch, etc.). This is either careless, or worse, really arrogant (I heard both explanations).
[...] with a pickled vegetable relish for contrast.� This half of Meal Ticket was relieved to see her favorite pig sandwich in the known universe remain in the [...]
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| Greensgrow.org |
| A Kensington caterpillar cruising the dill plants. |
Today, Thursday, May 28, is the official opening of� Greensgrow Farm Market!� From 2-7 p.m.� Thursdays and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays you can head up to Kensington for an all-local lineup of veggies, fruits, grass-fed meats, cheese, bread, eggs, coffee, soaps, hot sauce and more.
Greensgrow has� invited other local food artisans and farmers to vend at their own tables in the market, so there will be an even larger diversity of products than last year.� Look for tasty treats from Meal Ticket crushes Vrapple, Gilda's Biscotti, Patterson Farms Maple Syrup and Blue Water Coffee.
On Saturdays, the Kensington Community Food Co-op Project will be selling bulk grains, dried goods, spices and other pantry staples; all proceeds will go towards their efforts to open a co-operative grocery store in the neighborhood.
After the jump, the produce and product lineup for Thurs., May 28 and Sat., May 30.� Just don't touch the strawberries, they're mine.
Greensgrow Farms, 2501 East Cumberland at Gaul St., 215-427-2702, greensgrow.org
RELATED: In Bloom: Philly's neighborhood food co-ops are dreaming big.� [6May09]
LOCAL PRODUCE:
Asparagus
Beets
Leeks
Radishes
Scallions
Spinach
Greenhouse Tomatoes
Yams
Strawberries
Spring Mix
Baby Arugula
Baby Spinach
Red Leaf Lettuce
Green Leaf Lettuce
Romaine Lettuce
Radishes
Alfalfa Sprouts
Pea Shoots
B+B Garden's Organic Produce (Saturday only): Radishes, Pac Choi, and a variety of greens
LOCALLY PRODUCED GOODS:
Fruitwood Farms' Honey
Patterson Farms' Maple Syrup
Blue Water Coffee
Lilith's Apothecary
C.O.P.A. Soaps
Metropolitan Bakery Granola
Antonia's Pierogis
Nature Soy Tofu
Ray's Wheat Meat
Vrapple
Hot Sauce
Apple Butter
Greensgrow's Pesto
Slowrise Breads
Tony Rolls' Baguettes
'Baked' Coffee Cake + Scones
North Port Fishington Vegan Cookies
MyHouse Cookies Scones + Brownies
Gilda's Biscotti
Spelt Flour + Noodles
and much more....
AS ALWAYS, you can also find local meats, cheeses, eggs, and milk from humanely raised, grass-fed animals in our fridges and freezer in the greenhouse.
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Superstar mixologist Katie Loeb, last seen holding it down at Chick's Cafe and Wine Bar, revealed on Philly Mag's The Restaurant Club blog that she will now be head bartender at the renovated Oyster House.
The Restaurant Club has a nice little Q&A with Loeb, mostly about how a bartender known for creative cocktails will fit into the classic Oyster House style. She mentions gimlets mixed with her housemade lemon and lime cordials, as well as her homemade ginger beer in special-request cocktails. Loeb must be our most plugged-in local bartender, since she has been making that ginger beer for a good while � sure to make a next-level Dark & Stormy.
The New York Times has a piece entitled "Ginger Ale Without The Can," profiling restaurants from Atlanta to NYC that are incorporating house-made ginger sodas into their drinks. More than just settling the stomach and delivering antioxidants, homemade ginger ale embodies the current zeitgeist of eschewing packaged mixers in favor of those made on the spot.
Take a look at the Times' recipe for homemade ginger ale, which calls for fresh ginger juice. You can buy fresh ginger juice from a juice bar � try these around Philly:
Four Seasons Juice Bar, Reading Terminal Market, 12th and Arch streets, 215-925-4448
B2, 1500 E. Passyunk Ave., 215-271-5520?
Mugshots Coffee House & Juice Bar, 2106 Fairmount Ave., 267-514-7145?
The Juice Bar, 1509 E. Passyunk Ave., 215-462-6222?
Or just use the Alton Brown recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/ginger-ale-recipe/index.html
Thanks for the sweet link, Josh. I love how Alton uses yeast to create carbonation from scratch.
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