Georgia

The South is strange. Everyone is real polite. And I am also convinced that it is in a time warp. I ended up watching Karate Kid and Ferris Bueller, and I actually heard "whoomp there it is" and "ice ice Baby" on the radio, non-ironically.

But I did see some beautiful things and ate the simple pleasures of breakfast and cake fresh from the fridge.

Willie's Wee Nee Wagon

This whole food blog was founded inside of a hotdog stand between me and Hawk. So it seems right that everywhere I go in the world if there is a hotdog stand, DrawingforFood will be there.

Georgia was no exception, here Brielle and I encountered Famous Willie's Wee Nee Wagon.



It was just an amazing looking Hot Dog Stand in the middle of no where on the side of the road. The Hot Dog and Hamburger were both in the same kind of roll. It was a little corn mealy and definately delicious. The Burger was delicious and greezy filled with fried onions, mustard, and lots of picklers. The dog was really fat and had a good snap. Of course everything came with sweet tea and a thank you ma'am.

drawing for food

I forget sometimes that its drawing for food.
Here is a beautiful drawing by Tim Gough.

Just another Sunday.

So there have been some Sunday dinners at my place recently. This menu consisted of.

Two pounds of PEI Mussels in a Pinot Grigio, Rosemary Garlic steam

Spicy Peanut Sesame Noodles

Feta Chive Crostini

Tomato Mozzerella Basil Salad and Olives

Oh..and for good measure an Alaskan King Crab Leg.

There were three of us....yum.

RAMEN

"You don't understand, it's just so much science involved," said the guy sitting next to me at the counter of a ramen shop called Yasube. The ramen here is called Tsuke-men, or dipping noodle, where the fresh thick egg noodle is comes separately from the "state-of-the-art" dipping soup.

It was lunch time and the little shop was filled with Japanese business men. I bought a ticket for "Dipping noodle (regular size) with miso flavor soup" at the vending machine and handed it to the waiter. Then I stood in line for at least 15min until my seat became available.

Shortly after, my Tsuke-men was served.

I took a little bit of the noodle with my chopsticks, then DIP em into the bowl of soup.

UMAAAI.

The soup was thick and so complex. I could taste the roasty miso and the sweetness from small bits of pan-fried onions and scallions. Was it pork broth? Veggies or seafood? It probably had all of it. The noodle was so fresh... and it went so well with the soup. There was a small pot of powdered roasted bonito and it just added so much more flavor and sweetness to the soup.

It only took me about 10 min to slurp it all up.

Then the business man next to me ordered a small cup of clear soup, and I watched him pour it in his left-over ramen soup. I didn't know what it was, but I had to try it too.


The clear soup smelled like a simple fish broth, but when you add it in the thick ramen soup, it really does create this "scientific," "state-of-the-art" flavor that is out of the world.

Come visit Japan, or East Asia for that matter, for a bowl of science.

Tokyo Bento

In Tokyo, the time goes by very very fast... except when you visit one of the sacred shrines in the city. The garden is usually very quiet. Once you step into the Torii, or gate, you just feel very far away from all the chaos in the city. I always bring my bento box here during my 60min lunch break.

My bento of the day was grilled organic veggies and tarako egg cakes over white rice with a cup of daikon miso soup... all for 600yen or $5.

I sat on top of a big rock and watch the little birds play in a pond.

Tamale Undergound

Every saturday afternoon a car pulls up in the alley behind where I work, and all the dishwashers and cooks race to the back door to get in line for some of the best tamales around. Everything is served out of the trunk of a car, kept warm or cold using various ingenious methods.

Also available are tacos, quesadillas, mexican soda and a strange super milky sweet hot chocolate type beverage that's not for everyone.

Saturday is a super busy day too - I've definitely burned somebody's $800 lunch while waiting in line for tamales, but it's worth it.

tomatoes

Chau is right, it's sad that the summer is ending. One of the few joys of working in a guantanomo-bay like restaurant kitchen is seeing, using & eating amazing local produce, like these tomatoes from branch creek farms.

A good place to get Branch Creek produce is:

Sue's Produce Market
115 S 18th St
Philadelphia

Adam's Express

Every day for two years I've walked past Adams Express convenience store without a second thought, until somebody told me they had the best hoagies in Philadelphia. I told this person to go eat some real hoagies, preferably deep in south philly at a place with 4 or 5 fat guys in patriotic t-shirts standing outside.

Then late one night I noticed Adam's was open and got myself a "godfather" (pepperoni, capacola, hard salami, provolone) and it was fantastic. Adam's hoagies come on Sarcone's bread with a perfect amount of meat & toppings, and a wide selection of traditional and not so traditional sandwiches (the "boardwalk" comes with buffalo chicken, hot pepper cheese and thousand island dressing?)

Adams is also a great place to find things like mexican coffee, gourmet chips, and the New York Times. Reasonable prices too...I'm never going to Wawa again!

Adam's Express Deli
1741 South Street
Open Daily 7am - Midnight

Food is my church

Summer is drawing near and for those of us don't live on the West Coast, it also means an end to the bounty of local farms. There is a great article in the New York Times about eating locally and taking advantage as well as saving the small farms of America.
This makes me feel less crazy about how I refuse to buy produce at the regular grocery store.

Frank's Breakfast & Lunch

Frank's Breakfast & Lunch is on Delaware Avenue near the docks and opens at 5AM. I was a bit scared of the dockworkers drinking cans of Busch at 11am and screaming racial epithets at each other, but the service was incredibly friendly and the price was right.




My Kielbasa was grilled to order and piled high with fried onions and mustard. Frank's also serves all of the Philly favorites - creamed chip beef on toast; breakfast sandwiches with scrapple, italian sausage or pork roll; cheesesteaks, roast pork, even a liverwurst sandwich. And of course beer and cigarettes.




Frank's Breakfast & Lunch
Hours (Daily?) 5AM-4PM
Columbus Blvd & Porter Street
Philadelphia, PA

Coquette Bistro and Raw Bar

Delicious.

Rum Yeast cake covered in creme anglais, plate licking occurred.

Coquette
5th and Bainbridge

Pumpkin Market

Once on the way home from work,I decided to pick up dinner at Pumpkin Market. I ordered 2 sandwiches. I was a jerk and forgot my wallet at home. Hilary, I think owner of Pumpkin Market, looked at me and said "you're nice, just pay me later." And then handed me bag of food. When you live in Philadelphia, these random acts of kindness redeem to whole damn city.

Plus they have the best frickin' sandwiches and brownies for a good 2 mile radius.

Pumpkin Market
1609 South St
Philadelphia, PA 19146
(215) 545-1173

Philadelphia Project

Eating in France is nice, but there's also a plethora of undiscovered food right here in Philadelphia. Cheesesteaks, Roast Pork, Tripe, Spumoni??






Biking across Oregon Avenue I noticed that there's hundreds of steak shops, breakfast joints, pizza places that I've never tried.

And then there's African, Korean, Peruvian food, Carribean food Trucks, Roadside BBQ in North Philly....

A goldmine of eating adventures right in my own backyard.